8/25 LIVE!

We're in year number three of the Band on the Road Project, and the second year that I'm using band holiday 8/25 to kick it off for the year. This time, I'm doing it live, via Google+ Hangouts On Air. Watch this space for the live broadcast!



And of course, check out Band on the Road 2013 HERE!

Before the Clock Starts: T-1 Week

This time next week, you'll hopefully be putting in long hours in front of your television or at your local stadium. College football is upon us! We'll kick off the final week with some goodies for tomorrow's holiday, but for now, in the final week before football returns, the final Before the Clock Starts.

As with last year, we'll take a look at what conference champions do before the clock starts: The pregame show. Designed to set the tone for the football game to follow, pregame shows are, by design, high-energy, crowd-focused, and school-centric.

Why bother with a flowery writeup? Alabama. National championship game. This sort of thing tends to happen these days. I suppose the only news this time through is that they rolled through Atlanta and the SEC Championship game first this time through.

Representing the SEC: Alabama's Million Dollar Band

Smartening Up

If you asked me if I write a sports blog or a marching band blog, I'd probably answer, "yes". Truth is, though, this is more of a band nerd blog with a sports fan problem. That is, I approach marching/athletic music as an insider and sports as a fan.

I love football and know my way around it decently well, but I'll admit that I'm a novice when it comes to the Xs and Os. A lot of what I know comes from playing Madden and the NCAA Football series (poorly). I learned routes when working a sports summer camp during college. The rest? I learned from Chris B. Brown.

Chris B. Brown - the initial is increasingly important these days - is the proprietor at smartfootball.com and author of The Essential Smart Football. After having heard from him and about the book on a few podcasts I listen to, I checked out the website and soon bought the book. I had a grand plan last year that during the football season, I was going to read a chapter or so a week and in essence, put myself through a semester-long course on the finer points of football. Well, apparently my study ethic is as good as it ever was, because that never happened.

It was this summer, starved for the coming of football, that I picked it back up and gave it the attention it deserved. The book made concepts understandable for me and gave both real world examples and the historical context from which they sprang. Brown points out how philosophies migrate and change with coaches, and how offensive evolutions beget defensive evolutions and vice versa.

Through my often one-track lens, I wonder how some of the elements present in today's schemes and philosophies may impact or inform the marching band's work. Might a drumline excel in a timing based offense like the West Coast, setting tempo on huts instead of duts? Is the quick method of information delivery present in no-huddle offenses something that could be implemented by drum majors or section leaders? For that matter, how do bands have to adjust when the time between downs is minimized?

In an interview with Brown on the Solid Verbal podcast, he mentioned that one of the things that allows you to appreciate what's truly going on is to watch the game without watching the ball. There is so much more unfolding from both lines, the manner the offense reacts to what the defense shows or doesn't show, and the blocking assignments necessary to get the ball where it needs to go. I think of this as listening to more than just the melody, but the countermelodies, harmonies, and bassline that allow the melody to shine.

I'm still far from being a pro, but one thing's for sure, after reading The Essential Smart Football, I'll be watching a little smarter this season.

Before the Clock Starts: T-2 Weeks

Only two Saturdays remain without football, and Before the Clock Starts continues into its second year.

As with last year, we'll take a look at what conference champions do before the clock starts: The pregame show. Designed to set the tone for the football game to follow, pregame shows are, by design, high-energy, crowd-focused, and school-centric.

Stanford's conference championship may be a sign that brains and brawn are winning out west. With the Cardinal's Rose Bowl berth, the bucket hatted brigade made their way to Pasadena for their exciting brand of pageantry.

Representing the Pac-12: the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band

Crown. Royal.

Carolina Crown has made it to the mountaintop, winning the 2013 DCI World Championship. As such, they become the only corps to win at both the Open Class (Division II) and World Class levels, and they brought home their third consecutive Jim Ott brass trophy and the inaugural Tour of Champions Cup in the process.

I experienced the win sitting in a hotel room in Virginia on my way back from vacation. If you follow me on Twitter, you experienced my elation firsthand. I'm still damn proud of my favorite corps - wore a purple shirt to work today (sorry, no purple pants) - but I got most things out then. A few more things, though:

-This is actually the Crown show of the past several years with which I was the least familiar. In the average summer, I see Crown live two or three times, but with them starting their season out west this year, most of the normal shows here in the Carolinas didn't take place, so I only saw them at NightBEAT.

