[NA]For My Drum Corp PoA Buds[NA]

[EppyGA]

Well the summer has wound down and it's Championship Week in Indianapolis. Looks the Cadets and Blue Devils are the cream of the crop this year with the Cavaliers on the outside looking in.

http://www.dci.org/schedule/

 

[Steve]

one of the local theaters is carrying the Thursday prelims live this week

i enjoy watching several of the corps but lately the favorite for me is the Blue Knights on principle if nothing else

i remember when.... http://youtu.be/a26SmdMnV30 ....bottle dance, Bridgemen, Spirit...

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I'm back into marching - Well, old-farts weekend-warrior marching. I'm marching in the Kilties this summer. I say old farts, but we have people as young as 14 in the corps. It's been fun, and I've lost 7 gallons of 100LL in the process!

We performed at the Madison Scouts' home show, and I got to see Madison and Cavies. Madison's got a good show, but I still cannot stand electronics and amplification - There was a big beautiful hit that was ruined by the addition of a bunch of artificial bass, etc. The old "Madison sound" still isn't there. It was fun watching the post-show concert (where they played Brian's Song, among other things) and they still had the sword we won in 1994 that was used in 1997's finals performance out there too.

Cavies' show was... Interesting. What is their guard supposed to be? Bugs? Aliens? I must admit, though, that the whole stilts thing they do looked like it'd be fun. They also played more music than they played from about '97 to '03 combined.

It seems like it's too early for the season to be over already. Still a few weeks left for the senior corps, though - DCA championships are in Rochester, NY on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. I'll be there with the Kilties, and we'll also be performing Aug. 20 in St. Paul, MN; Aug. 21 in St. Peter, MN; Aug. 26th in Racine with the Racine Symphony; Aug. 27th in Racine, Sep. 3&4 at DCA in Rochester, NY; and finally Sep. 17th at our Great Lakes Brewfest fundraising event in Racine. (There will be LOTS of beer - If you're a beer fan, it's a great place to go to taste a bunch of different craft brews.)

 

[studiomusic]

I remember back in the day the Blue Devils stayed in our high school.
I played the sax, so i had no hopes of ever joining them... so I switched to quints the next summer.
If you want to lose pounds, play the quints in a 4th of July parade!

 

[denverpilot]

My thumb hurts just thinking about carrying that concert baritone while marching. School nor I could afford a marching baritone, so the thing hung from my thumb for two seasons and one high School State championship.

Hadn't ever played a low-brass instrument prior to those two years, and hope to never see a concert baritone horn ever again in my life.

Was fun to add some harmonic low-end to the Sousa's and give a lot of crap to the wusses carrying trumpets or even trombones, though.

When it comes time to "play to the box" during a crescendo and you have to bend over at the waist about 35 degrees to even get your bell pointed at the box, it kinda looks retarded, and certainly isn't the best way to blow from your diaphragm!

Do love a good marching band, though. And DCI's got plenty. Go Blue Knights!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Do love a good marching band, though. And DCI's got plenty.

Those woulda been fightin' words back when I was marching... But sadly, that's all that's left of DCI is pretty much "marching band." B-flat horns, amplification, electronic instruments...

 

[EppyGA]

Those woulda been fightin' words back when I was marching... But sadly, that's all that's left of DCI is pretty much "marching band." B-flat horns, amplification, electronic instruments...

Kent, it's not all that bad. Still get to enjoy some music and you still get to march.

 

[JoeSelch]

Heh. If I hadn't been a skater, I'm sure I would've been looking for a DCI hookup for me and my trombone... Loved watching that stuff.

Kent, I'm glad you have the opportunity to get back out there with the Kilties!

 

[EppyGA]

Thursday night prelim
Top 3
The Cadets 97.350
Blue Devils 96.850
The Cavaliers 96.450

 

[EppyGA]

Friday night semi-final

The Cadets 97.800
Blue Devils 97.300
The Cavaliers 96.900
Carolina Crown 95.650

No change in order. Not too late for you mid-westerners to fly down to Indy for the finals tonight.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Friday night semi-final

The Cadets 97.800
Blue Devils 97.300
The Cavaliers 96.900
Carolina Crown 95.650

No change in order. Not too late for you mid-westerners to fly down to Indy for the finals tonight.

Why bother? We already know what the results are gonna be...

We used to joke about the good ol' DCI slotting - "Now entering the field, in sixth place..."

 

[Jay Honeck]

Those woulda been fightin' words back when I was marching... But sadly, that's all that's left of DCI is pretty much "marching band." B-flat horns, amplification, electronic instruments...

Me, too.

It was Drum Corps. Only wusses were in "marching bands". :wink2:

And girls? GIRLS? They were groupies, not allowed IN the corps.

And we didn't dance. Ever.

Ah, the good old days...

 

[EppyGA]

Why bother? We already know what the results are gonna be...

We used to joke about the good ol' DCI slotting - "Now entering the field, in sixth place..."

Wasn't it last year or the year before that number two jumped to number one on finals night? Sorry too lazy to look it up right now . :wink2:

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Wasn't it last year or the year before that number two jumped to number one on finals night? Sorry too lazy to look it up right now . :wink2:

Well, I think they tried to show people that they didn't "slot" in 1996... Thursday night, we tied with the Phantom Regiment. Saturday night, they were in 1st and we were back in our usual 6th.

I don't buy into the whole scoring thing anyway... And I would *never* trade the reactions of the crowd we had in 1995 for a championship ring, ever. Had a great "rock star" experience that night after retreat/finale, too...

I'm glad I marched in a corps where we listened to the thousands in the stands instead of a handful of guys in green shirts running around with tape recorders getting in our way. We were competitive, but with ourselves... If we had a bad show (all things being relative, of course), but we won, we'd get chewed out and we'd do what we needed to do to make it better the next time. If we had a great show but we lost... Hey, we had a great show!

The experiences I had back then really made me into a MUCH better person. We learned, we traveled, we had fun, and we kicked some butt. It was an amazing experience.

Those of you on Facebook have seen this already - Me, in 1996, playing the Never Walk solo during a victory concert in Hornell, NY:

 

[EppyGA]

Well, I think they tried to show people that they didn't "slot" in 1996... Thursday night, we tied with the Phantom Regiment. Saturday night, they were in 1st and we were back in our usual 6th.

I don't buy into the whole scoring thing anyway... And I would *never* trade the reactions of the crowd we had in 1995 for a championship ring, ever. Had a great "rock star" experience that night after retreat/finale, too...

I'm glad I marched in a corps where we listened to the thousands in the stands instead of a handful of guys in green shirts running around with tape recorders getting in our way. We were competitive, but with ourselves... If we had a bad show (all things being relative, of course), but we won, we'd get chewed out and we'd do what we needed to do to make it better the next time. If we had a great show but we lost... Hey, we had a great show!

The experiences I had back then really made me into a MUCH better person. We learned, we traveled, we had fun, and we kicked some butt. It was an amazing experience.

Those of you on Facebook have seen this already - Me, in 1996, playing the Never Walk solo during a victory concert in Hornell, NY:

That's what it's all about. I enjoy watching and listening to all of them. I think you have to know the work and effort that goes into it, maybe, to really appreciate it. I was sad to have not been able to go to the show here in Atlanta this year. You're right about the affect it has one these young folks as they mature. It would be interesting to see a big network do a show on Drum Corp and where some of these folks end up in life once they age out.

The Cadets are the 2011 DCI World Champions.

http://www.dci.org/scores/