NR_Ohiobando

Saw the show yesterday, I was trying to post a review but the comments tool wasn't working? If this gets posted I'll start typing one up. Edit: Hey it works finally, OK I'll edit this periodically. Edit 2: The corps director said many times that they really didn't want any video getting out until Thursday. I kinda worry I'm gonna #### people off writing this written review, so if anyone from Cadets wants me to stop, feel free to message. I don't like going over anyone's heads and you guys deserve to control stuff until Thursday. ___ Non Opinionated Review ___ I'm a lapsed drum corps fan who doesn't really enjoy the current product, but I'm also a band director and I observed them during the performance & week for my own development. Just giving you context for what you're reading. I'll give a non-opinionated review first. * The show did not start at 6PM which was a bit frustrating. Lots of people showed up expecting a show at 6PM, but they just did full ensemble rehearsal until 8:30. I kinda wish they would advertise this ahead of time, especially in the age of social media. In their defense, the entire Midwest has been rained on for the last week so I doubt they got much visual rehearsal and their members come first. The director validated this. (but again, we're living in the age of social media and people have lives). That said, it looked like pretty much everyone either waited and watched rehearsal or came back by 8:30. * There are 4 giant white staircase props wheeled around the field during the show. I do mean GIANT. There was a scary moment during rehearsal where a colorguard member seemed to have pulled a muscle or something moving the staircase. She was shouting "OW" and lying down on the ground for a minute or two. Not sure if she came back in. I kinda worry about injury/safety regarding these giant wheeled props. That's a ton of weight and anyone caught by it or under it is getting a ton of force on a tiny little human body part. DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS: I went into this show expecting a very women-centric theme, but via the director they're going for a more open ended interpretation. It's rather a show about power. Paraphrasing - One group/person holds all the power and is eventually stripped of it by various uprisings. After the chaos of conflict dies down, both sides build a bridge to try and form a better future. PRESHOW: A Queen character in a very extravagant, poofy, Victorian queen-style dress makes her to the backfield. This was a nice surprise as we didn't get it during rehearsal. As she passes hornline members, they bow to her (the staff reminds them on the speaker to do this). The hornline is set up in a giant set of 2 diagonals emphasizing all 4 giant staircases in the center of the field (3 staircases together leading down to the audience & one behind them in the middle for the queen to walk up from backfield). I'd assume it's supposed to symbolize a castle or something. Fanfare for Women: Several trumpet soloists open the show and lead a royal-feeling fanfare with open intervals into eventually introducing the Queen from backfield. One of the things I appreciate about this opener is how many tempo changes there were. Tons of em. There's a great slow almost-fugue section starting with the tuba section that also becomes a very lengthy accelerando, so props to everyone involved for not wimping out on something hard to achieve on a field. We finish out the opener very fast but slowing down to a more majestic pace. Very classical/royalty feeling coming from the music. The queen wields a staff representing the staff of "power" and the corps finishes with dual company fronts into a very LOUD ending. Just/Blueprint: The drill dissolves as we hear some electronic choral vocal samples singing "Just her crown. Just her royal crest. Just her looks". Music is much more tense and slow. And after each line, the queen is torn apart by members of the corps. Like literally; they're taking away her headpiece, her crown, and ripping her dress off of her until all that's left is the wiring underneath. A giant dissonant crescendo leads into a great mellophone rip until the staff of power is finally taken from the Queen from atop the now-breaking-apart white staircases symbolizing the falling kingdom. The queen rolls down the back staircase where she remains out of sight for the next movement. Estancia (1st mvt): This is not your granddaddy's Estancia. They are marching in 3, meaning the tempo is like 215+bpm for a solid 3-4 minutes. Crazy difficult just to play accurately at that tempo. Tribal-chant vocal samples boom emphasizing the first beat of every 3. The drumline is atop the staircase with the staff of power celebrating with a primal attitude, and the hornline