-I wrote back in February about how there hasn't truly been a championship that I fully claim - that is, my favorite team in a given sport that I care about winning one. While it's not a sports championship, Crown is my corps. This one is for me.

-And yet, the smaller percentage of drum corps fans in my immediate circles - smaller still who don't root for the same corps - doesn't give it quite the same punch. After the Ravens Super Bowl win, folks congratulated me on "my" team's victory. Granted, I wore purple then too, and was glad to see them win, but I'm an Eagles fan.

-My fellow Crown fans: We've been an immature impetuous lot for the past few years that the corps has been on the brink of a championship. No, we haven't been robbed. No, there hasn't been a conspiracy. Please, PLEASE never lose the passion, but now that Crown has tasted gold, act like you've been there before, because now you have.

-I still want the old uniforms back, but I think I can live with purple pants.

Before the Clock Starts: T-3 Weeks

Only three Saturdays remain without football, and Before the Clock Starts continues into its second year.

As with last year, we'll take a look at what conference champions do before the clock starts: The pregame show. Designed to set the tone for the football game to follow, pregame shows are, by design, high-energy, crowd-focused, and school-centric.

Were it not for one fateful late season Saturday, the Pride of Wildcatland may have seen their season end in South Florida instead of Arizona. Still, a top 5 BCS finish for K-State is nothing to sneeze at.

Big 12: Kansas State Pride of Wildcatland

They're not booing, they're BLOO... oh wait.

There's an unspoken rule in drum corps: You don't boo. That rule goes from a tacit agreement to a vocal admonition on the few occasions that booing does take place. I heard smatterings firsthand at NightBEAT this year; at Carolina Crown's home show, a Tour of Champions event, some of the patrons weren't pleased to hear the home team announced in second place, especially behind the reigning champion Blue Devils. There were sounds of disgust at the disgust in the stands, and others took to the internet to bemoan that fact that anyone would dare be so boorish. But drum corps is a competitive activity. What makes it different from the others?

I get sportsmanship (perhaps only in theory; I am Philly sports fan and a part-time Terps fan). But in other competitive activities, no one bats an eye at those who boo. I've heard the argument made that these are just kids, but that doesn't hold water. After all, Drum Corps International's participants - in most cases young adults, not "kids" - don't differ too terribly in age from college athletes who get booed and more in hostile environments. Is it because it's art? Art is no stranger to critics. Is it because it's a subjective activity? All the more reason fans should express their opinion.

When I was at USF, there was a game where the opponent brought their band. Following their performance, I clapped politely for them, and a friend of mine asked why I would applaud any representative of our opponent. This was the first time I had ever thought of it that way, but then, I was used to being in the opposing band, not simply a spectator, and sportsmanship between competitors or those on equal footing is different than that between fans. I had simply carried my behavior forward, but it's something I continue to do. Why? Because seeing the other band do well won't have a detrimental effect on my team.

In drum corps, the playing field is different. The marching units present aren't simply supporting the competitors, they ARE the competitors. How they fare is the basis for their success or failure. Frankly - and by no means am I suggesting this - booing DURING the performance would actually be the most effective. I'm glad I haven't witnessed that, nor have I witnessed booing immediately following a corps performance. Rather, it's taken place upon the announcement of scores, as fans express their disappointment in the outcome. As booing goes, that's quite tame, and it's clearly geared not towards the performers who are giving their all, but towards the scores itself, and perhaps the judges who gave them.

As I type this, World Class Prelims are taking place in Indianapolis and showing live in theaters across the country. Regardless of the outcome, chances are good that someone, tonight and certainly by Finals on Saturday, will boo. For an association that considers itself Marching Music's Major League, perhaps there should be little surprise that fans act they do in sports.

Before the Clock Starts: T-4 Weeks

Only four Saturdays remain without football, and Before the Clock Starts continues into its second year.

As with last year, we'll take a look at what conference champions do before the clock starts: The pregame show. Designed to set the tone for the football game to follow, pregame shows are, by design, high-energy, crowd-focused, and school-centric.

It's almost inconceivable to think of a Big Ten team getting tired attending the Rose Bowl, but Wisconsin found themselves there three years in a row, and I'm sure the Badger Band's high energy style can't be easy to keep up over the 5 1/2 mile route of the Rose Parade. The 2012 Badgers backed their way into the game at 7-5 with two ineligible divisionmates and a Big Ten conference championship game win.

Representing the Big Ten: Wisconsin's Badger Band