For all y'all "non-band" folks out there, go here to see what DCI is.
A friend of my brother offered us a couple of tickets to go to this year's finals. Needless to say I was a little excited. While I never marched a drum corps, I am a musician and can appreciate the shows. I have seen a few in my time, and like... this was the FINALS! I could not wait. Just ask all the people I work with. I have been talking about this for weeks and would chastise everybody who had no idea what I was talking about.
Well.... the time had come. Larry and I hopped in the truck. Popped in the Harry Potter book on tape. And we were off for Sunny California and what we hoped would be some cooler temperatures. After checking into the hotel and letting TomTom guide us to the Rose Bowl, we met up with our friends and walked in. It all went downhill from there. It was beyond crowded. It was hot. Lines EVERYWHERE. There were only like 30k people here... How in the h3ll do they deal with 100k at a football game?! Due to horrible horrible crowd control we ended up missing the first couple corps. And when we finally made it to our seats, they were tiny. No... tiny does not express how small these seats were. To say they were tiny is like saying Britney is "kinda trashy". I had my back pushed all the way back in the seat and my legs were actually too long to fit due to the seats in front of us. And my shoulder span was at least twice the width of the seats. Half way through the second show, I was having cramps. Ouch.
And... I have to say... I was not impressed by the shows. We were a little off to the side I realize, but the playing sounded muddy... too soft... the marching was quite often out of step and the lines were not straight. Maybe I am holding them to a standard of my memory, but overall... just not impressed. But... in spite of all that. I still had a really good time. Larry and I don't hang out as much as we should, which is kinda funny since our houses are about 100 yards from each other. So this was a good weekend for that.
We did a little shopping and watched some of the corps warming up which was neat. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Oh... one other thing. They made us park on a golf course. A little piece of my soul died as I had to pull my truck onto a fairway. It was a gorgeous course and it hurt to see so many cars parked on the grass. Seeing a sand trap with cars surrounding it did make for an interesting picture though.
Enjoy the couple pictures I posted.
--C
A friend of my brother offered us a couple of tickets to go to this year's finals. Needless to say I was a little excited. While I never marched a drum corps, I am a musician and can appreciate the shows. I have seen a few in my time, and like... this was the FINALS! I could not wait. Just ask all the people I work with. I have been talking about this for weeks and would chastise everybody who had no idea what I was talking about.
Well.... the time had come. Larry and I hopped in the truck. Popped in the Harry Potter book on tape. And we were off for Sunny California and what we hoped would be some cooler temperatures. After checking into the hotel and letting TomTom guide us to the Rose Bowl, we met up with our friends and walked in. It all went downhill from there. It was beyond crowded. It was hot. Lines EVERYWHERE. There were only like 30k people here... How in the h3ll do they deal with 100k at a football game?! Due to horrible horrible crowd control we ended up missing the first couple corps. And when we finally made it to our seats, they were tiny. No... tiny does not express how small these seats were. To say they were tiny is like saying Britney is "kinda trashy". I had my back pushed all the way back in the seat and my legs were actually too long to fit due to the seats in front of us. And my shoulder span was at least twice the width of the seats. Half way through the second show, I was having cramps. Ouch.
And... I have to say... I was not impressed by the shows. We were a little off to the side I realize, but the playing sounded muddy... too soft... the marching was quite often out of step and the lines were not straight. Maybe I am holding them to a standard of my memory, but overall... just not impressed. But... in spite of all that. I still had a really good time. Larry and I don't hang out as much as we should, which is kinda funny since our houses are about 100 yards from each other. So this was a good weekend for that.
We did a little shopping and watched some of the corps warming up which was neat. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Oh... one other thing. They made us park on a golf course. A little piece of my soul died as I had to pull my truck onto a fairway. It was a gorgeous course and it hurt to see so many cars parked on the grass. Seeing a sand trap with cars surrounding it did make for an interesting picture though.
Enjoy the couple pictures I posted.
--C
Comments
Just saying... E and I were 20 minutes away, thats close enough for coffee.