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OAWB WGI 2024 PERCUSSION RECAP #2 image

OAWB WGI 2024 PERCUSSION RECAP #2

On A Water Break
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121 Plays11 months ago

Join Stephen and Woody as they host some great panelists to talk about the past few weeks of WGI Percussion. 

Guests

Mike Davis - @freedompercussion

Wardell King - @w.king75 & @visionpercussion

Listen to the main episode to keep up on everything

going on in the marching arts with our hosts:

Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard

Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick

Cindy Barry - @leandermomma

Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg

Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151

Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002

Beth Beccone - @bether7189

Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1

Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern

Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_

Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07

Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick

Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit

Justin Surface - @J_dex07

Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran

Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_

Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson

Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda

Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art

#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak  #parade #drummajor

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Transcript

Introduction and Guest Hosts

00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome everyone to another episode of On a Waterbreak Percussion Recap. My name is Steve McCarrick and we've had a lot of great shows over the last two weeks and we've got a couple great guest hosts with us here to talk about the shows. We'll go through the scores as well as just what we're seeing out there this year so far. With me on the sidelines this week, I've got Woody.
00:00:30
Speaker
That's me. That's me. Oh yeah, man. Always happy to have you around. Such a great, you've just got so much knowledge. You've been in the mix forever. But Woody, you've also brought along a couple guests, a couple of folks that are new to the show who I'm excited to meet here. Alongside us today, we've got Wardell King. Good to meet you, Wardell. And we've also got Mike D. How are you doing, Mike? What up?
00:00:56
Speaker
Awesome. So we'll get to know a bit more about each of you guys right now.

Wardell King's Role and Highlights

00:01:00
Speaker
Let's, I think we talked through it before, but on our show, we do a 32 count life story, which gives you about 30 seconds to catch our listeners up to speed with who you are, what you do in the band world and anything else that you might think we should know. So Wardell, you ready to give us a, get us started with this? I'll try, man. Here we go. In from the Met.
00:01:27
Speaker
Hi, my name is Wardell King. I am from Gilbert, Arizona. I'm a marching educator here, mostly specializing in marching percussion. I have a indoor group, vision percussion. We compete in PIO and teach a number of high schools, a number of private lessons here in Arizona. Just celebrated my 30th year teaching. So here in Arizona, I'm pretty happy about that. And I'm just continuing to do it.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome, man. Arizona, you guys were you out at the regional, I think a week ago, there was one out there. Nice. Yeah. So we're going to definitely want to hear what you were seeing out at that show. We'll probably come back to that

Mike D's Introduction and Insights

00:02:13
Speaker
one in a minute. But Mike, you ready to catch us all up to speed on what you've been up to in your entire lifetime? Yeah. I love it.
00:02:28
Speaker
Duh, duh, duh, duh. All right. Well, Mike Davis, I'm from St. Louis, Missouri. A lot of people call me Mike D and most of the marching circles. And I'm the director of Freedom Percussion out of St. Louis, Missouri. And I've been doing that for about 15 years now.
00:02:45
Speaker
Also, this is my 24th year judging Drum Corps International as a percussion judge. And I've been all over the world, all over the places, judging a lot of marching band shows and doing a lot of cool things and meeting a lot of cool people like Wardell King and Big Wood.
00:03:04
Speaker
Glad to be here. I'm glad you're here, man. I didn't realize until you talked about judging DCI, but you've judged me for sure. Really? I definitely remember having some 90 tapes at crown. I'm sorry. Back crown 2018, 2019. I was. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. I remember you told us that you wanted to put Vanguard ahead of us.
00:03:29
Speaker
Did not want it to. Yeah, it was close. It was fun, man. We actually- It's like Nuke's Tennessee, yeah. It was close, but truly they deserved to deliver us. Yes, it was. It was in Tennessee. I remember the show, man. It was actually, it was one of our better tapes we got all summer, so I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Of course, because they're my buddies. Yeah, Woody, you got some great folks over here, man. You did a great job for this episode.
00:03:57
Speaker
Awesome. So let's hop into it a little bit

