84BDsop Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 For some bizarre reason I develped a pronounced limp when we arrived at the stadium...worse than the #2 bass in 01 SCV, but without an injury to explain it. I think Todd Swanson asked if I could march...#### YEAH I could march! I was NOT ABOUT to miss the only DCI finals I would be able to perform in. We enter the gate at the rear of the stadium and the MOMENT I caught sight of the crowed...buh-bye limp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FYWW Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 VK 92. The audience never knew what hit em. ^0^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Devil Legend Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 (edited) Franklin Field - Philadelphia - 1975 It was awe-inspiring, the crowd was the largest I had ever seen at a Drum Corps show, we had performed in Prelims during the hot, muggy day(the norm for Prelims back in the day), so this site was amazing, the night was just right, the lights from stadium seemed like heaven, the electricity was unbelievable, I took all this in COMPLETELY as we entered the stadium, I had butterflies caused by just being a part of Finals. When the crowd started to stir as we lined up on the field, the butterflies were unreal, not from being nervous, but from the pure adrenaline flow, the moment. When the announcer belted "on the starting line.........from Concord,CA........the BLUE DEVILS!", I could feel the euphoria about to explode out of my body, but then, I morphed into "lockdown-focus mode", and our performance that night is a blank, I remember NOTHING. Edited May 21, 2004 by Blue Devil Legend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugada Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 (edited) For some bizarre reason I develped a pronounced limp when we arrived at the stadium...worse than the #2 bass in 01 SCV, but without an injury to explain it. I think Todd Swanson asked if I could march...#### YEAH I could march! I was NOT ABOUT to miss the only DCI finals I would be able to perform in.We enter the gate at the rear of the stadium and the MOMENT I caught sight of the crowed...buh-bye limp. That's alright Sam, I remember your close freind Bubbles was very sick before going on at finals. I was freaking out because I thought I had to march next to a hole. Jack Mehan just smiled and said "of couse he's marching". The wise man knew it was just a case of the nerves. :) Edited May 22, 2004 by dugada Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 For some bizarre reason I develped a pronounced limp when we arrived at the stadium...worse than the #2 bass in 01 SCV, but without an injury to explain it. I think Todd Swanson asked if I could march...#### YEAH I could march! I was NOT ABOUT to miss the only DCI finals I would be able to perform in.We enter the gate at the rear of the stadium and the MOMENT I caught sight of the crowed...buh-bye limp. That's alright Sam, I remember your close freind Bubbles was very sick before going on at finals. I was freaking out because I thought I had to march next to a hole. Jack Mehan just smiled and said "of couse he's marching". The wise man knew it was just a case of the nerves. :) LOL! I'd forgotton Rick puking!!! Wonder why...he'd done it before...wasn't like marching Nats was new... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared_mello Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 My first time......I remember a few things.I was a nervous wreck at our housing site in Montreal. I get on the bus, we start moving...CRAP! I forgot my uniform jacket...STOP THE BUS! I run back into the housing site and get my beautiful blue Blue Devils jacket. I did the same point at a show last season....sans the BD jacket, and sans the Montreal. It was at Ottawa. IL, in late July, and I left my jacket at the shower site (there wasn't showers at our housing site, so we went to some water park-ish place to shower.) Halfway through the bus ride, I realized that somehow, my jacket wasn't in my garment bag....but on my bus, the whole staff sits in the front. I was terrified to tell them that I had left my jacket behind. I eventually did, at the show site, got to stretching block late, was kinda out of it for the rest of that, the music warm-up, and even the visual warm-up, and hoped that I hadn't lost my focus for the rest of the show. Apparently not - I had an amazing show, the crowd went crazy after every song, we were loud as #### (very small stands, and not even enough room for a podium....our DM was actually IN THE CROWD), and we actually won. Beat Revolution (okay, its a smaller, div 2 version of your story), who beat us by over 10 points less than a month before, and beat Impulse, who we had never seen but who we saw perform after us...and our spirits slightly lowered. Man, I never thought a Willy Wonka show could scare me! They were hilarious in retreat lines and stuff, kinda made everyone a little more loose....and we beat them by .1, and Revolution by .15. We had our first ever victory concert. It was one of the most amazing moments of the season. I figure it was either good luck that I left my jacket behind, or good luckt that about 85% of the corps had gotten "the runs" that day during practice, and the toilet at the schools were broken. (I was not affected, and am quite thankful that I wasn't). Anyway, just thought I would share a somewhat similar story, although not quite as "historical." :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlmaddox Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Atlanta - 1977 thru 1980. Well, our first show ever was in Wheeling, IL at Buffalo Grove HS. I had never seen a high school that large in my life; there were 3 or 4 corps staying there. We came off the line with Carnival Overture and the first half phased like a mo-fo. Side one was one beat ahead of side two. Luckily, we all ended at the same time. As for my first Finals, Denver '78. I remember going in and coming out. Sad. Jim Ott came out onto the field at retreat to tell us we missed top horns by 1/2 tick. We asked him if that was okay. My last finals, B'ham '80. Jim wasn't there - but by God we were. We loved our man Jim Ott that night. I remember being out front during Sweet Ga. Brown and screaming after the gun before the company front in the exit. Otherwise, a blur. Jim Ott - never a blur but a constant reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerFi Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 There is no explanation. I'll need to think about this one. Let me say that only maybe 2 weeks, a total (14 shows) of marching just the 6 years in 2-7 did I not wish that I could faint right on the starting line! For me the last years, 79 & 80 I was much more nervous. Does it show, um when I watch the tapes I don't believe it does, however the feeling was very real, and I was not alone! So imagine finals? Not because it was the biggest stadium or the most people, it just was any show. Still difficult for me to believe that I felt like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BD2Rings Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I can't remember ever feeling like that. I would always step off with confidence, and enjoy what I was doing. This was odd for me, because I usually suffer from some degree of stage fright. Not with the Blue Devils however. I was well trained, and ready to go. I knew I had the backing and support of everone else in the corps, and that I could depend on them to pull their own weight. I always seemed to have this optimism that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. I could have felt that the corps was only as good as the weakest link, but the corps as a whole always seemed to rise above that. Even in front of 30,000+ people, or however large things got, I had the knowledge that we were going to be OK. Maybe that is why I enjoyed drum corps so much. I knew I was being judged, and mistakes would be 'ticked', but I never felt that I would be singled out. I was part of the larger group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDANN Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Since I aged out in '62 I obviously never marched a DCI finals night. I had heard of DCI, however, because one of my old marching buddies from De La Salle had become their corps director and had been involved in setting up DCI in '72. As I read though the posts above, three stories and three years come to mind. In '74 several of us "age outs" decided to check out this DCI contest in Ithica. WOW! What a treat. So of course we decided to go to Philly again in '75. Now you can believe this or not but the poor guy who volunteered to organize the trip for us did a wonderful job. Except, he got the wrong weekend. Have you ever tried to spend a weekend in Philly with no drum corps show? I don't recommend it. I've got the legacy collection and WOW again. We really missed a good one. It took us a while to get over that but when DCI went to Montreal in 1981 it was too good to miss. Terrific. And so was '82. And every year since we've never missed. We find a show the week before finals to attend and then we follow the corps all the way to finals. Sometimes when finals are too far away (like this year) we take a week as late in the season as possible and take in five, six, or even seven shows. This year we start in NJ at the Cadets' show and end up in Murfreesboro. We would normally stop in Indianapolis on the way home but last year the sound was so bad that we just can't waste the money again this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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