The Port Huron Pub

[bluehull]

A nautical phrase is called "dead reckoning". Pick an object on a line between you and your objective. When you reach that object, pick another object between you and your objective. Keep repeating this until you reach your goal.

Dead Reckoning, Not quite as defined. More like navigation projected by speed and time when no celestial or electronic definition of position has been ascertained. Nevertheless the point is taken. keep shooting for your objective...

[Galen]

I got to see the show in person tonight. This was always one of my favorite places to march because it's a small, intimate environment. Here were my observations from the show:

Dutch Boy had their first show of the season. I counted 14 brass and about 50 members overall. I saw a lot of "first show jitters" and lots of individual errors (missed step-offs, direction changes, early attacks, etc), but there were some good moments as well. There was some good stand-still playing going on in the ballad section, and the closer has some promise musically. The drumline had some good parts throughout the show and seemed to carry the corps tonight.

Troopers were the first D1 corps to compete tonight. It was my first time getting to see them this season. The hornline was good-sized but I only counted 11 guard on the field. From what I heard from fans in the stands, their guard has been battling illness and injury, but reinforcements are supposed to be on the way soon. The corps' "Ironhorse" show seemed to have a lot of subtle programming elements from their 2000 and 2001 shows. They do a "timed intro" similar to Boston and Crossmen The opener and closer are the strongest points of this show both musically and visually. There were some nice elements of Eric Whitacre's "Ghost Train" spread throughout the opener- baris did a particularly good job of playing the "clash chords" from that piece. The middle of the show didn't really hold my attention that much unfortunately. Lots of "silly character acting" taking place in the 2nd piece, similar to last season. The hornline had some rough spots in the ballad but had a strong sound during the closer. End of the show has a great bit of Troopers history when they circle up for the Sunburst as they play a bit of "Ghost Riders" to finish the program on a strong note. They got some of the best applause of the night.

Pioneer was third on tonight. Like last night, they seemed to struggle to find consistency of attacks and balance. There were a lot of fracked notes during the opener and intonation was off during the ballad. There was an embarassing prop moment when one of their mirrors got knocked over in the opener and took a long time to get reset. Fortunately this occurred after the guard members climb down from them. Tempo-wise, there is very little variation in tempo in this program. It's pretty much the same speed throughout the show. At the Dublin show, I commented that they need to SLOW DOWN and play through it more expressively, OR go watch Star United's rendition of it from DCA minicorps last year and apply that kind of treatment. As it is now, it's a bit flat emotionally when it should be a real evocative moment. The third piece of the show is the corps' strong foot so far. There's pretty good balance between horns and drums in this section, and the snare line does a real nice backsticking ripple through the line to finish off their solo feature that I was able to see well from where I was sitting tonight. The closer is a BIG problem here design-wise. It just leaves you wanting a lot more OOMPH and impact. The corps trooped off to Gary Owen, which sounds just as good on the new Bb horns as it did on the bugles.

After a rollicking performance by the Stealthmen, the Bluecoats took the field, but not before doing a whole lot of jumping up and down and screaming to hype themselves up behind the back stands before the show started. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help. I heard a lot of small intonation and balance inconsistencies from Blue tonight that I didn't hear last night. I don't know if they had an off night or what, but they just didn't seem to be as good last night as they were last night in Dublin. Visually they seemed to be a bit better, but they need to find a better area for their boxers to have their fight in during the opener, because they almost collided with a couple horn players at one spot in the opener, and you could see some nervous looks on other members' faces as they tried to give them room. The peak in the ballad is a real nice spot in this show with the loud climax followed by the singing (and I was in prime position to hear both), but they need to put a long pause after the last loud chords to let the audience react before the singing starts. Hornline was ROUGH in the closer to conclude what I'd definitely consider an off-night for them. Also, they dropped the narration tonight. I don't know if it was due to mechanical glitches or not, but I do know they were taking a LONG time to get set up at the start of the show, and it may have just been that they decided to do a "dry run" instead.

