Longtime Fan

Finlandia is a great piece...huge ending...has it ever been done by drum corps?

Yes, Crusaders rehearsing at the school. Close to 24 hours of custodial time x 2 guys. For a full show, multiply that by six or seven corps. And the pipers will be playing so....come on out!

Yep! And I've even been to concerts costing more than that fore just one entertainer! No offense to this writer but....most fans have no idea of the cost of this activity. Just an example...custodians working a holiday weekend, overnight, can easily make $35 an hour...or more. At least two of them....you do the math :-)

The Boston Crusaders will give a public performance at West Milford High School, 71 Highlander Dr, West Milford NJ on Sunday, July 5 at 7:30 PM to benefit the Highlander Band. The Raiders from Wayne NJ will also perform. Tickets are $10 adult, $7 student, under 12 free. West Milford is located 30 minutes from Willowbrook Mall. Take Route 23 North; R on Echo Lake Rd, L on Macopin Rd, R on Highlander Dr.

I went to DC as a volunteer with the Cadets. Depart South Jersey 3AM; arrive parking area at RFK Stadium 5:30. Spectator buses everywhere. A very efficient shuttle system gets us downtown before sunrise. Mobs of people headed to the Mall and the inauguration. Hard to get around due to closed areas. Thousands of port-o-johns....but few concession areas. Must pass thru security to get to the parade route--the first checkpoint has a city block full of people on line waiting; after an hour we have not moved forward at all. A parade vol tells us of a checkpoint two blocks down with no line so we go there. There is a line but we get thru in 1/2 hour. No signs or directions...the only poorly organized part of the event. Get to the parade route at 10 AM....good viewing spot. A line of police officers standing ten feet apart line the entire route....with another line of military behind them. Wait....and wait some more. Very cold...temp around 30 degrees, wind chill in the teens. Inauguration ceremony broadcast over loudspeakers. More wait. The parade is supposed to start about 2:30.....but is delayed due to Senator Kennedy's illness and collapse at the luncheon. Finally....around 4 PM....the parade starts...very slowly. The first units were DC and Capitol police and military. Finally the Obama's ....walking....surrounded by press and Secret Service. A quick glimpse and they are past. Then....at least 75% of the spectators leave. Route practically deserted for most of the bands. You could have walked up at that point and have the best seat in the house. Felt bad for the bands late in the parade. Waited all day, all the money to get there, and no one watching. One right after the other....nothing between them. Too bad. Then a long walk to the metro, train back to RFK, and another long walk around the stadium to get back to the bus. A very long cold day. Glad for the experience....but never again.

Groups had to keep moving....no "performances" allowed. Otherwise the parade would have been 6 hours long.

I went to DC as a volunteer with the Cadets. Depart South Jersey 3AM; arrive parking area at RFK Stadium 5:30. Spectator buses everywhere. A very efficient shuttle system gets us downtown before sunrise. Mobs of people headed to the Mall and the inauguration. Hard to get around due to closed areas. Thousands of port-o-johns....but few concession areas. Must pass thru security to get to the parade route--the first checkpoint has a city block full of people on line waiting; after an hour we have not moved forward at all. A parade vol tells us of a checkpoint two blocks down with no line so we go there. There is a line but we get thru in 1/2 hour. No signs or directions...the only poorly organized part of the event. Get to the parade route at 10 AM....good viewing spot. A line of police officers standing ten feet apart line the entire route....with another line of military behind them. Wait....and wait some more. Very cold...temp around 30 degrees, wind chill in the teens. Inauguration ceremony broadcast over loudspeakers. More wait. The parade is supposed to start about 2:30.....but is delayed due to Senator Kennedy's illness and collapse at the luncheon. Finally....around 4 PM....the parade starts...very slowly. The first units were DC and Capitol police and military. Finally the Obama's ....walking....surrounded by press and Secret Service. A quick glimpse and they are past. Then....at least 75% of the spectators leave. Route practically deserted for most of the bands. You could have walked up at that point and have the best seat in the house. Felt bad for the bands late in the parade. Waited all day, all the money to get there, and no one watching. One right after the other....nothing between them. Too bad. Then a long walk to the metro, train back to RFK, and another long walk around the stadium to get back to the bus. A very long cold day. Glad for the experience....but never again.

Watching in Clifton NJ....if PR doesn't win, it's a travesty.

I've been attending shows for many years and have never seen audience reaction like the final three Saturday at Allentown. Cadets were great....and then it seemed nothing could possibly top Crown. But then Phantom did.....this was drum corps at its best.

