DCI in West-Monster...

There’s nothing like a drum corps show in your hometown to kick off a drum corps weekend. Last night there was a show here in Maryland, and a lot of the drum corps locals all wet out to it. I didn’t really watch much of the show because I was busy catching up with Tommy, Gino, and Ben Harloff. I have seen Tommy and Gino a few times at Brigs camps this year, but it has been about 2 years since I had spoke to Ben.

We hung out mainly in the lot even though we got free passes to the show from Tommy (thanks Tommy!) The Cadets warm up was absolutely incredible. I got some recordings of it on my phone, and they turned out pretty good considering that it was a phone recording. Gino has that magic touch whenever he gets his hands on a horn line. He just flat out gets people to play. It is very impressive to see what he can do with inexperienced players, but it blows you mind what he can do with talent. He can make talented kids that much better.

We did manage to catch a few corps after their warm up. We caught the end of Boston Crusaders, all of Crown and all of Cadets. I was fairly impressed with the quality performances all the groups put on the field. Boston & Crown had some programming issues in their design. Hopefully they work them all out by Finals. Cadets are like crack for the eyes and ears. There is way too much to follow, but once you see it a few times you would probably understand it.

Also got to see Kristen Geswaldo. She was a member of the Brigadiers. She seems to be doing well. Getting over another injury, but still able to perform and do it very well.

Well enough out of me for now…I’ll be back later with a little Rochester weekend pre-hype sometime this afternoon!

And a special shout out to Fran Harring...someday we'll get you a microphone that works!