My Big Drum Corps Weekend

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WARNING - THIS MY BE LONG...

OK...so this weekend was the first "real" taste of drum corps this year for my wife and I. We've both seen the DCI clips and I have read many a review, but now it was time for some "real life" corps. Since the vote on amps etc., we have held out on making judgements until we could see and hear the changes for ourselves. NO jumping to conclusions. So here we go....

It all started at about 3:45am Friday July 2nd when our phone rang, waking us up. It was one of Spirit's tour directors, they were about 30 minutes from the school. We both hopped right out of bed, dressed and ran over to the school to meet them in the parking lot. We both have done a lot with drum corps - members, staff and fan, but we were excitred to be a corps' host and liason to the school and area.

A little while passed and here they come into the parking lot, 4 buses witht their lights just starting to come on. My wife jumps on the lead bus and leads them to where they could unload and park. I waited for the trucks and other vehicles. About 10 minutes pass, and the souvie trailer showed up, followed closely by the support staff van and the tractor trailers.

By around 5am, all was settled, and everyone but the tour director and 1 or 2 cook staff was sleeping. We began the search for 24 hour food stores and diners, but there were none in our area. The staff hopped in the van and heading off for the Wawa and anything else they could find. My wife and I grabbed a quick breakfast and we headed back to the school.

Spirit was up by 7 and on the field by 8, and our first student began showing up before 8:30!

It was a surreal experience for us. We were loking at all of the normal sights of our school with sections of an open class drum corps inserted. The brass on our band's practice field, the bass line by the schools electroinc marquee, the snares by the Board of Ed. offices, the color guard outside of our band room, etc.

We truly enjoyed that day, smelling the bus fumes again, listening to sectionals, watch ensemble, and best of all sharing it all with a bunch of our students. It was great.

The corps left the school a little before 6pm to head to the Old Bridge show. We, on the other hand, went home to catch up on some sleep. We met the corps back at around midnight to let them back into the school, and once again retired to our home for the remainder of the night.

The next morning we arrived at the school around 7:15, and the corps was already up and eating and some even getting equipment out for rehearsal.

The weather was much nicer (probably just as hot as the day before, but not nearly as humid). Their schedule was much the same as yesterday. Today, we spent the orning watching cymbal and pit sectionals from the shade (so we didn't get a second layer or sunburn...you'd thinkg with a combined 15 years marching experience we'd know to use sunblock). Today we expecting more of our kids to show up, so the afternoon would be alot more of a responsability for us, especially my wife, making sure everything was alright with the students.

By around 5:40pm, the corps was moving on the Allentown, and we were meeting up with one of the assistant band directors and a band parent to head to the show. With that, our first housing experience came to a close.

I must say one last bit before I move on to my thoughts from Allentown. We cannot say enough good about the Spirit organization. Everyone involved were the absolute nicest people. From the administration, staff and volunteers down through every one of the kids, they were always polite, friendly and thankful, even for the smallest of things we did for them.

Friday night when they came back from the Old Bridge show, we held the doors open for the member to get into the school since most of them had uniforms and flag bags, every one of them said thank you. That same time one of the parents came over to us and gave my wife a Spirit shirt that she bought her, "for everything you're doing for us."

The next day I asked if I could buy a tour shirt before the souvie trailer left for the show. The man in change handed it to me, "my compliments...". I had to insist on paying for the hat I pickied out for myself.

All in all, I must say that Spirit is a class organization on and off the field.

OK....enough of that rambling....on to Allentown...

We bought seats at the gate and sat on the 40 yard line, right side. Not bad for getting seats 30 minutes before the show started.

Lehigh Valley Knights - I like the new uniforms, definitely an improvement over the last one. Strong battery, sounded like they played some tough stuff, pit was a little non-existant to me, not much sound from them at times. Brass had some weak points, but did an overall good job.

Jersey Surf - FUN, FUN, FUN - An inspired and fun show, a true entertaining package that really got the audience going. The marching Elvi (guess this would be the plural for Elvis B) ) were a big surprise to everyone around me. A well-performed show, with some cleaning from the technical standpoint, they could (excuse the pun), make some waves.

Glassmen - After reading some no-so-good comments about them this year, I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. The tranistion from the fisrt part of the show to the second seemed a bit abrupt, and going from Medea to Simple Gifts could be tricky. However, we really liked the ending where they layered those 2 theme over each other. I usually run hot and cold with Glassmen, but I really liked this show.

