Crest 2: Now With Improved Flavor!

Corps at the Crest -- Walnut

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Mount San Antonio College, Hilmer Lodge Stadium

Walnut, CA

I hung out at my parents’ house with the family for a while, then needed to go to Mass before going to Walnut.  I arrived late to the show, and just missed getting to my seat to see Bishop Grandin HS, so I decided to spend that time at the VIP area for Pacific Crest, where they had provided food and drinks for their supporters.  

Ed & Bro

I met Bro at our seats, which were on the left 40 yard line, Section C, Row Z, Seats 6 & 7.  There were girls in back of us that Bro had said were earlier talking a lot, but they were shushed by someone.  Then an older gentleman sat next to Bro and informed him that someone had an extra ticket and sold it to him for $10.00.  Nice deal for these VIP seats!  He said that his son was watching the DCI show in Seattle, and his son wanted to know who we’d be seeing tonight.  So Bro got on the phone with him and told him.  I yelled that we’re jealous because we were not getting to see SCV, but I don’t think he heard me.  The guy next to Bro is named Ed.  Turns out that he is a good friend of our alma mater’s prior band director, and that Ed used to live in Arcadia.  He now has a place in Glendora, and it has a swimming pool.  We invited ourselves over for a swim.  Ed couldn’t believe that Bro is the age that he is, and told him that is mom looks like his sister.  We told him that I AM his sister, so that all works out.  Ed has 2 sons whom both played the trumpet in their high school (and one in college) bands, and his son had called him 15 minutes before the show started in order to inform him about tonight’s show, so here he was.  We liked him immediately.

SO CAL DREAM

Repertoire:  “Q” -- The Show Must Go On; Death on Two Legs; Who Wants to Live Forever; Don’t Stop Me Now; Crazy Little Thing Called Love, all by Queen

I like the lavender drums.  I know that ballad, but I couldn’t pinpoint it, even now that I know the song titles.  One of the arms on each color guard member is laced up with ribbon.  I wonder if that’s actual ribbon, or part of a sleeve of their garment.  

IMPULSE

So now that I know that Justin is in the corps, I forgot to cheer for him.  I did try to guess which trumpet player he is, though.  At one point, a couple of the marimba players were playing one-handed.

Is Justin one of these pictured?

CITY SOUND

Oh, the chant corps portion is a call and response with the leader being in the pit.  Are we supposed to chant in the audience, too?  Why do they have that bass guitar in the pit if I can’t even hear it?

Modified Bongo/Conga Drums

GOLD

I like when the color guard hides behind the parasols, then rise up briefly.  The flags were better today, but there were still several weapons drops.  ACK!  Fix those lines!  When the CG does that thing with their heads, I think of Cadets 2005 and the tree spirits from that Miyazaki film.  I did the sound so that Bro could hear, and he giggled.  We have our inside shorthand communication.

Parasols

<Intermission>

Yay!  Tim’s here!  I told him that I was looking forward to what he would say about Blue Devils playing his favorite song.

Sher & Tim

MANDARINS

They sounded really good, and looked really good.  I wonder if that one formation is the Chinese character for a question mark.  I need to look at those flags closely.  They turned out to be one of Ed’s favorite corps of the evening.

Awesome Mandarins Soloist

PACIFIC CREST

As usual, PC kicked up their program a notch for their home crowd.   The heart on the left at the beginning doesn’t look so much like a piano anymore.  Perhaps they fixed the angle.   See?  Blocks look a lot better when the lines are straight.  No more fake ending.  Maybe they took it out because it confused people.

Heart Mid-show

CAROLINA CROWN

They have so much crap that the CG carries laundry baskets for their stuff.  “Do you love the horns, Sher?”  “You know I love the horns.”  This is what starts in my head when that last act starts.  I’d rather hear my words than theirs.  The girl behind me thinks that the love crap is cute.  The guy near them called them “Stupidly Amazing”.  I concur.  Can they just stop with the talking, please?  A dude a few rows ahead of us kept standing up for them during the show.

Crown Kneeling

BLUE DEVILS

They changed a bunch of stuff.  There are no more solos that are not aided by microphones.  Surprise!  I do not like their CG uniforms.  (No, this should not really be a surprise, if you know my history with BD).  So now the dead girl isn’t laying down flat.  Instead, she’s stuck in a position like she has rigor mortis.  The dude that stood up for crown did not stand at all for BD.  I later saw the front of his shirt, and it was a Crown shirt.  Oh, that’s why.  I liked the show less tonight than I did when I saw them last time.  Uh-oh.

BD Archers

Encore

Crown & PC Enter Field

Carolina Crown and Pacific Crest played “Turn the Beat Around” together.

Pacific Crest then played their show music, as well as their corps song, “Ave Maria”.

PC Soloist

SCORES

All-Age Corps:

60.40  So Cal Dream

Open Class:

3) 53.35  City Sound

2) 61.85  Impulse

1) 68.50  Gold

World Class:

4) 67.85  Mandarins

3) 70.30  Pacific Crest

2) 80.90  Blue Devils

1) 81.20  Carolina Crown

Corps Leaders

Announcer Ryan T gave a big pause after announcing the 2nd place score.  There was much applause after he announced that it belonged to the Blue Devils.  Well, I guess it’s good that they didn’t boo.  We said goodbye to Ed, who invited us over for a swim someday.  He was really funny and a nice person.  Hope we see him again.

Tim met up with us again and I asked what he thought.  He said, “Tonight I saw one of the most amazing things on the field, as well as the most offensive.”  Tim is not a fan of amplification.  I have one thing to say to you, Tim:  you are not a curmudgeon.  You are a MUSICIAN, because you value the acoustical sound without any modification.  :)  That’s coming from a fellow musician, whom, like you feel about wind/brass instruments being powered by the breath of life, I feel that way about the human voice and a capella music.  

I bought a Carolina Crown shirt and we made our way back to our cars.  We had all thought that we would ned to pay for parking, but it turns out that we all parked for free, so maybe the $3 announcement encouraged people to carpool, which is the reason that I didn’t have a problem finding parking this year.

Somebody turned on my Stupid Button, and I went on the wrong freeway, so it took me longer to get to my parents’ house than it did for Bro.  One more day to go.  For now.

Next up:  Western Corps Connection