Went to a DCI competition last night...

Ghery

Ghery

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Ghery Pettit
Or should I say, we went to a demonstration by Santa Clara Vanguard on how it is done, after a competition among 8 other Drum and Bugle Corps?

Great evening in Vancouver, WA last evening. 9 D&B Corps competed. In order of performance they were:

The Battalion from Salt Lake City, UT.
Columbians from the Tri-Cities in WA
Pacific Crest from Diamond Bar, CA
Troopers from Casper, WY
Seattle Cascades from Seattle, WA
The Academy from Tempe, AZ
Oregon Crusaders from Portland, OR
Blue Knights from Denver, CO
Santa Clara Vanguard from Santa Clara, CA

We didn't stick around for the final scores as we had to drive home to Olympia (got home a little before 1 am) so we could get up this morning to go up to Seattle for a Mariners game this afternoon, but from my untrained eye the scores should run roughly from lowest to highest in the order of competition, with a huge gap between the Blue Knights and Santa Clara Vanguard. The Battalion has only been competing since 2016, so they are fairly new to the game. All in all, however, a very enjoyable evening.
 
Vanguard has traditionally been more acclaimed than the rest of that field. [I've never heard of Pacific Crest and I lived 3 towns away from Diamond Bar until 2000]

Nostalgia has me favoring the Blue Devils (Concord, CA) but the Phantom Regiment (Rockford, IL) usually turns in good performances.
 
Ghery said:
Or should I say, we went to a demonstration by Santa Clara Vanguard on how it is done, after a competition among 8 other Drum and Bugle Corps?

Great evening in Vancouver, WA last evening. 9 D&B Corps competed. In order of performance they were:

The Battalion from Salt Lake City, UT.
Columbians from the Tri-Cities in WA
Pacific Crest from Diamond Bar, CA
Troopers from Casper, WY
Seattle Cascades from Seattle, WA
The Academy from Tempe, AZ
Oregon Crusaders from Portland, OR
Blue Knights from Denver, CO
Santa Clara Vanguard from Santa Clara, CA

We didn't stick around for the final scores as we had to drive home to Olympia (got home a little before 1 am) so we could get up this morning to go up to Seattle for a Mariners game this afternoon, but from my untrained eye the scores should run roughly from lowest to highest in the order of competition, with a huge gap between the Blue Knights and Santa Clara Vanguard. The Battalion has only been competing since 2016, so they are fairly new to the game. All in all, however, a very enjoyable evening.
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Is that an annual event in Vancouver, or does it move around. Never heard of it before. I’m assuming it was at Fort Vancouver

EDIT: found it, Evergreen High.
 
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I just did some looking.. I'll probably go to Denton for this https://www.dci.org/events/dci-north-texas

Thanks for starting the thread. Doubtful I'll make it to Indy for the finals. I've attended the finals 3 times when they happened to be close to where I was. One was Madison, and several of the people I was working with joined me. They had no clue what to expect, other than my description "It's like 10 half time shows with no football game." :)

They were impressed as the evening went on.
 
Ravioli said:
I just did some looking.. I'll probably go to Denton for this https://www.dci.org/events/dci-north-texas

Thanks for starting the thread. Doubtful I'll make it to Indy for the finals. I've attended the finals 3 times when they happened to be close to where I was. One was Madison, and several of the people I was working with joined me. They had no clue what to expect, other than my description "It's like 10 half time shows with no football game." :)

They were impressed as the evening went on.
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I found that link to. The SoundSport and DrumLine Battle sound cool. Yeah, that damn football is getting in the way of the show, lol. Going to The Bayou Classic someday is on my bucket list. Another excuse to go to ‘Nawlins. Gonna say we won’t be here for Thanksgiving to the family someday and do it
 
No Cadets of Bergen County? They're one of the premier groups. I was a band / guard parent for years.
 
From others' experiences... Are/were all Corps underfinanced? I was with Spirit of Atlanta in 1982 and they wore everyone out with fundraising efforts (Hey, its a week before Christmas, go sell $100 of wrapping paper. Or just donate $50 more...Your choice.) and lay down on the railroad tracks antics (Not sure how we're gonna get Bus 2 to the next show unless everyone kicks in $25.).
 
Great thread. DCI fan from way back. Faves are the Vanguard, cavaliers, phantom, cadets and last but not least, the Madison Scouts (Wisconsin born and bread).
 
Mrs. Steingar was at school in Canada (quite a few years ago) where there was a competition of this sort going on. She said they did their thing every morning. She rather liked it.
 
