Welcoming Troop to SCV Family Day

Pacific Procession

Monday, June 25, 2018

Santa Clara High School

Santa Clara, CA

Bro slept in because he had a long drive later on, so I blogged and ate my Hobee's coffeecake for breakfast while waiting to leave.  We had some time before going to the high school, so we wandered around Great Mall.  Bro still has not found what he had been shopping for all weekend, but he did spy a dress for me to buy, which only cost $7, and was "free size".  The store had a bunch of flowy pieces of clothing, and if we had lots of time, I might have bought more than 2.  Alas, our lunch time at Red Robin took far longer than we estimated. 

Bro said, "My favorite day."  I agree, this one is fun for the SCV Fan/Family.  I don't think we should skip this one if we do cut our Northern CA journeys short in the future. We did get to the school in plenty of time to park and find seats prior to anything happening that was listed in the program.  We arrived during SCV's rehearsal, and decided to sit up front, on the left side.  One of the treats about this day is that we get to witness the 3 corps watch each other perform in exhibition.  If we had arrived earlier, we also would have watched more rehearsal time, which we also find interesting.

Run-throughs were done in plain clothes, and Bro and I like to see the differences in day uniforms for each section of the different corps.

• SCV Cadets -- All of them wore green shorts with "SCV 18" on the leg.
  

• Troopers -- I like the 11 on the side of the color guard's shirts

Trooper corps director thanking SCV as they had
never been a part of another corps' family day like this

Eleven

Trumpet Soloist

• SCV -- Nice shorts, bass drummers!  They're purple with elephants and giraffes on them.  I love watching Carl conduct because his motions are so emphatic and easy to follow.  He has awesome upper back muscles because of the workout on his arms/delts.

Can you imagine hearing about this show as a performer?
"You're going to start inside the tower, laying down..."

Conducting Arms

Drummers Drumming After the Run-through

I love how excited the kids get about each others' shows!  They got to sit in the stands, so they had a rare audience viewpoint.  

Then the horn players from all three corps got in a huge arc to rehearse their two signature songs.

We had plenty of time before the next item in the program, so Bro and I took turns going to the souvenir stands and the facilities.  I bought an SCV shirt that has the shield in the front and the corps name on the back in the same script as the corps jackets.  I really want to buy some kind of clothing from the Troopers, but they don't really have any style other than the standard t-shirt shape.  I'm still considering getting their sweat pants.   I decided to get boba since we had lots of time, and stood in a line that took an inexplicably long time to move forward.  I was in line with a bunch of the corps kids, and it was fun to hear them talk drum corps from their point of view as they visited with former corps members whom had come for the show, which is a bit of a homecoming for SCV.  My drink wasn't really worth the wait, but that's OK, it gave me something to do.

The Santa Clara Big Band played for a while as the corps had their dinner and got dressed in their uniforms. It was the last performance for one of the singers, which got SCV Director Charlie a little choked up to announce.  A couple of awards from local dignitaries were announced, as well as a shout-out to Charlie for his birthday.  Happy Birthday!

Santa Clara Big Band

As the big band played, I was rocking out to a couple of tunes and the little 2-3 year old boy beside me petted my back.  I don't know if he was trying to make me stop, or if he was just showing his approval.  At one point during the show, he wanted to see my nails, so I gladly obliged.  He even touched my cheek at one point.  I wondered if he had heard me tell Bro that I wanted to pinch the kid's cheeks earlier before he sat down next to me.  He could have at least offered me some of his snacks, but he didn't.  Such a guy.

Voice of DCI Brandt Crocker was present, and announced each show.  Hi, Brandt!  After each corps was done performing, they stood in front of the stands to watch each other.  I love that SCVC got excited about everything SCV, even the driver of the pit cart.  They were especially excited when SCV drum major got up on his platform: Carl is a former drum major for SCVC.

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD CADETS

That dance part is going to look really cool when they clean it up.  Finally, all three color guard members caught their rifles at the opening, which did not happen on the previous days.  They've only been together for a little over two weeks, so I'm sure they'll be able to clean it up really well, as always.  I just hope we get to see some drill for their closer before they leave California.  I also hope we get to see their uniforms before then.

Small Ensemble

Same guard formation, other side of stage

TROOPERS

The trumpet soloist gets to have people peel off his outer jacket and hat for him, unlike the rest of the corps whom have to do this for themselves.  Wait.  None of the compasses were facing West, or to the left of the field.  I guess they weren't paying attention when they put them on top of the boxes.

Troopers Front Ensemble

Duet

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD

How high is that note?!?  Jeepers!  I didn't realize that the people playing that note were on the right side of the field, using mic stands.  This show gets more amazing every day, and they still have only done their closer at a stand still.

Carl Saluting

There Are People In There

All three hornlines gathered for the joint encore, another traditional treat for this event:

Troopers' Signature Song:  "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Vanguard's Signature Song: "Send In The Clowns"

Now THAT'S a horn line!  I maybe would have enjoyed it more had my new little boyfriend not been talking the entire time.

Bro drove us back to So Cal after the show.  On the way, we saw two different incidents on the freeway wherein the vehicles looked like some kind of monster had picked them up and crushed them in its hands.  There weren't other mangled vehicles around to indicate a collision, just the emergency vehicles, and it was the middle of the night, so it was extra creepy.  We got back to Bro's house safely, and as I got ready for bed, I realized that I didn't have my car key, although I had placed some of my stuff in the trunk.  I couldn't go out to my car because I didn't want to set off the alarm at 2:30 a.m.  In the morning, Bro told me that he was the one who had opened the trunk with my key, and there it was, still in the lock. Thank goodness the car was inside the garage!

I visited with the family for a little while before driving to my own home.  I'll be going through a couple of days of drum corps withdrawal, and I'm sad that the Wednesday show got canceled due to the Cadets' decision not to tour out west because of some administrative issues.  OK, a scandal.  They'll get through this OK, but it's been sad to see.  We missed you, Cadets!  Be well, and we'll see you in Indy.