Cadetsnare

Man, I thought the Cadets were the corps to hate!! :P By the way, I'll give you 88 and 95...great drum corps that got ripped and should have won, epecially 88. What a corps!!!! They got bent-over and screwed, period....but 84 and 90? Not just because I marched, but 90? ALL numbers were uncharacteristically low for BD (except field vis, which up to that point was never their strongest caption, strangely enough. Props to them for being 2nd on the field that night and 1st in prelims, but the rest of the numbers were all over the map, most of the season. I think 90 was a RIDICULOUSLY talented corps that simply didn't have a show that was what the judges wanted to see at the time. And the drill was NOT BD's finest, by a country mile. 84? Victims of the system change. GE and vis was what was their Achilles heel all season long, but brass and percussion across the board was their strongest captions. That drumline was only challenged by 27 most of the season. I think performance-wise, in the old system, they would have won hands-down. But the show wasn't as effective in the new system as the maroon team. Don't get me wrong...if it wasn't for geography, I would have been wearing blue (or gray, or black... :P ).

Where was it in the show? I'll have to check it out. I was too busy at the time trying not to tick to focus on those fool brass players! :mmm:

I don't remember where, but on one of the finals vids I'm on, you can see these HUGE cockroach-looking things all over the astroturf. I still remember the crunchy feeling under my bucks. Eewwww.... Reminds me of a few years ago when the chicadas were out and about...Dave Letterman did a HILARIOUS skit about them...IIRC, he came out wearing this huge chicada outfit....the place went UP!! Reminded me of drum corps and crunchy bugs.

Actually, Clark moved to California about a year ago...Hollywierd...errr....Hollywood! :P He's a grant writer at Cedar-Sainai hospital, and is working with a band getting signed. Intense? Nah...Clark's not intense.. If you look up "Type A" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Bullethead himself! Really a great guy, great friend, and a heckuva drummer! Back then, I think the best snare sound we got on those kevlar heads was actually 89...really chunky, slightly wet, and clear as a bell. 90 was MUCH drier....91 was our first run at the free-floaters. We tuned them REALLY, REALLY high. We used kevlar bottoms, and Premier Tendura tops.....it was so high, in fact, it made it near impossible to clean, especially at the step sizes we had to do. It was really near-suicide. You can hear what I'm talking about if you listen to the opener....the snares were absolutely REEFED!!!! I much prefer the older-styled drums. We would blow out the bolted-on casings all the time, but the difference in tone is pretty substantial.

Yeah! I marched with Jerede for 3 years, as well as John Corley, who was Star's bass tech in 93. Speaking of 93, Clark Gardner's coming up to Oregon to hang out with me for a few days....remember him? He was the battery section leader. Speaking of 89, Star was the last of the mylar holdouts (with Bluecoats)...there is NOTHING that sounds as good as mylar on a snareline!

1990 Cadets sopranos in the closer. They're overblowing their brains out as an intended effect....I remember the first time they did it. Some judge nailed them on a tape for poor musicianship!

Nope...the gong note was just a bonehead attack. A buddy of mine in the drumline told me they were HACKED OFF that night for that mistake.

Is Scott Clark living in Canada now? I thought he was in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. When you see him, tell him Matt says "Yo"!

Yeah, Cavvies 1990 drumline was REALLY good, and the hornline was less than their best hornline. In fact, Linda Hannum (Thom's wife at the time) was taking pictures for DCI in Buffalo, and as they came off the field, she said something to the effect of "Uhhh....that wasn't good!" (She was a brass player.)

The 4th snare drummer was another Canadian from Dutch Boy named Scott Blanford. I marched right next to him. He was REALLY good! Also slightly crazy!!! Funny as all get-out, though!

