rainhead

Great job Cascades and OC!!!

Hey Josh, thanks for the support. Since this is DCP and YOU KNOW how much I love the activity. I must say that I have cried a couple of times during the last 24 hours. A couple of great individuals have donated $100 each to the Cascades with no connection to us at all! That has made me well up with emotion. I know that OC is working so hard to be world class and you guys are doing wonderfully, but, I must tell you, the bottom of world class is the most ungrateful, unappreciative scenario anyone could experience. I have seen the top with the Madison Scouts, I have seen the high of growing from one class to another with Cascades 01-02, but this is really really diifficult. So enjoy it while you can, because the bottom of world class will test all of your adults and students to their emotional, intellectual and physical limits. The Cascades (and a handful of adults) have been busting for the last three years to move forward. Can you imagine Ron, Pat and Sean prying open semi doors in 100 degree TX heat, taking everything out, inventory, photos, documenting, assessing, then reloading everything to a Penske rental, all while trying communicate with the outside world, securing everything the corps needs and making sure the students are taken care of today? Then they gutted the cabinets, bins, rails, etc......! It is so impressive, that I can't help but get emotional. Thank you guys, I am so honored to be in your company. Drum corps is a strange addiction.

Friday 8:00p PST: Thank you to the drum corps community for being so supportive. We are on tour and we don't have an equipment trailer, so this is very serious...... Read More at the Cascades Website: http://www.seattlecascades.org

From the staff: There definitely was damage done to the battery. At least two (and probably three due to bent hardware) tenor drums, a bass drum frame that was damaged pretty bad, and considerable possibility of additional warping and/or damage from the impact that until we thoroughly examine it cannot be determined for several more hours. The front ensemble equipment is a bigger concern to us at this point. And the electronics are a guessing game until we can get them into an environment we can safely hook them up and test them. Right now we are in a towing yard dismantling what is salvageable from the internal structure of the trailer to assist in transporting our equipment in a safe and protective environment. It is a sad day to see a piece of our fleet in such condition. GOOD NEWS: No damage to the King Horns!! No damage to the PVC boxes ;) No damage to the new uniforms!! No damage to color guard inventory. We will send a report at the end of the evening. But the word on the street is that we will survive!

It's a very unfortunate event, but, everyone is safe! The members and staff are in San Antonio sleeping and key staff members have stayed back in Waco, TX in a hotel. If anyone has the ability to help transport surviving equipment to San Antonio on Friday for rehearsal while we seek out a rental trailer it would be much appreciated. Please contact Ron Comfort: cascadesAD@gmail.com (904)316-2828 If anyone would like to donate financially to help the Cascades through this, please go to http://seattlecascades.org/membership/fees.htm and donate in the "Misc Payments" section. Thank you for your generous support!

"Didn't see the OC, DCA corps or Teal Sound." or Cascades? :(

From the Cascades Staff: Thank you for your concern about the student’s welfare from the Omaha performance. He is an excellent baritone member, hard worker and is doing well. He passed out from a combination of heat exhaustion and incredible foot pain, his body just decided to shut down. He has been drinking plenty of water, a brass staff member also witnessed him drink a bottle right after warm up. This student has extremely flat feet and the staff purchased appropriate orthopedic supportive shoes for him near the end of “all days” as he was not aware of his condition beforehand. Due to the NW Drum Corps season being unique from most Corps, this is only our third week being together. Our two weeks of all days was windy, wet and cold. The first week of tour is always very physically and mentally challenging for NW students as we are not conditioned for the extreme temperatures and sun. The staff is well prepared and consistently educates and trains the members for what their bodies and hearts are about to go through. This being the end of our first week, the members are hitting their traditional first wall and are fighting hard to grow past it. Last season it was Arizona for us. We do have multiple layers of medical protocol in place, appropriate staff and first aid training to support it. I can’t imagine a Corps that doesn’t have medical protocols as medical issues are a daily occurrence with all Corps considering the quantity of people and athleticism involved. As per the actual moment during the show: the sound board operator was training other staff and none of them witnessed the young man go down as they were focused on their jobs and visually trapped behind the front ensemble & drum major. The first staff to witness was Jeremy Permen and he rushed down to the field jumping the fence. It was said that he got there within 10 seconds of identifying the problem. Five staff attended him as the show completed. The young man blacked out for about 15 seconds and was coherent during the end of the show telling the staff that he was ok. He was sweating, salty and focused, so they waited patiently with him until the end of the performance. He is now doing fine. The student’s welfare is our biggest priority as they are our customers and family. We want them to have incredible lifetime experiences as a Cascade and would do nothing to jeopardize their safety. Thank you again for your concern and support.

As of Denver, due to injury, CASCADES are looking to fill one BARITONE position. Potential candidates must be physically in shape and coordinated. Contact cascadesad@gmail.com

Cascades are about 10% bigger than last year and much older. I can't wait to see them!

GO Cascades! I want them to be brilliant!

