What was your “first” Drum Corps show?

[JimF-LowBari]

I always find these responses interesting. It's almost not believeable that someone would actually march somewhere BEFORE they ever saw a show live. Although, I only saw two shows before I marched.

Brought this up before and was also surprised by number of responses.

I joined before I ever saw a show but for (IMO) a good reason. I was a Junior in High School and knew I was going to start at a community college after graduation. The CommColl only had a jazz band which wasn't my cup of tea. So when someone brought up joining a Drum Crops (what ever the Hades THAT was) I saw it as a way to keep playing a horn.

Seemed like such a waste of my parents $$$$ to give up playing totally after 12th grade was over.

33 years later I'm back at it again.....

Edit: Whole different world back in the "local corps" days.

Edited September 12, 2008 by JimF-3rdBari

[Appleknocker]

Memorial Day 1966

Lakefront Stadium

Kenosha,WI.

My first show marching,....and my corps first competition.

[ajedrummer]

June 1972 - St. Matthias Cadets show in Milwaukee. I was 13 in the Wausau Story cymbal line and marched in a show before I ever saw a corps show or even a corps other than our own!

No field - the show was held in the church parking lot with wooden snow fence all around it. If I recall, there were a few rows of portable bleachers set up, but people just stood around the outside.

jim

[Maestro767]

After watching countless hours of DCI videos in high school, I went to DCI East in 1999 in Allentown. I was at Bluecoats auditioning a few months later.

[TexasPRfan]

It's kind of funny. I was a full on band-geek in HS, Drum Major for 4 years for a tiny public HS in rural Oklahoma who thought at the time the gods of the marching world were Tulsa Union (this was the late 80s when they regularly placed well at BOA) and the OU Marching Band. I had seen a couple of drum corps videos, but it didn't fully sink in.

Then, I went to my first show in 1988 after my first year of college, going to the show in Tulsa the week before Finals. I was blown away by the intensity of the Madison Scouts (it was their Malaguena championship year) and the majesty & magic of Santa Clara Vanguard's first Phantom of the Opera show (which was my favorite).

I went to finals in nearby Kansas City the following year (1989). What an incredible first Finals to attend. I couldn't pick a winner between Phantom Regiment's glorious horn line & SCV's magical, theatrical Phantom of the Opera re-do. (Funny aside, my seats were about 5 rows away from the PHanatic that yelled "Judges are you Watching?" Towards the end of Regiment's show.

After 2 years of full on whining, I finally convinced my folks to let me march (we were a family of VERY limitied financial means) my age out year in 1990 with the local option - Black Gold. I was hooked for life, spent some time on staff for a few years while I finished college, and have made every single finals, plus I'd say 4-5 more shows on top of that every year since that first Finals in 1989.

Since Black Gold folded in the mid 90s, I've adopted Phantom Regiment as my favorite corps, and the corps I support. I didn't think I'd ever see another year that could equal 1989 and 1995, but finally, in 2008, I saw both topped with the magic that was Spartacus at Finals this summer. I hope I have the joy of at least another 20 years of Finals and this magic we call Drum Corps.

Harvey

[heycameraguy]

The first live drum corps show I saw was in 1994 in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Edited September 12, 2008 by heycameraguy

[morganhill]

As I remember, it was a show at La Palma Stadium, I believe it was sponsored by the Kingsmen. All the competing corps impressed the heck out of me, however, it was the Kingsmen performance that got me hooked on the activity. I joined a local feeder corps immediately as I was only 13 at the time. Eventually I graduated to the A corps. I stayed with the activity until I was forced to "retire" at the ripe old age of 21. I must admit that my active participation as an alumni member or regular spectator has been somewhat diminished due to the new direction the activity had electred to adopt

within the last few years. Sorry, but that's the truth.

[Jason Lence]

I remember in HS that we had some videos from the DCI PBS broadcasts from 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, but these were only the top 5 and sometimes we didn't see all of them. I borrowed these one weekend and watched all of them.

The first live DCI show was in 1988. I actually went to the 1988 DCI finals in Kansas City, MO, and loved it.

I religiously watched the PBS broadcasts over the next few years. I remember coming home from work and watching Star of Indiana in 1991 when they won that year.

I went to DCI South in B'ham in 1991 and saw Southwind and marched there in 1992 and 1993.

I've been an addict ever since. Some years I couldn't get enough, whereas, other years I followed a little and watched finals DVD's when I could.

[Jim Anello]

While I had seen corps in parades in 1964 and 1965, I think the first corps show I attended was either the 1965 Wisconsin VFW Championships or the Cedarburg Festival of Music the next day. That would have meant seeing the Kilties, Madison, Racine Scouts, Mariners, St. Matthias, and maybe St. Patrick's. I thought they were pretty cool, especially the Kilties. Gorgeous uniform, a unique sound(Scotland just thrilled me!), and they looked terrific when they really got the knee heights going.

But the first show that really made an impression on me was in 1966 when I went to the Midwest Dream at old Marquette Stadium. There were all the usual Wisconsin corps plus this Illinois corps - the Cavaliers. I heard all the murmuring about the green machine, but I was frankly unimpressed as I watched them enter the field. Unlike the other corps who marched in, they sort of sauntered onto the field - out of step, way too relaxed, like they were strolling down the sidewalk. Then they snapped to attention, the starting gun went off, and I heard Bully for the first time. Up to that point in my life, I had never seen or heard anything so polished, so powerful, and so cool!

I was hooked!

[Shortstuba2006]

The first show I ever went to was Finals 2003 at Orlando! I went to every Orlando show after that. Marched 2006, went to Atlanta in 2007, and marched 2008!