Harrisburg Review

A few notes right off the top of my head:

·        Congratulations again to Larry Darch – World Drum Corps Hall of Fame

AND to Donny Allen – Buglers Hall of Fame

·        The Happiest Anniversary Wish to Ford and Lois

·       Cheers to our associate mini-corps The Ghost Riders for their performance at the MCA Mini Corps Competition [3^rd place, less than 2 points behind Mass Brass (winners) and the Golden Eagles (2007 DCA Mini-Corps Champs)] AND also for the great encore at the post-show party.

·        And a Special Congratulations to Shellie Dingle, the corps newest cymbal player for her excellent portrayal of our illustrious director Sully flipping the cake (in this case pre-enjoyed) in front of hundreds at the elevator – just kidding but there were a few people that saw it as the elevator doors kept opening. Must be something about those cymbal players. Welcome to MSJ Shellie. We all love you!

Now on to the weekend at Harrisburg; and a great weekend it was, starting with the official kick-off to another year of MSJ drum corps, the Whiskey Sour Social.  There were lots of laughs and great snacks and cakes to get it all rolling. Thanks to all who made this get-together possible. From there several of us hit the streets for dinner while others had a late night rehearsal with GR. We were pretty fortunate if I may say to run across Molly Brannigan’s just up the street from the Crowne Plaza. They had us seated in a matter of minutes, not like two years ago with our long walk and forever wait at the Fire House. We got in and out of Molly’s with plenty of time to get settled in to view the awesome thunder and lightning show and then the torrential downpour or to stop back in the lobby or the hotel cocktail lounge to visit with many of our friends from other corps. I personally would like to extend a special thanks to Hutch for the little “love tap” just around midnight. Someday soon I will extend my hand in return.

Saturday morning came quite early, especially for me. A nice little walk to Dunkin’ Donuts got things rolling. Some will remember the little response we got after mentioning the two eating establishment kitty-corner to Dunkin’s. What a gorgeous day, 70 degrees, a little breezy and sunny, perfect day for Harrisburg and the show. A little drum ensemble workout at 11:00 A.M. until the room got so hot we were all sweating. Then time for a nap before the afternoon rehearsal. Out on the Forum lawn at 1:30 for a little basking in the sun and on to the stage at 3:45 to get our places and plan our on and off attack. Lots of little ‘tarts’ as we ran through the show in hopes of cleaning it all up for the evening performance but all-in-all an excellent prelude to our show. Back to the hotel for another little nap and get the news from GR.

Then off to our turn on stage at The Forum at 7:47. Time to don the MSJ garb and as Sully put it after the show, we do it well. Let me give you a little overview of this place. The Forum has served as The Serenade’s home since its inception in 1976. Yes, this was the 33’rd annual show. It was completed in 1931 and seats over 1800. It is the perfect venue for this show with not a bad seat in the house.

Here’s a little caption from Kevin Garmin, DCW. He had something about every corps but I am only including the section about MSJ.

“Last night, I had the pleasure of attending my first ever Serenade in Brass concert in Harrisburg, PA.  I also had the pleasure of covering the concert for Drum Corps World.  The final article will appear in an upcoming edition of DCW but, until then, please enjoy these ‘stream of consciousness’ notes I took during the performance.”

“St. Joe's - Snares playing on indoor drums.  Corps opens with "Irish Washerwoman" from Pioneer '98.  Donny Allen conducting, soloing, and whipping the crowd into a frenzy.  Excellent sound from the hornline during the ballad, especially from the low brass and soprano soloists. Crowd is very into the performance.  Percussion really grooving during Latin portion of the show, complete with ‘Rumps’.  Horns turn ‘backfield’ to start Georgia, then face front and come to the lip of the stage to rip face.  First standing O of the night.”

And here’s how I saw it. Mind you I’m just a drummer but it felt like right from the beginning we had the crowd in the palms of our hands. Irish finished ‘hot’, the corps seemed to be on fire. Again a few little ‘tarts’ but certainly we are the only ones that realized it. As we all know WE are our own worst critics. On through My Shawl and House and into Temptation, that is when the audience really came alive. Great soloing guys! Then all of a sudden came the ‘Respectful Rumps’ from behind me. I could feel my hair standing up in the back. The contras were blowing all the way down from their toes (or toe). What a blast, I was really impressed, just the six of them and all that rumbling. Finally out came Ace for Georgia and time for everyone to let it all hang out. Again it was over way too fast but they were all standing as we ran off the stage. As most of you know we were allowed 17 minutes of total time and we worked it to a T.  Actually I believe from on to off we were under 16 minutes. We stuck to the bargain. Can’t say that all of the others did but the rest of the show DID go smoothly. Amy and I stayed until the combined corps (Cabs & Bridgemen) were getting ready to play. I would say although there were corps bigger and louder than us, there was no one that played the style and quality of book that MSJ did. Again thanks go out to Donny and Larry and the rest of the staff for their fine work this winter in putting it all together for the corps. Also each and every corps member deserves a hand for all of the hard work you have put in getting ready for Harrisburg and 2008.

On to the party and the post-show festivities. Honestly I wasn’t really impressed with the Hip Pickles. Maybe it’s just the wrong kind of drumming for me. The mini-corps were great and so was being together with all of our drum corps friends again. Then off we went for our traditional listening of the show. Thanks Curt for hauling that boom box all the way from across the street. Next time ask, we can help ya know…… And how many times did we listen to our show? Four, maybe five and everyone was just enjoying it more and more each time. Seems as though the party didn’t end there. Some of us stayed up for some early morning pizza thanks to Brad. Then off to bed for a short night’s sleep for the trip back home.

All in all a great weekend, a good way to start off 2008 and get ready for the Classic less than 2 weeks away.

See you all soon. Hope you enjoy the review.

Bob

One last thing, if you have a DrumCorpsPlanet account please take some time to promote the Classic by adding to the Mighty St. Joe's Classic XV thread under the DCA - All-Age - Alumni Corps Discussions