New Grand Finale

[MsCorps]

Just thought I'd pass along the major disappointment expressed at the Cavies Michigan City show last night. The fans were not happy...very little applause or yells of exhilaration from the crowd after that sounding rendition of America/O Canada. My youngest daughter was with me last night for the first time this season and she said that she left feeling cheated. Her fiance, who was a first timer, didn't get to experience the emotion we had felt in the past. I think that maybe next year the corps should plan their routes by the closeness of the shows to each other so that it won't take 4 hours of driving time to the next show.

[byline]

I think that maybe next year the corps should plan their routes by the closeness of the shows to each other so that it won't take 4 hours of driving time to the next show.

I don't think the corps, themselves, have any control over this (though I'd be happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong). As far as I can tell, DCI plans the contest schedule and assigns corps to specific shows. Unfortunately, it seems the shows are more spread out, geographically, than they used to be, so long drives from one contest to the next are the "new normal" now.

Though, to be honest, I'm trying to remember a time during the DCI tours way back when I marched--and granted, this was in a Canadian corps, for whom long-distance travel was just part of it--when there weren't long drives from one contest to the next. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I can't recall traveling short distances to any DCI shows. ODCA shows, yes, but not DCI ones.

[OtherDaryl]

  Just thought I'd pass along the major disappointment expressed at the Cavies Michigan City show last night. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

^0^ Thought I'd play Devil's Advocate concerning the MC Show:

How I love this particular show - the 45th "Pageant of Drums" - it's been around just about exactly as long as I've been alive. There is something special about drum corps in Michigan City - it has been one of the major social events of the year for as long as I can remember. You see old friends, teachers, neighbors, and invariably meet new ones. Ames field has morphed from a comfortable, elegant WPA-era stadium into a sleek modern facility. And over the years, The Cavaliers have been adopted as our unofficial representative - many natives have passed through that membership.

Every major corps has appeared on a starry July night following the Summer Festival parade, with the only rain-out last year. Kids who appeared on the field are now grown and watching their grandchildren march. I've seen astonishing corps that no longer exist - Black Knights, Spectacle City Mariners, Star, 27th Lancers. I got to witness Phantom's Spartacus with the first written explaination of a program I can remember handed out on mimeographed sheets that then fluttered across the empty bleachers. I've adored others that are hanging on, though no longer the powerhouses they once were, like The Troopers and Kilties.

For every one of those 40-odd years, the unquestioned highlight of the evening was the retreat for the awards ceremony. The color, the impact, tradition. It was often overwhelming. It also gave each corps a chance to take a kind of a curtain call. I'll always remember the Black Knights passing in review after being a crowd favorite with thier Beatles program - the crowd stood and cheered for, no, not the winning corps, not even the second place corps, but one that had touched them in new way.

It was with great concern I learned of the demise of these moments. And then came July 2, 2005. At the end of that program, the corps selected to do the encore were The Cavaliers (they were the show hosts and the crowd wouldn't have accepted anyone else) and the Royal-Aires alumni corps. The RA drumline played the corps on and they formed the most gorgeous arc of brass, nearly endline to endline. The very best of drum corp today, alternating with marching history. There was a color guard, with RA and Cavie flag bearers. How beautiful the green machine uniforms looked interspersed with the more traditional cadet style. How oddly appropriate the Cavie guy looked with his unitard and his sword guarding the colors (it is all about attitute).

The medalists were announced, The Royal-Aires Drum Major congratulated each set of drum majors, including the local high school band and then stepped up to conduct the America/Oh Canada. These were knowing notes we heard hovering this night. We love our homeland and we love drum corps. At the conclusion, first one Cavalier and then another, turned to their elders and shook their hands and thanked them and their smiles could have lit the stadium. And the RA players thanked the youngsters - one gentleman covered a good quarter of the corps.

And it was okay that the finale was new and different, because it really wasn't - it was traditional and moving and a carrying on of the esprit de corps that has kept us all in the thrall of this activity for decades.

My two cents.

Warren

Edited July 6, 2005 by OtherDaryl

[CallipygianKing]

I vote "nay" on the lack of retreat. It was us and the Scouts doing the finale for a half-empty stadium in Coon Rapids... And it took forever to get us onto the field. Without all the bustle of activity still going on at the sidelines, fans just figured the show was over, I guess.

I'm looking forward to the DCM shows. While I'm not 100% sold on the mixing of the hornlines (face it, we all have our own traditions in the retreat horn block, and those are tough to uphold with everyone else around you), it's still a retreat. I still get to stand guard over the horn stack and banter with the corps next to me. I still get to have that one-last-time on the field. And I can still get that charge of being a part of something larger than life, larger than my corps, and altogether special.