So pit doesn't get a crew? That kinda stinks, trying out for SoA '16 and field lining sounded great cause I love waking early and feeling the dew and the crispness of morning air and sunsets and all that girly shit
+derpysean Pit often has to unload/load their equipment truck(s) at every new housing site and before/after every show, so their instrument really is their job. Wish I could've traded my field lining job with you haha!
Bathroom Crew for life! Pros: -If in a co-ed corps, congrats your job just got half as hard. -Drum corps members usually aren't that messy, and if they are, you usually aren't there long enough to make a really big mess. -Despite the name, the job is not very gross. We aren't cleaning shit off the walls or anything like that, all we are doing is picking up trash, wiping down sinks and mirrors, making sure showers are off, and making it look good before we take trash to the dumpsters. -In some corps bathroom crew is broken down into "Team A" and "Team B", allowing you to only be responsible for your crew every other EPL. Congrats, your half a job just got half as hard. -Anything that is left is yours to keep. -Anything that is left and you know know the owner is, you can sell it back to them for Gatorade. -Don't have to wake up early or stay up late. -Don't break a sweat, or make you tired. -Only takes 5-10 minutes out of your EPL, while other crews take up to as long as an hour. Cons: Everybody hates you because you have it easy. :P
Field Lining Jersey Surf 2012 -All around awesome experience! -Made soo many good friends with other field liners -Love mornings and really got my stronger -Saw the best parts of every housing site -Experiencing the cold in the summer never thought that was real -Favorite memories -Getting to a housing site in NJ at 6 AM everyone not on field lining go get some floortime. Ohh hey everyone get off the bus its time to work! No sleep rehearsal day in 110 degree weather - Lining a field of cactus in Texas - Ummm highest mosquitoe infested grass in Louisiana - Mud fields in Tennessee - Finals week in indy with the drought of 2012 and having an epic paint war with the extra paint I actually kept a paint can from field lining loved that job and if theres any Jersey Surf field liners out there enjoy an epic summer!
The Mellos and tubas at PC switch painting the field, I remember this one time we arrived at the housing site in Texas and the field lining crew only got thirty minutes of sleep because the field was two miles away. So we woke up an hour and a half before the corps did.
I was on the Lone Ranger (our speaker system) crew. pros- well one arm got stronger, no waking up early and during epl all you had to do was plug it in cons- had to wait for the staff to take it off of the scaffolding, the box and it inside it was heavier than a contra, had to take it to every single rehearsal
One you didn't mention was water crew, which might be specific to The Cavaliers because of how we do water. Basically, I had it with another brass guy one day a week, we had to fill two jugs of water and two jugs of Gatorade and refill throughout the day. I thought it was a pretty sweet gig. And we made sure our water was the coldest and our Gatorade the tastiest. Although we ran out of all the colors except yellow by the second week of pretour... I will never look at yellow Gatorade the same again.
Field lining crew! One morning we were lining a field and right when we almost finished, it started pouring... Also, I think the run back was like maybe a half mile. Running with cans, boxes, and the tape. Talk about a wake up. Lol
Had field lining last year, i completely agree with how tight the group gets through the season. Tips for field lining.... Ummm survive? But try to have some good ole fun!
Kitchen load both years. Not a bad job, we did get to rummage through some snacks from time to time, but we did have to take care of Schwarm (the garbage disposal hose)…we left that to any member of kitchen load who was late.
We divided field lining in: - Field Squaring (setting up the grid, measuring everything) - Field lining (connecting the dots) In my 3 years of marching Scouts I was part of the field squaring crew for 2 of them. We had to wake up an hour(!!!) before everyone else.
I was a field liner for Troopers 2013 and more than likely 2014 and here is my take on it... Pros: like JD said once your done your Done. Our field lining crew is broken down into measuring crew and paint crew. Half the work. On a good day we could paint the field one it was measured in 15 minutes. If you have AstroTurf congrats your job just got 95% easier:) Cons: You barely get sleep so sleep on the bus. Sometimes your painting 3 fields... Mornings are always wet so wear flip flops. If the field looks like crap... Look out... You paint with about 10-12 people and they are sometimes on edge... Last season there were 4-5 days where the field liners got No downtime. Sometimes the field can be out the back door, or about 1 or 2 miles away lol. (Yes you walk) I would choose field lining iver anything because you... Get all your EPL time Get all your free time after shows If you wanted to you can shower and get all the hot water before anyone else does.
