By Andy Dittrich
Capital Sound
romeoprovipimpcs@yahoo.com Full Week number two

Andy Dittrich
I say that I always speak the truth, and I was indeed correct in saying that we have a fantastic show. With four shows down, it seems as though we have already left a mark on the drum corps world that we can only hope will grow with every performance. Morale is high, the members and staff are excited, and there is determination and desire emanating from each performer. The recap: Rehearsal began at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the corps already excited to put the show on the field. We did a lot of work on the closer, which was the most recent piece we learned in the drill, and needed excessive cleaning. The rehearsal moved quickly, and we accomplished quite a bit. At this point, we are still getting comfortable with the show, so every time we perform it, it just gets better from repetition. The first show was tonight, in Middleton, Wis., which was actually our home show. We put on a very good show, and we played a great warm-up in the lot as well. That would be something that would continue through the weekend. We left for Oswego that night after the show. Oswego is only about 15 minutes away from my home. We put in a five-hour rehearsal block in the late-morning, early-afternoon period, and prepared for a concert that we do every year at the carnival across the street from the show. We did some touch-ups to the drums, and Allan (bass tech) worked his magic on the bass drums. We are bad at concerts for some reason. Possibly due to the fact that our drill is much more challenging, and we have better associated the motion in our feet with the motion in our hands. We got back from the
concert, took in some water, and got ready for the show warm-up. Again, we played a great lot, and then got into the show, and played another great show. About 10 kids from
Romeoville came to see the show, said that it was very impressive, and they are not used to seeing us this good, this early. The Oswego show was the first night of the "All-Star Drumline," and I should say, that some drum corps, some top drum corps, should be awfully ashamed of the way that their members, more specifically, their snare drummers are behaving. Learn the exercise, it's really easy. Stop embarrassing yourselves. It happened Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and even from the corps that created the exercise. We woke up Saturday to a giant pile of drums outside of our truck. Madison decided that they didn't want them anymore, so we took them off of their hands prior to next weekend, when we will begin performing with them. We somehow managed to put 19 snares, nine tenors, and 10 bass drums onto our one equipment truck. Saturday was a "no rehearsal" day, but we had the awful, awful Appleton parade. The best feeling I had all weekend was pulling that uniform off of me following that parade. Everything was stuck to me. We had some facility problems here, so we had to sleep, shower, and eat at three different places. Thanks to the Americanos for allowing us to use their corps hall for dinner! The show was solid, and things continued to improve as we headed into the end of the weekend. Again, the "All-stars" were quite disappointing. Sunday marked the end of the weekend, with a rehearsal block in some 90-degree heat. Finally broke a nice sweat and felt like I was accomplishing something. We worked out some more
of the kinks in closer, and tried to make the ending even more effective. The show was OK tonight. Four big days in a row is difficult for any drum corps, and I think that many of us were simply tired. Rob and I found the local Domino's in Menomonie, Wis., and enjoyed a very refreshing and well-deserved Coke. Ahh... All in all, it was a fantastic first weekend for a drum corps with potential exploding from every orifice. We are very excited to put on this show, and we hope you enjoy it. So far, it's been a blast. Quote of the Week: "Just checkin' your tire pressure ... " Andy Dittrich is the center snare drummer for Capital Sound, and is a fifth-year member of the corps. He is a 17-year-old senior at Romeoville High School in Romeoville, Ill., and he will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall, studying English. He'll be contributing weekly reports to DCI.org through the summer.