Greg Bright

You picked the right place to eat!

Best show I've been to in 40 years of Drum Corps.

I live 30 miles away and I'm not there. Bad acoustics will keep me home every time, no matter who is performing. Last year at Bloomington..wow.

So I'm working the 3-9:30 shift, Friday, 8-7, at White River State Park. This is at Fan Fair, and it's also the warm-up area for the corps. I get a tee-shirt that I have to wear for the privelege. Also required khaki trousers. Training is this Wed. at Lucas. I figured after 39 years of them entertaining me, I might as well do them a favor. Anyone else giving time?

Last year at Bloomington I had 50 yard line seats. Didn't do anything special except order them within the first 15 minutes of them becoming available. This year I waited a day. Best was 20. So am I going this year? Not to the contest but as a volunteer at White River State Park. Maybe I'll get to hear YNWA by Madison.

This is a great resource for Indy food and beverage: http://indianapolis.metromix.com/restaurants

Up on 86th St and down in Mooresville, Squealers serves up some really good smoked BBQ, ribs, pulled pork, brisket. And I hear Judges is pretty good. Ate at GTSouths a couple years ago. No atmosphere. I pick Squealers. And apologies to all the others who have nominated Squealers. Guess I should have read all ten pages, eh?

How odd that I just listened to an LP of the U of Illinois Band playing Prague just last night. What a tour de force for band! I remember playing it at Ball State under the infamous Earl Dunn back in '68 or so. We never played any McBeth, and I don't know why. Maybe Dunn had some anti-Texan prejudice. Is he still writing? Some of his music might adapt to drum corps quite easily.

It may have been the two of us. My only show of the year as well. And also from Indiana. Go figure.

Apparently no "Good luck", "sorry to see you go", "we'll miss you", for Richard Saucedo, eh? As a Hoosier who has enjoyed his Carmel HS Band performances for years, I'm just curious.

80 Spirit was loud, but 71 Caballeros was the loudest I ever heard in person.

I marched half a season with Boys of '76 out of Racine in 1971 before enlisting to avoid being drafted. While in basic training at Ft. Dix I went to my only DCA show at Allentown. Your coverage today brought back many fond memories. Thank you.

That it was done intentionally and not as a means to get the horn line in tune with itself and the players with one another makes it unusual. That it was also used as a melodic device makes it even more so. The horns were always facing away when they did it, expecting the back wall bounce would smooth the irregularities that would appear since each player would have differing levels of bending success. I think it worked very well. Surprised me at least.

Gee, you mean I may have to stop saying...yes but they weren't as good as Star 91?

This was my first finals since Birmingham 1979? I go to a local show every other year, and since I only live 40 miles from Bloomington... I believe Phantom deserved the win. It wasn't IMHO the best Drum Corps performance I've ever seen, but it was close. The crowd was ecstatic as soon as BD was announced in second. I can only guess, but I'd say about 5,000+ folks stayed for the encore which was way late because none of the other corps wanted to leave the field (except the Cadets, who actually left in formation and marching in step). It was just a big party out there, far different than events past. Madison's bass drums were the last to leave and actually had to be persuaded by a DCI rep before Phantom finally took there encore. And even the encore had an encore with an in-concert of "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral", by Wagner. Now that was a tear-jerker. Also the massed corps "America the Beautiful" conducted by Phantom's DM - Had to be the loudest unamplified sound I have ever heard!!! Phantom's two assistant DMs dragging their dead DM to the front line for awards and covering his head with his red cape, then walking away to leave an unattended corpse on the ground to accept awards - brilliant! But he rose from the dead to accept the Disney Award, and many thereafter. What a night! I agree that Bloomington is a wonderful town for Drum Corps with too few hotel rooms. It probably resembles Madison in many ways. Lucas Oil will be something completely different. I hope the acoustics there are as good as they were here tonight. Reminded me of Whitewater only way bigger. My first post here. Thanks for reading. Greg