Lincoln Wins Sweepstakes At Quad States!


Posted October 18
The Lincoln Patriot Marching Band rolled into Vermillion on Saturday October 18 with the look of a champion, delivered a performance worthy of one, and returned home champions of Quad States. The chilly morning load-up at Lincoln changed to a sunny afternoon unload at USD as the Pats readied themselves to take on all comers. Along with the championship trophy the band came home with 4A caption awards for drum majors, drum line, horn line and the guard.

The best performance of the season came in one of the hardest venues to conquer - the echo chamber called the DakotaDome. And if fans in the stands thought they saw a great show - they should have been down in "the bunker" with the Roadies, where you can actually feel the sound.
As a special bonus, fans around the buses after the show were treated to a victory horn arc, where Mr. Carlson directed a drumline-less rendition of America South.

Jon Sogn had a unique view of the show - from the rafters above the lights in the DakotaDome in Vermillion on October 18th. Jon's pictures have been added to the Quad States set. See the show as the Carlson's plan it out by going to the Quad States photo set. Thanks Jon!!!

As always for the Roadies, Vermillion provides some of the best fodder for stories. Notable in the load-up was the last instrument to the truck, a drumline member we know and love, who also needed a littttle extra time to get to the school. In Vermillion, once we all figured out how to get around the road construction to the parking lot things went pretty well. For the second time this season, Roadie Dean V turned over the key to the ATV to former Head Roadie Neil. Last time at Festival of Bands, that included a nearly-empty gas tank. This time, that ol' prankster left the hitch ball off the ATV, so when we got ready to head to the stadium, we had no way to attach the trailer. But the ever so resourceful Roadies made due with a socket and extension, which miraculously only came apart twice.

The Roadies this week seemed to shed little blood, but the "black and blue" award will go to Tom Reed who had his hand smashed between the trailer tongue and the temporary hitch ... and then was stung by a bee when we loaded up.

Of course the band performed on Friday night at the halftime of the Lincoln shellacking of RC Stevens (56-7). The chilliest show of the season went well, though the band was struggling to get focused. Many members came to the show missing uniform parts, which kept the chaperones busy, and the "pitsters", as Mr Carlson called them, didn't start getting their uniforms on until 4 minutes before halftime.

Top 10 Things Learned Being A Roadie

Posted October 19
The competition season is over and all that's left are the indoor concerts and that little parade in New York City. Roadies that were rookies are now veterans, and the veterans are just older, grayer and more scarred up. Volunteering for any bandparent committee is good, but here's the Top 10 Things We've Learned by being Roadies:

10. Loading instruments always beats doing yard work.
9. Turns out Pit Kids will gladly tell you where to put a bass drum!
8. Advil. Enough said.
7. Unstable ladders make our Drum Majors really testy.
6. You can fit a kid inside a tenor drum case.
5. "Prop" really IS a four-letter word.
4. The pit equipment alone weighs over 3 TONS (see number 8).
3. Knuckles bleed.
2. Roadies can beat the drumline off the field EVERY TIME!
1. You really can fix anything with duct tape!

Lincoln Takes Runner-up Spot at Valleyfest


Posted October 12
The Lincoln Patriot Marching Band hit the road for their longest competition trip of the season and came home with runners-up honors at Valleyfest in Des Moines. The band wowed the crowd but not the judges enough, as they fell short to Irondale High School of New Brighton, MN. The Colorguard and drumline brought home caption awards at the event.

The day will certainly go down as one in the "spellbound" theme, and there was definately something in the air, which may explain why the Roadies encountered not one, not two but THREE flat tires on the weekend. Flats one and two occured within 10 minutes of each other - and on the same piece of equipment. While the pit was warming up, a tire blew on the PA cart. While we are trying to figure out what actually made the noise, Craig is trying to figure out how to work it into the show. Turns out a couple of the veteran Roadies were just having a little fun with Taylor (kid who runs the PA cart) with a little game called, "let's over-inflate the tires." Shortly after another exploded while the cart was sitting still! The final tire issue came on the uniform trailer, where the Roadies ended up changing a tire in the mall parking lot Sunday morning.