Arizona Regional Experiences

00:04:00
Speaker
word out. Why don't we talk a little bit about that Arizona regional? I got recaps over here, but how'd it go for you guys in your group? Um, you know, I felt pretty, I felt pretty good about it, man. I was kind of actually pretty, pretty nervous because it was the first time we had, uh, had the costumes on and had the full show done.
00:04:21
Speaker
I hadn't seen the kids in like a week because, you know, you have rehearsal and then the next weekend we had to just kind of step into it. Yeah. The good thing was is that one of my high schools that I work at, we actually hosted the show and it's actually the same spot where Vision rehearses. So it wasn't, as far as the surroundings wasn't a big deal because it's our home site.
00:04:46
Speaker
So yeah, it was a home show for you guys, essentially. It was kind of a home show. But man, the first time in the costumes, the first time in the, you know, I was I was nervous and, you know, anything could go wrong. And, you know, so we kind of we were at home and I was afraid the kids are going to get a little too comfortable. Right. With, you know, you know, the home team, hometown high school kids here really making them feel a little bit more like rock stars than than they need to be felt like.
00:05:18
Speaker
But yeah, man, it was a good overall experience. Caleb Brothy was out for that show. He happened to be the contest administrator. So it was kind of good to have him sitting in the stands watching some groups. And we got a real great treat because the Marine Corps field band was actually on tour. And they asked to come and play at like 10.45 at night after the awards. That's funny you say that.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, they were playing a bunch of beats that Callum and Nuck wrote and they were just throwing down, man. But it was funny because it's like 11 o'clock at night, man, and they've been waiting around all day and they put on their uniform, man, and it was all over. I mean, kids are all wild, man. They're intense, man. They have to go to boot camp and everything. My one buddy is in the Marines. Yeah, they do.
00:06:17
Speaker
My one buddy is in the commandant zone and he's been gone down there in the southwest for Essentially their spring training now for about a month or maybe maybe coming on a month and a half I think he's home like next week. So this is I guess a performance near the end of their spring training basically Yeah, I'm spring train and Yuma, Arizona, which was about two hours away. So they just drove down They heard that WGI regional was here and they were like, can we come down and perform? I was like, well, yeah
00:06:48
Speaker
Right, because I'm sure when you're like out in Yuma, Arizona working on drum Corps in February There's a there's a jail out there that's about it. Yes Rough space of the country
00:07:07
Speaker
There's exactly right. Expect the Marines to go to do their spring training. Actually, it's one of the most brutal places in the. Yeah, it's awesome. I got two things with that. First off, I wanted to move to Arizona and my my wife is holding me up here and you know, nothing like the mother in law. You know, I don't know if any of you, Steve, I know you don't know what that is. I don't know about that yet. I don't want to hear about that yet, Woody.
00:07:36
Speaker
And two, I just did not have the stones to join the Marines. I thought about it, but I kept thinking, well, what if something happens? Then I might have to go to fight, or I don't know, thanks.
00:07:50
Speaker
I've heard some crazy stuff about that because I heard that the last time this was a big deal was in, I think, World War Two. But actually, the commandant zone stays back and they like take care of the facilities in D.C., even when we're drafting regular people to go to war in a serious war. So I've been assured that it's very not combative to be in the Marine Drumming Drumming Bugle Corps.

