Drum Corps Finals Start TOMORROW!

I'm a band fag.

Yup, I freely admit it. HUGE band geek all the way though Grad School, if you can believe it. In fact, I still play the trombone and baritone in a local concert band. It gives me joy-- and frustration as K-dog will attest.

I doubt I would have been so band-faggoty, had it not been for the incredibly strong music program in my community growing up. As you know, I grew up in the middle of Iowa- home of Meredith Wilson (of Music Man fame). River City, Iowa doesn't exist... but Mason City does! And how can you live in small town, iowa and NOT have a band program, really?

So my music education naturally funneled me into becoming a proud member of the "Marching Hawks". Go Maroon! Go Gold!

Ok, so what if our band uniforms looked as if someone fed a monkey a tube of glitter and then let it fling shit on a white leisure suit? We still rocked and were one of the best marching bands in the STATE!

This brings me to Drum and Bugle Corps. You can't be a brass player or percussionist in a good marching band and NOT know of these guys.

They are the band geek equivalent of "Gods of the Stadium".

Drum and Bugle Corps are like marching bands in a way. If you were to take a marching band, strip out all the piddly-ass woodwinds, beef it up with all brass instruments that can hit 110 decibels, and then feed them all a healthy dose of cocaine before performing.

These guys seriously MOVE! And it isn't just moving... its perfectly syncronized movement with jaw dropping drill. All while playing orchestral level music.

I liken it to what Cirque du Soleil would put on the field, if they actually played instruments while doing their movement.

In College (at Northwestern- another stellar music and marching program) I had the honor of auditioning and making the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps out of Rosemont, Illinois. They are arguably one of the best Drum Corps ever and it was a real coup for me to get to march with them. It was insanely hard work. It was insanely rewarding. And I shall always look back on it (while wiping away one, glistening tear) as one of those incredible life experiences that can't be repeated.

Sigh.

Drum Corps develop and perfect an 11 minute show during the course of the summer and tour around to various communities near you to perform it. In the second week of August, the International finals are held. This year the finals are in Madison and they happen on Saturday night. The last time they were in Madison, I was there and watched my Cavaliers perform a nearly flawless show and score the highest point total in DCI history.

Tomorrow night are the Quarterfinals (which I'll be watching broadcast live in a theater in Raleigh). My beloved Cavaliers are performing last as they have been winning the last part of the summer. But they aren't winning by much, and its giving me an ulcer.

I am seriously a geek about this stuff. If the Cavaliers win, I'll be on cloud 9. If they lose to the Blue Devils (the winningest corps in the history of DCI) then I'll be crushed.

Everyone, I'm asking you to keep your fingers crossed and to send up a silent prayer that the Cavaliers pull out yet another stunning victory in 2006.

"Oh the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street, oh PLEASE let it be for me..."