Spring - Early Summer 2006
July 29, 2006 was a major landmark in the history of Gulf Coast Sound. First, the Corps was honored with a proclamation of “Gulf Coast Sound Day” by Houston Mayor, Bill White. Next, that evening, the Corps hosted the first-ever DCA show in Houston, Brass on the Bayou, at St. Pius X High School. The Corps participating were the Arabia Shriners from Houston, Frontier from Dallas, and Trinity from Seguin, as well as GCS. Finally, at Brass on the Bayou, GCS performed our 2006 show, “Shades of Green,” on the field for the first time. The entire day marked the conclusion of a successful pre-season for GCS and the start of what we look forward to as our best competitive season yet.
We started drill camps in April, learning the sets as our co-Program Coordinator, Patrick Sloan, sent them to the staff. For most drill camps, Nikki Nauck, our Head Drum Major, ran things from the podium, while the visual techs, Dave Schneider, Scott Miller, and Jon Large, gave us our spots for each set. One of the amazing things about Gulf Coast Sound is that everyone on the staff is also a member. Dave marches soprano; Scott marches contra and serves as a brass tech; and Jon marches bass drum and is also the Percussion Caption Head. For a couple of the Camps, David Bolzman, our other co-Program Coordinator flew in to lead the effort and clean the drill. We were excited to have him here, since we hadn’t seen much of him because of his move to Indiana in October. During one Camp, when Nikki couldn’t make it, Barb Wendt, our pit percussionist ran things from the sidelines. In GCS, members just do whatever is needed.
On Saturday, May 6, we took some time out from camp to perform a concert of our show music at the Texas Drum Corps Tigers annual barbeque, a fund raiser to help kids in Texas with the costs of marching in DCI Corps. This was my third time to perform with GCS at Drum Corps Tigers, and it was definitely our best showing yet. The previous two times, we went with music and stands, but this time, everyone had the music memorized. In addition, there were members of the audience crying during our ballad, and the contra section had some very vocal fans.
Friday evening, June 9, Fiesta Supermarkets sponsored one of their fund-raising dinners for GCS at Rittenhouse Baptist Church. Fiesta donated food, entertainment, and prizes. GCS provided labor and sold the required number of tickets and got to keep all the money collected. The proceeds covered some of the costs for Brass on the Bayou. After dinner, the Corps performed a concert for our guests just outside the Fellowship Hall at Rittenhouse.
As of June 17, GCS had our show on the field. According to Tom Huntley, lead soprano and brass tech, a Corps does not reach that milestone until the first full run-through. We did three of them back-to-back that day.
The sections are filled and the holes in the drill closed up. GCS is slightly smaller this year than last, but as Jason Rose, our director, has said, “That hasn’t stopped us.” If anything, it’s made every one of us even more determined to get to the next level this season. This year’s membership truly is all age. We have a couple high school students who play and march like they are in their twenties, and we have a few guys who decided to march with us this year instead of junior corps. These members refer to themselves as “The Young Guns.” We have quite a few members who live in the Houston area but have, in past years, traveled as far away as the east coast march with all-age Corps but made GCS their home when it was formed. Much of our staff and founding members, including Jason, David Breitwieser, the Business Manager, and Nikki, our Drum Major, fall in that category. We have one member from New Orleans who is marching with GCS this year until his home Corps gets back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina. (Of course, we would not mind if he stayed around for another season or two.) Finally, we have a number of members, “The Old Pharts,” who marched either marched with an earlier senior corps in Houston, Bayou City Blues, or in junior corps in the late 60s, 70s, or 80s and are thrilled to have the chance to take the field again.
On June 24, the Corps traveled to Austin for the second annual Texas Drum Corps Preview. GCS, as well as Frontier, Trinity, and Revolution from San Antonio, performed concerts on the steps of the Capitol Building. This was the official debut of our 2006 repertoire and our first appearance in the new uniforms. We had a great time, and the crowd was wonderful. We loved hearing that heart-rending chord in the big hit of our ballad, “Unchained Melody” echo down the streets of the Capitol and back on a warm summer Saturday at dusk. A special treat for the Corps was meeting Roel Flores, who arranged most of the brass charts for this year’s show. Roel traveled to Austin from Laredo just to see the Corps perform, and we even talked him into warming up with us.
On July 2, the horn line performed our show music, as well as “America” and “Texas our Texas” during the Sunday Service at Rittenhouse Baptist Church. It is a GCS tradition to perform at Rittenhouse on the Sunday nearest each July 4th as a thank you to the church for so generously allowing us to use the facilities for our rehearsals. After the performance, we did several run-throughs of the show including one in uniform just to get the feel marching the show and covering down on someone dressed like everyone else.
On July 15 the Corps had been scheduled to travel to Orlando for a DCA competition. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled, so GCS took the opportunity to have an additional camp. David Bolzman rearranged his schedule to attend. He brought Daniel Galloway, a DCI visual caption judge, with him to help fix and clean some trouble spots in the drill. In addition, Dena Anderson, a founding GCS member and mellophone player in Gulf Wind, the small ensemble for the Corps, arranged for us to have our camp at Clear Creek High School. Dena also helped with visual tech duties that day. Although the heat radiated off the artificial turf visibly and brutally, the opportunity to march in a stadium was invaluable. Dave, Dena, and Daniel were able to view the drill from press-box level and read the shapes and the flow. In addition, Ben Fournier, who supports the Corps in numerous, incredible ways—taking photographs and videos, cleaning drill, encouraging us enthusiastically when we are on the last run-through of the day—got some high-angle videos of our run-throughs to use as an instructional and cleaning aids. Although we were disappointed that we had to delay our first competition and chance to see our fellow DCA South member Corps, the camp was incredibly productive and beneficial.
Our first judged performance is coming up this Saturday, August 5, at the DCA South Championship in Rockmart, Georgia. We are eagerly looking forward to finally putting “Shades of Green” on the competitive field. We’ve worked incredibly hard since 2005 DCA Prelims, and we are more than ready to see where we stand.
Kerry Ellison
GCS Reporter
