No Surprises

DCI Finals

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Lucas Oil Stadium -- Indianapolis, IN

Bro and I decided to get our concessions ahead of time, since we probably wouldn't have any time to do so during the 17-minute intermission.  I wanted a hot dog, and it took forever to get it because, APPARENTLY, someone had just come before us and ordered 50 of them, so they had to go get more.  Bro's new idea is to buy 50 next year and sell them in the stands.  We went up to our seats, which were on the top level (6th tier), 6th row, and Bro was sitting in seat 6.  So yes, Bro was unintentionally themed for the night.

The evening started out with "The Commandant's Own" United States Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps.  This year's "Music in Motion" show included Don't Rain On My Parade, Fiddle Faddle, Appalachian Spring, Pirates of the Caribbean, Reveille (an original work by their director, Brian Dix), and, of course, Stars and Stripes Forever.  Bro thought it was weird that the Marines were playing Pirates.  Bro:  "Hello, we're going to kill you now."  I loved hearing Appalachian Spring, and turned to Bro, telling him, "I miss Martha."  Ah, but look at the picture that Bro took of me at DCI Headquarters the day before.  :)

Sher with Martha in Dan Acheson's Office

The Marines then led us all in singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" before marching off to their Marine Corps hymn.

Announcer Dan Potter was wearing a VERY yellow shirt, which Bro pointed out to me.  Several minutes later, one of the gals in back of us noticed the same thing.  We giggled.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Outstanding Director of the Season:  

World Class:  Tom Spitero of Boston Crusaders

Open Class:  Mike Quillen of Oregon Crusaders

Volunteers of the Year (aside from those announced yesterday):  The Surf Six -- Jersey Surf

Open Class Champion Exhibition:  BLUE DEVILS B

They were clearly not competing anymore, because I saw a lot of drops and heard some questionable notes.

The sponsors were then recognized.  Thank you, sponsors, for helping this activity continue to happen.

Now, on to the competition.

SPIRIT

Oh, it's a film projector!  Bro couldn't believe that I didn't see it the first day.  Bro forgets how sleepy I was.  Oh, they form lips while they have the lip flags!  They also make a cool chalk outline formation.  Wow, I missed a lot that day.

BLUE STARS

Nice rifle catch after knocking over the somersault guy.  They make a double helix formation during the drum feature.  I like the formation of the drums in a circle while the horns are in ranks around them.  

MADISON

They have a couple of skyscraper formations.  No fleur-de-lis this year, maybe because it would detract from the poignancy of their show?  Maybe because they don't have any FDLs in NYC?  The dude that took the seat next to Bro yelled very loudly for Curtis.  Then he left after the corps was done.  Bro gets bored during this show, but I don't.

They need staff at the bottom of the stairway to prevent people from coming in during the show and obstructing the view for the people on the aisles.  It's very annoying, and the lady sitting there was clearly irritated the whole time.  I mean, really, where did the crowd control guy go?  He was there before the show started.  Unfortunately, the only time they announce that people need to wait between corps to go to and from their seats is before the start of the show, when all of these late people don't hear them.  Why are they late, anyway?  It's rude and annoying.

BK

Tonight, they stopped playing before they exited between the B and K banners.  I could have sworn that they kept playing while going through the banners on previous days, but I don't know.

B CRU

I don't know if the guy that corps watches on the field is supposed to be Javert, because he doesn't really do more than signal that it's time for them to sing.  He didn't really do anything else Javert-ish during the show, unless he's supposed to be the guy with the big drum, leading the battle.  But then I'm not sure if the revolutionaries are the huge group with the flags, or the drummers with the white plumes.  

During the entire B Cru show, the guy next to me leafed through the program.  Color me annoyed.

BLOO

That's the loudest "Bloo" from the crowd that I've ever heard!  I'm sad that I don't get to hear them do my song live after tonight.  They rocked it!

INTERMISSION

AWARDS for PARADE

Wow.  I didn't even know that they were being judged this morning.

Best Visual:  Pacific Crest

Percussion: Pacific Crest

Brass: Colts 

Color Guard: Music City

Drum Major: Pioneer

Grand Champions: PACIFIC CREST!!!!

Oh, happiness!  I cheered quite loudly.  The stupid guy next to me sarcastically said, "Yay for them.  They worked really hard for that half hour, I guess."  I schooled him a little bit on the fact that PC actually marched, as opposed to the other corps that just kinda walked.  At least PC cared about it.  That's my corps!

SCV

Was that first runner always being chased by 2 demons at the beginning?  Oh, they make a pentagram formation.  They also form devil's goat-ish horns.  Wow, they were awesome tonight.  VANGUAAAAARRRRRDDDD!  Yes, I yelled this time, as did many in our SCV section.  

