Recollections from Pascagoula

[ContraMan]

I guess you could consider this a quasi review considering there was no show but at least a little taste of my day.

I met my friend over at our school. It was the decided meeting place because he lived 18 miles in one direction and I, 18 in another. So we met in the middle and went to lunch first. For those of you who have heard of Firehouse Subs and have not tried it, go there and get yourself something. They make the best fricken subs on Earth.

After lunch, we started on our trek to head West to Pascagoula. We had discussed some non-drum corps topics and at least a few drum corps topics such as asking what each other's favorite show was, champion and non. Favorite drum line and hornline. Overall favorite selectiosn of music. It was quite fun and helped pass the hour and a half drive to the show site.

We get to the show site somewhere around 2:30 and I tell him I'm excited as I look for a parking spot. He said that when the show was going then he'd get excited. That thought changed immediately when he saw Regiment's drum line rehearsing behind the baseball field. It was quite funny because he was just saying something about waiting for the show and then yelled out "I SEE DRUM LINE!" and then immediately, "FIND A PARKING SPOT!"

I found a parking spot rather easily considering it was four and a half hours till show and one and a half till the workshop. We got out and I quickly looked for the ticket booth or ticket line in preparation to get the best seats possible. I found it and happened to meet a few people I knew in high school from the all-county band. That was a small treat in itself. Asked for where I wanted to be in the stands, I said, "Two tickets as close to the fifty as you can get me and as high up as you can get me. I want to see drill!" They got me section H row 19 seats 24 and 25. This put me up close to the forty and half-way up the stands. Nice spot, drill could be seen and they would be playing right to our ears... not over or under.

Back to my friend I ran with his ticket and my own and off we were to see the work of Regiment's drum line. A few people had already gathered there and chit-chatted with us for a bit but we were mainly watching the rehearsal. I kept looking back to my friend after each point that they stopped and he either said "that was a lil dirty" or "ok, now they cleaned that up." This went on for about half an hour. Dirty... cleaned it... something else dirty... cleaned it up somewhat... typical drum corps rehearsal.

We then followed the drum line back on the other side of the baseball field to the practice football field where the rest of the corps was doing visual work. This lasted for about another 30 mins or so and I made a bold move.

As they broke up, I asked one of the mellos which one Mr. Seidling was. He pointed out the gentleman and I walked straight up to him, introduced myself and shook his hand. I told him how happy I was to see Regiment back in white and he said the kids were happy about it too. I also had told him I really loved the show and was pulling for them for taking the crown at finals. He smiled and said, "Well, we're ahead of our schedule and that makes things even more exciting for us."

I wanted to say more things, but I knew he was busy. Our conversation was interrupted by his phone ringing and I just stepped off. It was still cool to get to meet him, however short the introduction was.

We headed back up toward the show entrance area and I and my buddy found ourselves really getting taken by thirst. There were no water fountains around the stadium and concessions weren't to be opened until the workshop, some half-hour awa. I jokingly said, "We shoulda brought water bottles." He agreed to this statement.

While we were passing the souvie trucks, I noticed a multipack of water bottles in the back of the Crossmen truck. I politely asked the lady setting up the souvenirs if I and my buddy could have a bottle. She said yes and we got the bottles. I was thankful to her for that gesture and off we were closer to the beginning of workshop. Hot water was better than none.

The entrance to the stadium was now clogged with more people getting tickets, getting ready for the workshop. I met a band director of a high school from my county and quickly found out that it was his band who had taken probably around 70-80% of the super seats, hence the quick sell out of them.

Into the stadium my buddy and I went. We quickly found our seats but went back down to the concessions, which had now opened up, to get some water. Hot water is better than none, but cold water is better than hot.

Back to our seats we went and we waited the last little bit of time before the workshop. The corps had gotten on the field, hornline on the East side in arc, drumline in the center of the field and guard on the West side. Mr. Seidling was introduced by the show's main sponsor and off to the workshop we got separated. My friend stayed in front of the drum line, I bolted toward the hornline to get my first really good view and hearing of this famous line and the new contras (I'd been wanting to see them to see how the weird 3-1 piston setup was doing for them).

The hornline started with some breathing exercises as recommended in The Breathing Gym by Sam Pilaflian and Pat Sheridan (two world famous tubists who were consultants with the Regiment). Then the warmup began and I got my first full taste of that characteristic dark Regiment sound... 15 feet from the contras in the arc.

Side note: for those of you who worried about the loss of that Regiment sound when they switched to Bb, don't. The sound is definitely the same and by far just as glorious as in G only in Bb. King really did their homework with these horns.

