Regular readers of Masters of the Marching Arts are familiar with the fact that the Hanover Lancers Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps holds an annual indoor show that has grown over the years. On Saturday, April 20th, we will hold our 11th annual show.
Recently, a friend asked me why the Cadets are my favorite corps. That decision took 12 minutes and 36 seconds to make as they finished their semifinal performance on August 14, 1985. That was my first live viewing of the Garfield Cadets, and I made it my mission to learn all about them. (more…)
My head’s been spinning this morning. How could it already be Labor Day weekend?
Somehow, life has, once again, stepped in the way of great plans.
I’d hoped to be in Rochester, New York, this weekend for the last DCA show. No, not the last show of the waning 2023 drum corps season, but the last Drum Corps Associates show…ever. (more…)
DCI committed another championship to its annals. Per usual, the Internet reacted from all sides of the dodecagon (one side for every finalist). Who let Judge A work Finals? Corps B was CLEARLY better; everybody on Drum Corps Planet SAID so! Park and bark! What are they wearing? Too many props! Not enough props! The Whale lived! Frankly, I’ll read these artistic disagreements over political vitriol any hour of any day of the week. The passions are similar; the venom spewed from drum corps is less harmful.
It is the first intermission of Thursday’s Preliminary show in Indy. I turned to head up the stairs to the food court when I thought I recognized the guy behind me. “Hey, aren’t you The Czar?” I said. “I’ve read some of your columns in the past.”
“Yes sir, I am!”, and we began to discuss the season and after a few minutes, I asked him if he would be willing to be interviewed for a column. He said it is not possible since the interviewer and the interviewee are the same person. (more…)
From 1976-1980, DCI fans experienced the first Reign of Terror by the Concord Blue Devils. They won four out of five championships, and despite placing third in 1978, they were a few mere tenths away from winning that one. (more…)
Santa Clara Vanguard’s tragic decision not to field a 2023 corps shocked the DCI world. Drum Corps Planet, Twitter, and Facebook exploded with elegies, eulogies, and touching memoirs. One of the common thoughts of the social media: if it happened to SCV, no corps is safe! Perhaps one day, we fans will ask each other, “How did you find out about Vanguard?” I received a DM from a former marcher who doesn’t spread misinformation. I then (privately) went to bigger fish—one of whom confirmed before the official gavel dropped.
Drum Corps is alive and well. From my seat in Row 1 on about the 48-yard line, I turn around and look up to the top row where it meets the rooftop of Lucas Oil Stadium. I nearly need binoculars to see that far. Fans are packed in from top to bottom, goal line to goal line. When a corps such as the Troopers claws its way back into the top 12 after all the years of being outside looking in, the massive crowd roars in a way that confirms to the corps they have achieved something special. (more…)
Finally! Another full season, complete with scores, is in the books. I spent Thursday in my local theatre sparingly taking notes on my iPhone and emailing them to myself. “Big, Loud & Live” takes me back to my Boomer days of the live PBS broadcasts which I still have (reformatted for this century).
People who have followed drum corps for decades have seen significant changes in the activity and in the rules and logistics that govern competition. Most people who are passionate about the activity have – at one time or another – expressed strong opinions regarding scores and placements. Quite often, people have been displeased with the results. Admit it; most of us have disagreed with the outcomes of some competitions. (more…)
I was just 14 when I joined drum corps.
By 15, I was teaching three drill teams and one drum corps, our feeder corps, the St. Mary’s Crusaders. When I was teaching the three drill teams, my Dad used to drive me to practices and drop me off around the corner so nobody would know I wasn’t old enough to drive.
Every October, Somerville hosts the Honk Festival, a. series of parades and exhibitions featuring, “activist street bands.” Others have written in MMA that the marching arts were once all about, ”God and country,” and it appears that musical instruments and color guard equipment can also be put in the service of social justice and organic farming. The marching arts, like duct tape, have 1,001 uses.