Yeah, I don't remember Crown's specific GE placement either, but the point is they didn't take first or second despite what clearly was a GE packed show. All you have to do is check out the crowd and the standing O's. And many of the other corps, when they get to what they must think is a big hit....get just polite applause.

Sometimes "obscure" music makes for great shows.....thinking Cadets 92 and 2000 as examples. And familiar music is no guarantee of anything. But occasionally a corps catches lightning in a bottle and puts together a package that really clicks. The music, the drill, the visual....the sum is much greater than the parts. I think Crown did it twice in the past four years, 2004 and 2007. This activity had better find a way to reward such achievent.

It is interesting the show fans liked above all others....didn't even make top 5 on the field! Perhaps Crown didn't play or march quite as well as those who finished ahead of them in 2007. But what did they place in GE, fourth or fifth? Which is the big problem with today's judging and explains why there are not more GE oriented shows. If a corps puts on a show like Crown and gets audience reaction far greather than the others....but places fifth in GE....something is very wrong.

Hypothetical: An Open Class corps has a program idea sure to be popular with fans and inspire enthusiastic crowd reaction, standing O's and all. But its not cutting edge and may not get "respect" from other corps staff and possibly the judging community. But fans would love it. Would that show ever see the field?

Have not seen SCV alumni.....wish I could. "Never to be seen again....." refers to competing corps. My prediction only but......can't see that it would ever be brought back.

How about th Bottle Dance in 92? The entire guard. Gail Royers last year. Everyone knew it was coming.....and that it would never be seen again. The tension.....anticipation og the crowd.....fantastic!

Drum Corps is a great youth activity....in the same way as big time college sports. Both promote hard work, teamwork, goal setting, etc.. But, few donate to college athletic programs or travel to the Rose Bowl because the programa build character....they want to see great games, excitement, entertainment! The Rutgers football team may have developed great young adults for years, bot no one paid big money to attend their games until they started winning. The main reason there are so few corps is because of money. Drum corps is a high cost activity...where else do you see a group of 135 performers travel across the couintry to perform for.....11 minutes!!!! So, you need 6 or 7 corps to have a show. 800+ kids plus staff.....to be equipped, instructed, transported, fed, etc. Expense for a stadium, promotion, security, etc..... The only answer is larger audiences.....more income....to cover the increasing expense of putting a corps on the field. Yes, drum corps builds character but people don't buy tickets to see character being built. To borrow a phrase from Bill Clinton....."It's the entertainment, stupid!"

I am in awe of the level of achievent of today's corps....but don't like much of what they do. A few shows inspire the crowd, but many times what the corps intends to be a big hit results in only tepid applause. Corps want to win....and the judges decide who wins. So of course shows are designed for judges. A useful example would be a Broadway show that gets awards for best director, best music, etc.....but closes because not enough people buy tickets to see it. Last April, I sat in a New York City movie theater for the DCI countdown of the all time best shows. (There were about 20 other people in the theater--in a city of 8 million. Do we have a popular activity or what???) Of course, SCV's "Phantom of the Opera" placed first. A couple of blocks away, Phantom still was playing on Broadway to to full or almost full houses, as it had every night since 1988. Ditto (with a couple years' hiatus each) "A Chorus Line" and "Les Miserables". Great music.....still popular....so why hasn't a DCI corps seen fit to revisit it in almost 20 years?

The Cadets and Crossmen invite colorguard members to the world of drum corps. We are offering reduced price reserved seats to our Music in Motion events in Westminster Maryland (June 29), Giants Stadium (June 30) and Hershey PA (July 9) See Phantom Regiment, Blue Devils, Carolina Crown, Boston Crusaders and more. Tickets are just $15 ($12 off regular price) and include free admission to the all day interactive Music is Cool clinic with the members and staff of the Cadets. See the best DCI corps under the lights at a stadium near you. Open to colorguard members and their families. Limited seating--will not be availailable at the gate. For more information and to order tickets, go to www.yea.org/colorguard or call 877-512-TUBA (8822) X25.

Interesting that judges, who are supposed to be qualified to detect minute differences in performance, could not identify a massive multi-count screw up.

10 for the price of five Santa Clara 1992 Last Rendition of Bottle Dance 27th Lancers Reunion 1994 Blessed Sacrament "America" late 1960's Carolina Crown "Bohemian Rhapsody" 2004 SCV "Great Gates of Kiev" 1987(favorite all time shoe) Cadets "Boggie Woggie Bugle Boy" 1992 Yankee Rebels "The Stripper" 1962 Madison Scouts "Jesus Christ Superstar" Boston Crusaders "Conquest" Troopers circle