Greetings all!
Drum corps season is officially in full swing as the first weekend of the 2022 competitive shows is in the books. Okay, let’s back up just a bit…
Family Day on June 18 at Rio Linda High School was quite the success. The drum corps started the evening by warming up on the field with many friends and family watching up close. The Alumni corps then performed their standstill music (Well done!). The front ensemble then played two warm-up ditties, the battery played some of their lot warm-up repertoire and the brass played their loud warm-up chords. The full corps then set up on the field and performed their complete show “THE OTHERSIDE” for a very appreciative audience of friends and family. What a positive reaction from the crowd! Can you say WOW?!? After the run-through was done, the 2022 scholarship recipients were announced and recognized before the Mandarins brass and Alumni brass played the Mandarins corps song, Year of the Dragon, to end the evening. Extremely successful in my humble opinion.
Okay, so back to the start of the story.
- Thursday afternoon, June 23, the entire drum corps fleet headed to Southern California for a weekend of competitions at Oceanside/Vista, Pasadena, and San Bernardino.
- Friday night, our first performance was as I expected – lots of nervousness, big eyes, and “oh-my-gosh, what am I doing here?” expressions. And the show was still well received by the audience.
- Saturday at the Rose Bowl – completely different drum corps – they were confident, powerful, and had “I’ve got this… kind of” looks. The crowd response was even better. And as an added bonus, we won the FloMarching Fan Favorite Award!
- Sunday night show – another strong performance as the corps had figured out that this performance stuff is pretty cool. And the crowd response was again extremely positive, and LOUD!!!
On Monday, everyone got some free time at Hermosa Beach in Southern California – it was about 30 degrees cooler (and overcast) than the previous day (LOL!) Typical summer-in-California beach vs. inland weather. The corps returned home late that night. Tuesday was a short rehearsal block, then laundry and Walmart for the corps.
What does all that mean? Well, in my once again humble opinion, a very successful weekend, the scores were about what I expected (well, maybe a bit low …), the performances stunning, the professionalism of the organization above par, and the vibe simply marvelous. This coming week we will make a few changes to the show (of course), continue to work on performance excellence, and get ready for our next competition on July 5 in Fresno at CSU Fresno.
Before you know it, we will be on the road out in the Midwest, the South, or somewhere else far, far away!
Be sure to catch the show at our DCI Capital Classic in Sacramento on July 8. All I can say is – you had better check us out ’cause this is one amazing show, and you don’t want to miss rocking and rolling with Mandarins 2022!
It’s Live, It’s Real, It’s NOW!
Ciao,
JW
Corps Director
