HE SAID HE SAID

[Jeff Ream]

At one point this week, Steve Vickers contacted me...he may have needed a writer for DCW for last night at Serenade in Brass. Lucky for him, Mav showed up(great notes btw), but his normal writer, Adam Burdett was in Westshore's nass line w/me, so we decided if needed, we'd do a take off on Roger and Mitzi's colum he Said/She Said and create our own review.

so here's my take and Adam, don't leave me hanging!

first...ah, Serenade. I've been to every single one of them. This is like a major holiday in my house. Old friends, family, and once again, a great view from the stage.

First non Westshore person I see is Frank Ponzo(he's quite a sight at 9:30 AM), and he has Mike Palmquist with him. That's a sure sign the day is off and running :P

Rehearsal on stage went very well. Things were clicking. At that point i knew it'd be a fun night.

at that point, we make a previously unscheduled stop to the Capital Steps to play America for a support the troops rally. We closed the rally, and the crowd loved us, even if we were called a band. And um, they forgot to turn the mikes behind the bass drums off. Oops :P

Rehearsal in the afternoon was even better. GAME ON!

pre show warmup...on "our" steps, the place we made the 1990 DCI video at. Old times came rushing back...how many times have i warmed up there now? not enough. huge crowd, lot of alumni watching, and a few of my students too. We nailed both warm-ups(hey, we dont wanna go too crazy ya know). basses smoked on Sobriseda and 6 on $ jammed.

Showtime. Watching Hitmen back stage. great story about playing for their relase, props and all. 8 horns, 1 drummer, and a lot of fun. I just hope the rumors backstage of pending indictments for RICO offenses were false. great to see ya Faz!

Next up: us. Westshoremen alumni. Place kinda packed, tho not as much as last year. As always, the view from the top riser is one of the best seats in the house. We get set, kick the street beat, and just watching ALL 62 horns come out on stage was awesome. We had 31 our first year. Do i hear 80 next year?

Streetbeat was kickin. rolls locking, heads bobbing. it seemed like 1996 all over again. Larry introduces us, and Joys calls the corps to attention. America the Beautiful is up first.....wow, horns sound awesome. Drumline comes in, and oh yeah, we're grooving. Surf's up visual/audible cuts like knife, and the "lationo"section is a full out jam.

(yes Adam, if you ask, i'll explain that other bass visual)

Crowd reacts very well. can't go wrong with a patriotic tune at a standstill show.

Explosion. First shot off the hi hat by the snares still resonates in my ears. basses and brass come in with walking 8th notes, and game on. Man that horn lin is loud! tune is smoking along, and then the coolest thing.....mid song, to set up the drum solo lead in, the basses have a run. We're the only thing playing. We nailed it, and the snare line gaveit up on stage....all i hear is "wooohoooo" from the glory boys. To top it off Pudge wails his lick....drum solo...oh yeah. snares hit the backsticking. rolls cutting like a knife. tenors wailing away, bass run nailed. big roll to end it...oh yeah. oh yeah. Horns come back in, and it's a full out stone cold groovejam. Snares thank you for the big roll...i know we nailed it. Singles fest at the end dead on, and we're one happy corps.

then of course, Blues In The Night...our national anthem as it were. it hits. Sops are screaming, drums are blasting....Wilt again makes my ears hurt in a good way with the sop break....and boom, we're done!

play the beat one last time, and the season is over and the crowd loved it. Ok i'm biased, but i did hear a lot of yelling!

Next up...Bucs alumni. Unfortunately, i had to sing the corps song and load up, so I amissed you guys, Word has it you played well and entertained the crowd.

From here I may go out of order, but i'll forget no one.

Navy.....I understand you were missing some sops today. Those there did their brest...American Salute had very driving and energetic...great drum licks.

(note...Cadet Aj Clay, tenor player, proud alumnus of Mechanicsburg HS. I knew him when he was a freshman and couldnt play and march at the same time. Aj, you've come a long way man. We're all proud of you in more ways than one)

Malaga up next, and a nice arrangment, corps is playing their best yet i do believe, and of course, Anchors Away/marine Hymn always gets the crowd up.

Mass Brass: WOW!!! Another American Saulte, and what power for what, 20 of you? Awesome arrangement of Niner Two as well! You guys were definitely a highlight, and you did a great job after the show too!

Yankee Rebels: Always glad to see dad's other corps! larger than last I saw you, and better too. Drumline especially improved. Shenandoah of course gave me goosebumps,and seeing Phil on the box always makes me think it's 1974 again. I'm sure Christine got annoyed with me drumming along, especially in the drum break, but hey, i cut my teeth on those parts. Ya know, it's time for requeim one more time...whattaya think gang?

Hip Pickles Hip Pickles, WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAA:

Chet and co. continue to amaze and do drumming...on anything not moving too fast...in ways i can't begin to dream of. the truly cool things is you hear stuff you remember from past years, yet they work it in there in creative ways so it stays fresh. I must say, chet your "tiny" snare drum puts out great sound and sounds like a full sized drum. Chris is probably the best tenr player i have ever seen live.

Cabs Alumni. Wow times two! From Ponzo's Bull call from the crowd, to the latin guys tarting the groove, to the drumline kicking the beat to Larry conducing the killer rumps...wow! Ralph Silverbrand also came out to conduct! Truly, a history lesson to watch, and yet be rocked from at the same time. Like they were on the field, these folks are never content to rest on their laurels. Killer sop solos all over.....drumline was absolutely on fire.

St. joes Alumni....is this the year of American Salute? lol. Great show. Legend smoked, and the soloists were on fire. DA you looked great man! drumline played very well, and I'm not sure which i liked better...the all out rip your face off Big Spender or Ace starting off Georgia with the whole coprs wailing away. The most I hae liked you guys in a while, and i usually like ya!

