Fran Haring

I don't think we'll be back, either. Unless we can see into the future and know the audio will be better. LOL

We saw the show in the movie theater, and the audio was not good, to put it mildly. Worst we've experienced in the years we've attended the Thursday theater event.

Lafayette reminds me of Princeton, NJ. Great stadium, awesome college town with restaurants, pubs, etc., plenty of nearby hotels... but no good parking options without the use of shuttle buses.

Awesome!!!!

Heh... not even in my own mind!!! 😂

Thank you... but believe me, I was toast after that 1982 season, at age 24. LOL. I decided that it would be my last year marching, and I never looked back. Even if I had not started announcing shows, I wasn't coming back to the field. The Westshoremen Alumni thing was a lot of fun with a low time commitment. A few rehearsals and one indoor performance each year. And, I gotta say, a #### good corps with great people!

I am!!! I miss seeing some friends, and once in a while (not often) miss the microphone, but that's about it. Today's corps are great, and the performers are amazing, but it's their time now. Best wishes to them all.

Old Bay is everywhere in my old home state of Maryland. There's even an Old Bay-flavored craft brew. Dead Rise Summer Ale from Flying Dog. Actually pretty tasty!

Six years with a local-circuit junior corps... Sacred Heart Crusaders (Manville, NJ) 1971-76. French horn/mellophone. Six years with DCA's Long Island Sunrisers, 1977-82. French horn. Won three DCA championships. Eight years with the Westshoremen Alumni corps (Harrisburg, PA), 2005-07, 2012-16. Front percussion ensemble, honor guard. Drum corps (DCA and DCI) and band show announcer, 1983-2018. Retired from DCA summer announcing for life after 2018. Still do an occasional emcee gig. Open to other possibilities. LOL. But mostly... active participation is in the rear-view mirror for me. There is life after drum corps, indeed.

From what I understand, the induction banquet is being held in November again. There is some sort of WDCHOF gathering in Rochester, but not the banquet.

Great stuff so far, W!!! Love the line about Fusion's tuba section!!!

Man... I wish. LOL

Been around. LOL. I don't pop in here too often anymore. I hope you are doing well!!!

OK... that menu, right there, sounds better to me than attending a drum corps show!

Heh... I encountered two "awkwards" at the WDCHOF banquet last fall. One of them was sitting at our table. LOL

2002: "Wow, is that horn line loud, and really good!!!" 2022: "Wow, is that audio tech really good!!!" 😂

Yep... I have no problem with the soloists using mics, especially when there's an effect involved (reverb, whatever). But entire horn lines or sections? To date, the best DCI horn line I've ever heard is 2013 Crown, in the pre-mic days. They #### near knocked me into next week with their big, full, balanced, in-tune sound. No "enhancement" needed.

Lose the front-sideline mics "enhancing" a horn line's volume. You have 60-80 horns out there. The players are talented and well-trained. They can be really loud without overblowing or going out of tune.

Yeah... I gotta figure that a town's noise ordinance/curfew is not high on the list of championship venue issues.

My last two years in my local-circuit junior corps...1975-76... our horn line had its own show theme going on. "Constantly Risking Intonation." We sucked with a capital S those two years. 😂

Oops. Double post.

Yep... unfortunately I too was an eyewitness, being in the corps that was waiting... and waiting... and waiting to take the field while the birds were being removed. 😂 That's making a long story shorter, folks. Topic for another day. LOL.

The Interstatesmen were one of the original seven DCA corps. Buccaneers, Hurricanes, Skyliners, Yankee Rebels, Pittsburgh Rockets, and Archer-Epler Musketeers were the others. The Bucs, Hurcs, and Sky have had their share of ups and downs (OK... not many "downs" for the Bucs since 2005...LOL)... but it's nice to see all three still on the scene.

Frank, you were with Sunrisers when the corps made the transition from the Northeast Circuit to DCA, mid-1960s. Can you give all of us some background on that? Was DCA trying to destroy the Northeast Circuit?

Sure... why not???? 😂😂😂