Drumroll, Please

Last Saturday night, I made my way to Stanford Stadium. Despite the still 90 degree heat and all my sweating, I was in for five hours of drum and bugle corps excellence. The first hour and a half were bands in the open class. These are the "JV" of teams, but I was still quite impressed. I had no idea what I was in for.

In case you're not sure what I was watching, it's basically marching band, but with only drums, horns, and color guard...and major league choreography.

For the open class bands, there was a judge on the field talking into tape recorders or walkie talkies. When the night first started, I saw one of them on the field and I thought, "Why is that guy wandering around in the middle of the performance?!?!" It took me a few bands to figure it out. It's fun to watch them have to run out of the way when they mis-predict what the band will do. My apologies for the pictures being taken from so far away and some blur. I almost didn't post any, but I think they help tell the story. Full album here.

I guess that you need everyone present in order for the formations to work. I felt bad for this woman in the sling.

Woo! They are dancing!

On came the world class bands...

The Mandarins--the color guard used air matresses as props and changed costumes, while the band played "Ode to Joy."

The Troopers--from Casper, WY the band looked like military men and the color guard looked like Pocahontas. I really liked their style. They were very serious.

Blue Knights from Denver--I think this is when I saw my first bugle tumble of the night.

Blue Cadets from Ohio--this band stole the show from me up to this point.

They started with this guy in a black suit with a red umbrella. I lost track of him once he put down the umbrella.

The theme was "Imagine" and during the 10-minute show, the entire band changed from their dress tops to shirts that looked like a blue sky with puffy clouds and got rid of their hats (can you see the new outfits?). I was impressed.

Santa Clara Vanguard--The locals! This band was completely professional. They played "Simple Gifts" at one point and their use of changes in volume was impressive. But only good enough for a Silver. I like them though.

The toughest part of watching drum corps is not getting completely distracted by the color guard. They are flashy with all their flags!

Blue Devils--The other locals! These guys are from Concord, CA (near-ish to Berkeley). They

had chairs in their routine. Just these white folding chairs, but they moved all around the field and sometimes I would have no idea how they even moved...all the sudden, the color guard had them in a totally different configuration. It was awesome. They got the Gold. I'm not sure why as there were two falls during this routine. But then again, I don't really understand how these things are scored.

Here are three bugle boys getting ready to play some jazz. The routine is called "1930."

Now the chairs are over there.

Now the chairs are in a straight line. How'd they do that?

Check out Blue Devils videos, including one of their Stanford experience here.

All in all, it was a great night. Check out Fathom Events to get tickets for the National Quarterfinals, which will be beamed to movie theatres everywhere on August 6th.