Audience Comments!

[The Other Mike]

On Thursday night in the Rose Bowl the audience became a mob, and our long-held belief that drum corps people were something special was tarnished forever .

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[84skyrydr]

I was wondering if anyone would mention that. Jackson was not the only place you could hear audible boos when Star came on.

On another crass note, but it did make me chuckle, was the group of folks in the upper deck at Madison in '06 that chanted "BOA, BOA" over and over as Cadets went off. (I have a suspicion that it was members of some of the DII/III corps sitting up top.) I guess because of all the tables and stuff they had to go out the SW corner. And they were giving it to them.

Maybe they were just telling the members of a truly great corps that the only aspirations of the D2 corps members were to march BOA?

[84skyrydr]

In a seperate note, it wasn't all that long ago that there were corps rivalries and corps really disliked each other. Now if someone doesn't like every corps they are a pariah. A poor sport and have no class. We have to treat every little darling in every corps with baby gloves so as to not offend anybody. We all know todays youth are entitled to be applauded whether you like what they do or don't. "It is state law, look it up, swear to God it is",1.00 to Donnie Baker.......

[BRASSO]

In a seperate note, it wasn't all that long ago that there were corps rivalries and corps really disliked each other. Now if someone doesn't like every corps they are a pariah. A poor sport and have no class. We have to treat every little darling in every corps with baby gloves so as to not offend anybody. We all know todays youth are entitled to be applauded whether you like what they do or don't. "It is state law, look it up, swear to God it is",1.00 to Donnie Baker.......

For some perspective on how Drum Corps marchers btw. the ages of 18-22 are treated :

This weekend, in every state in America, some 18-22 year old college basketball player ( an amateur as well ) will get off a team bus on a college campus and will be immediately heckled, booed, hissed, ridiculed, called names.

That 18-22 year older will next enter the arena,.. and will be heckled and booed once again. They will do their warm ups, and be heckled. Then their personal NAME will be called out over a loud speaker, and profanity laced catcalls will be PERSONALLY brought down on them. When they sit on the bench, the catcalls will continue.

This is all before the game even starts. Once the game begins, it gets worse. If they miss a short, howls of laughter will rain down on that player. Personally. That player will hear his mother, father, sister, etc called every obscene thing immaginable. They will call out his name in loud ridicule. When he attempts to take a foul shot, the crowd will try and distract him with arms waving, and with more catcalls and derision. The booers will not be seated and far away. The booers will be standing, and in some cases, no more than a couple of feet away from the player. Some players will be spat on. After the game, whether the team loses the game or not, the player will exit the arena. As they exit, the player will need in some cases to duck their heads so as to not have popcorn, beer, coke, water, rain down on their heads. Security personnel will try as best they can to minimize the harrassment, but to little avail. Security will consider a success, getting the player and coaches and teamates safely out to the team bus and in one piece. Once the player gets to the team bus, sometimes the team bus has been known to have objects like eggs and water balloons, coke bottles, and worse, thrown at it as it fnally exits the campus with the middle finger extended by booers to the player as he looks though the bus window exiting the campus parking lot...... and it's only months away now from Spring college football season..... and for this basketall player ?..... he'll do it all again in less than 72 hours.

Now,.................... what was it we were talking about that happened again to a Corps regarding some boos they heard that happened around 1993, I believe ?..... or in a movie theatre a few years ago about 1500 miles away from where the Corps was taking the field ?

Edited March 2, 2010 by BRASSO

[JimF-LowBari]

DCA Prelims at Allentown in the 80s (think the year Finals was rained out).

Two teenage/20ish women talking loudly thru at least one corps performance. They were one section over and could hear them clearly. Person were shushing, pointing at them and mouthing quiet (and other things ) but they were too clueless to notice.

Finally between corps you heard one of them say "Frank do WHAT... no KIDDING".

Someone yelled: "HEY no one gives a #### what Frank did. Either whisper, shut up or get the HELL OUT!!".

Didn't hear them the rest of the day.

[euponitone]

For some perspective on how Drum Corps marchers btw. the ages of 18-22 are treated :

This weekend, in every state in America, some 18-22 year old college basketball player ( an amateur as well ) will get off a team bus on a college campus and will be immediately booed, hissed, ridiculed, called names.

That 18-22 year older will shortly thereafter enter the arena, and will be booed once again. They will do ther warm ups, and be heckled. Then their personal NAME will be called out over a loud speaker, and profanity laced catcalls will brought down on them. whenthe seat on the bench, the catcalls will continue.