Cabs: No Curt Hawkins who i hear is ill. get well soon. On that note, Gordito, great job learning the solo in a day!.

It's April. This drumline is better than last year. In fact, this tenr line is Brigs 00 level. That snare line is...well...awseome. basses....um...do you ever have tacet time? cymbals displayed about 9 zillion techniques. Pit...wow. do you ever tacet too? lol. and of course, the show stealer in the pit. Watch this kid folks, he's what you've read and more. that warmup you played is incredible. i couldn't play it.

then the hornlines came in. Show reminds me of last years, but to a new level. it is original msuic, but it's not the esoteric kind of stuff that makes you go "hmmm". very, very fast, and what a ton of notes. However, the corps does show its softer prettier side, and the ballad ranks up there w/last years. very pretty, and i cant wait to see what they do w/the guard in it.

if you liked Cabs 03, you'll like cabs 04. yeah I have friend sthere, and you can call me biased, but they aren't resting on the duffs gloating over 03. As for the Bb...well...i could tella difference even inside. However, i will stand by what i said after seeing BD, SCV and Phantom last year....in the hands of aa good arranger and quality staff, you won't notice.

Ok Adam, tag you're in :P

[burdettsky]

Jeff, here is mytake on Serenade for the general public. Thought yours was pretty good. And don't worry, I won't ask about the bass drum visuals in America. What's important is that I know what it means, so why should anyone else?

Hitmen - the four or five notes I heard from backstage were pretty good. My brother said it was a cool production with props you mentioned and all. Maybe I'll get to see them one year, but I like the alternative, which is...........

Westshoremen Alumni - view from bass 3 perspective. Last year's view was from the stage with some silver thing in my hand. This year's, from the same top riser as Jeff, but about 7 feet or so further north.

America rocked. Horn line was all over this chart as was the drum line. I was told everything clicks on stage, and boy, did it ever. Some sweet runs in the bass section complemented by soem awesome snare and tenor licks. Great power at the end from the horns had the crowd making some noise.

Explosion, for any corps, let alone one who rehearsed about 10 hours tops, is a tough chart. Shore handled it extremely well and then some. Sop solos were dead on, drum solo was ridiculously on, evidenced by the constant yelling and hooting from section to section, a proverbial whatever you can do I can do better sort of thing. As a whole, one of tougher charts of the night from any corps.

Blues closed (big shock there) with twice the power of the 03 gang (probably because there was twice the horns). Basses went from an unrecognizable chart on Saturday, to a perfect run here on stage. The whole corps clicked here, including the Impossible Dream soprano lick at the end. Here's to bigger (if possible, stage looked smaller this year) and better in 2005.

Bucs Alumni - also missed due to housekeeping items and something called the corps song, which I think I know most of the words to. Heard Bucs were better than usual and I wish I could've heard them.

Navel (spelling error as listed in program) Academy - not as many as what I'm used to seeing, but better sounding. Some nice patriotic arrangements as well as a nice arrangement of Malaguena. (or was it Malaga?) Service academy songs at the end always brings appreciative crowd to its feet.

Mass Brass - pound for pound, maybe the best group of the night. Basically, only 20 people and they blew the house down. This will be a dangerous mini-corps come I&E.

Yankee Rebels - to me, seemed smaller than what I'm used to, but the quality was definitely there. Definitely a little light in the sops but not noticed as much. New arrangements were done very well and nobody sells a show like Phil Gentile. Requiem always a nice finish to this corps. Drum line, as always, performed well.

Hip Pickles - tough tor eview other than saying as always, it was an experience. And as always, some fine percussing/singing/whatever else I missed. One of the best tenor players I've seen.

Cabs Alumni - awesome. Kerchner has this group sounding excellent, even in this early season event. It will be intersting to hear this group come summer time with some more practice under their belt. Soloists were awesome and had crowd begging for more. Cherry Pink?

St. Joe's - This group was definitely on. Some great arrangement including American Salute (again), a fine arrangement of Big Spender, and a curtain call of Georgia. Some powerful horns under the guidance of Donny Allen and Harold McJury. Apologies as always for spelling.

Cabs - Another original, interesting, and in your face show from the Hawthorne gang. It will definitely be interesting to see the visuals with this interesting music. It's hard for Hawthorne to come up with new ideas every year in the same idiom. But the Running of the Bulls seems like a "Why didn't I think of that idea?" This should be a great arena for this corps to excel with. As always, let's wait and see what happens when its on the field, but the music is definitely a strong point at this stage opf the early season.

Flamenco Cha Cha was played by the combined Cabs and Cabs Alumni. I'd write more about it, but I think I was deaf after the first ensemble hit by the horn lines.

Looking forward to 2005 and the 30th anniversary Serenade. Hopefully, I'll give my review from riser three again.

Adam Burdett

Westshore Alumni 03-04

[Jeff Ream]

by the way, if you thought we were close on stage, we were about 8 rows apart in the seats :P

[strutta]

Mass Brass - pound for pound, maybe the best group of the night.  Basically, only 20 people and they blew the house down.  This will be a dangerous mini-corps come I&E.

High praise indeed, considering the, ahem, 'svelte' appearance of many members of the corps (myself included)! B)

Thanks for the kind words.

Edited April 6, 2004 by strutta

[jivey2002]

sorry about how long it took I was trying to find this thread

[Jeff Ream]

thanks dude. i am on bass 1 adam is on bass 3

[Sean1]

nice pics

[GutAttack]

Hey, check out the sexy vibe player that stepped in the day of the show because one of his kids bailed due to a family emergency!

B)

Give that guy a beer!

Edited April 14, 2004 by GutAttack

[Sean1]

thats you?

[GutAttack]

Yeah man...

B)