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My 2002 Season Journal


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June 13, 2002, 11:31pm ET - Tour Day 21

Allentown, PA

 

Tomorrow morning we pack and load for our first exhibition in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I’m really excited to get out on the road and into the heart of the season. We made some good progress on our show today during an extended ensemble block at a local high school stadium. We won’t have our entire show ready for Saturday night, but I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal. After Saturday we have a parade and then our clinics leading into our first judged performance in about 10 days. I expect that things will begin to move quickly now. The DCI season is just about upon us!

 

(Next post is June 15.)

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June 15, 2002, 9:34pm ET - Tour Day 23

Gettysburg, PA → Boston, MA

 

We had our first performance of our 2002 field show tonight in Gettysburg. Most of our rehearsal time during the past two days included rain, but we worked through it as best we could. For tonight’s show we marched right up to the fast tempo ending in “Strawberry Soup” where we stood still to finish. The show went pretty well for our first performance. There were plenty of problems with tempo and Aussies falling off people’s heads, but all in all I’d say it was a success. Our show generates excitement, which will make it a fun summer for us. 

 

I found it really interesting rehearsing so close to the main battlefield of Gettysburg. Even the area we practiced in had monuments and markers to brigades and fallen soldiers. I wish we had a little more time here to explore some of the historical sites, but I guess our focus this summer is drum corps, not history anyway. We have a little more than a week before our first judged show.

 

(Next post is June 18.)

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12 hours ago, DrumCorpsRadio said:

June 15, 2002, 9:34pm ET - Tour Day 23

Gettysburg, PA → Boston, MA

 

We had our first performance of our 2002 field show tonight in Gettysburg. Most of our rehearsal time during the past two days included rain, but we worked through it as best we could. For tonight’s show we marched right up to the fast tempo ending in “Strawberry Soup” where we stood still to finish. The show went pretty well for our first performance. There were plenty of problems with tempo and Aussies falling off people’s heads, but all in all I’d say it was a success. Our show generates excitement, which will make it a fun summer for us. 

 

I found it really interesting rehearsing so close to the main battlefield of Gettysburg. Even the area we practiced in had monuments and markers to brigades and fallen soldiers. I wish we had a little more time here to explore some of the historical sites, but I guess our focus this summer is drum corps, not history anyway. We have a little more than a week before our first judged show.

 

(Next post is June 18.)

I was at this exhibition. Was really impressed and excited! Always was great to see both Cadets and Crossmen do their premieres there.

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June 18, 2002, 11:03pm ET - Tour Day 26

Cheshire, CT → Stamford, CT

 

We’re into the final week before judged competition begins. Today was our first of four days of clinics. I enjoyed doing the clinic and having the high school kids look up to us. I also enjoy having the extra opportunity to perform. We had some rough issues with housing the last few days that caused us to stay with The Cadets on Sunday night and we had to share rehearsal facilities all day Monday. Then we drove an hour and a half to a housing site only to sleep 5 ½ hours to turn around and drive back across the state this morning. We are currently driving to the same area we housed in last night. 

 

As far as show progress goes, it’s slow. Yesterday we made some changes and learned a few new pages to “Strawberry Soup.” Today we spent most of the day adjusting sets at the end of the opener (for color guard staging). Then, tonight, we made some major changes to “Candle in the Window.” I’m getting nervous about whether or not we’ll be adequately prepared for Monday’s show. We see The Cavaliers who are already competing and the Blue Devils and The Cadets. If we come out weak, it’s going to set us up for a long summer of trying to play catch up and that’s no fun. I’m sure we’ll make some major progress this week and over the weekend though.

 

(Next post is June 20.)

Edited by DrumCorpsRadio
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June 20, 2002, 10:21pm ET - Tour Day 28

Pennsville, NJ → Colonial Heights, VA

 

Today was a pretty good day. It was really hot and we worked a little slow in the afternoon, but we really turned it on tonight. We did a lot of cleaning and our first full run-through of the entire show. We finished learning the drill last night in Stamford, Connecticut. We’ve also been doing clinics all week, which I’ve enjoyed. It gives us a chance to perform our show in front of an appreciative audience. The kids have been hanging out with the corps for the day too. Yesterday’s clinic was the best because there were probably 50 kids participating. It also breaks up the monotony of rehearsal days. The corps is making a lot of progress these last couple of days before the shows begin. We have one more clinic and then two rehearsal days until our first competition. I’m looking forward to shorter rehearsal days and the thrill of competition. Our drill is pretty incredible and I think it could rank up there with the top corps in DCI as far as demand goes. Things are coming along, but we still have lots of work to do.

 

(Next post is June 25.)

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June 25, 2002, 9:21am ET - Tour Day 33

Ledford, NC

 

We had our first show last night in Columbia, South Carolina. We worked extremely hard for the last few days leading into the debut and it paid off. Even though we lost some rehearsal time and our preshow run-through due to a thunderstorm, we turned it on at the stadium. We placed 4th with a score of 74.15 last night.

 

  1. The Cavaliers - 81.45 - all captions

  2. The Cadets - 79.55

  3. Blue Devils - 78.00

  4. Crossmen - 74.15

  5. Carolina Crown - 68.45

  6. Spirit of Atlanta - 66.90

 

  1. Magic of Orlando - 70.25

 

We watched a video of the performance on the bus and I really was impressed to see how much improvement we’ve made. The drill is rapidly increasing in clarity. It was a great first show and start to the season.

 

(Next post is June 27.)

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June 27, 2002, 12:09am ET - Tour Day 35

Herndon, VA → Pennsville, NJ

 

First of all, the results from the 6/25 show in Winston-Salem:

 

  1. The Cadets - 80.60 - Music, General Effect, Visual (tie)

  2. Blue Devils - 78.75 - Visual (tie)

  3. Crossmen - 76.20

  4. Spirit of Atlanta - 68.25

  5. Carolina Crown - 67.85

  6. Kiwanis Kavaliers - 58.45

 

  1. Magic of Orlando - 76.90

 

It’s hard to believe that we’re only 2 ½ points behind the Blue Devils. We’re off to an extraordinary start and we’re still very dirty. If you compare scores from other shows, we’re actually 4th in the country right ahead of Santa Clara. Ironic, eh?

 

Tonight we had a show in Herndon, Virginia. It rained a few hours before the show started so the show wasn’t our greatest because the field wasn’t in great shape. The yard lines and hashes were pretty much invisible too, but we did the best we could and our score still managed to improve.

 

Tomorrow we have a show in Lansdale, Pennsylvania and Saturday is Clifton, New Jersey. I’m looking forward to performing for people I know.

 

  1. The Cadets - 81.50 - all captions

  2. Crossmen - 77.40

  3. Carolina Crown - 70.65

  4. Spirit of Atlanta - 69.30

  5. Kiwanis Kavaliers - 59.65

 

  1. Magic of Orlando - 77.60

  2. Lehigh Valley Knights - 55.45

 

(Next post is June 29.)

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10 minutes ago, Hook'emCavies said:

I really like how optimistic you were for this show. That is a great attitude! 

I think you say that because you know how Frameworks turned out.

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Listening to a studio recording of BD's 2002 show and I am again reminded that classical music stations fairly often play wind ensemble performances and brass quintets and so forth and really ought to include some drum corps in their mix.

Although in the case of BD's shows specifically, the radio mix they should be added to is perhaps a jazz program.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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