We'll go to the big show at the Mercedes Benz Stadium here in ATL late July. It is one of the largest competitions before Indy. Starts around 2:00 in the afternoon. @flyingron the west coast corps haven't started working their way eastward yet.
 
Ghery said:
Or should I say, we went to a demonstration by Santa Clara Vanguard on how it is done, after a competition among 8 other Drum and Bugle Corps?
Click to expand...

I've heard that SCV is fantastic this year. I probably won't see them live, just in a theater... If that. The activity has changed very quickly since I aged out and the focus is now visual instead of musical. I'm a more musically-focused person, and while the visuals are interesting, the lack of well-developed musical phrases bores me to death. Can't stand it how some corps over-use electronics either. I've really only liked two corps in the past 15 years: SCV 2013 and Carolina Crown 2015. </curmudgeon>

Ravioli said:
Thanks for starting the thread. Doubtful I'll make it to Indy for the finals. I've attended the finals 3 times when they happened to be close to where I was. One was Madison, and several of the people I was working with joined me. They had no clue what to expect, other than my description "It's like 10 half time shows with no football game." :)
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Good thing you didn't say that in front of the corps members, they'd have been pretty insulted at you calling something they've been working on for 9 months a "halftime show." ;)

flyingron said:
No Cadets of Bergen County? They're one of the premier groups. I was a band / guard parent for years.
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They rarely, if ever, go to the west coast, especially so early in the season.

It'll be interesting to see how they do this year, too. Their long-time director, George Hopkins, has been well known within the activity as a sexist, misogynistic, abusive ******* for a long time, and it finally caught up with him just a couple months ago. Took down the entire board of directors with him, too. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/c...rassment-allentown-pennsylvania-20180406.html

Needless to say, a brand new board unexpectedly searching for a new director with only about 6 weeks to go before the season starts isn't gonna make for an easy season.

kyleb said:
From others' experiences... Are/were all Corps underfinanced? I was with Spirit of Atlanta in 1982 and they wore everyone out with fundraising efforts (Hey, its a week before Christmas, go sell $100 of wrapping paper. Or just donate $50 more...Your choice.) and lay down on the railroad tracks antics (Not sure how we're gonna get Bus 2 to the next show unless everyone kicks in $25.).
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It varies. I marched in the Madison Scouts from 1991-1996 and later toured with Scouts and Southwind for several years as a volunteer, staff member, and board member. We never had any of the kinds of issues you describe, thanks to superb management by the ED at the time, Scott Stewart. We may have eaten Tastee-O's, Marshmallow Mateys and Dominade instead of Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Kool-Aid but who cares, it's all the same stuff. Our fleet was used but in good shape and breakdowns were rare.

Meanwhile, I remember us feeding Magic of Orlando when we stayed at the same school they did because they had no food, and I remember people in Cadets complaining that they were down to cheese and crackers at the end of one season. That sort of thing is more the exception than the rule, but it did happen, unfortunately.

Some corps had it easier than others - SCV and BD made tons of money in their bingo operations due to California's liberal rules for that, while we were only allowed to do bingo once a month in Wisconsin. Cavaliers had a handsome sponsorship from the village of Rosemont, and Star of Indiana had a lot of Bill Cook's money to play with.

It sure was a great time in my life, and it had a dramatically positive effect on my life as well.
 
I hearken from an age when none of the electronic stuff and everyone was on the field and marched in on one end and off on the other, no sideline permission section at all. Actually DCI did not exist then, it was the Midwest Association or something like that and the two big events were the VFW Nationals and the American Legion event. We still played the two valve bugles and had several members who could not read music. It was a much different time.
 
EppyGA said:
We still played the two valve bugles and had several members who could not read music. It was a much different time.
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Wait a minute... Two valve bugles are out? When did that happen?
 
I played baritone bugle in a (now defunct) corp and the trombone in the school bands and orchestra.

Like @kyleb, I didn't know they changed

 
I had to march with a concert Baritone horn in high school. Painful to carry for hours. Won State twice, but not sure my thumb appreciated it. Holding most of the weight of the Instrument on one thumb for hours wasn’t spectacular.
 
