ID4 at the Rose Bowl

For the past several years, I've spent Independence Day along with 80,000 other people at Disneyland. This year, however, Drum Corps International scheduled an event to add to the Americafest at the Rose Bowl, and the program included ALL of my favorite corps (and none of the ones that irritate me), so I couldn't pass up this chance. I was accompanied by Rudy, Jeff, Bro, V, and Brady. We were especially excited that Brady was joining us, as this would be his first live drum corps event (he's seen DVDs a lot of times, thanks to his daddy). Brady seemed to have started his day in an excited mood, too. When Bro called, I answered the phone, and Brady was on the line, happily saying, "HI!!!" as opposed to the usual silence when he hears me.

We all met up at my house, and drove over to the Rose Bowl in 2 cars, spending most of the car ride in line waiting to get a parking space on the golf course. We all made note of which trees were near our cars (we're by the Sycamore tree, near the one with the red leaves, and up on the hill is the lone pine tree, and there's a break between those thingys). It was a little bit of trek to the gate entrance, but not too bad. As we waited for Recon Rudy to figure out if we were standing in the correct line, people asked us the same question we had. Thank goodness RR had done his job and was able to answer their questions when he returned. When we got through the narrow gate, we asked how to get to our hoity-toity drum corps fan seats, and passed the Blue Devils drum line on the way. Bro kept pointing out the drums to Brady, whom was already smiling and pointing at them. I went to the Academy souvie trailer, and the man from last week remembered me, but hadn't seen anything in their program for me. He did point out the CD liner notes for me, which is fine since I wanted to buy the CD anyway. I also bought an SCV shirt, and decided to get dinner since the lines were still short. I asked Brady if he wanted to walk with me to get food, and he actually said yes, so I took his hand and we bought food from the drum corps fans at the refreshment stand. They asked, "Who are you here to see? BD?" (I was wearing a Blue Devils shirt). I said, "I'm here to see everyone! They're all my favorites!" They seemed as excited as I was.

Our tickets were for Premium GA seating, which was for those people whom were actually there to see the drum corps. The regular GA people were seated at the end of the field, and some people were sitting in the end zone, which made Bro wonder how the corps would deal with that, since the CG usually throws their flags into the end zone, and BD actually starts their show right next to it. I figured that they must have rehearsed on the field earlier that day, but you never know. We were able to get really nice seats, high up (about row 65), and on the aisle in case Brady needed a break. As we waited for the show to start, I reminisced about last year's DCI Finals which had taken place there, and thought of our friend Glenn whom had accompanied me to most of that. I pointed out to Bro that the hash marks were visible on the field, a reference to last year's wackiness.

I was getting really excited, and said, "Brady, Tita Sherry's gonna go CRAZY!!!" He smiled at me and giggled. I also showed him my patriotically painted toes, to which my brother replied by having Brady call me "crazy" in Tagalog. The Academy was already on the field, and when Bro pointed them out to Brady, Brady said, "Same!" Bro asked, "Oh, they're all wearing the same thing?" Brady: "Yeah.... A LOT!!!" Bro: "Oh, there's a lot of them." Brady: "Yeah!" OMG, he is too cute.

The MC from DCI Finals, Dan Potter, was there! Cool! He introduced the guy from CBS news, Paul Magers, who tried to get everyone to take an oath to only watch CBS for news. Dude, whatever. The Presentation of the Colors was led by a bagpipe player performing the Marine Corps anthem. The Academy then played a beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, which brought tears to my eyes. Then we had a flyby of a C17. That was cool.

Dan Potter introduced all of the drum corps stuff, which made me happy that goofy CBS dude wasn't doing it. This was not a judged event. Each corps played their competitive show, and then played something patriotic in a standstill performance for both the regular and hoity-toity sections. Unfortunately, V had a talker behind her, explaining everything to his companions, whom had apparently never watched drum corps before.

Pacific Crest

Oh! That noise they're making is to emulate a didgeridoo! (Bro, it can be spelled with a G or a J, so we're both right). Well, now, that makes more sense than them trying to sound like a swarm of bees. When the CG was balancing on one leg, Rudy said that they were leaning on their flag poles. Wouldn't they fall down, then? Those aren't sturdy poles. At that point, Brady said, "FLAG!" OMG, I love him. They played the same patriotic medley as they did at Corps at the Crest,which started with "Strike Up the Band." I like that medley.

The Academy

People behind Bro figured that their name was because they were all from some music school. Rudy said that the all-black CG uniforms make them ineffectual. I dare to say that their uniforms are not yet done, since I'm expecting to see something that looks like corsets on the females, and tights and powdered wigs on the males, but that's just me thinking of actual Viennese Mozart time, I guess. The CG dude actually caught his sabre for his big solo toss, probably because his advisors told him to LOOK UP. Brady sang during the show. He also drooled on Bro. I'm guessing he likes this stuff. They played a medley of service songs. (I heard D. Potter say "Surface Songs," and thought they were going to play "Shower Me With Your Love" until I came to my senses).