Cascades average age is 18.2

Of course the Crusader people want to believe that they would score higher than Cascades, which Madrid is part of. However, the separation between the 2 sheets is historically 15 to 20 points different, making OC's score generously at a 56.0 in World Class. That being said, When Crusaders win Open Class with a score of 96.00 (go OC!), that means Cascades would have to be something like an 80.00 which is typically the score of 18th/19th place WC (go Scades!) So I guess it is really close. There are plenty of fine detail differences between the two corps, anything else said is speculation and bias at this point. It all will be decided in a little more than a month from now.

Nice to see a good crowd in the Seattle area and I actually enjoyed the smaller venue. The sun in the audience's face got a little annoying during Revolution's performance, but with the help of incoming clouds......go figure. I agree about the announcer. His performance is always a bit strange and unprofessional. He seems like a great guy and loves drum corps. When he listed all the past NW corps, why didn't he mention some of the most famous Seattle area drum corps? Weird. He missed Black Watch, Imperials & others? come 'on......really? If you're going to pull out blast from the past and you're in Seattle, at least drag out the Seattle corps as well? And why include Oregon Crusaders as a "Past" corps? I know they existed back then, but isn't the current OC suppose to be the reinvention of the old Crusaders?......weird. OREGON CRUSADERS: Why did they go on first? I found this to be completely strange. I was so excited to see/hear them, because we've all heard such great things. We want another championship brought back to the NW! They are bigger and better. The first brass impact is POW and the guard has definitely grown. I was disappointed in the percussion as their recent world class finalist drum line barely generated audience response. In fact, the show in general, is a bit blah. It's great that they have grown, but the show itself is fairly uninteresting, loud & stationary is only one effect. I think they are going to have to work pretty hard to win Open, because the programming comes off a bit thin when said and done. They can do it though, they got plenty of time to sort it all out. Go OC, so proud of your growth! SPOKANE THUNDER: I can say here that I have always loved their uniform; it looks so strong on the field. There are some really cool movement ideas that the brass are doing and clearly the corps looks healthy and presented a full show. The strength of the guard is their dance training and not necessarily the choreography that is written, super impressed with weapon soloist, I can't imagine the pressure of having to throw huge solo tosses! The percussion seemed unmemorable to me, there was a moment on the right of the field, but the details didn't stick in my memory. Concept: much like Crusaders, not a lot to hold onto. Revolution has them both beat there. A bit unsure if the Can Can is a great rep choice. I want so desperately for Thunder to be loved by their community. It seems stable, but stagnant at the same time. Keep up the good fight Thunder, we want you to be great! REVOLUTION: They have a concept, you don't really discover it until the middle of the show, but at least they HAVE a conceptual thematic idea. Brass is strong, are they loud? No, not crazy loud, but doing some serious body and drill and it is obvious that their percussion comes to play! If all the guards competed against each other tonight, Rev would have been 3rd, ahead of the locals. They are the most developed and cleaner of the smaller sized corps (i.e. not BK & Cadets) unfortunately, the guard uniforms are not flattering at all. To be honest, I don't think they would be flattering on perfect body types either. LOVED the Seattle flag at the end, neat idea! THANK YOU for coming to the NW!!!!! SEATTLE CASCADES: There is some color out there, you can't miss them. I like the new uniform, it's just enough “new” and the green plume works out ok. They have a concept and you clearly get the message all the way through. The brass is much improved over last year, although the end they ain't got it completely under control just yet. That being said, they are doing some stuff, running around playing more than whole notes and being all crazy, I like it. The guard looks Flash-Gordon-like, but, at least they all look good wearing it and it looks like the guard has doubled in size. The percussion was my shocker, I don't usually notice Seattle's percussion, but, they were stealing the show at times and got the audience cheering, there is some snare moment in the last song backfield, quite tasty. Pandora, it will work for them and I think they will move forward, super sloppy right now, but their magic seems to be back. BLUE KNIGHTS: Woah! Crazy powerful and sophisticated. The preshow was fun, helping lead us into the middle of their show. The brass is top notch folks! You can't ask for much better. If they don't make you smile and laugh and cry, then you're just not human. I really appreciated the Blue Knight flavor that the guard has this year; I really missed that last year. AND the guard is stellar by the way, those rifles? Geez! The BK guard has stronger designed statements than the Cadets guard IMHO. Kudos to the percussion for bringing in the Scottish drums, complete with the stick twirling and pomp, thanks for entertaining us and not being so high-brow as to think we couldn't appreciate that art of it. No complaints! Great Drum Corps! CADETS: Now of course, they are amazing. First off, I dig the fact that they managed to reinvent their VERY traditional uniforms into two separate ideas and made us still think Cadets. Secondly, anyone who has ever tried to do 2 separate visual/musical thoughts during a show, knows how incredibly difficult it is to accomplish and the Cadets show is brilliantly integrated and separated at the same time. Finally, the brass and guard are superior, you just can't complain, the percussion never really grabbed me, but, I think because the show is such a visual treat, I was completely distracted. Thank you Cadets for coming back to the NW, we hope you enjoy your 4th of July in Seattle!

I wanna hang out with Roxanne!

They said they had a great solid show tonight. They saw tar-balls on the beach yesterday and now they are talking about generators.