Chris Bershad took off his snare drum and looked down at the white ‘X’ crossing his chest, where the drum holder had been resting for six hours.

“Chicks dig the tan,” he said with a smirk.

Welcome to the world of drum corps, where a good night’s sleep means a quiet gymnasium, and a trip to Wal-Mart seems like heaven.

It’s a way of life during June, July and August for the 130 members of the Kiwanis Kavaliers, a corps based in Kitchener, Ontario. They were one of six corps in Lawrence on Monday for the annual Mission Drums competition, which drew about 2,500 people to Haskell Stadium.

Admittedly, band members are gluttons for punishment. They whine about spending more than eight hours in the hot sun rehearsing, but secretly feel out of place when they’re not on a football field surrounded by blaring horns, rhythmically tapping drums and soaring flags.

“All the time you’re on the road, you talk about how you want to be home,” said Nathan Streb, a 20-year-old trumpet player. “Then the second you walk in the door, you can’t wait until November when you can start it over again.”

Weekend camps for Kavaliers begin in November, but they’re on the road beginning in June and running through the second weekend of August, when national finals are held in Madison, Wis.

They perform about five times a week and plan to log about 40,000 miles on their three tour buses this summer.

Corps members are ages 12 to 21, with an average age of 16. Some want to pursue a career in music; others are simply looking for a fun way to spend a summer.

Rehearsals typically begin at 9:30 a.m. The Kavaliers’ rehearsal Monday at Lawrence High School didn’t begin until 10:30 a.m. Â leaders cut the youngsters some slack because their bus didn’t roll into the high school parking lot until 2 a.m.

And they were still on the field at 4:30 p.m.  in the 90-degree heat  perfecting the same show they’ve been performing since the first of June.

“You can always make it better,” said Danielle Keepke, a 20-year-old mellophone player.

On the Lawrence High football field, instructors sounded like basic training commanders as they barked instructions through a PA system.

“Baritones! You’re blowing it every time!”

“Horn line! That was unacceptable!”

Sweaty fingers gripped brass. Players mustered enough energy to run to their water bottles during breaks. Most took off all but the essential clothing to keep cool.

And this was all before the 7 p.m. performance.

“This was a mild day,” said Streb, noting that the temperature at a performance in Rhode Island was 105 degrees.

Though it’s a lot of work, Kavaliers said the camaraderie during the summer kept them coming back year after year.

After the rehearsal, 21-year-old drum major Michelle Hahn led the corps in saying its motto, “We are one.”

“It’s like having 130 brothers and sisters,” she said.