Colorguard unloading HYPE!!! We get the show flag bags off the truck and take them to warm up. They were pretty heavy but we had two people to a bag which made it easier. Regional's were the worst because we usually had to walk really far. Atlanta we wandered around for forever until we found our warm up spot. Best story? At the Westchester PA show, we had our normal bathroom break when we got to the show site. By the time crew had to get off the bus and get the bags, the rest of the guard had left to the warm up spot and 7 of the 10 member crew hadn't come back yet. Just as we managed to finagle the 5 giant bags between the three of us left, the rest of the crew came back.
Oh, bus loading... Nothing like showering and cleaning up, then getting all sweaty and dirty and scraped up immediately before putting on your white uniform. Not to mention waiting for every last guard member to bring their stuff out, and then asking you to unload because they accidentally packed something... On the plus side, one of the volunteers always had a cooler of iced Gatorade for us after the job was done. Refreshing "Loaderade" almost always made it worth it...
Bus cleaning can be absolutely disgusting (especially on the drum bus) BUT, you only have to do your tour job like 5 times all summer (depending on the corps)
Bathroom clean-up. Pros: simple find stuff you can sell for Gatorade find extra towels Cons: easy for one person to get stuck with all the work (happened to me, go corps....) find gross clothes have to deal with stragglers sucks when the locker rooms have no drains some locker rooms have foundation problems, leads to 3 inch puddles under urinals.
Last season I was on uniform loading/ unloading crew. Pros: wasn't very difficult, didn't take long once you started, bonded pretty quickly Cons:had to wait for the truck to get to housing sites which sometimes took a few hours, and we were late to warm ups sometimes.
I was on scaffolding crew and afraid of heights. I was just always the person on the truck who unloaded/loaded it and then I always stayed on the ground to hand the pieces up to the people who would climb. Also, a bad thing about scaffolding is it's really heavy and it gets really hot (yay all days in Texas).
This season I'm on loading crew (All about that Front Ensemble life). Last year, it was more of an unofficial job. It was my job to check the score recaps on my bus to tell the other members of the corps.
Moving pit equipment. This actually wasn't a bad job, minus losing a little time at rehearsals and shows. All the loading and unloading was left for the pit, we only had to move the equipment to/from rehearsals and shows and back to the truck. But I made a lot of friends in the pit, so it was really cool.
At spirit last year, I (the basses) had the drum major podiums to worry about. It was EASILY the best gig to have. It took 5 minutes, before and after rehearsal and before and after shows. All we had to do was put some pipes, wheels, and walkboards together. Didn't need to wheel them or anything. Probably wont have that job this summer though, which is a shame.
Bus loading crew, God I hated getting sweaty again after taking a shower. Not to mention it's kind of hard to fit so much crap in such a small amount of space.
I love field lining. my favorite part is when your sharing a site with another corps and its a battle for the fields. we just paint a shamrock on ours. lol
Scaff crew for Cascades '23- Pros: We had a really close bond (born of cursing at the scaff) Climbing was kinda fun Definitely got way stronger Some great sky appreciation moments Moving heavy shit/chucking the wheels into the truck after the show/block helped me stay emotionally regulated Didn't have to do staff scaff that much Cons: The cascades truck is set up so that the scaff is first off and last on, so we had to disassemble, load the crossbars/boards, let pit load, and then do the sides, so EPL and post-show was a nightmare Getting up 1hr 30min before breakfast to unload before pit Scaff gets really hot in the sun- had some minor burns on my hands Windy days are SCARY 3rd level is SCARY Lectures if it's not perfectly centered/too far back/forwards/not enough levels Had to do podiums too, including show sites- so my makeup got ruined before warmup and my bodytights were GROSS Bare metal was a bad texture :(
Field lining crew put me in a deep depression because the crew hated me... Mostly because if i don't get enough sleep I'm incredibly irritable and depressed.
