A 12-Minute Show, Played Only Once, Just Might Live Forever

The 159 members of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps are on the field. Sixty-four of them are standing on a fire-engine-red platform that fills the space between the hash marks and the 40-yard lines. They are dressed in white jumpsuits adorned with red lines.

Members of the color guard are spread across the field from one 10-yard line to the other. They are all carrying white mock rifles, which they toss high into the air and then catch just as horns play their first notes, a major chord. The sound is picked up by microphones and runs through a digital effect. It hovers in the air for six seconds. The horn players hit the chord six more times as they move together, confined by the platform. Each time the chord comes back more quickly.

Then they are off the platform and moving. The trumpets snake toward the front sideline. The drums are finally playing. The opening song is taking shape — it’s “Foreplay” by Boston, a spinning organ number that is already musically ambitious when played by a stationary rock band. The notes from the organist’s left hand are coming through the tubas. This isn’t stiff. It has some drive. The group is really blowing now. It’s loud. Its members spread 60 yards wide. Then they play that same major chord again three times. There is a moment for the crowd to whoop.

This is modern drum corps. It is a competition for mostly college-age students, but the groups are not affiliated with any schools. When they are in season, the corps consume the lives of their members — perfecting a single performance, and then continuing to drill it until it is somewhere beyond perfection. Rehearsals last up to 12 hours a day, and intense tours dominate the performers’ lives in July before culminating in a world championship in Indianapolis.

A drum corps show usually takes about 12 minutes and may last no longer than 13. Every show has a title, announced over a loudspeaker before each performance. Themes vary from abstract and serious to campy and smack-you-in-the-face literal.