This is all before the game even starts. Once the game begins, it gets worse. If they miss a short, howls of laughter will rain down on that player. Personally. The player will hear hs mother, father, sister, called obscene thing immaginable. They will call out his name in oud ridicule. When he attempts to tak a foul shot, the crowd will try and distract him with ars waving, and more boos. The booers will not be seated and far away. The ooers will be standing, and in some cases, no ore than a couple of feet away from the player. Some players will be spat on. After the game, whether the team loses the game or not, the player will exit the arena. As they leave ther will need in some cases to duck their heads so as to not have popcorn, beer, coke water, rain down on their heads. Security personnel will try as best they can to minimize the harrassment, but to little avail. Security will consider a success, getting the players and coaches out to the team bus and in one piece. Once the players get to the team bus, sometimes the team bus has been known to have objects thrown at it as it fnally exits the campus.

Now.... what was it we were talking about that happened again to a Corps re. a boo in 1993 ?

Everything you said is true of course, and I was a part of it as a frequent athletic event attender in college just a couple years ago. Still, it comes down to perception, conditioning, and environment. Athletes are taught from the time they are 5 years old that they need to ignore the obnoxious parent on the sidelines yelling at them....when they reach high school, they learn to block out screaming and yelling when they are playing away from home. Basketball players practice freethrows with people dancing behind the basket trying to distract them. I saw my college football team practicing before road games with hundreds of speakers blaring crowd noise at them. Its common sense....they know they have to do it, and its just a part of sports.

On the flip side, kids doing music are taught from an incredibly young age that you dont talk while someone is playing. You dont leave until the song is over. You dont play with your phone, you dont yell, you dont heckle, etc. Do they always carry out those expectations?...no, but they learn them. Kids that grow up in the performing arts generally learn a certain set of standards, and while marching band and certainly drum corps are certainly more raucous subsets of those areas, it is still the performing arts. I absolutely agree that kids (and young adults) in sports go through a different kind of 'toughenning up', but i think its pointless to try and compare the two as if they are relative to eachother. Saying 'oh, these athletes have to deal with so much more compared to cadets or star back in the day' is silly, because the expectations are just not the same. If you want to try and change the atmosphere of a drum corps show to one where everyone acts like they were at a sporting event (aka, every cheers ONLY for their favorite team, boos everything they dont like, and heckles the other team to distract them throughout the event), you are welcome to try, but I doubt you will find much support for such a move....

In a related story - drum corps do indeed prepare for distractions and things going wrong. In that same cadets 2007 show, I was watching the ensemble practice before the very first show of the year. As you remember the last words that were spoken during the long silence at 215 bpm before the company front were 'this I believe'....but the staff wanted to simulate something going wrong there, so during the last run through of the closer, they had the young man say "Gino IS...the MAN", instead. As far as I could tell, they performed straight through it, but it was still funny as hell

[BRASSO]

Good point. I do agree much of this is based upon expectations and preparation.

An 18-22 year old athlete is expecting heckling and boos when they go on the road in the bus into a hostile environment, much like a 18-22 year old soldier expects to be shot at. But they've been properly prepared for this, or at least about as much as humanely possible anyway.

In DCI, the 18-22 year older expects to practice well and then when he goes on the bus to towns, to be told how marvelous he is and to hear nothing but cheers and adulation. On the very rare occasion when this does not occur, they are perplexed with a few in the crowd.... as their expectaions were not as such, and they wern't prepared for that. Their reaction however is of course perfectly understandable. It's all based upon expectations and preparation, really.

Edited March 2, 2010 by BRASSO

[euponitone]

Good point. I do agree much of this is based upon expectations and preparation.

An 18-22 year old athlete is expecting heckling and boos when they go on the road in the bus into a hostile environment, much like a 18-22 year old soldier expects to be shot at. But they've been properly prepared for this, or at least about as much as humanely possible anyway.

In DCI, the 18-22 year older expects to practice well and then when he goes on the bus to towns, to be told how marvelous he is and to hear nothing but cheers and adulation. On the very rare occasion when this does not occur, they are perplexed with a few in the crowd.... as their expectaions were not as such, and they wern't prepared for that. Their reaction however is of course perfectly understandable. It's all based upon expectations and preparation, really.