After warmup, they began to play parts of their show and this is where they really impressed me. Control of dynamics and blend was definitely a feature of this installment of the Regiment hornline. The canon motif was played with pure passion and I got a lil misty. It was beautiful to say the least.

We got to question and answer time and I asked about how many had auditioned for hornline spots. Somewhere around 250-300 people for 68 spots. Intimidating, but then again, I like a challange. ^0^ Others asked about this and that and all sorts of little tidbits that I found myself not paying attention to. My focus was on the King contra. It looked good, but a bit wide. Probably made it difficult for close intervals. Oh well, they did sound good on them.

The entire corps got back together for full ensemble rehearsal and we all parked up into the stands. I watched for about 10 or so minutes and then got a little bored with the repetition. I headed down to souvies and looked around. Told the peeps at the Scouts truck (hoping it'll make it back to the corps) that I was really happy about the results that they were bringing in and that I loved the new uniforms (for all of you who don't like 'em, go suck an egg or something :P ) I stopped by Kiwanis' small table and talked with one of the corps moms to see how they were doing. She seemed enthusiastic in saying that Kavies were having fun and that's what this is about, right? FUN!

After looking around the souvies (no shopping, didn't have the cash flow), I came back around and noticed a table representing Force de Louisianne. I came over and said "Hey, I've seen y'all advertise on DCP." The gentleman in front of me said, "Yeah, I post on there pretty often."

This is where I got my chance to meet James (you know him as USMPiano). We had a fantastic conversation that lasted probably somewhere around 30 mins maybe a lil longer: all the while, Regiment still on the field. When I look back on that, not getting a chance to see them perform their entire show on the field, was I regretful? Nope.

After all that, I went back to where warmups were going on. Kavies had been set up for some time and Crown had just pulled in. Scouts had been marching to their warmups. I paid some attention to Kavies because I had a friend I wanted to shout out a "hi" to. All to the point when Crown came out. I got to meet Bob Chreste and then I watched them practice for a while. There were a few around me and I happened to find some of them were Regiment peeps.

Since the show was getting close I decided I should head back toward the field, but not before I could meet Mike from Mike's Memoirs. Now here's a pretty cool cat. I encourage all to read on his memoirs. Meeting him was pretty fun in the very short time I did.

I tried to get back around the way I came toward warmups but it was locked off, I had to go all the way back around to the ticket entrance to get back in. The National Anthem was sung and getting back to my seat was plain he**. The entrance line was huge and people couldn't get to this place or that place in the seats. The first 2 mins of Kavies show was watched standing on the stairs.

Now about Kavies show, it's pretty old school, play, stop, play, stop... Did I enjoy it? Yeah! My friend commented that their drumline was dirty dirty dirty and I know that the hornline needed lots of work. Could this small group reach it's full potential by Orlando? Possible. Top 17? Another possibility. Finals? No. Too many good corps out there. But like I said before these kids were having fun. And this show was a feel good, sit back and enjoy show. Entertaining unless you HAVE to personally judge them. I say sit back and watch, forms aren't the greatest and hornline could project better, but it was great fun.

Overhead the clouds had grown serious and the show was called for 10 mins... then for 30 mins. Lightning and thunder now very apparent they told us to go under the stadium. Here we stayed until the rain passed, hoping for them to continue. It was not to be so. Not even standstill...

To say the least, I was crushed that I couldn't see any of the other shows. I also felt gypped that my $30 wasn't being used for a show but rather a 'donation'.

My friend and I enjoyed the day and we did get some out of it. We headed back home and my sincere hope was that I will get to be part of a hornline arc next year. Not just a fan, but someone that gets to make the fans stand up and cheer.

[turtlebones]

1. They make the best fricken subs on Earth.

2. While we were passing the souvie trucks, I noticed a multipack of water bottles in the back of the Crossmen truck. I politely asked the lady setting up the souvenirs if I and my buddy could have a bottle. She said yes and we got the bottles. I was thankful to her for that gesture and off we were closer to the beginning of workshop. Hot water was better than none.

3. went back down to the concessions, which had now opened up, to get some water. Hot water is better than none, but cold water is better than hot.

1. For some reason, when I was reading this, "fricken" became "fried chicken". Mm... fried chicken subs of death...

2. They never used to have those :P

3. Too good for Crossmen water, eh? :P

Yeah, I'm with you 100%... there's nothing quite like going to a drum corps show with an old HS friend. Did it twice this year already, and I'm going to Orlando with one of them...

[ContraMan]

I'd downed the hot water quickly. My friend had been drinking his with reservation. I still got cold water cuz my thirst wasn't quinched :P