The Renegades: A True and Chaotic Drum Corps Story

THE RENEGADES, by Lee Rudnicki. Rating: 7 stars (out of 5)

Disclaimer: I will try as much as possible to be impartial in my review of this book, but it is a steep challenge because I am a character in it (as an attorney with respect for footnotes, finding myself the subject of a footnote on page 48 is one of the highlights of my life). The San Francisco Renegades drum and bugle corps existed from 1996 through 2013, but Rudnick's book covers the most important three years in the corps' history, when the corps went from being a "softball team who occasionally plays music" (a not-unfair critique) to a legitimate Drum Corps Associate finalist with possibly the best marketing plan in the activity. As one of the key architects of that marketing and growth plan, Rudnicki is the perfect narrator for this story. THE RENEGADES is a complete reworking of Rudnicki's "The Renegade Journal," written in 2002, and readers of both will notice stylistic similarities such as the choice to write large parts of both stories as date/time stamped diary entries. THE RENEGADES includes much more storytelling, especially about the early years, and the author acknowledges in the introduction that he has taken some liberties with the facts to make the book flow better. When I heard this, I was not sure how to feel, because these are events that actually happened to me and my friends, but now that I have seen the finished product I can tell you that none of the modifications have changed material facts of the story. If anything, changes enhance the chaos and insanity of events that were, on their own, EXTREMELY chaotic and insane. It is very difficult to fictionalize events without modifying the underlying truth of them, but Rudnicki did a masterful job of it. He also appears to have done an amazing amount of research for the book - every email that he included is VERBATIM from my recollection of the emails as they were sent and received, and dates and scores feel accurate to my memories of them. Even if you are not a drum corps fan I hope you will read this book, because it is the story of creating something extremely complex and wonderful out of nothing with 100+ of your friends, and the infectious joy of seeing something go from being a dream to a reality before your eyes. The story is funny, revealing, touching, and very, very true. As thankful as I am for what Lee got started 25 years ago, I am even more thankful that he took the time to record these stories so the world - and those who lived it - can remember them forever.