WHAT A NIGHT !!!

Tonight’s DCI Quarterfinals were a night to remember! Jeeeez!!! These corps are rocking!!
Unfortunately I only got to the stadium when Glassmen had just marched off the field after their performance. That’s too bad because I had really hoped seeing them perform today. Oh well… Hope to see them tomorrow then. Got to at least take a couple of pictures of them!
Walked in when Blue Stars were doing their show. It’s all about the Tour de France. Some very cool gimmicks!
And it was about time I finally got to see my good buddy Jim “ballstothewall” Wagner and his wife Jo-Ann. Always a pleasure to run into them, and especially tailgating with them during intermission. He is such a fun guy, straightforward,.. says it as it is. If e likes it he’s going to tell you, if he doesn’t you are sure to find out too. He always invites me for a good Canadian beer from the cooler in the trunk of his car, while Jo-Ann convinces me into having one of the sandwiches she prepared. They always manage to find a parking spot fairly close to the stadium. This year it was VERY close! Only one block from the stadium, There’s always a couple other people hanging out there with them. One of the best moments of DCI week!!... Hanging out with Jim.
He was wearing his favourite blue Jubal shirt we got him in 2006. On our way to the car we ran into a mutual friend. David Martin, talented trumpet player, that I know from my time with the Empire Statesmen back in 1992. Another fun guy. Hadn’t seen him for years! Maybe just once since Statesmen. He plays with the Hitmen now, and arranges quite a bit too.
Some stories and anecdotes from the (good) old days were shared. Jim told David he really missed a lot not having seen Jubal in 2002 and 2006. Jim is our BIGGEST Jubal fan in the states! Especially because we had some trumpet/soprano screamers back then!
He brought up the story that when we did the concert at Madison Capitol Square, we completely blew away Madison Scouts that afternoon in 2002.
Missed Blue Knights (well,.. don’t know if I really missed all that much…)
Bluecoats were great! That brass only a-cappella segment is goose bumps-city ! WOW!
Very nice concept, excellent arranging, powerful and clean drumline. All in all,.. a show not to be missed.
Santa Clara Vanguard… don’t really care for their musical book this year. Clean cut performance. Crowd seemed to enjoy the m. And there’s that VANGUARD!”, “yell from them again mid-show.
Cadets had made some dramatic changes to their programme. Last week the storyline over the microphones had been changed,.. now the complete opening segment is new. Both misic and visual! I still hate the narration! (AN ALWAYS WILL!) It is far too distracting and takes away much of the attention from the talented musicians and guard. The corps members are amazing marchers! It’s hard to figure out how they do it so well.
Phantom Regiment is doing a revival of their 92’s Spartacus show,.. same concept,.. different format! Quite some “violence” in their show this year. That put off a lot of fans, but the majority of the crowd is cheering loudly for them and are giving them standing ovations at every show. So this killing in the show must be good for something. Tonight even the drum major was stabbed. Loved the opening with the Herald trumpets!
Carolina Crown brings together a bunch of popular (classical) tunes and are among the crowd’s favourites. Best corps they have ever had!
Cavaliers are very strong with their Samurai production. The visual tricks they do are the same we are used to seeing from them. Highly entertaining and exciting.
Blue Devils rocked the house with a sublime performance. It was all there. A flabbergasting color guard performance gained them a score of 19.9 (out of 20) in their caption. Also a perfect 20 points in the visual (marching) caption! The corps is back where they want to be: in first place, though the lead is a mere 0,325 points.

Enjoy,

HK