Prop crew 2017. Worst job. Only good thing about it was no one could one up me if I complained, but I guess I got to meet some cool people though. Takes up all of your time, we spent 2-3 hours per day on props on show days. We woke up with field liners to set up, only had 20 minutes for EPL, never warmed up for shows, and hardly ever had any free time after shows.
+Johnny Brannon EPL stands for "Eat Pack Load," it's the time after rehearsal and before a corps' departure from a housing site where the members eat lunch and shower, trucks and buses are loaded, and the housing site is cleaned up from top to bottom. Some jobs are given to certain sections (for example, maybe the mellophones are on bathroom cleaning and quad drummers are on food truck crew) but some may be given to members who seem capable of it; in this case, maybe if you're a tall muscular individual, you could be put on bus loading since you'd be adept at handling heavy suitcases. Some corps may also let you request a tour job, but that's not always the case.
I have friends in two differnet cores. I am trying to get tickets for the georiga "Dome" show. should i wear both of their cores colors or get a shirt half spirit half cadets
Tip: DO NOT AT ALL COSTS GET ON BUS LOADING lol, you will get to a new housing site at 3 a.m. and the last thing you are going to feel like doing is taking heavy luggage off of the bus.
Dalton Corbell are you in the audition group chat on Facebook. And be over prepared go in confident but not cocky. Also be ready to adapt to criticism from the staff and use it to make you better. What audition are you going to?
I recommend ankle weights tied to your arms and hold your instrument with the weights for no more than 5 minutes at first and gradually increase the time holding the instrument.
Gym clean up is the best!!! Especially when people leave their food boxes behind!!! But some guy always leaves their boxers behind... Food clean up can be nasty cause the pbj table can get coated really bad but the food truck people love you!! And i had yard markers once which wasnt bad except when the guard didnt start on the main field cause i would have to set up the yard markers then run to the guard field...
Being section leader for the Front Ensemble is great...until you have to load a full trailer with 14 people who've had only 5 hours of sleep and still need to shower/get into halves. Still love it though.
Best part about pit. Your instrument is your job.
So pit doesn't get a crew? That kinda stinks, trying out for SoA '16 and field lining sounded great cause I love waking early and feeling the dew and the crispness of morning air and sunsets and all that girly shit
+derpysean Pit often has to unload/load their equipment truck(s) at every new housing site and before/after every show, so their instrument really is their job. Wish I could've traded my field lining job with you haha!
AMEN! I'm a senior in high school and I am usually the last person to leave the band hall because people dont unload >_>
Bathroom Crew for life!
Pros:
-If in a co-ed corps, congrats your job just got half as hard.
-Drum corps members usually aren't that messy, and if they are, you usually aren't there long enough to make a really big mess.
-Despite the name, the job is not very gross. We aren't cleaning shit off the walls or anything like that, all we are doing is picking up trash, wiping down sinks and mirrors, making sure showers are off, and making it look good before we take trash to the dumpsters.
-In some corps bathroom crew is broken down into "Team A" and "Team B", allowing you to only be responsible for your crew every other EPL. Congrats, your half a job just got half as hard.
-Anything that is left is yours to keep.
-Anything that is left and you know know the owner is, you can sell it back to them for Gatorade.
-Don't have to wake up early or stay up late.
-Don't break a sweat, or make you tired.
-Only takes 5-10 minutes out of your EPL, while other crews take up to as long as an hour.
Cons: Everybody hates you because you have it easy. :P
Field Lining Jersey Surf 2012
-All around awesome experience!
-Made soo many good friends with other field liners
-Love mornings and really got my stronger
-Saw the best parts of every housing site
-Experiencing the cold in the summer never thought that was real
-Favorite memories
-Getting to a housing site in NJ at 6 AM everyone not on field lining go get some floortime. Ohh hey everyone get off the bus its time to work! No sleep rehearsal day in 110 degree weather
- Lining a field of cactus in Texas
- Ummm highest mosquitoe infested grass in Louisiana
- Mud fields in Tennessee
- Finals week in indy with the drought of 2012 and having an epic paint war with the extra paint
I actually kept a paint can from field lining loved that job and if theres any Jersey Surf field liners out there enjoy an epic summer!