CBS dude informed us that this would not only be the biggest fireworks display in L.A., but also the largest one west of Chicago. Even bigger than Disneyland?! Wow.

During intermission, or "Intermezzo" as Hoity Toity Recon Rudy called it, a montage was done on the big screen, "Honoring Our Fallen from the San Gabriel Valley." Thank you to all of the servicemen and women whom risk their lives for our country.

Santa Clara Vanguard

V turned to me and said, "Liquid Crack." This is our term for the coffee that made me nutso last week, and also the same drink we thought maybe the CG imbibes before the show. Yay! Their show is complete! There's the viper! Rudy was upset, thought, that he didn't get to yell "Vanguard," because the one guy that said it was premature in his outburst. The last piece, "Cloudburst" by E. Whitacre, sounded really nice! Visually stunning too, with those shiny white flags. I love all of the rain sounds, including those made by some of the CG members, which is done by clapping their hands here, as it is done in the (original) vocal arrangement. Their patriotic tribute was "Shades of Shenandoah," which was beautifully done. I then got a star for remembering that BD's 2003 winning show was "Phenomenon of Cool." (I need all the stars I can get, so I just HAD to commemorate it here).

Phantom Regiment

As predicted, Brady needed to leave at this moment. Thank goodness Bro had been proactive and watched Phregiment at the Vista show yesterday, so that he'd be OK to leave. Jeff took one look at the CG uniforms and wished that we were up closer. Rudy said that the whole DM-holding-the-baton thing is "so stuck up, I love it!" Those shields are cool, but they kinda look like nipples to me when they're above the CG in a group as protection. Not that I normally see that many nipples grouped together like that or anything. I also liked the goosestepping from the corps when they were being the army. Very cool moving cross formation. That slavedriver/overlord/badass/anti-Spartacus dude in black is SCARY. He commands people to kill people, and he also kills them himself! Even the woman. Meanie. That was some cool fighting between the CG and the horns. AWESOME SHOW! "I. AM. SPARTACUS!" (Or, as I heard it the first two times: "Hey! You! Whatcha Got?!" Yes, that's what I actually thought I heard. Perhaps the corps should enunciate the first two times a little bit more). Their patriotic tribute was the "National Emblem" march. Thanks, Phreg, for making it out here to Cali!!! I know the gas prices are making it really hard on their budget, as with all corps, but they traveled the farthest for this show.

Blue Devils

Rudy said that he's gonna get vertigo from watching them try to balance on the lines. (Oh, and that's the corps that played music from "Vertigo" in 2000!). To answer Bro's original question, they actually moved their show 10 yards infield so that they wouldn't run over or throw flags at the people in the end zone. I don't like the final flags. I missed seeing the CG do a reverse pose of the stickman at the end (Rudy told me about it). Their hats are like cats: whenever they fall, they land right side up. Bro thinks they're weighted. Their patriotic tune was "America the Beautiful."

Finale

All 5 corps then played the new rendering of "America the Beautiful" that I don't really like, but at least it had a good sound. Then, as if we were at Finals night, BD and SCV started talking to each other before everyone got situated to watch the fireworks.

CBS dude yelled, "Let's Get Ready to Rumble!" and we did a countdown, which led to absolutely nothing for at least a full minute. Then the fireworks began.

The fireworks took about 40 minutes, and they were quite abundant! The most irritating part was that they lit up fireworks in the shapes of the Channel 2 and Channel 9 logos, which received boos. Even more boos were heard when they had the nerve to show the channel 2 fireworks on the jumbotron. Some of the fireworks designs looked like those from Disneyland's "Remember" fireworks show, like the happy faces and the hearts. I kept turning to Bro, saying, "If they do [insert random Disneyland fireworks show element here] , then we know they stole from DL." Then they'd actually do it. I half-expected the Haunted Mansion stretch room fireworks to appear. I heard later from my friends that the DL show that night was interrupted due to high winds. My conspiracy theory is that they couldn't finish the show because the Rose Bowl stole some of their stuff. Although the show wasn't exactly DL-quality (music in sync with the fireworks), it was a spectacular display, and now Bro wants one of those cannons that shoots a bunch of fireworks like a machine gun.

We had a great time, and actually found our cars by remembering our landmarks. It took us forever to get out due to disorganization and stupidity by people not in our cars, but that was to be expected. Thank you, everyone for a great time, and Congratulations to Brady for watching his first drum corps show! (And he did it without tantrum or accident. I love this child).

Happy Independence Day, everyone.

Let Freedom Ring.