Box Along The Rockies

Drums Along The Rockies

Loveland High School -- Loveland, CO

Friday, July 8, 2011

I woke up early and mostly just lounged around all morning, save for a trip downstairs to the in-house Starbucks for breakfast.  It was a gorgeous morning, but the weather reporter said that there would be thunderstorms in the afternoon.  Uh-oh.  Then I heard drums.  I hurriedly put on my shoes, grabbed my camera, and went outside.  

Ooh, Taiko!  APPARENTLY, the city of Denver, in conjunction with Southwest Airlines, does a summer concert series on Fridays at noon.  Today's was just outside my hotel.  How nice for them to provide entertainment tailored just for me today!  The group's name is Mirai Daiko, which translates to "Taiko of the Future" or something like that.  Aw, that reminds me of the ice skater Mirai Nagasu.  But this is drumming we're talking here!  They integrated traditional Taiko drumming with modern beats like swing and hip hop.  It was very cool, and I only saw them drop their sticks twice, which is quite impressive, considering the choreography that they did.  Between percussion numbers, they would change the configuration while one of them played the koto (a string instrument), or sang, or played the tambourine.  These ladies kicked butt, and they get to play big drums!

Mirai Daiko

The time then came for me to pick up Bro at the airport.   His flight had left on time, and was scheduled to arrive on time, too.  But no.  When I arrived at the cell phone lot, I checked his flight, and it had been delayed 15 minutes.  15 minutes passed.  I checked again, but still no update.  His plane finally landed about 70 minutes after the originally scheduled time, because they had been in a holding pattern due to the thunderstorms.  I had only experienced a little bit of rain on the way to the airport, but I guess it's different when you're in the air.

We drove to Loveland, and were prepared to pay at the tolls, but for some reason, they were all closed, so that was cool.  I was really hungry by this time, so when we were finally outside the Denver area, we stopped at Pepper Jack's, where we had yummy sandwiches, and also ordered one to go for the ride home.  Pepper Jack's slogan is "Enter as strangers, leave as friends."  Aw, we made friends with people whose names I can't remember.  Bro wondered later if you're a stranger again when you return to the restaurant.

We arrived at Loveland HS with plenty of time to kill prior to the event, and talked to Bro's friend at the Phregiment souvie trailer.  Another one of the volunteers, whom had been sitting on a nearby curb, spied Bro's very cool 1SCVFAN shoes and whispered to his friend, "Ask him to show you his shoes!"  Oh, yes, his shoes are famous, and she was already aware of them.  :)  She told us stories of their travels since we last saw her, and then we finally went into the stadium.  Our seats were 26 rows up, just to the left of the 50.  Dark clouds loomed nearby, and I had ponchos for both of us at the ready.  We felt a few drops and put on our hats, but that was it.  We willed the clouds to go around us.  Their was a 15-month old boy next to me named Brody whom was attending his first drum corps show.  He was very cute and I was excited for him.

The Star-Spangled Banner was played by the Loveland High School Crimson Regiment, dressed in t-shirts and khaki shorts.  We heard some alumni moaning that they had to wear jeans last year.  Jeans would have looked better.  They played well.  There was no flag on the flagpole, presumably because it had been raining.  The colors were presented by Associated Veterans.

EXHIBITION:  Bishop Grandin Marching Ghosts

Repertoire:  "Pandora" (musical selections not provided)

Smoking Box

There was a huge box near the field, and it was smoking.  I didn't think it had anything to do with the show until they announced the name.  I liked the geometric flags.  At one point, the second drum major seemed to just be supervising the color guard in the middle of the field, then later he/she was spinning a flag.  Interesting.  A mellophone player was dancing with two of the CG girls at another point.  Someone from the audience yelled in the middle of the show, "OPEN THE BOX!" and it did open, but never all the way, and the only thing that came out of it was more smoke.




HIGH COUNTRY BRASS
Repertoire:  "Blood, Sweat and Tears" -- You've Made Me So Very Happy, Lacretia MacEvil, Sometime In Winter, Go Down Gambling all by Blood, Sweat and Tears

A sign that stayed upright

They had signs with day-glo paint, about which Bro remarked, "This needs to be a dark ride."  The CG was dressed as hippies.  One gal's bell bottoms looked like pizza slices.  The signs were in the way, I guess, because one got knocked over by one of the corps members.  At one point, I heard talking behind me, and turned around to give the person an evil eye, but then I realized that it was one of the judges talking into their tape.  They had a lot of jazzy solos/duets, and I liked the lower brass ones.  Not all of the non-soloists were grooving during the solos, which made the groovers look weird.  They should fix that.  I liked their peace flags, and wondered if the guy that hand paints the Blue Knights' flags also did these.  After the show was done, the drum major fell off of the stand while getting down.  He waved to the crowd and said he was OK.

REVOLUTION
Repertoire: "Ride" -- Windsprints by R. Saucedo, Nitro  by F. Ticheli, The Heart Asks Pleasure First by M. Nyman and C. Botello, Original Work by M. Peterson, Ride by S. Hazo


I saw the CG bring on tires while wearing aviator caps, and guessed that they were building a plane.  I like the scarves that they wear.  Ooh, the lightning flags are pretty!  I hoped that they weren't foreshadowing for the rest of the night.  The plane flags, which kind of looked like sharks,  were cool, and I liked the way that they wove them so that the nose of the plane was always pointing in the direction that the flag was going.  They also had flags with the names of the cities where they've been or are going to on the tour.  The narration wasn't too bad, because it was sparse.  


