Euphscott

Saw Bones at the Southlake Drum Corps eXtravaganza yesterday. Great weather and location for this event, hopefully Crossmen will make this an annual event. The community seemed to embrace this event and learned a lot about drum corps. The meet and greet at the end was wonderful with corps members remaining in uniform to meet the public. It was fun getting to talk to the kids and encourage them as they embark on tour. That said - I am pulling for this bunch. They DO have a groove this year and the brass sounds terrific. Spinning Wheel and Hallelujah were tunes I enjoyed most and you could hear the improved sound the corps is pushing. Also, the corps looked visually terrific while they endured 30 mph wind gusts and a talkative Miss Southlake taking up about 20 minutes of talking and singing. The corps stood perfectly still. I am looking forward to see how they look moving. The white plumage looks good on the Aussies! Also - took some time to ask about a patch worn on the uniforms this year. A volunteer of the corps affectionaly known as Freebird passed recently and the corps asked to memorialize him in a special way. A classy patch was created with his initials, nickname, and corps logo stitched into the right shoulder. Very classy move and apparently membership driven. I spent (WAY more than I intended) some dough on souvies, but the Texas corps that I've been wanting to pull for since they moved here is now one I want to get behind. Great sound, terrific look, and now very human members that seemed happy to get the personal attention afforded them at this event. Go Bones - you hooked a new fan for the summer!

Cavies enter with bright orange (neon) poles and flags.

After show mass hornline rehearsal of Firebird in stadium. Extra treat!!

Split tuba parts down front. Sweet! Battery took forever to enter this brass like took uP where it left off last summer. Thy will be sick down the road. Guard looks good in fuchsia (?) and silver. Seems to be cleaners visually so far. Still a few rain drops. Really good weather tonight. Holy cow they just had two sections from 20 to endzones with dead space in middle of field. Talk abou phasing nightmare potential but it was done well I am impressed. Cleanest of the night to this point.

Crown is fun. Not quite the rock stars they aim to be just yet but it will come. Guard has some great moments with a huge rifle toss from mid field to back sideline a la guitar tosses. Short sleeve unis work well. And that male solo that has been there forever has got to be the most agile big man this side of the NBA.

Cadets show is genius byte good evil play is done well. Brass is LOUD!! And they are playing notes.

Pink guard against maroon percussion. Ouch!

Cadets sure seem to have a lot of DM's with the cream unis against the maroon.

Phantom has low brass again!! All white and black in corps proper looks great against Brgundy colors in feminine guard. Epic show in the making.

Vanguard solid. Drums are sweet (I am a brass guy) and pretty drums. Black to green fade. This will be a stunning ballad at the end of season. Wow!!

That scaffolding is interesting. Pain on road crew all summer long. I wish I knew the material but it's a fun crime show per my 9 year old! Vanguard on field.

Weather should only bother color guards with wind. Pretty gusty. Boo on DCI for charging for parking. Had to go back to get cash (granted boo to me for not assuming this new way of life). This small town is not capable of handling parking. Long line still waiting to get in. Blue Stars are setting up. My daughter just asked who is this. B S I reply. But they are not blue she says. She's got me there!

BD sounded good last night - looked...like it was first show of the year! Big props are back in form of PVC pipe used as framework for houses and columns, along with asterisks(!)...Interested to see if fabric comes in to play or just white PVC.

Funny! However - I believe it to be true - the Jupiters are nice to hold.

Vigilantes performed in a locally televised "Parade of Lights" last night in Fort Worth, Texas. Great weather and huge turn out. It seemed every pass in review our playing was timed perfectly. The parade gods were with us! :) Two more Christmas parades next Saturday that will not be televised, but give us face time. My favorite part is that my 8 year daughter will make her drum corps debut in these events carrying the banner at the front of the corps.

Gonna miss him in Texas as well. Peace to you Russ - your brother was a joy to all of us - we are glad to have shared him with you for a brief time.

Congratulations Animal! Good luck to both you and Bones. Looks like good things brewing down south.

Consider it done Dennis! :)

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7334313/?ref=nf

Actually a 501c3 can be earned rather quickly. We got ours done in 30 days.

Good luck to all of you - we'll look forward to seeing you there!

...except only about half the mini corps that make it to Rochester are in involved with or attending DCA shows...

Interesting bit of trivia from this past weekend: In the DCA-Central competitions, more corps competed with G Bugles than those without: High Country Brass - G Vigilantes - G Govies - Bb Kilties - G MN Brass - Bb Quite possibly one of the last of a dying breed in competitions where G corps outnumber Bb's. Hard to imagine many more contests like these will occur in the future.

We start so late with DCA shows because there are none within reasonable distance until now. With two long distance trips in our budget going to the northeast or south is just not in the cards. We did two local DCI shows in July and got some good feedback. We also have had discussions with DCI to get more performances and exposure during the TX swing in future years. As for bus versus fly, school starts in TX early Monday morning. So our teachers and students need to leave immediately after our 5:00 show Sunday night to get to obligations the next day. 15 hours on the road before class or work is less than ideal. See everyone in St Peter tonight. And as I stand in MN this morning with amazing weather, I am looking forward to having energy during a run!

Looking forward to the trip north - it's 102 today and we broke a string of 18 days of triple digits yesterday - we are ready for the "cool" stuff! :) My flight leaves in 5 hours - Minnesota here we come!!