Day 87

Date: August 9, 2011
Time: 11:32pm (EST)
Playing on iTunes: "BWV 849, No. 4 In C# Minor, Prelude" by Johann Sebastian Bach


Location: Massillon, OH
Recent Trip: 170 miles

So the weather seems to be getting more and more comfortable. I don't know if August is supposed to be beautiful weather but it seems to be getting better and better. Luckily there was a good amount of sun all day so I left my shoes out in the middle of the parking lot to dry since they were soaking wet from yesterday's rain fiasco. Today however was a show day, unlike yesterday. And not just any show day. This was our last show day until the finals kick in. So we needed to make sure we went into finals with a bang. 

All throughout the day, there was a great vibe going on throughout the corps. Just excellence leaking from each individual person. I could just tell that we were all amped up for the next coming shows. We all wanted to do the best we could and in order to do that we needed to be focused and hyped to go at all times. Especially with the kids in the pit, their ability to just focus right in so quickly and get things done just blows my mind. I have never worked with a group of that caliber before. It really inspires me to do my best and perform to the best of my abilities. So with this focused approach and energized members, the pit's rehearsal all day was easy. We would work on things, but they didn't need to be repeated very many times. Maybe a few corrections here and there but for the most part we just played something once maybe twice and we were done with it. As Iain said, "You guys are at the point where I don't need to hear these things more than once. You play it perfect the first time, we move on." And that's what we've been doing.

Especially in ensemble it seems to me that the corps is becoming more and more consistent of being a "first rep corps". Which means they get it right the first time, not the second time. If you get it right the second time every time you try something, what happens when you go to the show? In order to just go out and put on a perfect show, you need to be perfect on the first repetition. It is definitely showing up more and more as time goes on and number of days get smaller.

We got a guard bus finally. White this time.

Here's some pictures of the clouds out today. They were absolutely gorgeous:

So funny story, we get to the show site, unload the pit and get set up. We play our warm up then are on the move to the field. Half way to field we get stopped by George and he tells us we need to get inside as soon as possible because there is a huge storm coming. So we move the pit inside this building right next to the stadium. And wait out the storm. 


As were waiting, Phantom Regiment's pit moves their equipment into the school as well. We decide that we should go make friends with them. So for the next hour or so while we're waiting out the insane monsoon going on outside, we bonded with Phantom Regiment's pit. One cool fact I learned about their percussion section is that every single person is a rookie. Due to staff changes, everyone who was there last year moved to where the old staff did and no one stayed. So all there are all new comers in the pit, whether that be people who have marched other places before or it's their first year in the corps. The percussion section is brand new. They seemed to really be interested in learning about us as we were with them. It was a lot of fun for me to talk to another DCI pit because I always feel like there is so much tension between corps if you just see them in passing and don't actually communicate. They're real people too. They like to have fun, they aren't just out hate other drum corps. So that was humbling for me in some regard. We also learned that Phantom's timpanist is named Taylor, and our timpanist is named Taylor. That was a pretty exciting moment of the ice breaker. What a coincidence!! There was a lot that both of our pits had in common. Our mannerisms, things we like to do in our downtime in rehearsal, and things we like to do to keep ourselves sane during rehearsal. Thank you Phantom Regiment pit for welcoming us and I had a great time meeting you all!!

So aside from the show being cancelled due to rain, we were very excited to get going to the next place (Indianapolis) and do the final push to finals. Here comes the last bus ride of the summer!

Thought of the Day: "Take a few minutes a day to yourself, it really clears the mind and will calm you."