The challenges for the band began before they even left the parking lot. Problem #1: Sunset bus #8 is broken down on some interstate somewhere Saturday morning and clearly will not arrive at LHS in time for an 8:30 departure. So SBI gets a school bus (not a motor coach) to take the kids down to the scheduled rest stop (Onawa), where the plan is that Sunset will have another bus arrive, swap out the kids, and the SBI bus can head back home. Well Sunset bus #8 does arrive, and we swap kids, however....

Problem #2: Sunset bus #6 overheats and pulls into the rest area just south of Sioux City. Bus #7 waits with it. They figure something out and get it going and pull in to the Onawa rest stop about an hour after we get there. They say it's fixed a ready to go, BUT black smoke starts belching out the back end. Mr. C says enough; that bus is staying here; get the kids on the SBI #8 and let's get going.

All the while this is going on, kids moving buses, buses not moving, the chaperones are in true form and running around trying to figure out what to do. But the Roadies, never ones to miss an entertainment opportunity, kept themselves busy by making bets on whether or not some of the chaperones would be allowed back on to the 'no nut' buses. (insert rim shot here).

At the show the Roadies worked with their smallest crew of the year, which included a former junior Roadie-turned bandmember-turned Roadie. We survived the timed event by AGAIN beating the drumline off the field (4-0 in times events since 2003). We avoided the "cones of death" that marked the performance boundries and managed to provide the bulk of the horsepower required to get the pit the 4 blocks UPHILL all the way back to the buses. And we contained our exasperation when we found Pete Hansen's car blocking the pit trailer tailgate after the show.

DVD Recorded at HWF


Posted October 10
The Lincoln Band has completed their annual DVD recording night at Howard Wood Field. An annual tradition dating back to video tape, MES Productions recorded the DVD on Tuesday October 7th. Jay Hardy and Rich Murphy took two and a half run-throughs worth of video, and now will begin the task of hours and hours of editing to produce the final show. Though traditionally completed by the Indoor Concert series, this fall the DVD will be distributed after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. DVD's are $25.00 each and can be ordered by sending a check to Chuck and Cindy Stanga: 3100 S. 6th Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57105.

Oh The Fun We've Had In October

Posted October 12
The marching season hits its climax in the third week of October - often punctuated by the annual trip to the DakotaDome in Vermillion Here's a look back at some of the things we've encountered as Roadies during the third week of October

2000 Brandon Our only trip to the Big Sioux Review was highlighted by the Roadies having to squeeze our equipment into a tiny parking area and we nearly couldn't get our pre-historic atv know as the Cushman between all the vehicles in time to get staged.
2001 Vermillion then Brookings The band had the use of the practice field in Vermillion prior to the show. The field is pocked with gopher holes, and band parents are posted at them to prevent injuries. At least two parents are whacked by flag poles during the practice. And Roosevelt tried to delay getting to Brookings so they could perform after LHS so the band slowed way down on I-29 and parked the buses on a side street until they knew RHS was at the Brookings site.
2002 Brookings then Vermillion The Brookings competition was held in the morning that year it was chilly and the 50 people in the stands were all from LHS. The band headed south quickly to Vermillion where the fabric "scrims" needed repair and one poor trombone was tripped up as they were taken hastily from the field.
2003 Vermillion The final show of the spectacular Zorro season. It was nearly 80 degrees in the Dome and construction was underway on the roof as the bands performed. So the kids roasted and contractors noise on the roof was unbelievable.
2004 Omaha - One sick pit kid made an exit just moments prior to the show and the band performed on easily the nastiest field in years and it was a timed event where the Roadies beat the drumline off the field for the second straight week.
2005 Vermillion After completing everything and packing up, one Roadie has to have their vehicle jump started to leave the USD parking lot.
2006 Madison - With a performance time temp of 35 degrees and a breeze out of the north over 10 mph, the sound was not on par with other performances that season. The brass instruments sounded flat that evening, and complaints of frozen fingers from the pit players were common.
The Roadies had one of their more challenging evenings ... stalled an atv leaving the practice site marimbas coming unhooked during the 8-block trek to the stadium, as well as falling gourdos, triangles, and a crotale bar. Then, we jumped the gun taking the ladders on the field when we thought O'Gorman was done (turns out they were not), and on the return trip a tie down strap on our flatbed snapped leaving a trail of sparks down I-29 for miles. And we even got to help by carrying around an ill tuba player, one of two that were taken ill prior to the show (they ate at the same fast food place we hear).
2007 Vermillion : After a delay getting the buses together on I-229 (and a quick attachment of the trailer lights on bus 1) the trip went smoothly to Vermillion, and was punctuated by a white bus flattening a sign in the parking lot. It was a gorgeous fall day on campus, despite the band and volunteers nearly eaten alive by the Asian beetles and little black gnats during warm ups. The height of the Dome doors forced the power pole props to be assembled outside and tipped slightly to be brought in. However, two poles collided and one top piece had to be repaired Yankton performed. The top piece was taped and reattached just prior to taking the field. We were a little rough on junior Roadies Dan K's foot run over by the flatbed on the way out, and another's leg run into in the endzone. When all was said and done at Lincoln, everything was unloaded and the parking lot was nearly empty there sat 2 mellaphones (or baritone), 2 bass drums and 2 snares and the majority of the practice stands for the drum line. Enough said.

