Fran Haring

I agree. A complete hatchet job, all dressed up as a nice info feature.

Hanover's brass guy Brian Moul is a stickler for the "play in tune, balance and blend" thing. And Bob Zarfoss is a great percussion teacher. For a corps with such a limited schedule, they can play a bit. And the guard's doing really well with Duane DeWire in charge. Very much looking forward to the Brass Band Festival gig next Friday evening!

Jim, I'm pretty much convinced that the "alumni corps only" and "drum corps-related only" models no longer work, in terms of drawing a decent amount of customers. Your old team (and Brenda's current team) seems to have figured this out over the years. Not perfect, but it works for them.

As far as alumni corps goes... not the end of the world if there's no alumni show. My apologies if this sounds flip or snarky... but perhaps the alumni folks can get used to something called "life after drum corps." 😂 Like many drum corps people have done. Myself included. Lots of other things to do. Or... shift the focus from "drum corps performances" to community-based stuff. Groups like the Hanover Lancers in PA and Florida Brass in FL do just that, and have been doing well.

Well said as always, Steve. Like you said... for whatever reasons, the DCA corps over the years have given up the things that made the circuit unique, and a potential viable alternative to DCI (in terms of show design, overall personality-driven "fun" vibe, etc.), and have instead become a subset of DCI. Nothing really wrong with that, but heck... might as well make it official, like DCA has now done. As I've said before.. best wishes to my DCA friends as they move forward into what is hopefully a good future for them.

I think the DCA corps have been doing the music-rights thing for years now.

For years, Minnesota Brass, Kilties, Govenaires, Heat Wave, Atlanta CV, Carolina Gold, Alliance, Renegades, SoCal Dream, etc., made the long trip to the DCA title show (long at least compared to the Northeast corps) and somehow managed to pull it off. It will now be up to the Northeast DCA corps to figure out how to do the same thing.

If this move turns out to be true, it's a "survival mode" step for DCA. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Heck... from what I understand, the attendance numbers at last year's DCA title show were pretty rough. Best wishes to my friends still involved there who are doing what they feel is best for their organizations.

"Performing their 2023 program 'Traction Park'..." 😄

Yep... the Bucs are well-known to a good number of the East fans. And heck... the show's event staff is chock full of Buccaneer alums!

A good man, and a wonderful teacher and arranger.

And I think DCA wrote that motto before DCI was born!!! 😂

LOL!!! And '96 put '77 on the back burner for some. 😂

One of those times we could use a "get over it already" icon/emoji. 😆

I'm pretty sure the "no caption wins" thing happened at DCA's championship show in 1972. The Hawthorne Caballeros won the show, but took none of the four captions... brass, percussion, marching, GE. The Cabs won the show by less than one point. The second-place NY Skyliners had a one-point penalty that cost them the title. You want to hear crap hitting the fan, you should hear some of the old-timers from that year who STILL argue about that result!!! 😂

I marched six seasons with DCA's Sunrisers, and from my perspective the only year we did our absolute best overall performance at DCA Finals was 1981. We definitely smoked at Finals in 1978 (one of three championship wins during my years there)... but I honestly think we were better overall the weekend before at the show in Bridgeport, CT. We had a lot of great runs that year. 17 shows (including prelims/finals)... 14 wins, three losses. Quite frankly, during the "prelims and finals on the same day" era of DCA (through 1988) it was tough, if not nearly impossible, to do two great performances in one day.

Seven years old that summer. I didn't even know about drum corps yet, but somehow I was announcing the Kingston show!!! 🤣

Sure!!! Been doing it every year since 1965!!! 😂

I've heard the stadium in Kingston is being renovated/replaced. Could be the reason for no Kingston show this year. Or I could be totally wrong. In which case, carry on. 😂

Let's just hope this works out for the best for Surf. The last thing the activity needs is another corps on the sidelines.

Like the old Mills Brothers tune: "You always hurt... the one you love..."

From what I remember, our main in-house percussion guy during my time with DCA's Sunrisers, Rich Cesani, was hired to work with the Memphis drum line in 1980. Sun's line had won three straight percussion titles with Rich there. A great guy, and great teacher.

The folks (from DCI and the individual corps) who handle the task of finding housing for the touring corps... they might have the toughest gigs in the entire activity.

Please don't leave!!! You're my fellow Longorns fan!!! 😄

That was a great show!!!