|
|
Post by nomorehoney on Nov 19, 2022 21:51:39 GMT -6
What's your favorite moment/most memorable moment from a performance?
|
|
|
|
Post by abtwitch on Nov 19, 2022 22:38:24 GMT -6
What's your favorite moment/most memorable moment from a performance? My senior year (Westwood 2016) in the Alamodome, the dance break where the brass plays Applause. After I finished playing and struck my pose, hearing the crowd erupt in reaction was something I'll never forget. We never got to perform in front of crowds that big very often, so that was very memorable. But for a performance as a whole, it has to be my junior year at 2015 BOA Atlanta finals. We had a disastrous prelims run with the props being on the wrong hashes and our finals performance was miles better, the feeling walking off the field after was electric. I will never forget that entire day, prelims and finals included. |
|
|
|
Post by realjsnacks on Nov 20, 2022 15:33:50 GMT -6
My junior year at Piedmont- 2017. A little backstory- We never performed at BOA while I was in band (my alma mater's return to BOA is relatively recent as of this year), so the big performance for us was always OBA. That year our show was incredibly physically demanding, especially in the closer. This of course meant cleaning it every rehearsal was a massive pain, but nobody cared because it sounded so cool. Verdi's Requiem segued into Reineke's Goddess of Fire, and then directly into a Dies Irae closing impact kind of cool. Anyways, things were not necessarily going as great as they could've been. My high school marching career was plagued with staffing changes for our band almost every year, and junior year was no exception. We had struggled to find our footing at the beginning of the season and it showed in our contest scores up to that point. So when OBA rolled around as our third contest weekend in a row, we knew there was a lot on the line. Prelims was very windy, but finals calmed down enough that we could finally throw down exactly as planned. Anyways, to make a long story short, we ended our show that year by dying on the field, and there was a pit feature in our postshow where they slowly faded their instruments out by having them fall and die as well. Very cool given our Black Plague theme that year. I remember laying there on the side 1 40 yd line having just played my heart out while that postshow played, and being so excited that we nailed our closer exactly when it counted. I "died" with a big smile across my face lol. We were one of maybe two bands to get a standing ovation that night, and we all felt like rockstars. The 3rd place trophy was nice, but man was that experience unforgettable.
|
|
|
|
Post by srv1084 on Nov 20, 2022 18:46:07 GMT -6
Favorite moment is every performance of my sophomore year indoor season. We had an unbelievable bond and friendly rivalry with a neighboring group (we were the only two in the our area of the country in world class at the time). We were the last two groups to perform at every show, so the penultimate group would head off the floor and then hype the other one up for their performances. Last to perform would change each week, so we would trade off being each other's hype group. It's the only season I can remember where we were totally locked in EVERY single performance, largely due to the hype factor at every show.
Most memorable moment? The lead pipe on my 30 year old mellophone rupturing from the extreme cold somewhere between warmups and taking the field for my junior year marching band championship show in 2000. The only thing better than hearing the opener on the video (took that long for me to realize what actually happened) is listening to the individual music judge's tape. I remember seeing a look of absolute shock on his face. On the tape, out of nowhere you hear what I can only describe as a wild elephant passing by while wailing in extreme pain, followed by the judge stopping mid-sentence and struggling to figure out what to say. "Oh... uh... umm... uh... I... uh... sorry, I lost my train of thought. Might need a little bit of work on centering the pitch in that mellophone section..." Needless to say, I didn't play the rest of the show.
|
|
|
|
Post by mtnxdrew on Nov 22, 2022 9:30:35 GMT -6
Semifinals 2004, we played last. By far the biggest crowd I had ever performed in front of, but not the loudest. In the same year, at the Plymouth-Canton invitational, THAT was the loudest crowd I had ever heard while performing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pie on Nov 24, 2022 16:30:13 GMT -6
My 2018 GN semifinals performance was absolutely awesome, especially after our disaster of a prelims run (electronics failure in LOS, go figure). It was just a totally awesome run and our director gave us an awesome speech afterward talking about how awesome it was haha. I don't know how to attach a picture, but the picture of O'Fallon's "dabbing tuba" was me 😎
|
|
|
|
Post by boahistorybuff on Nov 25, 2022 6:58:53 GMT -6
I would like more people to respond to this thread because I think it may be a good form of encouragement for some of the youngsters on this forum. So for me, it was two moments. I put the years down even though I did not want to, yes I am old as dirt  My junior year (1990) at the Michigan State Championship Finals at Plymouth-Canton HS; we came off a disastrous 1989 season and had been working very hard to do much better in 1990. Our prelims performance was a bit rough, but we really delivered in finals. The ending of the show felt most memorable as we really sounded good and boy did our parents section cheer loudly. We felt we really redeemed ourselves after missing finals in 1989. The second was of course my senior year (1991) in Grand National Finals; at the end of the show turning around and giving the salute; seeing that huge crowd on their feet and hearing Chuck's announcer voice made for quite the moment. |
|
|
|
Post by kvgdc on Nov 25, 2022 9:34:54 GMT -6
The year we played Conquest. I think 87? My junior year. We had a drum major whose last name was pronounced all sorts of wrong ways at the start of the season so the director began providing phonetic pronunciation guides to the announcers. It improved until...a big show right before State finals, it might have been an MBA show, I can't recall. We're lined up and she was always announced last being a junior while the other three DMs were seniors. The announcer blew it. Not only mispronounced it but did so in a particularly stupid sounding way.
