My weekend at DCI West in Stanford, CA

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
Hey all,

So I wanted to share some pics of what I did this past weekend, and why I made such a big deal out of finding my used Tama Granstar Customs in LIPSTICK RED!

This year I'm the drummer for the Sacramento Freelancers Alumni drum & bugle corps, and what attracted me to them, was the fact they liked how I played, and they're good people - some of us have been acquaintances for a while now since we've all been involved in the drum corps activity for most of our lives. This is definitely not a project I'm making money on. They used to be a full blown drum corps, but some years ago went bankrupt and are now re-building. They have hopes that showing off their alumni like this, will attract people to the activity and perhaps in the future they can have a junior corps again (ages 14-21). They're even old skool in the fact that they're all playing the older two-valve bugles pitched in G, which I think are louder than what the kids are playing now. But it's fun being the lone kit player for about 30 horns. We're a work in progress, so I won't post any audio yet, but we got alot better overnight when we did the same show on Sunday. These pictures are from Saturday's performance for DCI West that took place on June 23rd at Stanford University.

It's funny how small my four-piece Granstar kit looks in perspective to everybody and everything around me. It seems so big in my practice room at home ;)

But the reason I was so happy to find these drums and not subject my nice birch/bubinga Starclassics to this is because of the schlepping. My stuff is being manhandled as we move around most of the day. This weekend my kit got thrown onto a golf cart for the trip to the field, then back to my car. We rolled it on a cart through a dirt parking lot while getting to the field where the sun beat down on it for a little over an hour. A couple of times on my Rock n roller cart, my bass drum just rolled off on to the ground. And I did drop my new 13" snare once (bent the rim only, but I may replace the rims with die cast ones on both my new 13" snares). The drums even survived being left in the cases, in the back of my open truck, parked in an open parking garage in San Francisco at my sisters place! I left Los Angeles in the heat and got to foggy/rainy San Francisco and the drums held up like champs! Upon unpacking today at home, they look like they've suffered no abuse. I love these things.

I'm told we'll have a rolling stage at the next shows so that'll save the gear a bit, but the environment is tough!

The pictures in order: the guys warming up outside: How small and lonely my kit looks on the field of that giant arena; A picture of me after I set up; a view from the drivers seat looking at our director; and the view looking up at the crowd from the driver's seat. It was a cool weekend. We do it again in another week!
 

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Looks like a really cool time. And your drums have the correct "uniform" on.​
 
This is very cool Bo, and really inspires me to tackle something outside of my comfort zone. I think it's a great thing you're doing, & for all the right reasons.

Love the kit in the stadium shot. Great scale. I look forward to the audio once you're all up to scratch. All round = very impressive :)
 
Great pics.

Funny how the kit is dwarfed by the stadium and the stadium is dwarfed by the music director!! I take it no-one gives him much lip. ;-)
 
thx for sharing Bo, very cool.

It reminds me of a "drumming" nightmare I had once playing a half-time show. Glad it was just a dream...
 
Cool share, Bo! It must have been neat having a set in the right color already, I know that would have made my life a tad easier. I'm surprised and a little disappointed at the lack of a line, but I suppose that's how thing start small. Were you guys opening for the other corps like BD and Santa Clara, or was it an intermission or something along those lines? I hope it was a good time!
 
Cool share, Bo! It must have been neat having a set in the right color already, I know that would have made my life a tad easier. I'm surprised and a little disappointed at the lack of a line, but I suppose that's how thing start small. Were you guys opening for the other corps like BD and Santa Clara, or was it an intermission or something along those lines? I hope it was a good time!

We actually opened the show for 15 minutes before the playing of the National Anthem. I believe the Alumni Corps part the group can be however big it can be, but for the DCA Minicorps requirement I think the entire group can only be about 22 people big. I think if this becomes bigger than 30 horns then you really need a drumline to keep up with the volume. Right now I look at it as a large-ish big band, that I can still give out enough sound for. The contrabasses and euphoniums are right behind me so it's like being on stage with a big bass player and it feels really good!

The head arranger (who had been with the corps since 1977) came out and rehearsed with us on the second day and talked about size. Everyone calmed down and played much better on the second show when they realized that we're a small brass ensemble - so don't try to compete with the full-size groups with 65 horns and PA systems amplifying everything in the pit (a disturbing trend). No way you can compete with that and we're not competing anyway. I have to say it was impressive when you see a big corps on the field with sixteen contrabasses and another 15 euphoniums, though. Something like that sounds like a huge version of the Stan Kenton big band!
 
Good for you! Great to see efforts like this to resurrect a great corps while having a good time and entertaining people. Best wishes to you and all concerned. As a former marching member Cavalier please accept a hearty SPLOOIE! from me to you and all the Freelancers.
 
Good for you! Great to see efforts like this to resurrect a great corps while having a good time and entertaining people. Best wishes to you and all concerned. As a former marching member Cavalier please accept a hearty SPLOOIE! from me to you and all the Freelancers.

Thank you very much Pete! I admit, I haven't actually marched since '82 (I was a bass drummer for the Anaheim Kingsmen), and then I left the activity until reuniting with the Kingsmen again for the '07 DCI Prelims at the Rose Bowl, but friendships are created just because you used to do it and I felt alot of comraderie going into this thing, so that's a nice feeling to feel again ;)

I'll let the other guys know.
 
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