You had me until you started getting a little sarcastic at the end. Of course not every crowd is going to go wild for every corps. Sometimes its a flat crowd....sometimes its an hostile environment, and sometimes, yes, the show / performer just isnt that good. You seem to want to paint todays members as little butterflies that cant take criticism or accept that they are anything less than wonderful, yet these same performers are the ones getting beaten up all day in practice, and if they dont have a good show, they hear about it coming off the field from their director, they hear about it on the bus (often from other members in the corps), and they hear about it the next day in practice. I could never repeat on here some of the things i've heard said regarding some of the 'cheers' that were directed at members in my corps by other members. Im not sure ive ever seen somebody so out of touch with in this regard be so definitively sure of how things actually work in today's drum corps.

[Rifuarian]

Good point. I do agree much of this is based upon expectations and preparation.

An 18-22 year old athlete is expecting heckling and boos when they go on the road in the bus into a hostile environment, much like a 18-22 year old soldier expects to be shot at. But they've been properly prepared for this, or at least about as much as humanely possible anyway.

In DCI, the 18-22 year older expects to practice well and then when he goes on the bus to towns, to be told how marvelous he is and to hear nothing but cheers and adulation. On the very rare occasion when this does not occur, they are perplexed with a few in the crowd.... as their expectaions were not as such, and they wern't prepared for that. Their reaction however is of course perfectly understandable. It's all based upon expectations and preparation, really.

Something else to keep in mind: When a college basketball team travels to another school, they're not going there to entertain or to please the opposing audience. Their sole purpose is to beat the home team on its own turf. Basketball and football players do indeed expect to be heckled and booed, and prepare for it, but oftentimes they absolutely thrive on it and love it. That's not always the case, but many times it is.

More comparable is when a home crowd boos its own team. This is rare, and when it happens it's usually only a few individuals, and these individuals are absolute scum, just like booers in drum corps. And when this happens, you'll see "tough" athletes suddenly become distraught and perplexed. They become defensive and surly, lash out at the crowd, and make up excuse after excuse. Same thing with soldiers - they're expected to react calmly under fire, but no one expects them endure heckling and disdain when they come home. And while we rightly applaud our fighting men and women, some of the massive egos and mind-boggling senses of self-entitlement I encountered while in the service mean that a handful of my fellow veterans react like children to the mildest of criticism. Athletes and soldiers may be physically tough, but mentally and emotionally they can occasionally be quite fragile, just like drum corps kids.

So I think we can go too far in painting drum corps kids to be coddled pansies. They work hard, and frequently endure tough conditions and withering criticism from their staffs. And when a dumb### audience member does do something stupid, most of the time the members seem to laugh it off and go on with their business. Sometimes they react differently, but it usually seems to be the alumni of whatever corps is being booed who get really upset. I think it may be the self-appointed defenders of "the kids" (similar in many ways to self-appointed defenders of "the troops") who have done the most to create this idea that members can't handle negative reactions.

Edited March 2, 2010 by Rifuarian

[BRASSO]

You had me until you started getting a little sarcastic at the end. Of course not every crowd is going to go wild for every corps. Sometimes its a flat crowd....sometimes its an hostile environment, and sometimes, yes, the show / performer just isnt that good. You seem to want to paint todays members as little butterflies that cant take criticism or accept that they are anything less than wonderful, yet these same performers are the ones getting beaten up all day in practice, and if they dont have a good show, they hear about it coming off the field from their director, they hear about it on the bus (often from other members in the corps), and they hear about it the next day in practice. I could never repeat on here some of the things i've heard said regarding some of the 'cheers' that were directed at members in my corps by other members. Im not sure ive ever seen somebody so out of touch with in this regard be so definitively sure of how things actually work in today's drum corps.

I wasn't trying to be " a little sarcastic". 'Just pointing out expectations and preparation that's all. I thought I commented realistically the differences.... and the reasons why. Oh well, no biggee.

Crowds are different too between sports and DCI crowds. The crowds in DCI have historically been much more respectful as audiences at competitions than one typically would see at most sporting events. The difference is like night and day. I'll agree that based upon others experiences ( not mine ) the crowds in some theatres and at some shows can apparently be very rude on occassion. That said, on the whole, DCI audiences are usually positively receptive and highly complimentary of the participants in the competition at competitive DCI events. The booing of Corps episodes, thankfully, are extremely rare occurances.......especially compared to sports, where booing of teams (and worse yet, heckling of individual players by name ) is essentially the norm.

Edited March 2, 2010 by BRASSO