Wort

Whitewater, hands down.

I always thought it wouild be cool if someone tried an arrangement of Edgar Winter's Frankenstein, but you would have to have one heck of a horn line with a lot of intestinal fortitude to pull it off, especially 'cause I wouldn't want to use electronics.. That said, Opener, William Tell Overture, a la Bridgemen Firebird - from the mid '70s Cavilers Closer - Bottle Dance from, well, you know.....

Is it possible to list the corps that are in the programs that are offered? I think I recognize the one from 1975. Cookbooks? Cookbooks? Is there a link (and, no, I don't want a sausage)?

Weren't marching bands the first marching groups to use electronic "enhancement"? Just sayin'...

Thanks for the interesting review. I was waffling about going to the Atlanta show, but this just about seals it.

I was a drum major for our marching band in high school for 2 years, so I do have some experience there. I won't even say that woodwinds can't be effective outdoors at the direction of an excellent show designer. The fact that I can honestly say that I have yet to see it done might give a clue to the calibur of the marching bands I have had experience with, though. Once you get up in the stands a lot of the sound has dissapated.

Actually you do have a point. When we hear a sound that IS MUCH LOUDER THAN PREVIOUS SOUNDS, our brain reacts on a subconscious level. Respiration and heart rate increase, etc. That is why when a horn line is facing away from us and then turns in a company front at fffffff, we react. We really have no choice. It is the way we are wired. Its been called in this thread a "face melt" and it is a good thing, not easily accomplished by woodwinds. Just sayin'

What she said. Maybe corps don't have local support because they are not locally known? Have we shut out some of our most ardent supporters?

Sheesh. Never met the guy and already I don't like him.....

Let me start by saying that adding WW to DC is a BAD idea. That said... In reading this thread I have seen some who claim that cost would be the thing that would prevent WW from being inserted into this activity that we all love so much. I respectfully disagree. If cost was the main driver we would not have the expensive instruments in the pit, or the electronics, or the amplifiers. Although I am very far removed from any corps right now, so far I can have no proof of my suspicisions, I do suspect that these items are/were much more expensive than your garden variety tuba/contra bass. I do see another concern. Although the drills are mostly wide open now, the elbows of a clarinet player and flute player are not exactly on the same plane as a trumpet/soprano player. Just sayin'

Yes. What we think are our limits are NOT. A season or 2 of drum corps will drive that lesson home again and again. The paid individual lessons? Maybe for some people, but not for most. The group effort keeps one going when it would be easy to quit alone. What is that worth? Dunno, but I would not be the person I am without that experience.

My submission for post of the year. Well said! (Emphasis mine)

Even though the title is a little over the top, I have to say I find it a bit amusing. We used to compete against the Green whatever often. While that was a long time ago, I can't believe a culture can change as much as some seem to think. Count the Cavies out at your own peril.

I, too, marched '75 to '77, so I am biased. That much I admit. I don't much care for the electronics and the drum sets. Pits I tolerate. Never could see how those guys actually marched with tymps. I liked the mix of GE and execution we had for the judging system. That said, though, the musicianship at the upper levels does not appear to have suffered at all. If anything it is better by far, IMO. So I was wrong on that count. I do remember the inspections and thinking that they were crazy, but I do/did see the connection to history. But, I think that getting away from VFW and American Legion posts also made the comunity support a little harder to come by. Of course there appears to be fewer and fewer VFW/American Legion posts around, so maybe that decline in support was inevitable. Who knows? Like I said, I am biased. I consider my years with the Guardsmen to be among my best, and the memories are still cherished, 35 years later.

I knew it, I just knew it!!!!!

Time's a wastin'. A great experience awaits.

At the risk of being called a dino, I agree. If I wanted a rock concert I'd go see Kiss.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

The cymbals are gonna crash. Just sayin'

I played contra and did a snap turn once that took out a flag girl. Does that count?

Best of luck to you!!!!!!!! Who will be performing at the show?

I can't help but remeber a finals telecast on public television a couple of decades ago that had a guest host, a guy named Maynard Ferguson. This was at a time when his recordings could be heard on every corp's buses, all season. He did not even have a clue that we existed. And, if memory serves, he called the performers "bands" (gasp). My point is this: We have never been mainstream, except in small pockets of the country quite a while ago. P.T. Barnum once observed that there is no bad publicity. I respectfully submit that this musician's fascination with Drum and Bugle Corps is exactly the same emotion that has fueled the passion of every one of us who has stood on a starting line. I don't see how their interest can be anything but beneficial to the movement. Please give him/them a break, if for no other reason, because their heart is in the right place.

Quite likely. Other than the trip to finals in '75, where we rode in motor coaches, we rode in school buses. Our equipment vehicle was a very old converted school bus prone to malfunction. (BTW I can only speak for '75 - '77). We had a few very dedicated dads who painted them up and kept them running, and we were able to reconfigure the benches so that we had a few square "pits" on each bus, which made sleeping much more comfortable. Kind of like living on one of those WWII submarines.

Hi, Tasty! My opinion is that the way drum corps has developed is not good. The corps themselves are excellent, don't get me wrong, but the demographics have changed. I remember being told when I was marching ('75 to'77) that there were more people involved in drum corps than there were in the Boy Scouts. Having been a Boy Scout before drum corps I did not believe it at first, but then I realized that drum corps have a lot more age groups involved, so at the time it was likely true. Now? I doubt it. The sheer numbers just are not there, for a lot of reasons. In other threads here some have suggested that high school marching bands have replaced drum corps. I beg to differ. First, unfortunately some schools see music programs as obvious places to make cuts (insert very bad words of choice here). Second, in my experience, marching bands will tolerate bad habits and bad attitudes that drum corps would either straighten out or eliminate. The focus is much different and the bar is much higher, even at the class B and C level. A corps director is more likely to tell a meddling mama to take a hike if her little darling is causing a distraction. I have seen in these threads that there is a movement afoot to revive the small corps environment. I wish there was something close by that I could support, and wish the efforts become wildly successful. After all, doesn't every kid deserve to have the chance to have same great experiences we all did? Even if they do use amplifiers and keyboards (scratches and shakes head).

Remember punk rock? Added in edit: Sorry I should have read the whole thread before posting. This was not the first time it came up.