Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sherry who loved watching marching bands. She auditioned for her junior high school drill team, got in, and marched for 2 years. Although she couldn't fit marching band into her schedule when she got to high school, so she didn't audition, but as a member of the orchestra, she supported the Apache Marching Band by selling programs at the annual Arcadia Band Review, and attending high school football games just to see their halftime shows. On some Thanksgiving weekends, she would join her brother in watching Drum Corps International on PBS. This is when they would show the Finals competition that was recorded in August of that year. Little did Sherry know while she was watching those shows that it was Bro's dream to someday go to DCI Finals. Bro eventually graduated after falling in love with precision marching even more than Sherry, even though he never marched. When Bro graduated from college and moved near Santa Clara, CA, he began to attend rehearsals and shows featuring the home corps, Santa Clara Vanguard. Bro got us tickets to my first live shows in 1997, and of course, I was hooked. I enjoyed SCV's "Fog City Sketches" and Blue Devils' "As Time Goes By", and the Cavaliers succeeded in making Sherry enjoy the music of Stravinsky for the first time as they performed "The Firebird". (Yeah, I wasn't fond of that until then.)
Bro decided that we were going to Madison to attend DCI Finals in 1999. I asked for time off of work, and except for one year before this COVID19 one, I have always asked for time off during a specific week in August. :) Bro's best friend, Chun, was convinced to attend these shows, too, and the 3 of us made the flight to Madison, WI.
Madison is pretty much Mecca for DCI fans, due to a rich history of Finals competitions there,as well as some regional competitions. At that time, Finals took place in different locations around the country, but every once in a while, they came back to Madison at Camp Randall Stadium. The residents of Madison were well aware, then, of what drum corps was about, and the competition was featured on the news to let people know why there were a bunch of kids playing instruments and tossing flags all around town. We went to Individual & Ensemble competitions by Lake Mendota. We attended SCV rehearsals near the Oscar Mayer plant, which was less than fun for our olfactory senses, yet we stayed for a couple of hours. I will always remember the several moments when the brass players were told to sing their parts instead of play their instruments while they went over their drill again and again. I loved every moment of it except for the odor.
We had our non-DCI adventures, too. Bro needed socks because I think he forgot his, so we went to Kohl's department store. We were not familiar with Kohl's at the time because it hadn't made its way to the West Coast yet. We needed some food for snacks in our hotel room because we knew that we would be getting home late during our evenings there and wouldn't have any room service available. So we asked the cashier at Kohl's where the nearest grocery store was located. She looked at us like we had each grown an extra head out of our foreheads. We tried other words for "grocery store", like "supermarket", or "market", or "a place where you buy food that's not cooked". Then she finally understood us and told us there was a store nearby. We later realized that Kohl's also had a grocery store! Not at that present location where the cashier girl was, but another place. Maybe we bought our groceries there, I'm not sure anymore.
I remember the very long circular ramps leading us to our seats high up at Camp Randall, and being able to hear sirens behind the stands, as well as some corps warming up, especially BD. I remember being overwhelmed by how much excitement happened that night by everyone in the crowd, and the electricity that was felt for every corps. I also remember hearing other people on the shuttle bus talk about not understanding SCV's show because the music wasn't catchy enough for them. I felt the steam rising in me, and Bro said that he was proud of me for not mouthing off at the people. He knew. They were Troopers fans and apparently, you can't do anything non-patriotic or whatever. They are called the Vanguard for a reason. OK, I'm getting all mad again! It's 21 years later. It's a whole person-old-enough-to-drink ago!
I also remember going to a restaurant on Finals night (IHOP or Denny's or something open late), and talking to a guy from the Cavaliers. He told me that he had a lot of fun that summer, not like one of his friends who was a member of the Cadets and just worked hard the whole time. Bro told me a moment later that maybe I shouldn't have been talking about another corps when there was a guy from the Cadets standing, like, 5 feet away from me. Oops.
Spartans won Division II and Mandarins won Division III. I think we saw that happen. I remember Spartans doing a Russian show, but when I looked up just now what they did that year, the title doesn't look familiar. Maybe that was a different year.
Here's what I remember about the corps, besides what I'm currently watching on my very old 1999 VHS recording (!):
12th place: Colts
I got nothing in the memory bank, I guess.
