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Ever Have To Make A Drill Change On The Fly


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Canada and the infamous double 50. Staff set up the pit. Brass line up off them. Guard set up w/ the other 50. Battery started blind & was dependant on the guard to line them up during warm ups. To make it more interesting the reason the battery was blind was this huge prop we called the whale. It was venation blinds & 1 set of silks on a pvc pipe frame - on wheels. The wheels sometimes did not lock correctly, including that day, allowing it to move at random moments. We actually marched all of opener offset & did not come back together until we (brass) skipped the park & blow to line up.

We had a show on a baseball field when we weren’t warned it was bb not football until we were lineing up to go on. (That show was always there & everyone but us just knew from experience.) Being @ 80% true rookies NONE of us had any clue how to compensate for the mounds. Interesting. pure improv

OT

That whale & its wheels - in Denver during rehearsal the guard started yelling behind us. It was a full run through & apparently at that moment everyone on the staff was concentrating on other sections b/c it took a good 3 phrases before ONE member of the staff realized that a good stiff wind was blowing the whale, literally, over a cliff and started running across the field to help catch it. A cliff that had a drop far enough that we did not realize until that moment that there was a busy road, including 18-wheelers, below it.

Hey PageantryVisGuy, is that a quote of someone else or your saying in your sig? I love it. "I'm all for "pushing the envelope," but let's not get carried away and push it off a cliff..."

/OT

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In 2002 at the DIV II show in Erie, PA. someone missed the six count drum filler after the opening statement and that through the show off from there. Some went with what they saw and the others what they heard. Talk about Train Wreck. Hey but we did make the finals that night, if they wouldn't have been canceled by a tornado warning!! b**bs

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'04, first show of the season.

There were a few problems with integration in one section of the line (trumpets merging with contras to end the ballad) that ran about 8 people, including me. I start marching the final set of the ballad to go to my spot and I notice there's a contra there, moving backwards, about to smack me. So....I march in a wide circle around him, and then back up to hit the spot.

Kinda weird, and it didn't help that a field judge was standing right there.

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OMG! That was a moment of brilliance by our band there...lol!!

Haha, sorry I posted that pic without asking, I just thought it was always so classic!

And Matt... YES. Haha. Just kidding. We all know Fresno Band really isn't that great. But we DO know how to be so absolutely AWESOME and have a GREAT time doing it! LOL.

Large contingent of corps kids in that band too. Way cool. And way different to what I was used to in high school, heh.

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Renegades 2002. It was the Blue Devils Family Day. Prior to that day, I was on contra, since there were no lead sop spots open. I showed up to rehearsal that morning and was told to drop the contra and grab my sop. I learned the sop show that day. Everything was going really well during the show (for me), I hit the dubba D at the end of ATB and was nailing my spots, until I forgot to split at the end of a mesh.

Derrick Brodie said "I think you were supposed to leave back there." So I said oops and continued to march in the spot I was in until the end of the chart (the drum solo, I think). At the halt, I turned around and walked to my real spot to the amazment of some other lead sops. One said "that takes b##lz!" I just did what I had to do and acted like I knew what I was doing.

After that I wammied the dubba C at the end of Mambo, standing on the side line centered on the 50, and planting it right in Lewie's face (the DM). Maybe Mambo was before the drum solo. ####, I can't remember now.

What a show.

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Haha, sorry I posted that pic without asking, I just thought it was always so classic!

Hey, its all good...besides, its publicity for the SDSU band...well, maybe not good publicity but still something nonetheless :P

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After the show Ed Devlin was asking around the corps, "Who were my three Stooges tonight?" I didn't think I did anything different, so the why that happened still stumps me.

Sounds like classic Ed Devlin.

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I can remember the early days at Carolina Crown, we marched a show in the northeast on a baseball field with pitcher mound. Those are where legends are made.

Also in Crown’s 91 show coming out of pods, we had one euphonium that often came out in the wrong spot. The other two euphs had to learn all 3 final 15 pages of drill “Just in case”. Through meshing company fronts etc.

I also remember our 92 show, we started in a scattered pattern and I was as close to the sideline as possible with a backward move into the first drill shape and many times waiting on the count off and realizing I DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO GO! Luckily instinct takes over and came off without a hitch.

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At the end of the ballad at our marching band show, the last couple of sets were a scatter drill and then we'd move from the scatter drill to behind some arches. My dot was particularly far from the arches and I normally had to take huge steps to get there. So, at one competition, I completely spaced out during the scatter drill and did not step off into the next set until 8 counts after the it had started. I tried to take gargantuan steps to get there and panicked. Then, the whole band dissapeared behind the arches and instinct told me to halt. So there I was, standing there all by myself in the middle of a field. NOT a good feeling. Especially when your band director is standing at the sidelines with a menacing glare. I blame it on taking the PSAT earlier in the day...

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In 1990 at a show in Iowa at the wild section in Bacchanale I got smacked in the face by an overenthusiatic guard member (who shall remain nameless) who was WAY out of place. I honestly don't remember marching the show from that point on (about another 2 minutes).

When we got off the field I evidently had a bloody nose and the blood had pooled up on the chain from my helmet but by some miracle not dripped all over my solid white uniform LOL

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