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DCA's; Staff/Instructor Noise That Interferes with Show


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5 hours ago, larry p said:

Back to the original post, I sat in the 306 section during almost all of prelims. I saw and heard no distractions. 

I could be wrong. Was anyone offended by the staffs? 

I was in 106, favorite previous hang-out for the staffs. none this year - yea!

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All I know is this- shows are designed to get crowd reactions during the performance. Right now- there seems to be a movement to rein in the audience. DCA Judges are told to try and take into account audience reaction. People in the crowd stare down people and cause issues with staff and anyone who gets excited. Reining in the Staff has a chilling effect on the audience and those who advocate doing this know this implicitly. They know it and are grinning ear to ear when no one's looking who cares.

 

I was at several shows in period with George Zingali near me. No one told him to back off. I didn't view it as an issue them nor do I view it as one now. George would even watch other shows and get into what the competitors were doing when it was good. How 'bout that!? I've also been listening to digitally remastered BD Recordings from the 70's, 80's and 90's on a good stereo. It's obvious no one was telling Wayne Downey to cool it. Saw a reference to how DCI doesn't control their staffs... guess what? Where are the crowds reacting with a lot more passion and excitement to performances? DCI. NOT DCA. Could this be a reason? Huh? Maybe? how about a "YOU BET!"

 

Everyone points fingers at the Electronics demon, the B Flat Demon, the College Educated staff demon, the boring show design demon whatever they can grab greedily onto to say its the demon that's killing the activity, I think the greatest danger is posed from the individuals pushing for the Casper Milquetoast /Aunt Mabel golfclapper show reactions (unless it's of course their team, can't screw over their folks, can yah!?). Yeah. That's what the people sweating down every crevice and getting yelled at all day at rehearsal want from those people in the stands. Nothing but forced, polite, mincing, truly meaningless applause. Keep your mouth shut. That's what the staffs want, I'm certain. No better than what they get all season in Band outside of their team's cheering section with their sets of pennants, cowbells, and airhorns. Yeah, they're looking for crickets from the staff and to suppress anyone else in the crowd. Maybe the Staffs would back off if the audience would provide the support when it's earned, but nope... they're being intimidated by Casper and Aunt Mabel. You want to kill this activity and just turn this into "Summer Band"? Keep going this way and watch, if you haven't stopped going before that and decided to just sit at home and watch online because it's no long fun to attend because you can't react they way the shows are designed to get you to react because of audience pressure from the nimrods. Already took time away from the activity as a spectator as a result of this after I nearly went at it with 2-3 of Casper and Aunt Mabel's goons at Hershey because they didn't like me "Blooing" the Blue Coats. Keep up the good work. You're doing a great job chasing us away. Sit and golf clap and stand at the end for every corps whether they deserve it or not like you do because you have no clue. Leave the designers forced to write shows guessing at what works, eventually not really caring about the drones in the crowd... and writing even more for the panel because you blandly watch and blandly approve of it all.

 

I'm out for awhile. Some interesting things taking place here involving the discovery Friday the junky old Tuba I thought I had is a rather unusual artifact/relic, and that takes precedence.

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The staffs are told where to go and this year it was 306. I will assume we all behaved ourselves or nobody from that seating area reads DCP or no news is good news. 

Back to staring at the weather channel. ;)

 

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On 9/7/2017 at 6:24 AM, BigW said:

All I know is this: shows are designed to get crowd reactions during the performance. Right now, there seems to be a movement to rein in the audience. [...]

I get where you're coming from. I love an engaged audience, that gasps and cheers and signs. I make a point of applauding when the drum major salutes (sometimes I'm the only one doing so--and hey, why don't Cadets DMs salute?) and when I'm genuinely impressed or moved, I acknowledge that audibly, because I want to show potentially staid audiences that it's OK to voice their support. But the staff reactions that people are talking about are those that seem forced, as if the staff wants to make the audience feel something that they're not getting from the corps' actual performance. And sometimes it actually takes away from the audience's enjoyment of the show. It become hard to listen to the beautiful ballad if people near you are hooting and hollering for every rifle that's not dropped. Mind you, it's only been an occasional problem for me, but it does happen.

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1 hour ago, N.E. Brigand said:

I love an engaged audience, that gasps and cheers and signs.

I meant "sighs", but I supposed "signs" might work too.

