TopBass

Ahhh, these are my favorite threads, this is why we do drum corps isn't it? In '98 when MN Brass still did Vikings exhibition games, we were marching our opener and since there aren't any normal hashes on the field we were having some difficulties. One set felt particular strange and I couldn't figure out why until I turned my head to the right (top bass drummer on a blind guide backwards) and see the hornline behind us. Only problem: they are supposed to be in front of us. I turn my head back around and look back at the line and they are all looking at me with this "Oh ####" look on their face. I turn my head back around and see a hole in the hornline and yell "Follow me!" to the bassline and we all just run back to where we are suppposed to be. Laughing the whole way, of course. Even funnier, after we are done we line up in two arcs and stand out on the field during some ceremony honoring past Vikings greats. At one point I look up at the Jumbotron and see that the dude they are on is wearing this bright orange shirt. Well, I look at the guy standing about 20 yards in front of me and realize he's wearing a bright orange shirt. So I jump up as high as I can and there I pop up over his shoulder on the jumbotron. I got about five or six jumps in, sometimes doing jumping jacks maneuvers with my arms until they move on to the next guy. The drum major was standing right next to me and trying to tell me to stop it but he was laughing too hard himself to really take seriously. I heard a bunch of hornline members laughing behind me too.

Those are pretty good write ups, if I do say so myself. Especially when they are in their unaltered form.

TOWER OF POWER!

So... no parade visuals, eh? In '98 we used to do random/scatter drill during flammables (much to the chagrin of Bufu when I was about 20 steps behind the corps when I was supposed to start tapping, and then proceeded to start tapping on the right foot. And I don't mean the "correct" one.) Last year we had some funny random visuals during our parade tune, along with audio's. woooooo! Plus just general shenanigans during parades, because hey, it's a stupid parade that we all hate, right? During the fast part we would just walk rather than march... ha ha oh, and... BUMP

Yo, I march Brass.... Wassup?

Excellent tribute! I'm trying to hide my tears at work. I'll miss you, Lothar, though I haven't met you yet. Hopefully we'll get to march together the second go around. Quite a character and loved by all to the very end. We can all only wish to be so lucky. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to the entire Kiltie family. May You Never Walk Alone For All We Know...

Holy Crap Hulka, I played with you! Remember when we meshed lines in '96? Had the 11 man bassline going during the big three exercise. Of course the snareline mesh was pretty dirty because of the style difference, but cool none-the-less. It was quite surreal meshing with you guys based on our storied histories of shenanigans. Where you at these days?

Apparently they don't prevent them either. The snuggy vish is back in the bassline this year in Brass. Sorry Bams, you don't get to do it cuz of your solo! ha ha To the guy who only practices what is in the show, if we ever do a show and stop at letter M, I guarantee you we'll do the visual. *smile* Now, how many people have "parade only" visuals? OMG, now we're talkin' hilarity.

You can't say <filter circumvention removed - GJ> on here? wtf? Isn't this a drum corps forum? <no, you can not - GJ>

Mean visuals? #### yeah! On the Drum Corps movie night from quarters this year I distinctly remember seeing the Crossmen (tenor line, I believe) do the shocker. That can be quite mean, especially if someone is not expecting it. *evil grin*

Does anyone else have practice visuals or are we truly unique this year? (Which would refute my theory that everything in drum corps has already been done before.) By practice visuals I mean visuals that we only do in practice but don't do in shows. We have two of these, and we ad lib sometimes at other parts but mainly it's just the two practice vishs we do everytime we stop at letter M. Of course if Joel reads this we may no longer have them [*smile*]. Anyone else?

The only people who care about snarelines are snares, man! Who cares? Oh wait, that's basslines... ha ha, oops! Seriously though, check out the MBI Bassline during the middle pod part in the opener, I guarantee you'll laugh. The bottom (yay Bam Bam) pulls out for a solo and just so we don't get too bored the top four do nothing but visuals for 48 counts, some random, some together, all funny! I mean, all very fitting the style of our show. Choadadactyl lives!!! And yeah, just in case you were wondering, we're throwing down mad beats again this year. But then again, don't listen to me, I'm modest. Take all comments with a grain of salt... and a shot of tequila... and definitely don't forget the lime! Ding Ding ####ers!

The corps formerly known as Madison Scouts breaking away from tradition? *shocker* Bitter, party of one, your table is ready. Anyone know if the staff let go last year (by way of announcement) found other jobs? I marched with most of them and am concerned about my brothers.

