Wait. Catch me!

 DCI Prelims

Thursday, August 7, 2025

View from FloMarching Broadcast

Bro's House, CA

Since we are not at Indianapolis this year for Finals Week, I asked Bro if we could watch the FloMarching broadcast from his house.  So he decorated the house with a few more drum corps items than usual, and set up the big TV to show the multi-cam feed, and another monitor next to it for the high-cam feed.  I had gone to Costco the day before to get some better-than-stadium snacks and we were all set!  

He had started the broadcast from the beginning, but I didn't arrive until later.  Apologies to the earlier corps for my tardiness, especially because I think that none of them qualified for Semi-finals, so I won't be able to see them.  

Scores marked with a * ranked in the top 25, and the corps move on to Semi-finals.

RIVER CITY RHYTHM -- 73.70*

Repertoire: "Winds of Change" - Blowin' In the Wind;  The Times They Are A-Changin';  Hurricane; When the Ship Comes In; Make You Feel My Love, all by B. Dylan

I arrived during this show, so I couldn't really follow anything. They have protest signs as part of the props, and what looks like newsprint on their uniforms.

<Intermission>

Time to get snacks ready!  I also took the opportunity to buy merchandise, as I would in Indy.  I didn't buy anything from the corps, though.  SDSU has cute Hello Kitty merch right now, and I'm repping for the nephew.

Also, we needed our traditional selfie.

The Niblings (O and B), Coda, Bro (R), and Me (S)
Can you find the 3 SCV bears?

CALGARY STAMPEDE SHOWBAND -- 76.75*

Repertoire: "If We Build It" -- Road To Hell (Hadestown) by A. Mitchell; Wait for Me (Hadestown) by A. Mitchell; BPM 194: Tom Cruise Runs by A. Meredith; Bump by A. Meredith; Construction Études by J.  Meehan; Defying Gravity by J. Pero

Ooh, Hadestown trombone solo!  Nice!  From their uniforms, it looks like this show is about Bloody Chess.  Oh, that's right: they have woodwinds.  Sax solo for Defying Gravity.  We never found out why they were bloody nor was there any chess, so I don't know about those uniforms.

COLUMBIANS -- 74.75*

Repertoire: "Bloom" -- Can Ya Feel by B. Ridenour; We Bought a Zoo by J. P. Birgisson; Sunflower by A. R. Post; Go The Distance by A. Menken;  Spring 1 (from Recomposed) by M. Richter;  Make Our Garden Grow by L. Bernstein  

Bro did not like the gathering of their cap sleeves on the uniform.

O:  I don't like the top.  The blue looks cheap.

Well, OK, then!  Have I told you that the niece is quite fashionable?

Flowers and suns and sunflowers.  They have a formation of a flower with the stem.  Very busy flower pattern on the drums.  I like the little sprigs of flowers in the pit, though.

THE BATTALION -- 78.50*

Repertoire: "Foretold the Ravens" -- Commencement by J. Richards; Rite of Spring by I. Stravinsky;  Artemis and Apollo by J. Richards; Aspect by J. Richards

Their props are symbols in circles.  Perhaps this is how ravens communicate.  There is a scary weapon thing, and someone appears to have fangs.  Not sure if this is a piercing just for the show, or just a real-life thing.  Somebody lost a shoe by the 50, and we spent most of the time looking for it.  I like the feature for the contras.

Do you see the footless shoe?

GOLD -- 79.975*

AT the start of the show, the customer in the chair gets bloody by pulling out some red fringe-y fabric at his neck.  The guard has blood splatter on their faces for the whole show.  That's a big pie prop that they didn't have before.  Neither was that huge red flag going over the corps like a pool of blood.

SPARTANS -- 81.725*

This show will score pretty high.  I'm not sure now if we were underground because I see roots on their screens, which I thought were coral.  Whatevs.  It's pretty.

SEATTLE CASCADES -- 77.50*

The yellow props didn't work today, but we did get to see the final shimmery screens.  The final formation is like the pattern on their uniforms and whatever symbol they make with their fingers at the end of the show.

GENESIS -- 78.075*

Their skirts are actually strips of fabric, not one solid piece.  Bro ran to get a banana for the picture below to match the modified rifles.

I like this heart formation

MUSIC CITY -- 83.05*

O likes their sashes.  Those are clock gears on their uniforms.  It's difficult to see the clock numbers on the tarp when watching the broadcast.

THE ACADEMY -- 82.55*

Well, I finally got the chess piece that I wanted to see earlier today, because the drum major had a Knight chess piece on their stand.  Bro said it was their tradition, which I don't remember.  The drummers never take off thier jackets, which the rest of the corps does for the sunshine.

S: Why is it foggy again?

R: The fog always comes back in London.

CROSSMEN -- 82.50*

I like the uniform more now that I realized that the white stripes are the hashmarks of the crosswalk.  

B (before the show started): It's already funny.