Spirit bus cleaning crew 2012, did our job twice...it was spectacular!
The Mellos and tubas at PC switch painting the field, I remember this one time we arrived at the housing site in Texas and the field lining crew only got thirty minutes of sleep because the field was two miles away. So we woke up an hour and a half before the corps did.
Ew where did you stay in Texas that the field was 2 miles away?! Asking as a native Texan and Crossmen alum
I was on the Lone Ranger (our speaker system) crew.
pros- well one arm got stronger, no waking up early and during epl all you had to do was plug it in
cons- had to wait for the staff to take it off of the scaffolding, the box and it inside it was heavier than a contra, had to take it to every single rehearsal
One you didn't mention was water crew, which might be specific to The Cavaliers because of how we do water. Basically, I had it with another brass guy one day a week, we had to fill two jugs of water and two jugs of Gatorade and refill throughout the day. I thought it was a pretty sweet gig. And we made sure our water was the coldest and our Gatorade the tastiest. Although we ran out of all the colors except yellow by the second week of pretour... I will never look at yellow Gatorade the same again.
Field lining crew! One morning we were lining a field and right when we almost finished, it started pouring... Also, I think the run back was like maybe a half mile. Running with cans, boxes, and the tape. Talk about a wake up. Lol
Had field lining last year, i completely agree with how tight the group gets through the season. Tips for field lining.... Ummm survive? But try to have some good ole fun!
bus loaders.. the phrase "it wont fit" doesnt exist
Dude JD, I really love your videos. I want to march Spirit sooooo bad.
You should do a video about meeting new tour members that you do not know. :)
Kitchen load both years. Not a bad job, we did get to rummage through some snacks from time to time, but we did have to take care of Schwarm (the garbage disposal hose)…we left that to any member of kitchen load who was late.
We divided field lining in:
- Field Squaring (setting up the grid, measuring everything)
- Field lining (connecting the dots)
In my 3 years of marching Scouts I was part of the field squaring crew for 2 of them. We had to wake up an hour(!!!) before everyone else.
I did field lining my rookie year with th e Crossmen in the '90's. The best crew to be on is bus loading. You have easy access to all your bags.
I was a field liner for Troopers 2013 and more than likely 2014 and here is my take on it...
Pros:
like JD said once your done your Done.
Our field lining crew is broken down into measuring crew and paint crew. Half the work.
On a good day we could paint the field one it was measured in 15 minutes.
If you have AstroTurf congrats your job just got 95% easier:)
Cons:
You barely get sleep so sleep on the bus.
Sometimes your painting 3 fields...
Mornings are always wet so wear flip flops.
If the field looks like crap... Look out...
You paint with about 10-12 people and they are sometimes on edge...
Last season there were 4-5 days where the field liners got No downtime.
Sometimes the field can be out the back door, or about 1 or 2 miles away lol. (Yes you walk)
I would choose field lining iver anything because you...
Get all your EPL time
Get all your free time after shows
If you wanted to you can shower and get all the hot water before anyone else does.
Colorguard unloading HYPE!!! We get the show flag bags off the truck and take them to warm up. They were pretty heavy but we had two people to a bag which made it easier. Regional's were the worst because we usually had to walk really far. Atlanta we wandered around for forever until we found our warm up spot. Best story? At the Westchester PA show, we had our normal bathroom break when we got to the show site. By the time crew had to get off the bus and get the bags, the rest of the guard had left to the warm up spot and 7 of the 10 member crew hadn't come back yet. Just as we managed to finagle the 5 giant bags between the three of us left, the rest of the crew came back.
I loved field lining.
Oh, bus loading... Nothing like showering and cleaning up, then getting all sweaty and dirty and scraped up immediately before putting on your white uniform. Not to mention waiting for every last guard member to bring their stuff out, and then asking you to unload because they accidentally packed something...