Festival of Bands Weekend Is A Hit With The Fans


Posted October 5
Festival of Bands weekend comes at a great time in the marching season. The season's midpoint weekend treats many different fans, and the band only travels across town for performances.

This week's halftime show was the annual Senior Night tribute, where parents of senior band members get to take the field for the band's warm up. The parents must have inspired the kids, as the band turned in what Director Bob Carlson called "our best show of the season so far". At his post-game press conference (okay, so it was Bob and Neil chatting under the grandstand) Mr. Carlson said the directors were waiting for all the pieces of the show to click, and they were starting to. He said they are really looking to put on the show the next two weeks after what he'd seen that night.

Saturday morning the band headed down town for the Festival of Bands parade, where co-host LHS was the final band down the parade route. Stepping off just before noon the band marched the complete route, before returning to 10th and Main where they practiced and filmed their 75 second Macy's Thanksgiving Day show.

And of course the evening was highlighted by the LHS exhibition performance of Spellbound, held in the wind tunnel we call Howard Wood Field.

For the Roadies, FOB was like "homecoming", as 6 "retired" roadies helped move the band on and off the field. With over 40 years of Roadie Oldie experience, the crowd was treated to their expertise, which included nearly tipping the giant drum major platform over into the front row of the pit.

But the rookies were not left out of the picture. Jeff had Rookie Bob Visser pull a platform behind the band to the midpoint of the parade for the filming of the Macy's music ... only to set up 50 feet from where Jeff parked the truck. GOTCHA!!! And 1st event rookie Brad Rhoades completed his bloody-knuckle initiation before taking the field.

Among the other highlights of the weekend ... We might have left a platform unlatched Friday night and that made it a bit exciting for the parents on one of the platforms as it sloooowly tipped toward the field ... pit kid Hailey had her hand smashed between two marimbi (marimbas?) in a chain reaction collision behind the locker room ... Jay Hardy saved the band from impact by removing the hand rails to the BFL just as the band trooped the stands ... Dean Versteeg invited Neil to pilot an atv - a move possibly motivated by the nearly empty fuel tank (which was discovered just before we staged at the stadium) ... Jim (the Toolman) Fitzgerald permanently attached our flatbed license plates in the parking lot ... if you wondered: yes, Neil and Robert were racing around the track on Saturday night ... at the FOB post-performance analysis meeting (at Stubbies Bar) two familiar looking but un-named bandparents bought a round for the Roadies in attendance!

Past Roadie Adventures in Early October

Posted October 5
One Time at Band Camp Well, this story isn't like that. But many things have happened on our road trips. The second weekend in October has provided the Roadies and the band with some of their greatest adventures, outstanding performances, and agonizing results. Here's some of the more memorable events that happened this week in Roadie History:

