They could easily bring it up at every avenue, use it as a simple excuse to erase any ire of a bad score or poor performance. Instead, Vessel wears it as a point of pride.
Yes, the second-year Southern California drum corps only rehearses on the weekends. And yes, that makes what they are doing that much more incredible.
In their inaugural season, Vessel finished its six-show schedule with a final score of 60.700. It’s almost unheard of for a first-year corps that finishes their season in July to boast a number above 60 points. It’s reasonable to believe that if they had two more weeks to improve, Vessel could have cracked into the Open Class Finals.
Regardless, they’ve carried the momentum of their first season into 2019. Through three performances on their 10-show slate, the second-year corps has already tallied a score of 51.350.
“At first we were just getting our feet wet and we were just trying to put ourselves out there and say, ‘Yes, we can do this. We’re not just a weekend corps but we are a legitimate drum corps of DCI,’” said Kailani Grider, a second-year front ensemble section leader.
That they are.
Vessel
Grider admitted she didn’t want Vessel to be known as the “one-hit wonder for drum corps” after a standout debut in 2018.
This season, Vessel has finished third in their three Open Class competitions, each time placing just behind Gold and Golden Empire. In each subsequent showing, the Southern California corps has boosted its scores by nearly a point.
“I think as a whole the organization has been very good at knowing that they have to be on their task and knowing that we have to keep proving ourselves,” drum major Sofia Vaides said. “We are a second-year corps and the grind never stops. We are always out here trying our best.”
Vessel received some help in the offseason, parlaying an impressive debut season into a flurry of positive word of mouth. The recommendations led to a revamped and deeper corps that allowed Vessel to double the size of their horn line.
In just one year, they were the place to be.
“People wanted to come to us because we showed that we can do anything anyone else does; and can be just as good as anyone else,” Grider said. “We’re starting to develop stuff for ourselves and our own personal name and what we do as Vessel Drum and Bugle Corps.”
Vessel
The growth allowed Vessel to perform a show this year that includes more drill sets, notes, technical challenges and tempo changes, Grider said.
Their 2019 production, “Here There Everywhere,” doesn’t come with a wild idea or heart-wrenching meaning, but it pulls a smile from its viewing audience.
“It’s a whimsical show and it’s just fun to be able to conduct and be in different genres of music,” Vaides said. “It’s a nice change of pace.”
What’s next for a budding up-start corps? Sustaining initial success.
And as they do, Vessel is changing the narrative on what it means to be a weekend-only corps.
“It doesn’t matter that we’re on the weekends, we can still do what everybody else is doing,” Grider said. “I think we took that [motivation] our first year, and we are really applying it in our second year.”