We received a severe weather warning and were told to stay away from doors and windows.

PHREGIMENT

TEARS!!!  Seriously, I cried.  They make a moon formation during R & J's night together, and after Romeo leaves, Juliet is surrounded by a sun formation.  Cool effect with the lightning flashing outside during Elsa, adding dramatic effect to Romeo's death.  Whenever I hear Elsa now, I will always think of this show, and I'll probably cry.  No chevron, though.  Bummer.

CROWN

I keep forgetting to note that they make a formation of the Rock and Roll hand sign.  During the crown formation, the fans yell something that I can't decipher.  Maybe one day I'll at least learn the word, if not the secret behind the word.  They make star formations and a guitar formation, which is cool.  Tonight's broken guitar had flames on it, like their drums.

CAVALIERS

The second drum major at the end, when running up to the front, makes his way through the drumline, splits up the horns, runs into the pit area, jumps onto the marimba, jumps down, then runs up the stairs to the drum major stand to be upside down.  WOW.

BD

I've seen this show many times, and have grown tired of it.  Bro said that maybe I shouldn't go to so many shows.  But I want to go to more of them!  I didn't realize until tonight that there house formations at the beginning and the end.  I decided that portion of the house that has the soloist is the garage.  They didn't pull out any surprises, which is what I would expect from them in order to push their score up past the Cadets.

CADETS

I like that there's a heavenly "aaah" when the angels are introduced.  When they put their hats down for the battle, the demons' hats are in a bit of disarray, while the angels' hats are all neatly in a row.  The gold and silver poles that they use in the block formation look shiny and awesome from up here.  No new stuff from them either.  I wonder if they were all just concentrating on keeping their shows clean.

FINALE


USMC played as the finalist corps marched in, with SCV taking longer to get perfect as usual.

The Commandant's Own

Phregiment Chevron

All Finalists

SCV playing Battle Hymn

They played "Battle Hymn of the Republic" which sounded a little better than this morning, but I still heard some questionable notes in there.  They showed a video of the week's highlights, but I didn't see PC.  I smiled a lot for SCV and Academy, though.

FINALS SCORES

12) 85.35 -- Spirit of Atlanta

Leadership Award (Drum Major) -- Cadets

11) 86.20 -- Blue Stars

10) 87.55 -- Madison Scouts

Best Color Guard:  Blue Devils

9) 89.20 -- Blue Knights

Visual Caption:  Cadets

8) 90.65 -- Boston Crusaders

Brass Caption:  Carolina Crown

7) 92.05 -- Bluecoats

Percussion Caption:  Cavaliers

6) 92.20 -- Santa Clara Vanguard  

                (do you see how they're in 6th?  Eerie).

General Effect:  Cadets

5) 95.50 -- Phantom Regiment 

                (for their salute, all of the Juliets died)

4) 95.30 -- Carolina Crown

3) 96.85 -- Cavaliers

2) 97.80 -- Blue Devils

1) 98.35 -- Cadets

They all placed in the same order as semifinals.  I would have liked to see a jump or two to make it more exciting, but I'm glad that the Cadets won because I love their show.

Big Board

ENCORE

"Cadets, the field is yours!"  Director George Hopkins thanked everyone (we think -- the microphone was too close to his mouth, so it was difficult to understand what he said).  He then announced the Angels and Demons.  They didn't use their last white sheets that are rolled onto the field, because they weren't rolled back up properly in time to do the show again.  They didn't do anything else for their encore, which is disappointing.

The Battle

Angel vs Trident

The staff guy that was on the stairs at the beginning of the show came up twice to see if people had left.  Where the heck was he for the prior two hours?!  Then someone else came to tell us we won for being the last people still in our section.  I asked for a prize, but he didn't have one.

Bro and I walked back to the hotel and I actually went to sleep instead of writing first.  Bro left earlier this morning, and I'm checking out shortly.

It's been a great trip.  Thanks, Bro for the entertaining company!

Addendum: I took the IndyGo Express shuttle to the airport, and one of the official DCI bloggers sat behind me.  He was talking to whomever on his cell phone, and I learned this information:


The Cavaliers drum major did not actually conduct the corps upside-down until Prelims, although they had rehearsed it for a week and a half.


Juliet did not actually kill herself by plunging the dagger until Finals night.  It was not the director's idea, but rather, she did it of her own accord, with encouragement from her fellow corps members.  


On a side note:  my prayers are with the families of those who died and/or were injured in the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair.  We were lucky last night in that we were indoors and did not have to deal with the storm.


I'm now sitting in the airport with some drum corps people, but I find myself wondering why the other people are just arriving in Indy.  Do they realize that they missed the biggest event of the weekend?  Suckers.