Renaissance Tours Minnesota – August 16-17, 2008
All member corps of the DCA Central region gathered once again for total immersion in the unique all-age drum corps experience that only our friends in Minnesota can provide. The trip was punctuated by our performance at the Govies big “Drum Corps Expo” on Saturday, the annual “Party at Patrick’s” after the show, and by our performance at the “Sounds of Minnesota” show on Sunday, hosted by our friends at MN Brass.
The Kiltie bus rolled out of the Sturtevant Wal-Mart at 6 PM on Friday evening and stopped in Madison to pick up even more Kilties. They headed off into the sunset and reached our home base for the weekend, Bell Plaine High School in Bell Plaine, MN. They arrived safe and sound in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, and a nice comfortable gym floor welcomed the weary travelers who unanimously reported golden slumbers and pleasant dreams.
I on the other hand decided to extend my Minnesota tour and checked in at Govie headquarters, Patrick’s in St. Peter, MN, at 8 PM Friday night. I had a great time catching up with all my Govie friends, and meeting a contingent of Frontier folks who had flown in from the great state of Texas. I even got to meet Dennis Argul who wrote the Govies brass book this year and was in from the East coast to work with Govies. Special thanks to John Mayer and Amber Roeker for making me feel like one of the family!
Breakfast on Saturday morning at 8 AM marked the start of a very busy and rewarding day. Our 9AM rehearsal began with stretch, marching basics for brass and guard, and percussion warm up. At this point we found out that 2008 drum major and staff member Guy Gregg was suffering from a case of food poisoning and might have to sit out our rehearsal to stay close to a rest room facility. But Guy would have none of that, and at 10 AM he took the podium, directed the run-through and hung in there all rehearsal when he was obviously suffering. I thought it was a gutsy display of determination on Guy’s part, and it inspired all of us to work even harder.
I was extremely pleased with Saturday rehearsal. Having taken the weekend of August 9-10 off, I was afraid that there might a drop in our performance level at the onset, but the initial run-through was at a very high level and drew words of approval and encouragement from corps director Scott Stewart who watched from atop the scaffold. We spent time on all show segments, spending the most time on the closer. At 2 PM we closed a great rehearsal and were served a great lunch which was highlighted by the return of one of our new favorites, fabulous “drum corps pudding” in both chocolate and vanilla. It is fast becoming a staple in our drum corps diet, much to the delight of the membership. Thanks again Joaney! Lunch was great!
After relaxing for a couple of hours, we all met at the brand new Holligsworth Stadium at Gustov Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, site of the Govies 24th annual “Drum Corps Expo”. It was a little on the warm side at 85 degrees and sunny at show time, but it sure beats last year’s rain out! The new stadium is a fantastic venue for drum corps with seating between the 25s rising steeply to a great height. It looks like the stands are higher than they are wide, capped by a nice modern press box. The artificial turf is a pleasure to march on, and the acoustics are great! The stadium does not have lights, so the festivities began with Lakeshoremen leading off at 6:05 PM. They sounded great from behind the back stands where the Kilties were assembled to take the field second.
As we entered the stadium, I was happy to see a healthy crowd on hand. It looked to be the biggest ”Drum Corps Expo” crowd that I have seen in the four years that we have come to St. Peter which is always great to see. We delivered a good show, but I think we ran out of gas a little in the closer which was a little flat. The St. Peter crowd showered us with nice ovations throughout and I felt pretty good about the show all things considered. Still lots of things to improve upon, but as a whole, I think it was our best performance to date.
The nice thing about going on early in the show is that I got to watch some of the other corps on Saturday night. Unfortunately I missed Frontier who were on immediately after us. But the intermission following Frontier gave me a chance to sample the stadium food before Chops performed. I ordered a huge pizza slice, a hot dog, and a bottled water, and was surprised that the bill only came to $5, quite possibly the best concession stand bargain of the year! What a nice touch!
Chops freaked me out (in a good way). Their show is titled “It’s 7 O Clock and I’m Ready to Rock”, and it was really a fun show with very recognizable music selections. The small horn line is what surprised me the most. The dozen or so horns were so well balanced and in tune that they sounded much bigger. No leakers in that line. The mellophones were particularly good! The show is well performed and I can see Chops in contention for another title come Labor Day. Great job Chops!