Boston- So far they seem to have 2 dynamics- loud and REALLY loud! The hornline packs a whallop, but they were a bit "over the edge" as far as tone control goes tonight, especially in the "Kingfishers". Lots of nice musical things go on in that segment, especially the muted sop notes, but the line as a whole overdid it a bit tonight. Bass 3 took a spill towards the end of the opener, but recovered nicely. "Burly Brawl" was good again tonight, although they need to find a way to make that drumbone actually be heard. It was totally inaudible from where I was sitting, and it's PORT HURON for pete's sake. If you can't have something be heard in THAT stadium, it'll never get past the sideline in Bloomington. As for the rest of the pit, they were crowding the sideline with all of the racks, keyboards, etc that they had set up. VERY crowded front sideline. Crowd loved "Conquest" at the end, just like last night in Dublin.

Cavaliers- First half of the show did not grab my attention at all, either musically or visually. Musically, it felt like I was hearing a ballad for almost the entire first half of the show. There's little musical intensity present in this part of the show- it's almost like ambient background music for 5 minutes, except for the first taiko section. Second half of the program was more attention-grabbing, with a really nice visual move that combined their "spotlight" battery move from 2004 with their spinning helix from 1995, and another part where one line of horn players did flying kicks over another line of players, and the musical intensity picked up a bit too, but the first half of the show unfortunately turned me off to the rest of the program. I did notice two very unique things in the pit. First was either a flute or whistle that you typically hear as an ambient background tone in kung fu movies, and the second was a "keyboard harp" that you would also hear with that kind of music. Nice effects.

Scores tonight made the idea of west coast inflation look like a joke. I really don't think that anybody was really as good as their scores indicated. Both Boston and Bluecoats seemed off in significant parts of their shows, and Cavies left me flat. Maybe they were judging on Canadian sheets or something tonight

Hate to end on a sad note, but we got some sad news at the end of this show. After 30 consective years of operation, Bluewater Brass looks to be no more after this year. No explanation was given for why the show is being suspended/cancelled. All that the pressbox announcer said was that tonight was the last Port Huron show "for now". If it is the last hurrah for Port Huron, it'll be a sad day from drum corps. I marched at this show each of the 3 years I marched and always loved coming here. I loved all the quirks of this show, from the tiny bleachers to the DM conducting from the 3rd row of seats to the town crier's proclamations to fans actually sitting in the back stands. Hopefully this decision can be reversed

[arno0940]

Thanks for the great review!

[bedford]

Just got back in from the show. And Navy that 1st Sam's had your name on it and it was good.

Only saw Bloooo, BAC and Cavies. My thoughts, and these are merely impressions;

Bluecoats - looks like they are behind in their preparation. Drumline is excellent. Guard is young but look like they could be much improved this year. Brass is still struggling with their feet but will be just fine. Too much air time for the boxers - I get it - Ii don't need it rammed down my throat. Visually my vantage point diidn't allow for much comment. The show is challenging - a real "grind" from beginning to end. The back 3 minutes of this show will be a highllight of the year once it comes together and stamina is there.

BAC - he show is representative of many past shows, traditional Boston in many respects. The corps looked pretty well prepared and ready for the season. I think this is going to be a real good performance year for all sections. Show design, however, might just hold the corps back in placements. Musically the show is accessible most of the time with good highlights but not that adventuresome. Visually the ishows good however the guard's presence was limited (i.e they weren't jumping out at me).

Cavies - its amazing how good they look this earlier and on that "uber shag" carpet everyone had to march on. The show is real good but I've got to wonder where its going - seems a little lacking to to me in that you know execution will be excellent in time but its missing the intruige and creativity of a show like The Machine. A few things caught my attention; a) the maturity of this corps is - they seem to have a ton of vets, b) the control of the horn line - at times they made it look effortless and I wanted them to turn up the volume c) drumline is strong - the basse runs at mid feild while do a 360 is a lot of fun to see

c) visual program, inclusive of thr gusrd is clear and challening.

[bedford]

Just got back in from the show. And Navy that 1st Sam's had your name on it and it was good.

