notelvis

I saw the Colts in Muncie last night and came away very impressed. I don't believe I've heard a Colts hornline sound this nice and full this early in the season ever. If they have ever had a hornline ramped up like this so early in the season before, they were using G bugles when they did it. The brass arrangements impressed me also. If they can make those boxes work somehow, great. If they can clean the visual stuff.... mature the drum line...... if, if, if. I really like this show (and have liked the Colts going back 25 years and more now) and hope that they are laying the foundation for another finals run down the road. To the casual observer the 1993 Colts came out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning and made that huge 9-spot leap into finals with a smallish, not quite full corps. That's a good narrative but the fact is that the corps administration and creative staff had been working to lay a foundation for where such a leap might have been possible for two or three seasons before it happened.

Doug - I am so happy to hear that your daughter had such a good experience with the Colts following Teal Sound's folding. The Colts are a class organization which has long welcomed people from other places who, like your daughter, found that "My first drum corps was done before I was done with drum corps". I am speaking from first-hand experience. Should any of Dakotah's family be reading my remarks - I am so sorry for your loss. That Dakotah was so highly thought of by his peers and staff at the Colts clearly evidences someone on his way to becoming a remarkable adult.

Noticed no Sevierville show as well. Is this a one-time thing (like 'oh, the stadium is getting astroturf and won't be available this summer') or is Sevierville gone for good? Be a shame if it's gone....... it was the longest running southern DCI show still being held in it's original location.

Thanks for the review. I agree with many of your observations and appreciate all of them. It's your brief assessment of the first five corps in your review that really caught my attention. Troopers are letting thier identity slip away again and the creative staff in place either can't figure out how to hang on to it or doesn't feel like hanging on to it is worth the bother. Colts are a sentimental favorite of mine and have been for 20 years now..... dating back to the season before they came out of nowhere and slipped into finals for the first time. Glassmen and Academy leave me......... hmnnn...... disinterested this year..... though I liked both of them last year. Seeing the show in Atlanta, I felt like the Crossmen's primary strength was the quality of Chuck Naffier's brass arrangements and the quality of the instruction the horns are obviously getting. They are playing the fool out of this show. I've not seen it often enough to say for sure but I suspect that Chuck has been tweaking the arrangements to add more beef in places where the hornline has demonstrated the ability to handle it. I'm rooting for the Crossmen and hope that they can continue the momentum into 2013.

Have had similar experiences at that stadium in the past........ gate nazis.

What Jeff has said is perfect and many outstanding memories have been shared here and elsewhere already. That said, I would like to add this note from the perspective of a volunteer bus driver who had the pleasure of doing 10-12 tours with Dean between 1986 and 1999. Dean Musson was an absolute delight to be around. Dean personified 'grace under pressure'. He was a calming influence when things were going badly and a comedian when things were going well. He was willing to do anything neccessary to keep the operation moving in a pinch. That includes driving buses and equipment trucks, shopping for groceries at 3:00am, cooking, changing a tire on the side of the road, putting out fires literally and figuratively. I mean ANYTHING. More important though, as Jeff alludes, was Dean's unique gift of working with people. Dean could make EVERYONE from the gifted show designers and arrangers to the 15-year old rookie playing 3rd soprano with all of the veteran members, cooks, souvie folks, truck, and bus drivers in between feel like their contribution was valued and vital to the ultimate success of the organization. Dean loved drum corps. Dean loved drum corps people and it was genuinely important to him that everyone involved in any facet of the corps operation take something positive from the experience. I'm better for having played drum corps with Dean and I'm going to miss seeing him at all of those great reunions yet to come.

I'm actually of the opinion that the battle among the corps in the 10-16 range is the most intriquing EVERY season. That said, I believe that the early results suggest that it's going to be more down to the wire this year than ever before. I would not mind seeing something we've never experienced before..... a tie for 12th place on Friday night.

And they have something like 18 shows together...... this might be one of the more interesting rivalries this summer.

Strikes Twice? Things that are hot?

From experience working and touring with the Colts for a number of summers in the 1990's, I've observed that there is a surprisingly large community of drum corps savvy people in Iowa. There are also many good people in Iowa eager and willing to step up in a time of crisis to help a neighbor or a busload of kids belonging to people they have never met. I am relieved beyond measure that no one was injured too seriously in what looked like a very frightening accident and, in looking for any silver lining possible, I would imagine that there are a number of Iowans..... perhaps even some Colts parents..... stepping up to offer whatever help they can.

Sue - it's easy to dismiss this as lazy reporting but suppose it's something even worse than that. Suppose the reporter sort of grasped the distinction but decided that that stations' viewing audience was not 'sharp' enough to 'get it' and decided to 'dumb the report' down for them. THAT'S FRIGHTENING. Beyond that, I'm glad to hear that the kids are released and that the Troopers are getting back to business. I'm hearing good things about them this early season and can't wait to see the Troopers for myself this summer.

And bear in mind, as I'm sure you're aware, drum corps buses are generally heavier than your typical tour bus...... every kid on board with all of their tour gear stuffed in the bays and overheads...... you get a drum corps bus trying to make time going downhill and a tire blowing at just the wrong time could have been far, far worse than this accident. One other sidebar - coming from someone who drove a number of drum corps buses when more corps owned their own buses, it always seemed to me that the combination of more heavily loaded buses running at highway speeds on I-80 tended to cause more blowouts at the higher altitudes in Nebraska, Wyoming, and on to Donner Pass. Yes, western Iowa is not exactly what I would consider 'suspect territory' BUT having just come from the more western states.... Let's just say that problems with a corps' vehicles tend to make themselves known during the rigors of tour. I hope that the Troopers and all other corps will not suffer any accidents this serious for the remainder of the saeason.

One article noted that the Troopers were heading for Greenfield, IA tonight. (Going to Google Earth soon to see if such exists...... there is a Greenfield, IN which may have been what the author intended).... I-80 has seen it's share of drum corps bus incidents over the years and I am hoping that no one is too badly shaken up by this accident.

I hate truck stops at 3:00am..... If I'm in a truck stop at 3:00am it means I'm not asleep. So.... yeah..... I hate truck stops.

Darn it, that's pretty much what I was going to say. I'm years past wanting to start my own corps, I've pretty much recognized that trying to dictate the direction of the activity by throwing around political might would consume anyone in the end. Change things with money alone? It's gonna take more money than this to do that. Nope - the solution would be in some sort of scholarship fund subsidizing corps fees for quality kids who otherwise would not have the chance to do it. Simple as that.