MN Brass was next and they are for real folks. They are solid in all sections, and their percussion section may contend for another drum trophy at championships. The show is extremely well designed, and is being performed at a very high level. I was particularly impressed with some of the unison body movement at various parts of the show. The mellophones have a particularly tasty feature where they continually change poses in place that complements the music perfectly. Fantastic stuff!
Our hosts, the Govenaires were their consistent self with their guard standing out in my mind as the strongest section of the corps, but the brass and percussion are no slouches either, and their show is very entertaining, and I thought maybe a little more demanding than Chops, but that’s kind of hard to say after a single viewing. I particularly liked their presentation of “House of the Rising Sun”. I would have never imagined that song on a football field, but it was way cool!
Then it was off to Patrick’s for a get-together with all of the competing corps. I really love the way that the DCA Central corps get together on show weekends. It gives us all a chance meet new friends who share our passion for the activity. Special shout out to DCA Central founder Curt “Flash” Schiebel who was on hand for the festivities. It was great to see you Flash! For those that have never been there, Patrick’s is part sports bar, part drum corps museum, and is owned by John Mayer, the Executive and Director of the Govenaires. The place is huge. There are historic drum corps pictures everywhere, and drum corps videos are always playing. Old Hammes Indian pictures, St. Paul Scout pictures, Govenaire pics from the 1920s on, and tons more are everywhere. If you have never made the pilgrimage to Patrick’s, I highly recommend that you attend the DCA-Central Minnesota weekend next summer. I guarantee the trip will be worth your while, and the long term weather forecast looks good according to Farmers Almanac.
Our Sunday rehearsal was back at Bell Plaine High School and was highlighted for me by the work we did with guest brass guru Matt Gregg. Matt is a faculty member of the Performing and Visual Arts Department at UW Platteville. He conducts the Symphony Band, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and is the Director of the Marching Pioneers and the Pioneer Pep Band in addition to teaching Music Theory and conducting. Matt was a mellophone soloist with the Madison Scouts from 1988-1994 and a brass instructor from 1995-2003. He has also been a brass instructor and designer for Capital Sound and served as the Corps Director from 2001-2002. Needless to say, his insights and input were invaluable. His ability to clearly explain the basic breathing and tonguing concepts that we were working on resulted in immediate improvements in our performance level. Thank you Matt!!! We hope we see more of you in the future!
Our noon lunch was highlighted by ice cream! YAY! Then at around 2:30 the bus departed on the one hour journey to Ettinger Field at South Saint Paul High School. The Kilties were scheduled compete fourth in the six corps “Sounds of Minnesota” show, putting our gate time at 5:30. We would be on first after the intermission. The brass line warmed up in our normal little enclave at the grade school a block north of the high school. There is a sheltered little area behind the school that has some cool acoustic properties that allow us to hear the entire ensemble quite well, and the temperature in the enclave was considerably lower than the 90 degree or so temperature outside. We blew through the first half of Movement IV and the echo from the big hit gave me goose bumps. We were ready!
As we walked down the hill to the stadium, we got our first look at the crowd. I’d say the stadium was about 2/3 full. I thought it was odd that the top 2/3 of the stadium was full side to side, but hardly anyone was sitting down low in the “get your face blasted” seats.
Once we got going, the first thing that struck me was how difficult it was to see the field markings. The sun was low in the West, and even though we were facing toward the South bleachers, the way it was shining on the field made it difficult to see yard lines much less hash marks. We fought through it and put on a pretty solid show, but there were a few, too many warts on it for any of us to be completely happy with it. We’re getting to the point where the majority of the time we’re executing well so the mistakes really stick out. The crowd forgave the brain farts and gave us great ovations throughout the performance and they shot out of their seats as the horns snapped down at the end of the show.
We assembled the troops around Scott Stewart in the stadium and he told us that we had delivered our best show to date despite the few obvious brain fart warts. The fact that we’re getting such great crowd response makes us all believe in this show, and really makes it fun to perform. But as a group, we all realize that we have not yet reached the performance level that we know we can achieve, and that realization is serving as the incentive that will keep our noses to the grind-stone as we make our final push to DCA championships over Labor Day. The journey continues…
Til Next Time,
J.C.
P.S. Special kudos to guard member Robin Clinstsman. She fought through the Sunday show with a large gash in her lip. Her post show trip to the hospital resulted in 3 stitches to close the wound. Robin, your determination is an inspiration to us all!