She's just gotten to her spot after checking the opening set and before the "is your band ready for competition?" Get's done, she's done a snap about face making her long skirt flare twirl, stared down the DM on the box with a 'don't you dare start.' Snaps her head to the box and hollers in full DM voice against the sudden silence "It's pronounced _______!" Snaps back around with another about face snaps her arms up. Stares down our smirks with the most threatening face ever seen on the field. And thats the signal for the DM on the box to start the show.
Conquest was never more aggro and freewheelingly fierce. ••-•-•••!
|
|
|
|
Post by hewhowaits on Nov 28, 2022 7:19:58 GMT -6
My favorite moment performing was chasing down a guy who had NEVER been caught from behind to win the 4x400 relay, and thus the meet, for my team.
"Wait," you say, "what's that have to do with marching band?" Nothing at all. I never participated in band - multi-sport athlete who loves music and had many band friends then got heavily involved with the activity when my kids marched. Added this to show just how superior the band experience is compared to sports.
|
|
|
|
Post by philodemus on Nov 28, 2022 8:16:41 GMT -6
I would have to think for a very long time to find my favorite... It was likely at Allentown, though.
Related question: in considering, I realized a lot of my favorite, transcendent moments of the drum corps and marching band experience are actually in warm-up. Just me?
|
|
|
|
Post by vidal28rdg on Nov 28, 2022 10:01:18 GMT -6
I would have to think for a very long time to find my favorite... It was likely at Allentown, though. Related question: in considering, I realized a lot of my favorite, transcendent moments of the drum corps and marching band experience are actually in warm-up. Just me? I just did hs band, but I think many people would relate to this, it’s probably where the feelings of anxiety, excitement, togetherness all come into one for what lies ahead! Running through show chunks, everyone pushing themselves. Those are all great moments |
|
|
|
Post by Allohak on Nov 29, 2022 18:34:51 GMT -6
My freshman year at a (first weekend in October) regional it started snowing during retreat
My senior year breaking back into semifinals after a few years out, and it being the last year in the RCA Dome
|
|
|
|
Post by salvation on Nov 29, 2022 22:21:22 GMT -6
My favorite moment has to probably St. Louis finals in 2019.
Just the crowd, the environment, the performance was all spectacular. The best and I guess worst part has to be that it was my last performance ever for my high school, but I didn't know it at the time because I was a junior and who could have predicted COVID? Looking back on it, I left it all on the field without even realizing it was my last time, and even though I never had a real senior marching season, I still cherish the experience I had.
|
|
|
|
Post by cp823 on Nov 30, 2022 13:31:12 GMT -6
2015 grand national semifinals, was our first time attending. At this point in the show, myself and the rest of the battery were marching in pods. I can distinctly remember hearing the VI judge behind us saying “really nice technique here…never mind.” Not exactly a shining moment, but one that my friends from drumline and I still laugh about when we get together.
|
|
|
|
Post by pitplayer19 on Nov 30, 2022 16:52:22 GMT -6
Two performances distinctly stick out to me. 2021 Encore after winning a regional. A fun, perfect send off performance for the year. Of course, 2022 Grand National Semi Finals. Might have been my last ever, and I still remember a couple mistakes I did in the run, but I can't say that performance was anything but magical. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was an amazing farewell to marching band (unless I join a DCA corp in the future but I doubt it). My favorite show and parts to date, in the biggest venue to date. In both these performances, I couldn't stop grinning. Playing at a college stadium for the first time in 2019 was also great, and 2020 had a super fun vibraphone part after the balled.
Other shoutouts include a rainy 2022 home show, Two college shows in 2021 because of the weather (one had the entire front sideline covered in mud), 2020 state, and 2019 regional encore.
|
|