Only saw Bloooo, BAC and Cavies. My thoughts, and these are merely impressions;

Bluecoats - looks like they are behind in their preparation. Drumline is excellent. Guard is young but look like they could be much improved this year. Brass is still struggling with their feet but will be just fine. Too much air time for the boxers - I get it - Ii don't need it rammed down my throat. Visually my vantage point diidn't allow for much comment. The show is challenging - a real "grind" from beginning to end. The back 3 minutes of this show will be a highllight of the year once it comes together and stamina is there.

BAC - he show is representative of many past shows, traditional Boston in many respects. The corps looked pretty well prepared and ready for the season. I think this is going to be a real good performance year for all sections. Show design, however, might just hold the corps back in placements. Musically the show is accessible most of the time with good highlights but not that adventuresome. Visually the ishows good however the guard's presence was limited (i.e they weren't jumping out at me).

Cavies - its amazing how good they look this earlier and on that "uber shag" carpet everyone had to march on. The show is real good but I've got to wonder where its going - seems a little lacking to to me in that you know execution will be excellent in time but its missing the intruige and creativity of a show like The Machine. A few things caught my attention; a) the maturity of this corps is - they seem to have a ton of vets, b) the control of the horn line - at times they made it look effortless and I wanted them to turn up the volume c) drumline is strong - the basse runs at mid feild while do a 360 is a lot of fun to see

c) visual program, inclusive of thr gusrd is clear and challening.

Edited June 24, 2008 by bedford

[Feathers Up]

So are Bluecoats just really dirty on the visual side or what? I'm hoping they just have a really hard visual program which they just need to clean. I just didn't expect to see Troopers being closer to Bluecoats in visual ensemble than Bluecoats compared to Boston. I had to do a double-take when I first saw that.

[bedford]

So are Bluecoats just really dirty on the visual side or what? I'm hoping they just have a really hard visual program which they just need to clean. I just didn't expect to see Troopers being closer to Bluecoats in visual ensemble than Bluecoats compared to Boston. I had to do a double-take when I first saw that.

Not as prepared and ready with the visual program as Boston

[Latrobe's Finest]

Aww no, I hope that's not it for Port Huron. It's such a unique show. Terrible shame to see a show with 30 years of history go away :(

Tribute story: In 2006, there were only 4 corps at the show, and it was a Wisconsin showdown. The corps were us, Blue Stars, Cap Sound and Madison, each corps performed twice to make up for the small line-up. We did our field show the first time, and then the second time did some short tunes. It was a cool venue, the stands were packed!!

[drumaw]

Port Huron... isn't this the show where a thick fog rolled in one year and made the field kind of eerily cool? I marched Port Huron a time or two... but no fog.

Did we already talk about this? Sorry if so...

Cavies with a 76 tonight, eh? About where SCV was last year at this time.

We have been up tp Michigan around the Lakes a few times. It always seems kind of eerily cool at night. Never been to Port Huron, too bad they can't have their show anymore. Sounds quaint.

[drumaw]

Noone is out to 'get' anyone! Tthere is no harm in setting another corps in your sights and trying catch them or even pass them. The only way to do this it to go out and give your best performances, to be better than the night before. Bluecoats are a great corps and right now they are giving BAC something to chase and aspire to, what is the harm in someones child wanting to catch them up. It doesnt mean that he hasnt been taught about self satisfaction or that he is beating the Bluecoats down. I am sure all corps kids get huge satisfaction in going out there and giving their best and giving the crowd something spectacular to watch. Of course scores are important to all of us, the kids and everyone else involved, why else would otherwise sane adults hang around these forums waiting for scores and recaps instead of going to bed at a sensible time!

That is for sure. We should be asleep getting rested up for when we climb the bleachers once again to watch our lil' darlings. I just thought it was poorly worded from a parent standpoint. Last night I read several pages about parents, and others, adopting kids and or corps, and making care packages and goodie bags for those that weren't so fortunate as to have their parents reading DCP every night, and maybe not get as many little goodies as some do. I think that is the spirit of drum corps. I sometimes feel like crying when my child moves from one group to another (kind of like leaving the best teacher ever), until next year's teacher is the best ever. I always like something about every show, some part of the drill, some part of the music, one section, whatever. That's all I am saying. I try to think of it in terms of "for the love of the game".