Yup...I'm sure that was part of it. Don't get me wrong....the 89 Cadets brassline was NO WHERE EVEN CLOSE to the top 4 in performance. SCV's, BD's, Phantom's, Star's, etc hornlines were outstanding on finals week. I do think the brass numbers affected how the percussion was viewed, unfortunately. As they say in Boston...bummah! The brassline's visual performance wasn't anything to write home about either. I think Mark Sylvester did a fantastic job writing the drill, but they simply didn't execute it. Mike Klesch's re-writes saved the show, IMO. There were A LOT of folks who left after 88....they worked their tails off that year, and a bunch of folks didn't come back. The battery had a really high numbers of vets that year....5/8 were vets from either 87 or 88, both outrageous lines. We had Willy Higgins, who marched 84, 86, 87, 88 and 89....yow! Scott Clark, who was in from 87-92, Lee Beddis from 87-90, and 2 other guys that marched 88, 89 and 90. The other 2 guys were these drumming machines from Dutch Boy, and me. Lots o'chops! The bassline had a bunch of super-strong vets that year as well. The quadline? Well...let's just say they did their job. The guard, though, were the stars of the show. Really a great guard. Last night's typing was after a couple o'bottles of chardonnay, so if it seems particularly pointed, I'm sorry! Never drink and type!!!

This may hack off a few 1989 SCV percussion alums, but.....89 Cadets percussion should have won, pure and simple. Sorry. Beating the 89 DCI percussion champions all season, and a full point and a half the week before finals and ending up 5th is inexcusable, IMO. Especially how dirty they were on Saturday. Don Hill (DCI brass top dog at the time, and VERY knowledgeable in percussion), said that the percussion placement was, in his opinion, one of the worst calls in the activity, ever. (Notice how many finals Mike D'Angelo's judged since? Oops.....) Mark Sylvester did the drill...(Zingali the Master was consulting Star that year...I think. I remember getting a hug from him sometime late season.....the last hug I ever got from George. It REALLY, REALLY, meant a lot to me...) A flippin' genious, pure and simple. If anyone here has the ability to convert an analog file (tape) to a digital file, you can hear for yourself how the 89 DCI Percussion Champions sounded in the lot. I have it, along with BD, Phantom, Freelancers, Bluecoats, etc...). SCV's a bag o' dirt. Sorry. It's clearly obvious on the tape how they played. It wasn't good in the lot, nor was it good on the field. If you can convert the file, you can post it all out there for all to hear the difference. It's like listening to a barely-hanging-on group to the obvious clear-cut winner. It doesn't help when the finals tape has the judge BEHIND the cymbal line for a large portion of the tape, and making snare, tenor, and bass comments, when he was at least 20 yards away... Eeesh....I was there, and evidently, he was not. If someone here can do this, I'll send it to you, and you can post away......Please PM me. It would be great for folks to hear. I'm sorry if this sounds bitter...it probably has a bit of that in this post. I am just blown back by how perception of a brass line can color a percussion judge's opinion. Weak at every level. What happened to the brass? Well, the book was originally written (horribly, IMO) by Michael W. Smith (of Suncoast Sound), and was re-written in June by Mike Klesch (85-92 Cadets brass arranger). There was not a lot of talent in that brass line, but in their defense, we spent a LOT of time as a corps working on expressing to the crowd the vibe of the show (and I mean a LOT of time....), and not on performance. In other words, great communication, technically dirty in the brass. It didn't help them, by the way, when we got our last 40 seconds of the show on Wednesday, the day before Quarterfinals...nothing like a last minute brass scramble! But....at least it was a loud, blast-your-face-off ending!! Sorry if this sounds bitter...it probably is. It is just the musings of an aging guy who wishes when a line of greatness would have been acknowledged, It was a show with a winning drum line, a REALLY GOOD guard (lost by 1/100th, I think), and a great concept, but a middle-of-the-road brass section. GE was there....performance wasn't. OOOOOLLLLLDDDD history, no?