EppyGA said:
I hearken from an age when none of the electronic stuff and everyone was on the field and marched in on one end and off on the other, no sideline permission section at all. Actually DCI did not exist then, it was the Midwest Association or something like that and the two big events were the VFW Nationals and the American Legion event. We still played the two valve bugles and had several members who could not read music. It was a much different time.
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kyleb said:
Wait a minute... Two valve bugles are out? When did that happen?
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DCI started in 1972, there was the "Midwest Combine" before that I think it was called. I think the transition from valve-rotor to two-valve was in the early 80s. Three-valves came out in 1990, though you couldn't have the entire line be three-valve until 1992 - To keep any corps from over-spending, you were allowed 1/3 of the line in 1990, 2/3 in 1991, and then the whole line in 1992.
 
Ravioli said:
I played baritone bugle in a (now defunct) corp and the trombone in the school bands and orchestra.

Like @kyleb, I didn't know they changed

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I played the two valve with a finger slide in Spirit. We were fortunate to have the 3 valve version at my HS. Those were awesome to march, although a little heavy for skinny 14 year olds to hold for the 20 minutes it took to march in/do a show/march off. We generally gave the younger guys the marching trombones which were a smaller 3 valve setup. Better for hitting the highs too.
 
Always fun to catch the corps shows like “Drums of Summer” each year. All of our marching band instructors were former Blue Devils or Madison Scout guys. It’s a big factor in my high school having won the Bands of America National high school competition several times in the past decade.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I've heard that SCV is fantastic this year. I probably won't see them live, just in a theater... If that. The activity has changed very quickly since I aged out and the focus is now visual instead of musical. I'm a more musically-focused person, and while the visuals are interesting, the lack of well-developed musical phrases bores me to death. Can't stand it how some corps over-use electronics either. I've really only liked two corps in the past 15 years: SCV 2013 and Carolina Crown 2015. </curmudgeon>
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Funny you should say that. My wife made much the same comment on the way home. Too much visual in place of music.

Our kids were active in band in high school (mid 1990s). The bands they played in in California (Leigh HS in San Jose) and Oregon (Sunset HS in Beaverton) were very much into half-time show competition. Our daughter's last two years at Capital HS in Olympia were lacking this competition. The band director there did not care for the competitions, so the band didn't participate. It's not like he didn't have any half-time show experience, he and my wife were in the Washington State University marching band at the same time (early 1970s). Electronics was unheard of in the 1990s. I was in charge of the pit crew at Leigh for a couple years while our son was in the band (and our daughter the last year, son's senior year, her freshman year). Quite a job wrangling all that stuff in and out of the truck and getting it set up / torn down in little or no time during the competition. And the band kids (the biggest gang on campus) felt that football was just something to occupy time before and after the half-time show. :D

All this was basically unheard of when we were in band in high school, but I graduated in 1970 and my wife in 1972. Concert band was big for us, and our band director was one of the best in the US. The Heritage Foundation even sent us (on our nickel) to Europe for 45 days in 1971. Averaged a concert every other day. Quite a trip. But, marching band was for football games. Our half-time "shows" were basically march onto the field, play a few numbers and march off. Nothing like even 20+ years ago.
 
denverpilot said:
I had to march with a concert Baritone horn in high school. Painful to carry for hours. Won State twice, but not sure my thumb appreciated it. Holding most of the weight of the Instrument on one thumb for hours wasn’t spectacular.
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Eh, that's nothing. My freshman year in high school (1st semester until I got smart and taught myself to play the Alto Sax) I marched with a bassoon. Talk about a lousy instrument for marching band. :p
 
luvflyin said:
Is that an annual event in Vancouver, or does it move around. Never heard of it before. I’m assuming it was at Fort Vancouver

EDIT: found it, Evergreen High.
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I don't know if it is annual or not. Our daughter (who lives in Vancouver now) found out about it and we drove down from Olympia for the competition. We were joined by a friend of hers from her year at Sunset HS in Beaverton.
 
I was fortunate to be a part of this HS band for my junior and senior years of high school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dundee_Scots We marched in a lot of competitions and worked pretty hard at it. After I graduated they changed to Kilts and added bagpipes and really became a force among high schools in the midwest and beyond. The best part was, many of the competitions we went to were in coordination with drum corps event so we got to watch a lot of drum corps stuff.
 
Interesting thread!

A coworker has a son in the Blue Knights...a lot of travel & expense involved.
 
Ghery said:
Funny you should say that. My wife made much the same comment on the way home. Too much visual in place of music.
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So I ended up going to the show in Waukesha last night. Bunch of little corps, Phantom, Madison, Blue Devils.

Phantom was disappointing. I loved it at first, but it's a show that's supposedly based on the New World Symphony (which they did, really well, in 1989) and there were only two parts where a barely-recognizable part of NWS came through. So, I really liked the first couple of minutes, and then I got kinda bored. Also, as usual, they put way too much fake bass in through the electronics on the horn hits and in other spots.