11th place: Carolina Crown
Their show was "Jekyll and Hyde" from the Broadway show. I love, love, LOVE J&H, and this was my first time to see Carolina Crown. I didn't remember them from the PBS broadcast, maybe because they hadn't placed high enough back then. I loved the costume changes the color guard did throughout the show as they showed Jekyll becoming more like Hyde, and being white on one half and black on the other during the Confrontation between the 2 characters. Crown has always been special to me because of that show, even when they make choices with which I don't agree (WHEN are they going to get away from those wacked out freaking hats?!?!?!).
10th place: Boston Crusaders
I had heard of this corps but had never seen their shows, because this was the first year that they actually made it to Finals.
9th place: Crossmen
Nice to meet you, Bones! No, I didn't actually meet Bones, but I loved learning about their tradition of having a phantom corps member saluting them during Finals week, and I now always try to get a picture of them.
8th place: Phantom Regiment
Ah, Phantom. I certainly remembered them from the PBS Broadcasts, and was happy to see their Tchaikovsky show. Upon seeing them again tonight, I said "Hi, Tommy!" to the drum major on the screen. I remember that he won the Leadership award that year, and he made a speech to the age outs. They don't do those speeches anymore.
7th place: Blue Knights
The shooting at Columbine happened in 1999, and BK had 2 corps members whom were present at the school on that horrible day. The corps had patches in tribute to the victims of the shooting, and DCI did a little segment about them during the PBS broadcast. I think I cried that night when they talked about it. Back then, they still had a local artist hand-paint all of their flags, and I loved the uniqueness of it in a world of mass-produced, computerized designs. BK was shown on TV that night in Madison instead of the Scouts because of the marching order, due to BK being in 6th place at Semis, and the live broadcast was only meant to be for the top 6. I was not happy about that, seeing how beloved the Scouts were to their community.
6th place: Madison Scouts
"Jesus Christ Superstar". This is the show that is just MADISON for me, my favorite one of theirs. I loved the electricity in the air when they took the field, and the people in the stands went all CRAZY for them, rightly so. It was so entertaining, from the beginning solo introduction to the end rapid formations from the fleur de lis to the cross to the star. They are so loved in Madison that the local TV stations ended up showing their performance later that night on their news broadcasts. Or was it the next morning? I can't remember. I got the tour shirt from that show, and Bro gave me a hard time about wearing a Madison shirt to an SCV rehearsal. But I really like that show! I never made that mistake again. :)
5th place: Glassmen
I don't remember much except that I liked the shininess of their uniforms.
4th place: The Cadets
APPARENTLY, they work too hard. They were the defending champions, so I get it.
3rd place: The Cavaliers
This was a great show, with the main theme of "Ode to Joy". I loved their "diamond cutter" movements, and their athleticism. They were awesome. APPARENTLY, they had fun.
1st place: Blue Devils and SCV (tie)
I love that the first time we went to Finals, our favorite corps won! SCV was a point behind BD on Semifinals night, and they cleaned up their show by 0.8 to catch them! (BD lost 0.2). When the tie was announced, the crowd went bananas. Chants of "SCV! SCV! SCV!" rang out throughout the stands, and SCV itself was as stoic as they were supposed to be. I love that it could be heard during the broadcast, too (announcement is at the 5:25 mark).
BD's "RHYTHMS...at the edge of time" is one of my favorites, partly for the memory of that night, and partly because I just really like the show. I just didn't like the color guard uniforms. It reminded me of spiderwebs and it was creepy, not cool, like Spider-man.
SCV's "Inventions for a New Millennium" is one of my favorite shows, DUH. Anyway, I love it for the drill, the music, the performance, the intensity of drum major Michael, and the green feathers in the Age Outs' Aussies. I also love that Bro's friend Kenji was part of the corps and we were really excited for him! I cried during their encore of "Send in the Clowns" as they dedicated it to one of their corps members who died in a car accident coming home from rehearsal that year. His brother, who was in the accident with him, continued to play with the corps, and got to win for both of them that night. And now I have tears in my eyes again.
Chun was our photographer back then, so I don't have corps pictures, or at least not ones as good as his. Here's a pic of the 3 of us on Finals night. I wonder where I put that sweatshirt?
Next up for the blog: SCV Cadets
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