Friday – 11 July 2008
After leaving work yesterday, I was off to Ogden to go to Corps Encore with Nizlee’s stepdad, Jeff:

Of the groups scheduled to perform, I had seen Blue Devils, Blue Knights, Phantom Regiment and SC Vanguard before. I may have seen Troopers, at some point, too.

Getting there was… less than a treat: We encountered northbound rush hour traffic on I-15. There’s also a lot of construction along I-15, from Centerville to Layton, with the construction of the “Legacy Parkway.” That didn’t help, either. It took nearly two hours to go roughly 40 miles.

We got to Weber State around 7:15, which meant that we missed Spokane Thunder‘s performance. But, we got into the stadium as the Velvet Knights were taking the field. (: They wore red and black Chuck Taylor Converse – you would have loved ’em.) Their show was entitled “The Inferno.” They started with what sounded like a New Orleans funeral procession. We hadn’t gotten to our seats yet, so we couldn’t quite make out where things were heading. Had we been able to see the color guards’ outfits, we would have had a clue: They were decked out like zombies. While I recognized most of the music they played, I can’t place the names of some of the songs they performed, but I caught the middle piece in two notes: Thriller. As in “Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” Cool, in itself, but when the horn line joined color guard for a dance breakdown, the crowd went nuts. (Pictures)

Next up: Troopers, from Casper, Wyoming. Their show was titled “The Iron Horse Express.” It opened with the drumline sounding exactly like a steam locomotive. The show was western themed. (Pictures)

After a twenty-minute intermission, the Blue Knights took the field. Their show was called “Knight Reign.” (Pictures)

The Phantom Regiment‘s show was “Spartacus.” In less than eleven minutes, they performed an abbreviated version of the movie. The Regiment marched in all-white uniforms, with silver/blue sashes; the color guards were in tattered slave garb. The most interesting/shocking moment of the show was when one of the secondary drum majors walked through the horn and drum lines to “slit the throat” of one of the color guard members. There were many “Oh, my…” and “Wow” and gasps heard in the crowd. (Pictures)

The Blue Devils (no relation to the NC school) did a show called “Constantly Risking Absurdity.” It was an interesting performance, the most… unusual part of which was the neon-bright magenta and orange color guard uniforms. (Pictures)

Santa Clara Vanguard was the last corps to take the field. Their show was called “3hree: Mind-Body-Soul.” MarknTyme, you were right: They had a Philip Glass piece… and I picked up on it as soon as they started to play. (Pictures)

The scoring for the event:

  1. Blue Devils
  2. Phantom Regiment
  3. Santa Clara Vanguard

After the scores were awarded (awards pictures), the Blue Devils’ and Blue Knights’ combined horn lines did a rendition of America, the Beautiful. Having not attended a drum corps show in ten or more years, I had forgotten about the closing song. The two corps’ lines blended nicely and they did a helluva job. Ray Charles’ version is still “The Best,” but this was a worthy top contender.

Of tonight’s performances, I think that Phantom’s “Spartacus” was my favorite.

This is the only Utah stop in all of DCI’s tours, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to go.
Many thanks to Jeff for inviting me.

For more information about drum corps, see the Drum Corps International page.

This morning, I overslept a bit, but that’s okay: I can still be in the office a little after 8:30 or so.
And, I only have 4.5 hours left on the week. (I think that I can handle that.)

Namaste
.