I'll have to agree with you that the guard girls are beautiful, but then I would be entering creepy old man teritory. I love drum corps moms! My mom thought every show I ever marched was the best thing she had ever seen. Even when we sucked. (94, 97especially - different corps')

I saw Phantom at Madison's home show. Thought they were technically extremely good in all sections of the corps. I've always loved Phantom's horn sound (balance) and I'm a drummer, and this year is no exception, beautiful. However, I thought the show was extremely boring. Great performance, boring show design. Bummer. (yawn)

Who cares about scores? A big thanks to Kilties and all who entertained us with the singing! You were thoroughly enjoyed by all, and the shocked faces of some of the younger members of our corps were priceless. I only wish that I had got my camera out sooner, but I had other things on my mind, and palette. Brent, can we change our corps song to one more colorful like the Kilties? But, speaking of scores... how much did we get in penalties for having the drumline & colorguard be six minutes late to the field? ha ha OOPS! I always say "Drums, we're late!", but this time it was true.

So four out of the five MN Brass bassline members trekked down to Mad-Town this past weekend to check out Drums on Parade. This is our off weekend from drum corps, I guess we're gluttons for punishment. Here's my observations (and mine only, stock disclaimer): Capital Regiment bassline rocks! Probably the best line I've seen so far this year. They just get it. Balls to the wall technique, full out all the way. Very well-written parts and just plain fun to watch them wail. We watched them in the lot and I was very impressed. Then I saw their show on the field. Not the most exciting show, and if it wasn't for the quality of the drumline I would have been very disappointed. I really wasn't watching anything else after the first couple minutes. Sucks to be the prop girls, tour all summer just to schlep around a giant sundial. I also have to agree with the other thread about unfinished shows. It's almost July, I mean, come on! We learned our whole show in two camps at Brass, granted the difficulty is less than a junior show but please... $17 for a GA ticket to watch unfinished shows = rip-off. But their bassline and drumline did rock, go Cap Reg! I hadn't even heard of you before this year. Phantom Regiment - super tight, super clean, deep Phantom hornline sound, beautiful! But boring. Yawn. Corps formerly known as Madison Scouts - Rained out. Right as you got onto the field too, that would have sucked. I saw you guys at Mankato, MN, and like the show this year. Malaga hit, Bolero revisited, powerful hornline... and the chick is hot! I know some other alums who don't like it, but I say, lucky girl. Drumline is pretty good too. Well, the snare line is. I couldn't hear a single thing the bassline played, boo! I tried watching the drumline warm up in Menomonie, but they track now. [sigh] I was also very impressed with Southwind and Pioneer. Southwind's show is cool, and I like the effects but the uniforms are so distracting. What's up with that? SW probably had the most exciting drum feature of the night though. Having the bassline play on the tenors, sweet! Pioneer was very entertaining, thought they did a great job. The only other observation I have is how many corps split the bottom bass away from the drumline this year. Granted, I haven't watched many corps shows the last five years but I haven't really seen that done that much since back in the Crossmen early 90's, now at least three juniors are doing it (and we do it in Brass too.) How does that always happen, that everyone gets the same idea the same year and just overkills it? I like it and think it's cool though, so it's all good. And hopefully we'll get to keep our visuals in at that part of our show. Discuss, what do y'all think?

Cool stuff! I wish you guys well this summer, kick some butt and drum hard!

bunch of youngens on here Cadets '89, how can I be the first to mention this I love Crossmen 90-92. There's some runs that just pop in 92, and the off beats that start the feature in 90 just groove The bottom bass from at least 92 also marched Westshoremen in '96. That dude freakin' rocked. He hit that drum so hard it hurt my ears from 30 feet, and I'm already deaf. So yeah, add Westshore '96 to that list. Velvet Knights '94 The bass lick that started their encore song "Ole' ole' " is still my favorite lick ever. 36" bottom with a flam slam, oh so loud Thanks to spiritkid for poppin' out some '95 Scouts action. I like '97's show better (bassline wise), but we probably had more talent in '95. As far as I&E goes, SCV is not all that. We should have beat them in '96 Scouts, we played up like a real bassline, and rocked the house, and were funny. I'm not bitter.... Maybe another ten years and I'll get over it. And ummm, yeah, 04 MBI was pretty kickin'. We might even be better in 05. Too bad you can't really hear what we're playing on the recording, because we had lotssa notes.