I was a band director of a really competitive, aggressive band in So Cal in 1997 that had an unusually high number of kids in corps. The freshman football team tried to run us over once, but the band "huddled the wagons", and let them know that respect is due to ALL of the groups on campus, and the kids actually got an apology from the coach, as well as the team. The HS Varsity team was GREAT! They were very respectful, and in fact were really impressed at the conditioning our kids went through....a couple of miles of running, situps, basic block, etc. They came to really appreciate the civic function of the band, and applauded us when we left the field after halftime. Lots of love at that school, because it came down from the COACH. He set the standard there, and it DID make a difference.

Half the snareline were music majors...I was the timpanist for "Letter From Home"....the others were in the back (I think...my butt was parked on a stool during the ballad the whole season!)

Giant's Stadium!!! Built for 7 foot high neandrathals, and were clean as an be! The worst? Teterboro Vo-Tech where we had camps...the showers were always cold, and they smelled like sulpher! The drains would always clog...nothing better than human funk floating up to above your ankles!! Ewww!

Cadets would split the corps into two seperate corps, and do 3 parades each!! More money for the corps, which was cool, but it was wierd doing a parade with 30 horns, 4 or 5 snares, 2 or 3 tenors, 2 or 3 basses...felt like Div. 3 all over again!!! I can definitely tell you that the Bunker Hill parade was a miserable trek..... And the 5 mile Malden parade sucked the big one, too! ...it reminds me of the joke, "Why do drummers have 2 more brain cells than a horse?" ...."So they don't embarrass themselves on the parade route!" or, "Why are stops in a parade so short?" ...."So you don't have to re-train the horn players!"

Sorry to ressurect a dead thread, but I was in the snare line in 89-91. We were sixth place...I have no beef with that. The horn line was simply not that strong...as far as "drum corps" goes....yeah...it probably wasn't the "GE machine" that you look for in a top group. But...the music, IMO, was excellent. We just had a lot of rookies (especially in the drum line), a weak horn line, yadda yadda yadda. Definitely not the corps the 90 corps was, by far. But, we spent a TON of the summer making the opener work. Check out the snare drum/soprano accents, and how they interact in the opener after the snare feature. MAGIC!! Articulation central!

I was in the 89 Cadets snare line....I really enjoyed drumming those beats....still scratching my head as to how we scored the way we did, especially when we were beating SCV in percussion by well over a point a few days prior.... I remember my folks coming to see me in Foxboro...I had been in corps for YEARS, and it was the first time they ever saw me perform! They were really impressed.

Every time I hear the Maroon team sing, "O Holy Name" 89 Cadets..not just because I was there, but it was an emotional show for the fans, too. "Make Our Garden Grow"...Garfield's ballad from 85 96 Phantom and 2006 Phantom..lots o'goosebumps God, I'm old.

Jason, Thank you for your very articulate and sane reply. I am the original poster, and my only goal was to share that the Colts percussion section is excited. Jason, I am very excited to see what you put out there (as I am excited to see all of the corps out there)..don't let the trolls get to you. Good luck Colts, and I am glad you have Tyler working with your percussionists. He was a student of mine in the Bluecoats when I taught the snare line, and even back then, he was ridiculously talented! He's good people, as well!

I marched with Brian Pack at the Spartans in 88...he had a girlfriend that I thought was in the 89 Suncoast contra line....I know she marched that year, and she was a nice gal...I just don't remember her name. What did she play? I went to the Cadets after 88, and didn't stay in contact with them. ....although, I distinctly remember this incredibly beautiful girl on the end of the 89 Suncoast snare line named Kelly Bamburger....anyone know what happened to her??