Marine Corps Band Performance

00:08:16
Speaker
But I felt the same way, Woody. I was like, I don't know that I trust it.
00:08:19
Speaker
I know a few people that have been in it and my fear was, well, what if I don't make it? Oh no. They're pretty serious. They're pretty serious, man. Like just, we got a chance to just watch their warmup and I was going, man, like these dudes, they're, I don't want to say they're better than some top 12 folks, but
00:08:42
Speaker
Oh, well, they're usually top 12 folks that have aged out and now just are getting a pension for continuing to drum. So it doesn't surprise me to hear it. I know they work hard over there. They're, they're following me around. They, and they went around and we're checking out a bunch of high school kids, lots.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's cool, too. It's cool for the high schoolers. This is really cool. And the Hornline folks were checking out some of the wind players. So it was a good thing in Arizona for them just to be walking around the lot. And they were super friendly. Nice. Well, why don't we talk a little bit about that Arizona Regional? I've got it pulled up here. Congrats, because I see that Vision Percussion did win Percussion Independent Open.
00:09:25
Speaker
uh with a 91 89 in effect vision so you must be doing something good with that show man looks like it's uh been a heater for you guys we feel pretty good about it yeah i mean it's a different show it's a different show um but are there videos out of the the show yet there should be something out
00:09:47
Speaker
I mean, somebody, I saw a lot of phones out, I'll say that. There's a bootleg out there somewhere, right? There's a bootleg out there someplace, man. For sure. I should go find it after, uh, after our call tonight then. But, uh, check it out, man. I mean, it's, you know, I think it's good, but I'm a little biased. You know, what's the program? What's the program? What is it? It's called the world of glow and basically
00:10:14
Speaker
It's talking about the power of the golden hour like when the Sun gets to that great place and It was great and looks great and everybody takes a picture of its setting or rising So we just took a play on basically kind of looked up with the golden hour means and our first design meetings and wanted to play on why it's called that for one and
00:10:45
Speaker
why people have kind of put that moniker on it.
00:10:49
Speaker
And so the whole show plays around the tranquility of the Golden Hour from sunrise to sunset. Yeah, it's cool. It sounds like exactly the type of show where you could do so much with the biz and just make it like a really gorgeous program to watch. That's weird going for tranquility and gorgeous, but we couldn't call it Golden Hour, man, because we thought the kids would end up changing the name of it to something pretty graphic. That's where the world would glow.
00:11:22
Speaker
Just to let you know, not called. That's funny. Looking back down the rest of that sheet from Arizona, it's looking like Horizon combined schools. They took home the first place in Scholastic A. Independent A. We had Pinnacle Percussion winning with a 74.6.
00:11:42
Speaker
Looking down to Scholastic Open, we've got Basha High School winning with a 77.65. As we just mentioned, Percussion Independent Open, we've got Vision with an 85, Breakthrough Indoor Percussion with an 83.2, and Linnea with a 74.6. And then we've had one world class group go out at that show that was a Flux Indoor Percussion taking home an 83.65.
00:12:10
Speaker
Cool. So let's take a look at the other regionals that happened on that same day, March 2nd. We also had a regional out in White Lake, Michigan, had a regional in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Earlison, Texas, and a two-day regional out in Indianapolis. So we'll come back to that one in a minute.
00:12:31
Speaker
What's that, Woody?

