This week on DCI.org, we'll be focusing some editorial firepower on anecdotes and stories related to front ensembles. Think back to those formative, funny, inspiring or memorable front ensemble stories and send them in! They can be as long or as short as you would like. Attach a picture of yourself or the situation you're writing about if you can. And by all means, pass this on to your pit-lurking friends! We'll edit these stories for clarity, grammar and appropriateness. If you have a pit-related anecdote or story, send it to content@dci.org.
Hilary Pearson, an Americanos marimba player, sent in the left photo above. " We had to take drum heads out of these boxes. While our instructor was away doing something else, we decided to take markers and draw faces on the boxes and play our instruments with them on. It was hilarious! My favorite part was when Eric decided to punch arms through his box and play the congas," Pearson said. Brad Meyer, a Cadets' front ensemble member, sent in the photo in the center above. "Last year, we were somewhere in the South (because if I remember correctly, it was hot), and Tom Aungst was on tour for a bit of tour. It was the middle of the day when everyone is having their lunch hangovers and is hating it (especially if they're in the line because they gotta run back between each set). So the pit came over to the drum line field to run some sections and whatnot, and in the middle everyone started to get tired and have hot-face and whatnot. As one can expect, when yelling "Again" over and over, it almost gets automatic to shorten the word and just make it into a shouting type of sound. So the pit finally asked Tom if he would just squak like a chicken to see if the drum line would take it back to the previous section and run it again. So he finally did, and the drum line didn't even notice it. I mean not a single person in the drum line even hesitated to run it back and do it again. Moral of the story: There really is no moral, it was just really funny to hear Tom Aungst squak like a chicken and then for it to be taken as a legitimate/intelligent command," Meyer said. The photo above depicts Cadet members Colin, Emily and Meyer. Travis Knapp, a Cavaliers' front ensemble player, submitted the photo to the right above. "There is no eccentric story behind this picture, although this was a stressful day. The night before this show, the drum bus broke down. Therefore, we had to sleep on the hard floor of some high school in Illinois (this was taken our home show in Des Plaines). It was quite a stressful day due to the large amount of scattered showers in the middle of our rehearsal. The positive thing about this picture is that this is the day in which our new concert bass drum arrived!"