2000 Brookings & Madison doubleheader. After arriving in Brookings, several Roadies had to fan out in town to find cord that could be used to re-string a marimba. That evening in Madison, we got a flatbed trailer filled with pit equipment wedged in the entry gate to the DSU field. Once we freed it, we had to make a ¾ mile detour to the back entrance.
2001 Eden Prairie, MN It was COLD the coldest night ever for a band competition. Cold when we got there cold for the show. The band stayed outside for over 2 hours prior to the show and the kids were frozen. And so were the Roadies.
2002 Eden Prairie, MN A borrowed flatbed trailer was a little larger that we figured, and we only made it through the exit gate with 1" to spare! And the band had 4 "scrims" as part of the show, and the fabric on one had to be hand stitched in the parking lot until show-time.
2003 Des Moines, IA. Our initial trip to Valley Fest. After touring the site, Head Roadie Neil still got the pit lost by leading them into a dead end on the way to warm up. And we got the shark cage stuck in tree branches on the way to the stadium. But the performance was one of the BEST EVER, falling short to Irondale who performed almost 4 hours after Lincoln. On the trip home Roadie Dean Versteeg was pulling a flatbed trailer when one of our drum major platforms opened up and jumped off the trailer on I-80 west of Des Moines!
2004 "Super Saturday". The band traveled to Vermillion for Quad State and then to Des Moines for Valley Fest. It was a nice morning for loading, and when we were all set to roll we got nowhere. Bus 2 fried a light relay on our pit trailer, and we had to unplug the trailer lights for the bus to move. Thankfully we had Jay Hardy to re-wire the relay box in the parking lot at USD in order for the band to head to Des Moines (with lights, anyway). At USD the discovery that the color guard had missed loading their prop scrolls on our flatbed led to the mad dash for 2 Roadies on an ATV back across the USD campus to the pit trailer, and equally mad return trip. The exhilaration of success was short-lived as they then raced back to the trailer for the yard markers because USD failed to provide on the back field. And LHS scored lower than Roosevelt for the first time ever. The final excitement came when an atv-towed flatbed of ours got caught between the concrete bases of the flag poles out front of the Dome (history repeating itself?). Finally at Des Moines, there was the special bounce in the drum majors during the show because Neil failed to properly lock down the right side of the 50-yard line ladder platform. We knew it was not going fall apart, but the drum majors did not. But LHS took Sweepstakes in Des Moines!
2005 - Des Moines, IA Saturday morning we loaded up after the rehearsal and made it no further than the construction in front of LHS where bus 1 and the pit trailer made a wrong turn in the parking lot and nearly jackknifed the trailer trying to get out. Not an inauspicious start. Once underway, the buses spread out on I-29 as 5 & 6 could barely muster 65 mph. They didn't end up back together until they pulled into the Sheraton parking lot in Des Moines.
Roadies learned not to get between the band and the Papa John's car when someone yells "PIZZA IS HERE!" Valleyfest is a timed event and the drum line lost to us, a bunch of mostly 40+ Roadies by a wide margin getting off the field. Roadie Judy Olson, who was doing color guard duty Saturday, ran 80 yards (definitely not in running shoes) after retrieving a forgotten flag, and still beat the drum line by nearly 8 seconds, and they had less than half the distance to go
2006 Vermillion A fairly uneventful unload and leisurely trip to the field resulted in us following Roosevelt in line outside, where we had to wait at the west end of the east-bound dragons RHS had for props. We've had bad views before, but the tail end of the dragons set a new low.
2007 Orange City, IA Just when the fireworks started (which coincided nicely with the heeaviest rain), Head Roadie Jeff was lying on the roof of the pit trailer trying to fix the roof vent as the wind had torn it away from the latching mechanism, a task performed half standing on the drum majors ladder, which was in turn standing on a wet slippery picnic table. Back at LHS, we unloaded the horns during a 'dry' spell, thinking the buses weren't too far behind. The buses ended up being farther behind than we thought and the dry spell didn't last quite long enough. So we rolled out a 30x50' tarp and 6 of us Roadies stood in the wind and drizzle holding it over the horns and drums. Did I mention wind? It was at this time that the wind decided to add to the enjoyment; a gust would arrive and announce itself by sending a wave from one end of the tarp to the other. Did I mention rain? When the 'wave' got to the end of the tarp and 'snapped,' it would send a fairly sizable spray of water into the face of whichever Roadie happened to be at that end of the tarp. and the swirling wind made sure we all got our turns. But even so, the spirits of these Roadies weren't dampened as we kept ourselves occupied by laughing and joking at our predicament.