Spirit of JSU - our adopted corps for the weekend. I can only say that I wished I could have seen there rehearsals from as high up as we were at the show. Very well done, great package and a VERY interesting show concept. Nice, full low brass sound with 12 contras. Battery seemed a little weak tonight, only 6 snares on the field, perhaps? Also, felt sorry for the cymbal player that lost a cymbal on the first impact of the show. Pit amplification - well done, it is NOT overbearing and did not take away from the perfomance at all.

Carolina Crown - First things, my wife and I agree...SINGING...NO!!! It does not belong there, that small portion of the show could have easily been done with a small brass ensemble. Then there was the fact that they were getting static throughout this section, and was very distracting. Then the entire next section, where the color guard membet was doing the "beatrnik" poetry reaind, the mic worked for ONE WORD, then it was gone. This section lost all meaning, and was a waste and a wreck. Again amped pit, OK, singing...not on my field, poetry...lost due to equipment issues. That said, what a horn line! The baritones are monsters in the opener. drums had some great licks and the snares rock out section in Bohemian Rhapsody was great (pure Blast!). It's a shame that the first thing that comes to minds was NOT the horns but that the electronics failed. Great show nonetheless.

Cadets - This show has the potention to go all the way, I won't say for sure until I see everyone at DCI East, but this has the potential to do it. Percussion...WOW, pit, lots of tasty note, battery has SO clean...amazing for this time of year...4-peat? Brass was the loudest of the night, but not uncontrolled. Great intonation even at those high volumes. Pit amps...well done. The one thing that bothered me about this show, was the baton twirler. not the entire thing, just one time he was used for a huge toss right in front of the snare line during their feature. For lack of a better phrase, he stole their thunder. I could barely hear the solo over the crowd going nuts for his flips. PLEASE CADETS, let the snares have their feature to themselves and move that baton moment elsewhere.

Boston Crusaders - A great show, with a cool theme. Loved the props hiding the corps at the beginning and the end of the show. seemed to me to be a well-rounded corps this year. The voice-overs where definitiel;y the lesser of 2 evels on the field tonight. We can tolerate boston's use of the voice, however, the show could have been designed "slightly" different and not need the words. Don't get me wrong, it is cool stuff and worked within the context of the show, we just don't think that drum corps needs it. I will say this, at least if Boston's electronics fail, the show can still go on and make sense, Crown, as evidence tonight, will have portions of their show either empty or make not sense.

Crossmen - No Bones sighting tonight, hopefully he'll show at the next Allentown show. Probably our second favorite show of the night, deserved higher in terms of score and placement. This show is a more refined and more challenging Crossmen, yet still keeping their essence alive. I like to new uniforms, but a little more color would help, perhaps red drums instead of all black. Can you imagine these with white pants and a red plume? The first brass impact made my wife and I look at each other with a big, "WOW". Crossmen have some power this year. The drumline is as good as always and driving everything along. A few ensemble tears in the opener may have been their problem in score tonight. On a personal note, my wife and I both had tears of joys when we heard the closer tonight. It brought back many memories of the early 90's corps. As my wife said later. "It made me remember why I love the Crossmen..."

No encore tonight due to 9am parades in Massechusetts the next morning...oh well. Scores and placememnt seemed pretty true to what we thought they should be, except Crossmen, but again, their ensemble issues probabaly got the best of them.

Hope you all enjoyed my ramblings....

[Tank]

:(

I was sorry that I couldn't go.

[MikeN]

Moved to Show and Event Review forum - thanks for posting it!

Mike

[SpiritFreek]

What a great review.... And I am not even talking about the show review......

Yes Spirit is my corp, I marched in 1988, but it is great to here good things about them off the field as well. It is no surprise to me, and anyone else who has ever been a part of the organization, that they were as thankfull and appreciative as they were. Even when I was around, the entire staff, top to bottom, was sure to remind us to be thankfull for what we had and to never take advantage of it. One of the main things we tried to do when it came to the housing site, was, and I quote Mr. Brad Caraway on this one....."Leave it in better shape than when you found it!!!!!" And we did.... or his foot would be in our butt making us clean it up again.

Houseing Sites are hard to come by these days. Each Corp should do there own part to "Leave it in better shape than when you found it!!!"

Bad publicity goes to all involved in DCI.... not just the few who may make things hard on all of us.....

[CrownFan2004]

hi... i just wanted to tell you that carolina crown does NOT amp their pit. they use the amps only for the singers and the speaker. i know this because i am a volunteer and have spent alot of time w/ the corps. i know that alot of the corps this year are amping their pit but crown is not one of them yet. thanks.

[jvsmom]

Thanks for the review. I especially enjoyed your Spirit comments since my "other son" (my son's friend) is a rookie sop player with them.