Freedom Percussion Strategy

00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, Indianapolis, Mike, you were there, right? Yeah, Indianapolis, weren't you? Yeah, that's the only regional we go to. Whoa. Okay. Okay. Judging or teaching? Teaching. Give us the scoop, man. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, teaching with freedom, right? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so tell us about the day.
00:12:52
Speaker
Well, obviously our competitive success wasn't as good as Mr. Wardell King's, but we're a little bit more, our shows take a little bit more time to kind of get right, a little bit more developed. So we went into that show very underdeveloped, none of our props were in or, you know, any of the, matter of fact. Oh yeah, totally, that's gonna make it hard. So our,
00:13:21
Speaker
And the kids play really well. The music judges liked it a lot. On Saturday did and so it was cool. It was good. It's a good that show for us is more of a. Let's see what this is and then we'll go back home and make all of our changes and and we kind of believe like. It's not really about the regional. It's more about the championships. When we all get together so.
00:13:47
Speaker
That show for us is definitely more of a, are we doing this right? Is that cool? Is that not cool? And we usually come out of that show with a lot of good information, especially with two panels to look at it.
00:13:59
Speaker
So for us, it's a little bit different. We're not really worried about winning it or anything like that. It would be nice. But the two groups that were above us, they're so much more complete and just more on the floor. And we had just gotten our uniforms in the day before.
00:14:17
Speaker
And so for us, it's a little bit more of a process, which is cool. We're kind of good with that. That's how it's been for the last couple of years for us. We've meddled the last two years. So at least that process usually works for us. So this past weekend, it was a, yep, we're changing this, we're changing that, cutting this cut and that.
00:14:41
Speaker
And so we, we have a little bit, we have a couple of local shows coming up before, uh, before, uh, we get to the championship. So it's kind of our plan. And, uh, yeah, I didn't, it's kind of hard and I'm sure Wardell can attest to this. It's kind of hard when you're a director to really get out and, you know, like see a lot of teams.
00:15:04
Speaker
because it's, you know, you're like, Hey, get over there and load the truck. Let's go. We got rehearsal, you know, and just, uh, yeah. Yeah. And then they're trying, they're trying to watch the groups that are out in the lot. Actually it was for Indianapolis. The weather was like beautiful for both days and groups were warming up outside, which is who we ever been in the Midwest in the regional season. Yeah. It's like you ever been in the Midwest in the regional season, you know, it's like snow in and
00:15:34
Speaker
You know, it's like 30 degrees and nobody's warming up outside if they are they're very brave. No, you remember what in 2017 when I was at the Midwest Regional MCM was over there next to us and they had these completely open like no shoes just like
00:15:50
Speaker
bare feet on the ground and it was snowing. And they had to actually like move around. I think they had something for the lot, but when they were moving out of the arena and they had to like book it with their stuff, they were just running through the parking lot with no shoes on, just like dying out there in the Midwest winter. Yeah, it's like, hey, they got a gold medal for it. So they're probably not mad about that. Yeah, sacrifice, sacrifice. Yeah, we make sacrifice.
00:16:19
Speaker
Was that the hand of man that when they won? I think that one was the Mideast regional. Yeah. That used to be at a university, I think. Yeah. Maybe in Tennessee. I forget though. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, uh, let's take this minute here. Let's hop to a quick commercial break and we will be back with some more of these regionals after we returned.
00:16:51
Speaker
Hey everyone, it's Jeremy the producer from on a water break, the main show. And while you're enjoying this great bonus content from some amazing hosts, there's a whole other show happening with guests, news and plenty of other fun things that you and your friends are talking about on a water break.
00:17:06
Speaker
So take a moment, go subscribe so that you can get your notifications every week for the main episode of On A Water Break. If you have news or know of somebody that would be a great guest or maybe you would be a great guest, email us at On A Water Break podcast at gmail.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at On A Water Break. And now back to this fantastic bonus content. And we'll see you at the show.
00:17:43
Speaker
All right, we are back and we've got like seven more regionals to get through. So I'm going to I'm going to read through a couple of these winners here real quick from some more shows on the second. We're looking now at Burleson, Texas, which was a pretty big show, reasonably large. Here we had a Lewisville High School taking home the gold medal for percussion Scholastic A. They won that with the eighty three point six five.
00:18:09
Speaker
In a percussion scholastic open, we actually had a bunch of groups. So shout out to Glenn High School that was able to come home with that gold medal taken home in 84 flat.
00:18:20
Speaker
A bunch of scholastic world groups at this show too, and several of them are new names to me, actually.