Thanks for the props on 89. A mean snare and bass line. The quads were nice guys... ^0^ Yep...90 was both Ralph and Tom F's last year. SCV played some WICKED beats that year!!!! The snare break still makes me laugh when I hear it...(the flam drag/flam 5/inverted cheese/single lick...YOWZA!) I miss those Ralph beats. He was one of the main reasons I wanted to march SCV, but being I was on the east coast....I wish I could have been in the snarelines of SCV in 85, 86, and 87...what an honor that would have been! Was it Joey Allison in ens perc in 90? I know we had "Fast Eddie" Arginziano on the field, and I believe it was Teddy N in GE? I think it was Scott Koter in ensemble percussion....in fact, he HATED us for most of the year. Somewhere, I have a copy of the sheet in ens perc that year. It said "I will never allow you to tell me again how it's supposed to be done...just show me like you did TONIGHT!" I guess he got over whatever it was he didn't dig! Star's ensemble was as tight as nails at finals, too. Other notables in 1990..... Phantom...super clean vis package, and a great horn book. I could never get into Marty H's percussion writing, though.... Crossmen...that was a mean-a** drumline, and a great show! I really dug the Bones that year, as well as every year until the end of 1998. Dutch Boy...what a horn line! Brent Montgomery did the best he had with the talent in the drum line, and did a superb job....a fun show to watch!

Hey Man... Thanks for the kind words! Head-wise in both 89 and 90, it was Falams on top (only option back then), and the Pearl CCs on the bottom. I know a lot of people poo-poo the Pearl heads, but man...you could REEF those bottoms! I was able to quad-hoop a few bottoms!! The goal was....reef the bottoms, and leave the top mid-range. IMO, most groups over-tune the tops. The secret is in using the mylar bottoms, then take them to the pull-out point....SLOWLY. That's how we did it...real technical, huh? As far as 91 goes, that was the beginning of "over-cranking" drums...we got the new free-floaters, and we put the kevlar bottoms on, and used Premier Tendura tops (in the days before Remo sponsorship). We had those bitc*es tight!! Great sound, but near impossible to really play at the tempos and step sizes we did in 91....10 minutes of a marathon. Anyhoo, 89 was an incredible line to march in...3 of the 8 marched in 87, and the other guys were either 88 vets, or INCREDIBLE rookies...all from Dutch Boy, except I came from the Spartans. Willy Higgins was the anchor in 89, and I really don't think he ever ticked all season...seriously. He was a machine. I was privelidged to march next to Scott Clark, who probably has to be one of the baddest snare drummers ever to march...up there with Steve Campbell, Nat Barouche, Pete Sapadin, etc. Really a monster. A lefty, and he was a quality-of-sound machine! We had beaten SCV by at least a full point and more in drums in 89 up to finals week...we hit 14.9 at least 3 weeks before finals on SEVERAL occasions, and were pretty much the line to watch. How things ended up the way they did at the end still makes me scratch my head. 90 was a different story...we had myself, Lee, Scott, Mike Stetina (from 88 and 89), Dave Mace (a guy who came back from 87....you gotta love that luck...marches 87 and 90 Cadets...2 rings, 2 drum trophies!!!) The rest were rookies, and we had one guy who marched in the Cavaliers in 89. We simply worked our butts off...pure and simple. The book wasn't as "wow" as 89...it was more of a nod to Thom Hannum. Tasty, but demanding. Devs were really great. Lots of notes, but....look at the ensemble and field numbers. They played a LOT of notes, and very well. In the end, I guess the 3 guys on Thurs, Fri and Sat liked what we did better. All I can say is that if BD beat us, I'd have no problem. Between those 10 snares, they had enough chops for the rest of the top 12 on Sat night!! I marched next to Lee in 90...him and Scott split the center, and I was next to Lee. He was......interesting. A great drummer, very consistent player, but very emotional, and a bit of a hothead. But....we were all kids, and as a section leader, Lee did a great job. He's an incredible instructor, and very well admired, and I am honored to have marched with him for 2 years. Hope that helps!

Ding ding ding! You are correct, sir! Who is this? PM me your info, and we can talk! Bullethead...out.

I spoke to my good buddy Tyler Dempsey, who's the Colts percussion caption head...he says they're having the best winter ever, and the percussion section is particularly strong! They're going 7/4/5, so "lean and mean" may help them in the execution category! Anyone here been to a Colts camp to check it out? How are the horns doing?