Madison was... Interesting. The beginning of the show is just weird, and the horns are on the ground. Waste of a good horn line for that first part. Then it gets much better, but still not a lot of music that you're going to leave the show humming.

BD - Wow. Great horns as usual, and MUSIC! Kind of a weird mix, Stan Kenton, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and more, but recognizable and enjoyable and they actually played whole phrases. The guard was extremely high-energy. This was the best BD show I think I've seen since 1992... Which probably means they won't win, in today's DCI. I sure hope BD and SCV are at the top when the season is done, though.
 
Looking forward to the end of the month and the big show here in the ATL.
 
Funny how things work.

A few days ago, I wasn't even going to bother going to a show this year. Then, my in-laws were going to a show and the friend they were going to take with them ended up needing surgery the day before, so I went to that show. At the show, I ran into an old friend, and long story short, we're going to hop in the Mooney and fly down to Indy to see the world championship semifinals.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
FTFY.
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Ghery said:
Guilty as charged. And our kids were worse. :D
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I loved band. I HATED marching band. That said, the DCI championships were in KC for a few years in the 90s and it was pretty cool. My band teacher said in order to play in symphonic band (and thus having a shot in playing winds in the school orchestra), I had to do marching band. Nope nope nope.

I stuck to choir and theatre instead.
 
labbadabba said:
I loved band. I HATED marching band. That said, the DCI championships were in KC for a few years in the 90s and it was pretty cool. My band teacher said in order to play in symphonic band (and thus having a shot in playing winds in the school orchestra), I had to do marching band. Nope nope nope.

I stuck to choir and theatre instead.
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My wife and I met in high school band. Or should I say, because of it. She was racing me down the stairs to the band room the first day of school to get ahead of me in line to get a band uniform. Didn't work for her, I was the one who handed them out. :D That was a LONG time ago (50 years this fall - ouch!). Band meant anything the band was involved in. Marching band in the fall for football games and concert band the rest of the year. Those who were interested could also play in the orchestra. Pep band for basketball was a different subset of the band. I understand the attraction of choir, I've been singing in church choir for over 55 years and in the local Olympia Choral Society for about 13 years. Great fun, too.

Our kids were involved in marching band in high school. 4 years for our son where field show competition was a big deal and 2 years (the first two) for our daughter. Her last two years were at a high school where the band director wasn't in to that sort of thing.
 
labbadabba said:
I loved band. I HATED marching band.
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Me too. The worst day of the year for me was the day I got home from being at the pinnacle of the activity and had to walk into the band room at my high school, where nobody had even picked up their instrument for three months. My ears were finely tuned, and then suddenly this disgusting out-of-tune mess assaulted them.

Luckily, I had a band director who let me (as well as the other guy who marched with Madison) teach the marching band. That was fun, but nothing was going to make up for the difference in skill level and desire - Everyone else hated marching band too, and didn't really want to be there.

That said, the DCI championships were in KC for a few years in the 90s and it was pretty cool.
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Yep, Arrowhead in 1988 (Madison won, playing Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Orchestra and Malagueña) and 1989 (SCV won doing Phantom of the Opera).

Ghery said:
My wife and I met in high school band. Or should I say, because of it.
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I met my wife when we both marched baritone at Kilties. :)
 
I've been so focused on the big competition at Mercedes Benz Stadium that I entirely missed the fact that a competition took place less than 15 miles from me last night. :(
 
Self professed band nerd as well. Drum major in HS. Played in concert/ jazz bands in college. All 4 kids were bandos. Son marched in the University of Wisconsin Marching Band. Followed him to three Rose Bowls. Football team lost all three times, but our band kicked the competition’s Ass every time.
 
My Jr high school had a VERY successful and popular marching band. We won the Long Beach All Western (So Cal thing) for 2 years before I got there, both years I was there, and 1 year after. We also took sweeps at a few parades beating High School bands. It was a lot of fun.

And then we went on to a High School where the Band Director hated marching band and focused on Concert Band and Orchestra.

Many of us left after sophomore year. There was a trip to Mexico to perform, or we would have jammed sooner. Also, at our Jr High we were "halfway cool" because we came back with big trophies every week or two. In High School we were 'the band.'

Fortunately Water Polo and Swimming got me back in the trophy and limited respect sect.
 
We’re Mercedes Benz stadium, Southeastern Championships.

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