Texas Regional Results

00:18:26
Speaker
I wonder if maybe any of these will sound familiar to any of you guys, but we'll go down the list. In fifth place, we had Pearland High School with a 78.9, followed by Broken Arrow, who I did not realize really competed in at least that world class.
00:18:45
Speaker
This might be their third or fourth season year. Third or fourth season, yeah. Wow. They're pretty good guys, man. I always knew them for being such a huge BOA school and stuff like that. But I didn't know that they were doing indoor percussion. So maybe I'll need to keep an eye out for that. But Broken Arrow, they came home. They actually tied for third place with an 80.45 along with Bridgeland High School.
00:19:11
Speaker
But then in second place, we had Boswell High School with an 82.15, and Burleson Centennial High School wins the gold medal with an 85.45. The show has been coming up, man. I don't know. I've been seeing them the last two years. I mean, they're good. Yeah, I feel like nowadays there's almost a whole different guard of like world class high schools. I've seen them warming up out in the lot at championships a couple of times and was very impressed. Yeah, very impressed with those guys.
00:19:39
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Well, they must be doing something right. Like an 85.45 from a high school and world class on March 2nd is...
00:19:48
Speaker
Contending that's you'll be up there. It's it's tough with like some of those Extremely crazy like the Chino Hills and Ayala's of the world, but you know That's why I like seeing a man because it it's like there's some but there's somebody else on the West Coast. Yeah No, you're right There's other world-class high schools out here and they're clearly doing really big things So I'm excited to check them out come champs as well
00:20:15
Speaker
For world class, we did have two groups in world class at that show and a timing penalty, actually. So the second place group actually did win first place in subscore. They've gotten 82.6 as their final. This is Vigilante's indoor percussion and rhythmic force percussion took home the first place medal with an 82.9.
00:20:37
Speaker
It's a pretty big show down there in Texas that weekend, but we've got some more shows to go through, so let's take a peek around here. Looking at Scholastic A in Spartanburg, we have Green Hope High School with a 76.6.
00:20:52
Speaker
In percussion. Wow. OK, there's some big gaps here. Scholastic open. We have the next one with an eighty one point one five ninety six high school, which side note, I knew someone that went to ninety six. I just think that's so interesting. You ever hear that the name is six? Yes. That's the name of the school. Ninety six high school in South Carolina. I don't know. I think it's I'm pretty sure it's actually the name of the town.
00:21:33
Speaker
They're pretty big school because I knew, I knew kids in drum corps that came from 96. So that's interesting. Shout out to them. They, uh, won the gold medal for percussion Scholastic open just barely edging out Dobbins Bennett, who I know we've spoken about their color guard a couple of times as well. Big band school over there in percussion, independent open. We had a Q two. I didn't know Q Atlanta quest came up here. That's cool.
00:21:42
Speaker
I couldn't tell you why, but the name of the town is 96 South Carolina.
00:21:59
Speaker
Q2 took home the gold medal with an 83.2, Civitas with an 82.15, Paradigm Percussion with a 78.55, and Palmetto, Indoor Theater with a 74.6. I love Civitas, man. I love that group. I think they're great. Yeah, man, Civitas, I think Civitas and Freedom Percussion, I feel like I knew a bunch of kids that were from that kind of like
00:22:28
Speaker
I, are they that close together? They're not close together necessarily, but could kids maybe March from the same region on the coast? And we're, yeah, no, I might draw on a blank then we're thinking of a different group, but a little bit further away from those guys. But, um, yeah, yeah. They're on the coast. North Carolina. I didn't realize they were in on the coast. Yeah. So that's a little, that's a hike, but.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think so. It doesn't say here, but I knew where I knew a Civitas kids from was a crown audition camps. There were usually some kids out there that were from Civitas, and I think I remember someone from Freedom as well, but he might have just made the hike out.
00:23:11
Speaker
Regardless, though, moving down the sheet, we did have one world class group for Scholastic and one world class independent group as well. So Dorman High School brought home the 79.75 in Scholastic World, and Atlantic Quest made their debut for 2024 with an 82.5 in world class. You know, Steve, not the question group or anything, but the concert percussion
00:23:38
Speaker
World class. This, uh, Katawaba Ridge High School. They laid the smack down on an 82.7 to a 77. Whoo. Oh my goodness. Well, I think they did even better the next day, man. Cause I'm looking now, you might've been on prelims. They took on my 84.5 on the final sheet.
00:23:57
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Maybe I'm looking at the freedoms. I tend to do that to say, make sure I have everybody. And I'm like, whoa, that makes sense. Yeah. Sometimes not everyone does the finals one, but yeah, they got even better by the later that afternoon. I guess.
00:24:13
Speaker
I would love, I've never gotten to actually see concert in real life. I guess you guys probably have, right? Yeah. Concert is a little different. Well, I'm not a different world. It's a different world because they're not marching, but it's just, it's just, it's got their own.
00:24:29
Speaker
And I think approach, maybe at points, maybe Woody, you'd agree that it's, you can, you can hang out a little bit more in it, in the, in the innovation side, because you don't have the movement going on. So there's some, there's some cool scores that get some