GOLD

Gold Drumline

Bro guessed correctly, and we were told that this was Gold's first show outside of California.  Today, they were from San Diego.  There was even more narration than in Riverside, and I was highly annoyed.  I also didn't really like the applauding of themselves at the end.  I forgot to take a picture of the tenors when the narrator said to get the tenors in the shot.  I also didn't get a picture of the drumline kneeling, which was cool.  The percussion feature was very strong and well-done. 






CASCADES
Repertoire: "Pandora -- A Dark Gift" -- Pandora -- A Dark Gift by J. Hinkel and C. Grant, My Immortal by D. Hodges, A. Leo and B. Moody 

So as the Cascades arrive, I see that they have huge PVC flourescent yellow cubes, as well as a big orange cube made of stretchy fabric in a basket weave design.  I told Bro that they were going to build a big fluorescent house.  I'm now convinced that everyone is building houses this year.  The corps uniforms are a lighter green than I'm used to, and the plumes on their shakos are almost fluorescent.  I miss their old, classier uniforms.  The CG looked like sexy bumblebees with skirts, because their breasts were accentuated and they were wearing yellow with black accents.  At one point, the lead CG was also holding a smaller purple box.  I wasn't sure which one was supposed to be the real box, but people were trying to get out of the big orange box, coming in and out of the same box, and sticking their hands through to the outside of the box.  I liked the effect of all of the PVC boxes being tilted.  I liked the last ballad.  It was pretty, and I kept trying to think of the lyrics.  I eventually looked it up at intermission.  At the end, the people in the box were sticking their horns out through the weave.  I liked it more than the other Pandora show, but how weird is it that 2 corps have the theme of Pandora?  At least they're not in the same division.


INTERMISSION
The announcer here should not be an announcer.  He was having a lot of difficulty with several words.  The best goof was with the word "certificates".  He was saying "certificatesis".  He tried to say the word about 5 times, and never got it right.  He also told us to "come on down here and see the chicken."  There was a guy in a chicken suit giving out gift certificates to some restaurant or something.  


ACADEMY

Fuschia now

O.M.G., THAT's your GE!  Their general effect score should go way up, now that they have their complete guard costumes.  I now even like the shiny pants.  The wings are now an actual blouse, and they are fuschia.  Toward the end of the show, they don bright green vinyl-looking coats with tails and a cool green hat with stripes that match their final flags.  NICE.  Now everything makes visual sense to me.  They received a great crowd reaction, and Bro heard one of the judges say that he likes the sound.  They added a new section, and it was just all done very well.  I wasn't sure about the intonation of the soloist and the opening number at the beginning, though.  Ooh, they make a formation of an exclamation point!  I saw it on the right side of the field, and Bro has seen it before on the left side.  I wonder if it changed or if there are 2 of them.  


PHREGIMENT


Beautiful music, Phantom!  Although it seemed a little bit soft.  Are they still trying to adjust to the altitude?  The emotion still felt a little bit flat, and Bro wonders if it's because the music is so familiar and he's just not really feeling it anymore.  

Phregiment with the Capulet Flags

SCV

Bro told me to get a picture of the horns in their weird leg position, which I hadn't noticed before, but I got a picture that was kind of fuzzy.  I apologize for the pictures for tonight, by the way, as many of them came out blurry.  The CG had several drops of their big batons, so it was either really windy on the field, or they were anticipating wind and it didn't happen when they actually threw their batons.  A couple of them came down nowhere near the CG that threw them up.  I said "Vanguard" very quietly.  Bro forgot to say it because he was too busy watching the cymbal line.  Their sound was also subdued.

Vanguard Flags A-Spinning

BLUE KNIGHTS

Repertoire: "An English Folk Song Suite" -- First Suite in Eflat for Military Band (Op.98, No. 1) by G. Holst, English Folk Song Suite Suite by R. V. Williams, Sheperd's Hey/Molly on the Shore by P. Grainger, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by R. V. Williams

Orange drums.  Really?  Of course, Bro loves it.  He wants to own the entire drumline.  No problem with sound here!  They're used to this altitude.  I like that percussion feature and all of the stuff that happens in the background.  I especially liked when the snares change to the soft mallets like the English corps and spin their mallets.  Too cool.  The lines, though: sigh.  My advice:  if you are supposed to be in a straight line ON the marked yard line, USE IT.  I noticed that the mello players had something attached to their backs: it turned out to be sheaths for the CG sabers.  Great guard work.

ENCORE:  Blue Knights

Bro:  "Please sing!"  I tried to remember what he was so excited about.

They did a piece from their show, then Bro's wish came true.  They sang!  "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" was sung and played and Bro was very, very happy. Then I remembered the video that he showed me of their encore when they were in AZ 2 years ago.  It was way cool.

BK singing

SCORES

All-Age

50.75 -- High Country Brass

Open

70.95 -- Gold

71.25 -- Revolution

World

5) 65.15 -- Cascades

4) 73.55 -- Academy

3) 78.10 -- Blue Knights

2) 79.15 -- SCV

Then Bro guessed what Phregiment's score would be, and he was right. on. the. nose!

1) 80.70 -- Phregiment

Bro was in rare form tonight.  He had seen a judge before the show started, and wondered aloud if it was a certain guy.  Then they announced the judges, and Bro was right.  It was crazy.

Brody was mainly paying attention throughout the show, only missing 2 corps.  I told him to be in a drum corps when he grows up so that we could come and watch him.  He was adorable.

We drove back to the hotel while eating our Monte Cristo sandwiches from Pepper Jack's.  There was a lot of lightning on the horizon, but we were thankful that none of it had come our way, and we were able to watch the entire show.  We hope for the same luck for the show at INVESCO.

Up Next:  Drums Along The Rockies -- Denver