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Had to post this to go with this discussion

Published on Sep 6, 2017
 
SUBSCRIBE 78KSUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBED UNSUBSCRIBE
From the very first audition camp to the last show of the season, drum corps staff members invest every ounce of their lives and souls into elevating the level of music making and athleticism of the members of their corps. With that very special connection and vantage point to witness those students achieving their ultimate performances, it’s no surprise that corps staff members are also some of their most ardent cheerleaders, as seen here during the DCI World Championships Finals in Indianapolis.

 

Edited by totaleefree
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Somewhere around the house here, I have a recording of the crowd noise at the 1981 DCA finals show. What can be heard from that old cassette tape is nothing like what you'd hear today. There's a guy walking through the seating, shouting "Snow cones! Get your snow cones here!" Much like vendors at ball parks, selling beer and hotdogs in the stands. This is going on between (and during) corps performances. Cheering sections abound, throughout the tape. Today, we only have the unified Bucs "cheering section". On that tape, you can hear supporters of the other corps, as well. It was common for drum majors to holler to the audience and the audience hollered back!  Pepe Nataro hollered out to his corps saying "I got a blue feather! at the 1980 finals. Whenever George Parks mace went up in the air, the crowd shouted when he caught it on its way back down. Lets not forget the pandemonium when Westshore let the birds loose at the 1980 finals contest.

The audience was laughing, Walt was shooting his blank pistol at the birds, I stood up and waved a rubber chicken in the air, gave it a toss and caught it and the folks around me cheered. If anyone at all had a complaint about some staff members cheering in those days, it was likely drowned out by the audience cheering en masse. In the 1982 season, I asked my (ex) wife to record our performance (Ohio Brass Factory). She cheered loudly throughout the recording, ruining the effort. I put the tape in the player and after the recording was over, I tossed it out the window of the car. In those days, I heard my (ex) wife every day. I wanted to hear the corps. Maybe it was a case of youthful exuberance, but it seemed that the audience was more boisterous  in those days. Everything changes. I expect audiences change, too. I'm far more reserved at 65 years old, than I was at 35.

If todays audience(s) expect not to be annoyed by cheering staff members and they paid for their seats, then we ought to give them exactly what they paid for.

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On 9/9/2017 at 11:38 AM, hairbear said:

Somewhere around the house here, I have a recording of the crowd noise at the 1981 DCA finals show. What can be heard from that old cassette tape is nothing like what you'd hear today. There's a guy walking through the seating, shouting "Snow cones! Get your snow cones here!" Much like vendors at ball parks, selling beer and hotdogs in the stands. This is going on between (and during) corps performances. Cheering sections abound, throughout the tape. Today, we only have the unified Bucs "cheering section". On that tape, you can hear supporters of the other corps, as well. It was common for drum majors to holler to the audience and the audience hollered back!  Pepe Nataro hollered out to his corps saying "I got a blue feather! at the 1980 finals. Whenever George Parks mace went up in the air, the crowd shouted when he caught it on its way back down. Lets not forget the pandemonium when Westshore let the birds loose at the 1980 finals contest.

The audience was laughing, Walt was shooting his blank pistol at the birds, I stood up and waved a rubber chicken in the air, gave it a toss and caught it and the folks around me cheered. If anyone at all had a complaint about some staff members cheering in those days, it was likely drowned out by the audience cheering en masse. In the 1982 season, I asked my (ex) wife to record our performance (Ohio Brass Factory). She cheered loudly throughout the recording, ruining the effort. I put the tape in the player and after the recording was over, I tossed it out the window of the car. In those days, I heard my (ex) wife every day. I wanted to hear the corps. Maybe it was a case of youthful exuberance, but it seemed that the audience was more boisterous  in those days. Everything changes. I expect audiences change, too. I'm far more reserved at 65 years old, than I was at 35.

If todays audience(s) expect not to be annoyed by cheering staff members and they paid for their seats, then we ought to give them exactly what they paid for.

Thank you.  We bought a ticket to be a cheerleader.  And everyone knows I do.  

I really don't care about staff reaction to shows.  I respond to the performance on the field.  

Edited by Terri Schehr
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2 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

Thank you.  We bought a ticket to be a cheerleader.  And everyone knows I do.  

I really don't care about staff reaction to shows.  I respond to the performance on the field.  

ditto. 

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