Concert Percussion Discussion

00:24:45
Speaker
cool music that gets played. Um, and I don't know, some marching groups would necessarily take on all the time, but, um, yeah, we got a great group here in Arizona and independent. I mean, that's Scott Scholasco open.
00:24:59
Speaker
concert and they're like, I look at that class and go, man, this is this is crazy. We didn't even got this classic world yet. It's pretty cut through man. I've watched them and they play all those groups play. I mean, it isn't like number five plays to you know, number eight plays well to just like
00:25:20
Speaker
Pretty cool. I wish I could see, I think it was Woodbridge High School maybe that holds the WGI like record for the highest score ever. And it's like a Scholastic Concert World Score. That must have been another crazy. Did you ever see him? No, I haven't. I've never gotten to see concert in real life at all. Woodbridge is in that same district as Ayala.
00:25:43
Speaker
Oh, they're a Cali group. I want to say they have some of the same staff. Well, I think that they have some of the same staff. Yeah, they do like that. They were they were they were killing man that they Yeah, I've judged Woodbridge before to out in the SCPA. They're, they're really, really solid. They were able to
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'll have to take some time now that I'm not marching anymore and get me like a day. Do you know what day does concert do the same WGI like a weekend? And are they in the, in the Dayton arena doing their finals on one of the days? They're, they should be in the arena on
00:26:26
Speaker
Saturday afternoon, maybe a Friday afternoon. Okay. Oh, yeah. You know, that seemed to be, I know for a little while that was, uh, one of the biggest problems of getting the people in the room to see these fantastic groups play, you know, cause everyone's just hanging out in the parking lot waiting for the, uh, the movement to start, you know? Oh, so is it before a world-class semis that afternoon?
00:26:56
Speaker
I want to say that concert finals are before world-class semis. Okay. Last year concert was over at the Nutter Center. That makes sense then, because I know as the first world-class group started jumping on. Yeah, that was over at the Nutter Center last year. Michael's finals concert letter?
00:27:16
Speaker
No, actually the Nutter Center is probably a better suited venue for that than the arena. The arena is a little big for that approach. You know, a little too much space around it. You lose that intimate feel for concert percussion. I think the Nutter Center is definitely the choice. Well, I need to choose to get out there and see some of these concert groups because you guys have all great things to say and I
00:27:45
Speaker
I think I'd appreciate it now. I've been doing this for so long. I would love to just see the kind of refinement that you could get if you weren't concerned about putting on a moving product. A lot of artistry, man. I think you could watch probably two classes of it and not be over it. You just got to really dig the musicianship of it all. That's what you're really looking at, and the cleanliness. That's just the marching, the cleanliness part.
00:28:16
Speaker
The approach and the musicianship. That's the thing. And don't they sometimes they like look at more timbers and stuff too? Like if you're doing a concert percussion ensemble, you're going to get creative with the different elements of percussion that you have in that group. Well, you're going to see all the instruments that you probably wouldn't necessarily put in your front ensemble.
00:28:42
Speaker
These guys get really, they get super creative, man. Like, yeah, it's cool. That'll be cool. That's something. Go ahead. No, you get the multiple, uh, I'm going to play the marimba and the djembe at the same time approach and different textures and stuff like that. A lot. A lot. Yeah. Where you might freak out a marching kid like, I can't do both at the same time. No, no. I have four mallets in my hand. Well, here, take this fifth one.
00:29:11
Speaker
And yeah, no, that's cool. That's like different elements of a percussion that we don't really usually get the time to explore. So I'm all bought in. I'll go check some of that out. This this upcoming final strip, I think. Anyway, though, let's let's move into some of the regionals that we had just this last couple of days

