That Viper, Though

I couldn't possibly post all of these drum corps memory blogs without mentioning the Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets.  

They are the "B" corps in the SCV family, and they have a great legacy of their own.  When we've gone to SCV Family Day / Pacific Procession, we've seen them at humble beginnings of the season, and my, how they grow by the time they get to Finals, and obtain higher scores than some of the Division I or World Class corps!  

My favorite SCVC show was their 2000 "Journey From The Darkness", performing music by Rudin, Holsinger, and Melillo.  I loved the music, the drill, everything about this show.  

I'm wearing the tour shirt from this show, and it says "Journey Out of Darkness", but the wiki and CD say "From The".  So is my shirt a limited edition due to the error?  I think I did buy it on sale. Maybe that's why?

Ooh, I found video of their winning performance!  The person titled it "Journey Out of Darkness".  I'm so confused now.

I love that opening number, which had the intensity of quintessential SCV shows, like 1999, and the intensity doesn't stop until the show is done.  I miss those Aussies.  I also miss seeing more corps on the field than props.

They performed this show so well that they won the Gold medal for Division II.  At that time, there were different score sheets for Division II /III and Division I.  This didn't seem to bother SCVC a bit when they competed in Quarterfinals with the big kids, and scored so high that they made it into Semifinals; a first time for any corps to have both the A and B corps compete in Semifinals.  

Here's another video, either from Division I Quarterfinals or Semifinals.

I was like a proud Mama that day, and I had only been following the corps for a year or two, but I saw a parent of one of the SCVC members and she was beaming about how well they did.  

They wrote lyrics to their ballad, and I don't know any of them except the ending three words: "Santa Clara Vanguard", which they sang after their encore, and I sing it when I listen to the recording of their show.  

Some of my other favorite SCVC shows:  

2012 "Heroes and Legends" with the ending including a corps member wearing the traditional SCV uniform instead of the modern uniforms we see these days.  Here's a rehearsal video of their trademark Cymbals Viper from that year.  I love watching this.

2013 "The Art of War" with their "Adagio for Strings" reminding me of 2000 SCV.  Also,they do "Night on Bald Mountain", so yeah, I love that!  Hey, that drum major was Carl Huang!  He later became a drum major for SCV's "Babylon".  He has lots of medals, that guy does.

2017 "In Pieces" with their innovative stages and cool uniforms.  Here is a Cymbal Cam video during rehearsal, so you won't see their uniforms.  Hey!  It was uploaded by a friend of my former roommate's daughter!  I didn't know that he played with Blue Stars last year.  Cool for him.

SCVC has gone back to going to Finals every other year instead of every year, and this would have been a year for them to go to Indianapolis, so it's even more of a bummer that we couldn't see DCI this year.

I'm looking forward to next year's showdown!

Next up:  Not traveling to Indy