LHS To Lead Macy's Parade

Posted November 13
In less than two weeks the Lincoln Patriot Marching Band will lead all participants in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This will be the Patriot's third trip to New York City for the event (and the second time LHS has led off the parade), and the 285 proud marchers are excited for the trip. The parade can be seen live on NBC on Thanksgiving Day, November 27th. While the band is first down the street, they are by no means first in the telecast. Nearly the first hour of the telecast is devoted to performers not marching but performing in front of Macy's. The band has 75 seconds to march into camera view, perfom their song, and get out of view. You can check out the official Macy's Parade website by clicking here The Sioux Falls Argus Leader published an article on November 13 detailing some on the trip.
Click here for the link to that article.

"Sounds" Like A Great Season

Posted October 31
The "Spellbound" competitive season is complete, and of course the trip to New York looms. If you saw the show, you know the primary melody this fall was the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black". So it seems when looking back at the season we should set the highlights (and lowlights) of the Roadies to music ... sort of a soundtrack to the year. So consider this review of the season as a mix cd, or a playlist off the Roadie Ipod. The songs for this year would include:
Light My Fire (The Doors): The Roadies annual cookout at Marshall moved into a new era with TWO grills for food prep and Jeff Goddard's Shrimp Fire Kabobs far surpassing chips and dip on the menu
Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen): Ah, the timed event at Des Moines, where the Roadies get to hustle on and off the field ... of course beating the drumline again
Listen To What The Man Said (Paul McCartney & Wings): We can't print what was actually said in Vermillion (*&#!*), but it was colorful, first when Jeff discovered the hitch ball missing on the atv, and then moments later when the tongue of the ladder trailer slammed down on Tom Reed's hand.
The Long And Winding Road (the Beatles): That would be the path the pit had to take at Irondale ... long enough the band had a police escort this year.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (movie soundtrack): Chitty Chitty is the sound of the air compressor topping off pit equipment tires at Des Moines. Bang Bang of course were the two PA cart tires that exploded barely 10 minutes apart.
Bus Stop (the Hollies): Sunset bus stops at rest stop, but bus no go no mo. Spare bus and driver from SBI make the spontaneous trip to Valleyfest.
Night and Day (Cole Porter): The trip to Irondale and the return trip home through the night wore out everyone involved, especially the IronRoadies that piloted vehicles home immediately after the show ... and then unloaded the band at LHS.
Hurts So Good (John Couger): Well, it really probably didn't when Dean Versteeg's foot was run over by a trailer at Irondale. Or when Tom Reed was stung by a bee at Vermillion. Or pit kid Hailey whose hand was smashed between two marimba just before taking the field at Festival of Bands.
Runnin' On Empty (Jackson Browne): That's what we were doing with one ATV. There was barely enough gas to cover the bottom of the fuel tank at FOB before Jay Hardy sped off to fill 'er up.
Who'll Stop The Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival): That morning rehearsal at USF was held in the rain, but fortunately the showers moved on and the band did shows at USF's halftime and at Presidents' Bowl that evening.
Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis): Or maybe it should be "sparks of fire" as Jim & Tim welded the broken tymp handles in the PARKING LOT at Irondale.
Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder): The new Acme BFL Drum Major platform certainly put the DMs on higher ground and it took two Roadies to move it to the field (and knock branches out of trees) and three to put it on the trailer.
Bloody Well Right (Supertramp): Sort of a tradition of the Roadies, to test how many layers of skin are on one's knuckles prior to bleeding. Rookie Roadie Brad Roades discovered whatever it is, it was not enough
We Are The Champions / We Will Rock You (Queen): Sweepstakes winners at last, the Lincoln Band beats all competitors at Quad States in Vermillion.
New York, New York (Frank Sinatra). This one's a no-brainer what with that little parade coming up. But it sure seemed to fit!

Hope You Enjoyed The Pictures!

Posted October 31
This season we had the opportunity on the Roadie website to capture the flavor of nearly every performance of the band thanks to contributions from our own "PhotogRoadies". Sha Langenfeld, Jon Sogn, Eric Knutson and Neil Krohse shot gigabites of photos, of which we posted nearly 1400 pictures to the website photo pages.

We hope you had the chance to check these pictures out, as we caught many of the band members in action.

These photos can be downloaded free - simply by clicking the "all sizes" tab above each photo, and the clicking the "download" tab for the photo. Thanks also to Jeff Goddard and Lisa Asmus for adding to our collection

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.

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