On the plus side, one of the volunteers always had a cooler of iced Gatorade for us after the job was done. Refreshing "Loaderade" almost always made it worth it...
I have sold my soul to the field lining crew this year. Yay. Last year I did uniform loading, and that was so stressful. It sucked.
Bus cleaning can be absolutely disgusting (especially on the drum bus) BUT, you only have to do your tour job like 5 times all summer (depending on the corps)
I'm doing field lining this year!
In Crossmen the pit is the only loading crew.
Bathroom clean-up.
Pros:
simple
find stuff you can sell for Gatorade
find extra towels
Cons:
easy for one person to get stuck with all the work (happened to me, go corps....)
find gross clothes
have to deal with stragglers
sucks when the locker rooms have no drains
some locker rooms have foundation problems, leads to 3 inch puddles under urinals.
at Crossmen the bassline did bus loading for the drum bus and we would race the other loading crews, never lost once all season :)
Last season I was on uniform loading/ unloading crew.
Pros: wasn't very difficult, didn't take long once you started, bonded pretty quickly
Cons:had to wait for the truck to get to housing sites which sometimes took a few hours, and we were late to warm ups sometimes.
I was on scaffolding crew and afraid of heights. I was just always the person on the truck who unloaded/loaded it and then I always stayed on the ground to hand the pieces up to the people who would climb.
Also, a bad thing about scaffolding is it's really heavy and it gets really hot (yay all days in Texas).
I also did field lining which wasn't too bad as long as the kitchen staff remembered to leave us breakfast :(
Prop crew for Academy 2015 omg the chimney boxes we had
Haha I had field lining last season, everything you lisgex is spot on :)
imagine bd 2013's prop crew
"being tired is a mindset"-My Marching instructor who marched crusadors for 3 years
"The scaffolding is safe." -Bones 2015
This season I'm on loading crew (All about that Front Ensemble life). Last year, it was more of an unofficial job. It was my job to check the score recaps on my bus to tell the other members of the corps.
Moving pit equipment.
This actually wasn't a bad job, minus losing a little time at rehearsals and shows. All the loading and unloading was left for the pit, we only had to move the equipment to/from rehearsals and shows and back to the truck. But I made a lot of friends in the pit, so it was really cool.
Kitchen Crew For Life!!
once the crew got the routine the job was smooth sailing.
At spirit last year, I (the basses) had the drum major podiums to worry about. It was EASILY the best gig to have. It took 5 minutes, before and after rehearsal and before and after shows. All we had to do was put some pipes, wheels, and walkboards together. Didn't need to wheel them or anything. Probably wont have that job this summer though, which is a shame.
Bus cleaning crew was awesome! Our bus driver gave us candy and gave us money occasionally!
Bus loading crew,
God I hated getting sweaty again after taking a shower. Not to mention it's kind of hard to fit so much crap in such a small amount of space.
Field Lining Crew 2011-2012. To any field liners out there, Good luck.
Just finished my first season, I got put on scaffolding. It was scary being on top on windy days (which was everyday... thanks west Texas)
I love field lining. my favorite part is when your sharing a site with another corps and its a battle for the fields. we just paint a shamrock on ours. lol
I don't mind not having time to watch shows, but I detest having to tell people to be on time. Five year Truck Packer at Oregon Crusaders.
Scaff crew for Cascades '23-
Pros: We had a really close bond (born of cursing at the scaff)
Climbing was kinda fun
Definitely got way stronger
Some great sky appreciation moments
Moving heavy shit/chucking the wheels into the truck after the show/block helped me stay emotionally regulated
Didn't have to do staff scaff that much
Cons:
The cascades truck is set up so that the scaff is first off and last on, so we had to disassemble, load the crossbars/boards, let pit load, and then do the sides, so EPL and post-show was a nightmare
Getting up 1hr 30min before breakfast to unload before pit
Scaff gets really hot in the sun- had some minor burns on my hands
Windy days are SCARY
3rd level is SCARY
Lectures if it's not perfectly centered/too far back/forwards/not enough levels
Had to do podiums too, including show sites- so my makeup got ruined before warmup and my bodytights were GROSS
Bare metal was a bad texture :(
Don't forget about de-painting the field! ;)
4 years of field lining! ...and bus loading. and equipment truck loading/unloading.
