My First Show Back

[Soajoe]

I know it's a little late but I got a stomach bug yesterday and had to leave work early. I still don't really feel to well, but I'm home from work and thought I'd go ahead and write this.

It was the night before the show. My first show as a spectator since I aged out. I felt like a 7 year old on the night before Christmas. Visions of screaming sop soloists and tight box rotations danced in my head. I got very little sleep.

The day of the show came up. I thought that I would go by Hoover High School and see how the Crossmen were doing. I arrived there at around 2 I think, to find them just ending up what I assume was their lunch break. They were all going into sectionals. I took the time to talk to Chuck Naffier for a little while during the brass warmup. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. We talked about scores and I asked him about crossmens show and he asked me about Spirits show. It was a lot of fun but he ended up having to work with the hornline and I wanted to go catch the clinic Spirit was doing at 3.

I made it in time for the clinic. The performance at the clinic was a little flat, but you could tell that they had played a lot that day and their lips were a little tired. I knew that I was going to get my face blown off that night by em. Went to eat with my friend Hallberg.. man of DCP fame OldManAlto I think his sn is

got back about 15 minutes before the show.

first corps on Memphis Sound.. I think the main thing with all of the corps tonight was confidence. I think once Memphis Sound gets more confidence that they could have a really good show on their hands. Of course this confidence will come from more repitition of the show. It's a very hard show. It may be a little over their heads, but from what I saw I don't think it is. It's early in the season and they looked quite well marching. They did have a tough time playing the music while marching though. I think this will come with time and they'll end up being a force to be reckoned with.

Scenic City was next. I'm not really sure what I thought of this show. They don't look that bad, but like Memphis Sound and every other smaller corps tonight, they just need confidence. I think people are easy to pick on smaller corps because everything they do is so out there because they don't have other people to cover them up. With some work I think they could have a show they'll be really proud of. No matter what. I hope at the end of the season they're proud of what they've done.

Then Teal Sound. I thought they were a good bit better than the two corps before them. With a day of throwing up between now and the day of the show.. sadly.. I don't really remember much about their show though. sorry

Revolution...wow... I had never seen this corps before, but I was extremely impressed by the product that they put on the field. Good for you. There were some spills but a lot of corps had some spills tonight. The field must have been wet. They had some really cool drill that they performed very well. I really dug the loud ending.

Southwind.. definitely showed that they were the first Div I corps on tonight when they turned around and blew the crowd away with the first big hit. I was very impressed with their performance tonight. The ending drill is really cool. I think this show should put them a shoe in for being back in semis. It's a accessible show with a pretty difficult ending. And when they want to be loud they're pretty darn loud. Congrats Southwind.. I liked this show immensely more than I liked last years show.

Next was Madison.. WooHoo.. yeah Madison.. I think that's really all I would have to say but I'm going to say more. It was obvious that the drill was cleaner than last year. The guard was cleaner than last year. I definitely think they deserve the score that they are getting right now.

Spirit.. OMG LOUD is an understatement. Somebody said in a different review that they thought Spirit was flat. I don't see it, but I could be biased. I thought the show was oozing with emotion from the sheer velocity of the opener to the tear wrenching emotion of October to the toe tapping melody of nutville to the balls to the wall company front near the end. I think a lot of people pass the whole show off as being flat because of the ending. They may not end the show blazing away, but I still like the ending. I think it's different. I also know that it will change, not much, but I think this is going to be one of the most entertaining shows of the summer.

Glassmen.. more entertaining than years past but I didn't really get into the show. It's clean, but I just don't think it had the edge that most of the other Div I corps had tonight. I liked Spirits arrangement of October much better. Yet again I'll offer the idea that I may be biased. I just thought their rendition was flat and didn't really see how it fit in with their show

Crossmen have their dirt. I think it was a very good show none the less though. The crowd got into it. Bobbed their head with the music. It's definitely a very entertaining show. I think it could go very far once it is cleaned up. I really dug them bringing back the intro drill from last year in the drum solo. In the end this show could do some major damage when cleaned up.

I for the most part agreed with the scores for that show. I was really excited with all the shows. I think there were more overall entertaining shows this year than there have been in a while. There were more than a few moments that just made me stand up and say "#### yeah!"... Southwind made me cheer.. Madison made me stand up and yell.. Spirit almost made me cry then made me jump up and scream during the nutville/no jive hit and the hit at the company front.. Glassmen made me smile and clap.. and Crossmen made me jump up and scream "oh #### yeah!" at the big chord until the standing O

After retreat me and Hallberg stayed around a little to hear part of Madisons finale then we went over to the busses to see if Spirit would play. I was at first upset to see that they were getting out of uniform and setting up their horns. Then I heard someone say that they were going to get out of uniform then they were going to play by the food truck. So in a haphazard manner, because the message that they were going to do this was spread word of mouth. So I went to sit in front of the food truck. The whole hornline arched up between the busses and the food truck. It was very cramped. You can just imagine the sound level that came next. They played through Band of Brothers the new on the field warm up. It's not Salvation but I'm starting to warm up to it... no pun intended.. Then they played Georgia. OMG it was louder than FRIGGEN LOUD. If I had tears that weren't blown out of my eye sockets I would have cried. My ears rang from the sheer intensity of the sound.

I then said my goodbyes and walked away from the busses back to my car. I didn't want to leave. I cried on the way back to my house. Oh God I miss it so much :( . Well I hope you enjoyed my review... as long as it is