Regional Recaps: Richmond to Denver

00:29:31
Speaker
ago. We're looking at a March 9th and the first one is in Richmond, Virginia.
00:29:36
Speaker
One of my favorites close to home, because this is where George Mason University makes their competitive debut each year. And it looks like they had a pretty good show here, coming out with an 86.25. Moving down the line in percussion independent open, we had Spectre percussion with an 84.9, and Old Line Independent with an 82.25.
00:29:58
Speaker
in Scholastic Open. Thomas Jefferson High School brought home the gold medal, but it was pretty close. South County High School, which I think South County might sometimes compete in Worlds, sometimes in Open. Who's Spectre? I haven't heard of Spectre percussion.
00:30:15
Speaker
Truthfully, I remember having you here. But they laid it down, huh? I'm wearing these close guys over here. Yeah, so maybe they're nailing them out. Yeah, I saw the big one. All right. That's enough. Let's go.
00:30:32
Speaker
Right. You see that and you're like, that's that's my wish. I've got my attention. You got my. Isn't that the guy from the Incredibles, the specter? What is this factor? I'm surrounded by him. I heard this incredible video. There's a video of Mike. Have you seen them? There's a video on the YouTube album. You can check out. Yeah.
00:30:59
Speaker
All right. Nice. It's a pretty nice show. I liked it a lot. Yeah, it looks like they too. They were rocking that visual effects score as well.
00:31:08
Speaker
You know, Steve, I'm looking at the Scholastic A, a lot of local teams from the Tri-State area, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Yeah. Oh, wow. It's nice to see because for so long we didn't have any Tri-State area participating, you know, it was a lonely event. It's nice to see so many people coming through. Yeah. I wonder if that's like in the absence of having Unionville and some other like
00:31:37
Speaker
older tri-state shows. I wonder if maybe groups are making the push down there just to get some different competition. But yeah, I'm definitely seeing what you're talking about. Hempfield, Central Dolphin, Downingtown East. These are all like some big PA schools making their way down to Virginia. PA schools, yeah. So that's pretty cool. As a matter of fact,
00:32:00
Speaker
Central and West Shore and, yeah, and Henfield, they, they compete in KIDA. I should probably see them in the next week or two. Oh, okay. Down in town East, you know, down in town East, uh, just got a new percussion instructor and, uh, he's a former United guy, like from early days. Early. How early are you talking? Matt, Matt Luskie.
00:32:26
Speaker
Matt Lusky. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if I know, uh, if I know Matt personally. No, I'm talking like the early 2000, like the 2003 days of United. Yeah. 2003. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. Foundational and OG member. Yeah. He's foundational guy. Yes.
00:32:48
Speaker
That's awesome. And he went on to, uh, do Penn state. Uh, you guys probably remember when Penn state was drumming and in the WGI thing, he went on to do that. Yeah. If Penn state didn't, uh, wrap up their ensemble right before I got there as a freshman, I don't know if I ever would have made it down to United.
00:33:09
Speaker
I'd have just been hanging out in Central PA all the time. In Central PA, yeah. Penn State was pretty good, man. Yes. The one I remember. Yeah, Penn State was, I think they were a legit open group, right? Yes. Is that what they were competing in? Yeah. Penn State was nice. It's because you got a pretty strong drumline contingency up there, but you also get to pull down groups from like upstate New York and stuff. A lot of their membership would actually come in from out of the university and north of campus.
00:33:38
Speaker
It's kind of sorely needed, the community up there. There's a lot of drum lines that aren't around anymore that you wish were around. Penn State, all those guys. I'm sure Woody could have tested a lot of those older groups that we wish were still around. The activity would be so much bigger right now. Yeah. The ground breakers, huh? They're making sure that Steven can be an all-star. They walked so that I could run.
00:34:08
Speaker
so that I could march six to fives. Cool. Let's take a little look down. We've got a couple more regionals to get here. But quickly before we go, shout out to Chantilly High School with the 86.05 at that Richmond Regional winning Scholastic A. And a special shout out to Hempfield as well. We were just talking about them, but a pretty frequent guest of the show, Matt Caraher, who comes in here. He was actually on our last percussion regional recap.
00:34:35
Speaker
I believe that is his school, so good job to them, really taking it home. Next region we'll take a look at, we got Jackson, Mississippi, which really I wish like, I feel like I'm really not familiar with that whole Southern scene. Are any of you guys more familiar with the like Southern indoor scene? I never see any of those guys to like go to Dayton, man. Honestly. Yeah.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah, me neither. I don't know a whole lot about the schools, but it does look like we've got some winners. So let's go through here. We've got Brandon high school took home. Oh, this is actually the wind Scholastic a they had some wins competition here with a 73.4.
00:35:15
Speaker
Looking at Percussion Scholastic Day, we had Germantown High School win with an 87.325. In the Percussion Scholastic Concert Open class, DeSoto Central High School won with a 75.4. Percussion Scholastic Open, we had a Pace High School win with actually, this is a pretty high score I think for this time of year, an 87.075.
00:35:41
Speaker
I don't know if I've seen that yet in Scholastico. Yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty high score. A couple of box fives sporting in there and they're right on the edge with everything else. Yeah. Now they're close. It looks like, uh, it looks like the vish stuff is super strong and the music stuff is just catching up right behind them. So they're going to be a force come dating this year, I bet. Taking a look at independent open La Force indoor percussion, which I can only assume comes from somewhere down, uh, the Louisiana area.
00:36:11
Speaker
Bea one independent open with an 80.35 and Lotus indoor percussion one came in second with a 75.3. One more regional this weekend we had out in Denver, Colorado, and this one is a this one's a relatively small regional. Well, let's read through these groups nonetheless. We got Centaurus High School winning percussion Scholastic A with an 84.45.
00:36:37
Speaker
Scholastic Concert A, Castleview High School wins with a 66.4, and Concert Open, Broomfield High School wins with a 75.8. Percussion Scholastic Open, we've got Legacy Winter Percussion Ensemble, winning with an 81.2.
00:36:54
Speaker
Percussion independent open we've got DKO winning with the 76.7 Sun City independent in second with a 73.8 and in a percussion independent world we have one of the one of the most storied WGI ensembles I would say if you know, you know Blue Knights indoor percussion ensemble with an 82.65 wins percussion independent world followed by rise with a 76.4
00:37:23
Speaker
You know, rise just got promoted too. Oh, so rise was open prior. No, wait a minute. I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of another group from, um, I just lost it there from, um, Idaho, Idaho, Idaho, or Salt Lake somewhere around there. I think there was a. Rift percussion. Rift percussion used to be independent A and they got bumped independent open. Oh, okay. Yeah. We also have that, uh, salt Lake regional. It looks like that was a March 9th one we haven't touched on either.
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah, rift percussion there. They got into a independent open, came in second with a 78.95. Not too, too far behind gold spike percussion, which won independent open with an 82.75. It's classic. Gold spike is going to get better every year. Gold spike.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah. This is one that I'm not too familiar with yet, but it does sound like you're one of the experts on the independent open stuff since you're, you're deep inside that competition. I tend to go down that rabbit hole.
00:38:29
Speaker
But check that class out. I think this year is probably going to be its most competitive. There's a lot of good groups out there is like the teams out there. It generally does have an audience on Saturday afternoon for finals, but I think independent open is probably just as competitive as an independent world. Something, especially some years. It's some really good shows down there. I know we're like.
00:38:55
Speaker
I know we're like, yeah, we're a, you know, kind of a bastard stepchild of the activity sometimes, but it's really competitive and it's really some really neat shows. Some really just, I would say you probably have a lot of creativity coming from in the independent or any independent open scene. And so, yeah, if you're going to Dayton, go watch independent open.
00:39:23
Speaker
You'll get to see us. I always want to say, I don't know, Michael, Michael's on it, but I'd like to, it might even be more competitive than the world. Just remember, life starts at conception. I like to lower groups.
00:39:40
Speaker
I think independent opens way more of a bloodbath in the independent world. You know why it's like that? I think because people are trying harder to get promoted so that they're thinking a lot more about how they present their teams. When you get a world group, you know what's coming through the door, you know what kind of hands, you can plan anything with the open group. You have to sit back and take your time and plan correctly.
00:40:05
Speaker
Sure. And that's where I do agree. Like you guys were saying open being more competitive than world. I think you're actually really onto something like world.
00:40:15
Speaker
The cookies have been crumbling in a certain way. And it's just because, you know, there's just so much talent and design and just middle school to high school to independent to your, your, I'm talking about pulse at the top end of that, where it's just like decades of building these, these groups up, um, an independent open, it's, it's a much more like fierce competition environment.

