Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals

[OldSnareDrummer]

Thank you all, you answered my questions. One common theme is see is the strong parental support of these bands. That of course plays into the locality and support the home team way of doing things. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned by drum corps on this after all. 

That story someone on DCP, can't recall who exactly, told a while back about meeting with the CEO of a large commercial bank in Concord who had never even heard of the Blue Devils still sticks with me. 

[burdettsky]

I'm a high school band director, and I've been attending DCI and DCA shows live since 1991.  I regularly attend Finals for DCI and DCA every year.

This was my first year ever attending BOA and it was fantastic.  If you like drum corps, I'm sure you'll find plenty of enjoyment out of these performances.  Yeah, the finalists are well advertised, but there are 91 bands that performed over Thursday and Friday.  The nice thing is the prelims are spread out over thursday and friday so you can basically show up anytime you want and there are performances going on, minus a small number of 15 or 30 minute breaks.  Two judging panels for prelims so the breaks are few.

Tickets were $35 for each of the first two days.  $40 for seminfinals (top 33 bands) and I think I paid $50 for finals  The crowds are appreciative, many standing ovations for almost all of the groups, whether they finished 1st or 91st.  All but finals are general admission seating so you can move around for different vantage points, or park yourself in the same place for a while.  

All in all, not knowing what to expect, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Indy, and I also played two round of golf on Friday as it was warm enough (50 degrees for me is warm enough to golf in November).

 

[MGCpimpOtimp]

11 hours ago, CAtenhut said:

Vintage DCI? Maybe from a rep standpoint. But the park n play, movement, props... that is all DCI of today.

Check out Avon and Carmel, a LOT of marching and playing with little to no props. Hebron also marched and played a TON.

[gak27]

3 hours ago, Spinastick said:

Most of the top marching bands in the country share the same talent pool for design and instructional staff with drum corps. Often staff members recruit their high school students to eventually march the corp they teacher during the summer. Which is extremely beneficial to have new members joining with a familiarity of technique, and fundamental exercises before the summer even begins.

My highschool had around 2500 students, but well over 200 in band and guard. Those numbers definitely made us the most dominant group on campus. Band and guard was the "it"  thing to do. We had a great band director (who actually was the founder of a drum corp from back in the 80s), and a ton of really supportive and dedicated parents. Our design and caption heads were paid staff members funded by our parent booster organization, and the techs were volunteers. 

The bolded and underlined sentence is one that I doubt many of us would NEVER have heard BITD.  Good to know things have changed, drastically in some instances.

[Terri Schehr]

1 hour ago, burdettsky said:

I'm a high school band director, and I've been attending DCI and DCA shows live since 1991.  I regularly attend Finals for DCI and DCA every year.

This was my first year ever attending BOA and it was fantastic.  If you like drum corps, I'm sure you'll find plenty of enjoyment out of these performances.  Yeah, the finalists are well advertised, but there are 91 bands that performed over Thursday and Friday.  The nice thing is the prelims are spread out over thursday and friday so you can basically show up anytime you want and there are performances going on, minus a small number of 15 or 30 minute breaks.  Two judging panels for prelims so the breaks are few.

Tickets were $35 for each of the first two days.  $40 for seminfinals (top 33 bands) and I think I paid $50 for finals  The crowds are appreciative, many standing ovations for almost all of the groups, whether they finished 1st or 91st.  All but finals are general admission seating so you can move around for different vantage points, or park yourself in the same place for a while.  

All in all, not knowing what to expect, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Indy, and I also played two round of golf on Friday as it was warm enough (50 degrees for me is warm enough to golf in November).

 

How expensive were the surrounding hotels if you don’t mind me asking?  

[Terri Schehr]

12 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

Carmel had none

Wow, that’s great.  

[Jimmyjames]

47 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

Wow, that’s great.  

Unless we are counting the giant flyover fabric. 

[KVG_DC]

1 hour ago, gak27 said:

The bolded and underlined sentence is one that I doubt many of us would NEVER have heard BITD.  Good to know things have changed, drastically in some instances.

Band being the 'it thing' was a thing at my school in the 80s.  We were a 2500 student school that regularly marched about 260.  We were, by far, better than the football team in bringing home wins and trophies.  In my sister's time, it became policy the band had to stay the whole game because letting the band go after halftime on Friday night (due to an early Saturday call for travel to our shows) meant half the crowd disappeared with us.  

In my time, there was a year the football team decided they were gonna harass the band/guard girls in the band hall before school.  We tried shooing them off but got the "Band F__" treatment out of them.  The band director complained to the Football Coach, who by reports, just shrugged and smirked.  The AD didn't back the band director either.

So ... next game we had a double show schedule on Saturday.  Early slot at one location then a late slot at another.  Lots of travel.  Band director said, "screw the policy, we're done after we come off at halftime.  The AD might talk to me then." Our crappy football team jumped out to a surprise lead v. a state ranked opponent and we had the atmosphere pumped up. And then lost by like 28 points after the 2nd half was flat with no spirit from the crowd.   

The AD blew his stack, the principal of the school got involved and resolved it with a "no football players in the band hall" and "the band stays for the whole game" agreement again.  We marched in for the next game with all the trophies we'd won that season thus far, we were sweeping captions at shows too, each had their own trophy.  So like the Drum Majors and half the guard carrying trophies as we enter the stadium in full parade formation rather than just filtering in.  Crowd going nuts with pride for us.  Student body included.  Football team got stomped...again.

Point. Made.  

Don't f' with the band.

[Quad Aces]

14 hours ago, CAtenhut said:

Vintage DCI? Maybe from a rep standpoint. But the park n play, movement, props... that is all DCI of today.

 

13 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

Carmel had none

As Jeff pointed out - Carmel (2nd) had no props, and William Mason from OH (6th) also had no props.

And, the reps from Carmel and The Woodlands were not only the same as 1985 Cadets and 1994 Blue Devils, they were also arranged in the same manner - long stretches of melody, no chop n bop, no snippets of source material only, etc.  Arranged very similarly to their DCI show counterparts.

Yes, plenty of what you mentioned on display over the weekend too (of course), but these two shows - Carmel, The Woodlands - were pretty incredible in their own right.

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Quad Aces

[Terri Schehr]

1 hour ago, Jimmyjames said:

Unless we are counting the giant flyover fabric. 

That would count as a prop to me.

Congratulations to Mason HS.  That’s really close to where we’ll be for the summer.  

Edited November 13, 2023 by Terri Schehr