Different Venue - Same Result: Rosemount Bests Lincoln

Posted September 28th
Saturday was a very long day for the Patriot marching band, one that began after 8:00 a.m. with sectionals and ended well after 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. In between they worked through a solid morning rehearsal and endured long bus rides. But despite a great effort by the kids in blue, LHS fell (literally in one instance) short in the evening competition at the Music of the Knight.
The band entertained us with another great performance, but we just missed a few things that the judges didn't like. (click here for scores or here for complete results). And whether it impacted the score or not, the 3-marcher collision was hard to miss in the show. A judge even picked up a plume and mouthpiece from the crash site and placed them on our tymp cart.
For the Roadies, a long road -trip always make for good stories, and this one was no different. Among the "highlights" from our point of view:
* We decided that Dean Versteeg looked a bit too healthy and was showing us up, so a couple of us decided to run him over with a trailer. The results of our success would need to be determined by radiology, but we rolled his foot pretty good and Dean later confessed
that a couple of interesting words may have floated thru his mind shortly after the event.
* This may be a first at a competition,...Jim and Tim had their welder and generator in the back of the truck and performed some last minute surgery on a broken tymp cart handle.
* Reason #32 why we throw everything back into the trailers and lock them up during a performance in the Cities: Some members of one section had brought some type of beverages that were in glass bottles. Needless to say, when we returned from the performance, some members of the neighborhood welcoming committee had smashed them all over the parking lot. So we got some practice in for sweeping up glass without a broom (no injuries reported on that one). New Rule: No glass bottles?
* Yet another pair of pants with gum on them. That's 3 so far this year. New Rule: No Gum?
We had three people taking pictures at Irondale, and as the pictures are received, they will be posted on the website. Please keep checking back from time to time

Roadies Look Back at Festival of Bands

Posted September 28
Here's a look back at some of the things we've encountered as Roadies during Festival of Bands weekend in the last few years
2001: It was COLD as in many layers of clothing cold. For the parade the wind blew too, but that died down during the evening. But is still never got to 40 that day.
2002: After the evening show (one of the 1st bands to perform) we were packed up and ready to leave but couldn't get out of the parking lot with our trailers when Stampede hockey fans double-parked on the road in and didn't leave enough room for us to get out.
2003: Having two atv's and plenty of time on our hands, a couple of Roadies spent the evening helping pull other bands pit equipment in and out of the stadium.
2004: We invented the Roadie Relay. Here's how it worked. A Snare Drummer fails to get his drum from the start of the truck at the start of the parade. Half way through the parade one Roadie runs up to the head Roadie looking for the drum, which is on the truck now parked at the end of the parade. The Head Roadie runs to the end of the parade, gets the drum, runs it back to the first Roadie, who then runs up the parade route only to find the band already marching at the judges' stand. The kid marches without his drum.
2005: In addition to the parade and the evening performance, LHS performed at the Augie football halftime. After the halftime performance, at the end of the show, we found ourselves surrounded by football players harassing Roadies & color guard to get out of the way when halftime ran long due to Augie homecoming festivities. The evening pit warm-up was highlighted by Craig Spangler having them warm up across the street from Buffalo Wild Wings. Roadies, with two hours to kill, outside a bar ... hmmm ...
2006: The band braved unseasonable warmth and high winds on that day. LHS began the day as the next to last band down the Dakota Avenue parade route. That was a new venue that fall, as the traditional Main Avenue parade route was moved due to road construction. The crowd was smaller than usual without the usual combination of Viking Days and FOB. But 29 bands marched the parade, and it still took over two hours to complete.

Festival of Bands is Saturday

Posted September 28th
The Lincoln Patriot Marching Band will participate in the 21st annual Festival of Bands in Sioux Falls. The four locals bands will again act as hosts for the event, which includes 41 parade bands and 29 entered in the field preliminaries. The four local high schools are co-hosts for the event and will march in the parade in the morning, and perform exhibition shows in the evening. Lincoln is slated to be last in the parade, which is held in conjunction with Augustana College's Viking Days homecoming event. At the evening finals event, Lincoln is scheduled to perform at 6:45 p.m., following exhibitions by a selected A and a AA band. For a listing of the marching order of the parade, and evening exhibitions, please visit the Festival of Band feature page at www.marching.com

Lincoln Sign Gets Custom Cover

Posted September 28
A wish-list project of Roadie Chiefs has become reality thanks to longtime Roadie and sewmaster Judy Olson. Our 2-piece LINCOLN sign that leads the band at parades now has a protective cover (pictured at right) thanks to Judy. The sign has traveled to Macy's in November 2000 and to the Tournament of Roses in January 2005, and the Roadies have always had to try to find something to cover it with while it rides in the uniform trailer. Now - it has custom-made protection. Thanks Judy!!
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