Independent Open Class Dynamics

00:40:37
Speaker
It sounds like where it really could be anyone's game any year. What do you guys agree with that?
00:40:42
Speaker
It is certainly just as special when you do well in that class as it is. And I've been a part of both of them where you do well. And when I used to be with Gateway and we used to do pretty okay in that class and independent world. But man, being in open, it feels a lot more special. And hopefully my buddy Wardell is really gonna feel like what it's like to medal this year and all the rest of that.
00:41:11
Speaker
And, uh, be up in the thick of it. I would really love that for him. Um, and so come watch it. I mean, you know, buy your tickets, you know, it. Yeah. It's general admission and, um, you know, like, come on, grab a seat, you know, like it's, it's really, it's really cool. I intend to, man, if I can find, if Chad Moore will give me one free moment on, on a Friday afternoon that week, I will be in there. But.
00:41:41
Speaker
Thank you all for coming on our recap this week. Thank

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

00:41:45
Speaker
you, Woody. Thank you, Wardell. Thank you, Mike. And thank you all for listening as well. I hope you've been having as much fun with the WGI season as we have. We'll probably be back with at least one more of these before Dayton and look forward to talking a bunch about WGI once we get to Dayton week. Thank you all for coming. Everybody. And go practice. Go practice. Go practice. See you all.