Field lining crew put me in a deep depression because the crew hated me... Mostly because if i don't get enough sleep I'm incredibly irritable and depressed.
BAC Pit loves anyone willing to help us load the truck after rehearsals and shows!
I did 3 yrs of field lining and one year of truck loading while marching Spirit. )>
And let's not forget front ensemble loading crew.
Prop crew 2017. Worst job. Only good thing about it was no one could one up me if I complained, but I guess I got to meet some cool people though. Takes up all of your time, we spent 2-3 hours per day on props on show days. We woke up with field liners to set up, only had 20 minutes for EPL, never warmed up for shows, and hardly ever had any free time after shows.
Listed*
brass buss cleaning crew!!!....:/ me and 2 other contra players have to clean the buss until it was spotless
I do roofing and construction so scaffolding sounds like my thing. Even though im in guard
Pioneer Horn loading Crew 2018. Assistant to the regional horn loading caption head 2k18
Scaffolding = harder than field lining (depending on what corps you're in)
I love Scaffolding. Other than the cold showers before shows, best job
2 questions.
1) what is EPL?
2) how do you normally get these jobs?
+Johnny Brannon EPL stands for "Eat Pack Load," it's the time after rehearsal and before a corps' departure from a housing site where the members eat lunch and shower, trucks and buses are loaded, and the housing site is cleaned up from top to bottom.
Some jobs are given to certain sections (for example, maybe the mellophones are on bathroom cleaning and quad drummers are on food truck crew) but some may be given to members who seem capable of it; in this case, maybe if you're a tall muscular individual, you could be put on bus loading since you'd be adept at handling heavy suitcases. Some corps may also let you request a tour job, but that's not always the case.
I was the floater. My crew didn't want me, so I helped everyone else.
field lining is the worst.
scaffolding crew best crew
I have friends in two differnet cores. I am trying to get tickets for the georiga "Dome" show. should i wear both of their cores colors or get a shirt half spirit half cadets
field lining crew for daaaayyyss!
Hay so I’m a piccolo/ flute what instrument do you recommend you recommend me to switch to join a core
Which instrument interests you the most?
Jdfuncorps probably mellophone
Bus cleaning is always fun...do that team a favor, keep your seat clean.
The spoils of being a Contra, grounds-keeping. I set up tents and full up water.....yeah....:)
ah bathroom crew, had to wet vac a flooded bathroom whoo!
Scaffolding and Truck Loading with BAC '13. Probably one of the worst jobs out there. I missed so much ESL ;_;
Tip: DO NOT AT ALL COSTS GET ON BUS LOADING lol, you will get to a new housing site at 3 a.m. and the last thing you are going to feel like doing is taking heavy luggage off of the bus.
or Truck loading when its raining outside that sucks glad I was in charge of props.
Hi, I see that you marched Southwind in 2016. I'm auditioning this year for a Bari/Euph spot. Any tips?
Dalton Corbell are you in the audition group chat on Facebook. And be over prepared go in confident but not cocky. Also be ready to adapt to criticism from the staff and use it to make you better. What audition are you going to?
Dalton Corbell also make sure you can hold your horn up
I recommend ankle weights tied to your arms and hold your instrument with the weights for no more than 5 minutes at first and gradually increase the time holding the instrument.
Gym clean up is the best!!! Especially when people leave their food boxes behind!!! But some guy always leaves their boxers behind... Food clean up can be nasty cause the pbj table can get coated really bad but the food truck people love you!! And i had yard markers once which wasnt bad except when the guard didnt start on the main field cause i would have to set up the yard markers then run to the guard field...
K(itchen)-Crew4Lyfe
Being section leader for the Front Ensemble is great...until you have to load a full trailer with 14 people who've had only 5 hours of sleep and still need to shower/get into halves.
Still love it though.
ur really cute n u make good points
Emma Smith thx :)
BUS LOADING