(Others in our family did not understand why people in the crowd were laughing every time the recording said, "WAIT." like at a crosswalk.)

<Intermission>

We are now joined by the folks watching "Big, Loud, Live" in the theaters.

Hi, Glenn!

Hey!  It's Brandt Crocker announcing the corps!

PACIFIC CREST -- 83.863*

The soloists were having microphone issues.  Too many drops, Color Guard.  Oh, she has one of those little machines that spits out fake money for the greed portion.  But now they need to clean those up at the end.

SPIRIT OF ATLANTA -- 86.625*

The soloist kind of blew a kiss at the end.  

S: But it's not a romantic song!

The drum major waved at the end a made a delta with her hands.  I liked the show better when watching from the sidelines in Allentown.  

MADISON SCOUTS -- 85.55*

I now have a better view of the uniforms and I really don't like them.

R: Can you just pick a half and make it a whole?

"Toxic" does not need a soprano trombone solo.  Yet there it is.  

COLTS -- 88.038*

I like how the green pyramids match the field because they're not ready for you to look at them.  The guard catches were spot on.  Great job, Colts!

BLUE KNIGHTS -- 87.60*

They do not have a sleepy portion for Bro this year.  I really like their guard uniforms and pretty blue flags.

TROOPERS -- 90.325*

Aw, Brandt was having a little bit of trouble pronouncing the name of one of the drum majors.  The hats look weird with that uniform, so I'm glad they put on the duster jackets later, because then they look better.  Aha, we get the plot now, as Bro pointed out what's going on by showing us the drum major wearing black on the field.  So everything is nice and happy, but then the cellist starts playing, and we see the oil barrels from the 1st show of this series.  Then the devil returns!  And he kills our Trooper hero!  And that's what the pine box funeral is for, as we see the hero walking toward heaven at the end.  We're wondering what else is going to change as finals week progresses.  The drum major was crying during the funeral portion.  Very nicely done, and the sunburst was amazing today.  

<Intermission>

BLUE STARS -- 90.488*

We really like this show.  Very nice "Winner Takes It All" baritone solo.  Not sure if that bicycle was in Allentown.

CAVALIERS -- 91.163*

The sides of their props look like a tambourine without the little cymbals.  The corps has over 90 rookies, so they may be quite the threat in a couple of years.  Look out for the future of the Green Machine!

MANDARINS -- 92.45*

Not sure if that one pillar in the middle was supposed to be down or up.  You could get away with any falls in this show and it will look right.  "Catch me."

CAROLINA CROWN -- 94.638*

So many pointy things for the Point fo No Return.  One of the shoulder things from the color guard uniform fell on the field, and Bro was concerned that someone would slip on it.  Oh, so if you run in front of the scary red being, you can't go back to join your friends again.

O interpreted the show like the party in Hadestown when Persephone didn't come back.

Bro told me that people call Crown "God's Hornline".  Can't really argue with that talent!

PHANTOM REGIMENT -- 93.65*

Uh oh.  It's windy down there on the field of Lucas Oil.  In a dome.  So the air conditioning is on full blast, making their sheer curtains look like they're in a haunted house.  I know this show doesn't have a name, but are we to interpret it differently now?  It was just kind of a mess.  Bro has been telling the universe that Phregiment needs to put weights on the fabric to keep them from flying, but I guess they couldn't hear him from Rockford.

BLUE DEVILS -- 95.588*

Oh, that's a soprano sax?  Not an oboe?  My bad.  It's still pretty, though, and still fittingly ironic that a woodwind is playing "Uninvited" in a drum corps show.  There is still no big surprise ending.  YET.

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD -- 95.875*

Someone on the internet: "Get weird, Santa Clara!!"  I love that.  Bro had his Pringles props today because I had brought some little packs just for this occasion.  B did not put one on his head to emulate his dad, though.

BOSTON CRUSADERS -- 97.325*

I'm happy when the color guard soloist catches all of his equipment and shows that smile.  I like the music that's kind of reminiscent of the 50s when there was so much promise about atomic energy and its possibilities.  You know, before meltdowns and stuff.

BLUECOATS -- 97.15*

The corps members are all wearing the same glasses, but not the drum major or color guard.  I like the colors in this show.  Wouldn't it have been hot for the drummers in the glass-looking boxes when they were outside?  It must have been torture if they ever had to wait for the sound systems to be adjusted.

Way to go, Boston!  Try to hold on!  Recaps show that Boston's lead is mostly thanks to the big gap in their percussion score over the others.  We just wish that the drums would be highighted more by FloMarching, because the guard seems to get most of the attention.  Let's see what happens tomorrow. as all the corps adjust and ramp it up even more, now that we're down to the wire. It's exciting, folks!

So the night ended 3 hours than we're used to when we're in Indy, which is nice.  It's also nice that I was able to type this while watching the All Age corps competition online the next day.

Next up:  Semifinals