'Blast' and 'Stomp' storm into region

"Stomp" is a junkyard percussion fantasy, a coordinated cacophony of cast members beating on trash cans, smacking brooms and sticks, making syncopations from plastic bags and newspapers and a wall hung with all manner of cast-offs that emit a satisfying or just plain loud noise when thwacked.

"Blast" is a 13-year-old marching-band show minus the football game, an extravaganza of thumping drums, wailing brass and a color guard that tosses flags and rifles and what the show calls large and medium scalenes, which is a kind of triangle as well as muscles in the neck, but in this instance refers to flags.

Oh, man, that would be really exciting, says Cochran, who's sitting in the Blast bus bathroom while chatting on his cellphone, so as not to impose his half of a press interview on his fellow cast members.

A 31-year-old professional trumpet player from Miami, Cochran has toured with "Blast" since 2008, although his experience with marching bands stretches back to high school and a later stint with the Boston Crusaders, the third-oldest junior drum and bugle corps in the nation.

Currently a performer and, owing to his veteran status, the rehearsal director for the tour, Fernandez sees "Stomp" as a spiritual forefather of "Blast": They're non-narrative shows that bring outdoor performance traditions — street busking for "Stomp," marching bands for "Blast" — into a theater.