joins them after running around and moving the (now all 4 separated) staircases about. There's a full corps almost-haka dance before the hornline rips into a huge crescendo and visually dissolves to let the drumline take center field. (Sidenote: There's a TON of drumline features in this show.) After drumline feature the staff of power is passed along to the 4 staircases set up all over the field. Snares/Trumpets feature on a staircase leads to Bari/Bass feature leads to Mello/Quads feature leads to Contra feature. We continue passing along features until the hornline gets to show off by itself. Eventually nobody seems to hold the staff for very long, and the dissonant music & conflict causes everyone to Bridgemen-style collapse at the end of the movement. (I loved this part). The queen character returns and sticks out as the only person standing, but also in a gold traditional-looking outdoorsy short dress. Bridge Over Troubled Water: A baritone & trumpet duet leads us down a melody that we aren't quite recognizing yet. Once we get into the chorus everyone recognizes, the 4 staircases are brought into the centerfield and made into an adorable literal bridge with the queen walking right in the middle of it. I thought this was a nice moment. There's a nice brass shout section which leads into a slightly humorous quiet gospel organ solo... which then leads into a very intense gospel brass shout section. There were 4 soloists supposedly mic'd up (2 screaming sops and 2 baritones) but I don't think the mics were working correctly. Do Better: A ton of electronic samples throughout this movement. It's original music by Aungst, so obviously percussion feature. The hornline is busy doing hip-hop-style dance choreography while the vocal samples rhythmically tut "DO. DO. DO BETTER. WE. CAN. ALL. DO BETTER". The drumline shows off a TON during this movement and represents two groups during a 'battle' of sorts. It's less of a battle and more of a fun show off section. The quads with the female CG weapons vs. the Snare/Basses with the male CG weapons. Interesting to note the CG members have the female & male symbols on their weapon's stocks. Like the female guard members have a female symbol while the male guard members have the male symbol. The feature ends with the 4 staircases setup backfield in a giant "X" (so two criss-crossing bridges) with hornline members running & criss-crossing on top of them. The drumline leads us into the ending with a meshed Snare/Quad line feature (think 2004 SCV) that pops the crowd pretty nicely. Symphony 4 (Maslanka) - I honestly don't remember much about the closer. Part of the issue is that the colorguard & queen don't have their choreography yet, so they were just doing drill. Nothing wrong with that, safety first. It felt very much like a recap of the first movement; lots of major triumphant tones. What I do remember is that they quoted their old dissolving vortex ending (1998, 2001) before breaking apart into a giant curivlinear set. The final set is the curvilinear set with the male & female symbols linked in the middle of the field (NOT IN THAT WAY GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER).

Saw them rehearse for a few hours the early part of this week. I am a lapsed drum corps fan, but they're in the area (and I'm a band director now) so I went to check out their rehearsal for observation's sake. I know people here are starved for content, but I'm gonna be vague since they haven't released anything publicly yet. I only saw what I'm guessing is the first half of the show. (Opening "Fanfare for the Women", "Just"/"Blueprint", most of "Estancia") - (The repertoire was already released so I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything there) Brief bulletpoints: * Man they're loud. I forgot how loud drum corps is. The staff was pretty forward about wanting even more volume than they were producing, so that was a good sign. They were also pretty consistent keeping the sound on the move (even at fast tempos) so that was refreshing. * I had a non-music teaching colleague observe with me as well. We both found it incredibly interesting how they deal with various issues we find relatable in the classroom and how the drum corps itself responds professionally to instruction (in comparison to our very unprofessional poverty-ridden elementary/middle school students). I've always read that Cadets are a bit more intense during rehearsals than other corps, but it was refreshing to observe more mature 'students' in a 'classroom'. Whoever is on the mic knows more about music than I will ever comprehend. Lots of times I heard "you were slightly ahead/behind the beat" and I'm trying so hard to hear the difference lol. I felt like a high schooler again struggling to hear basic concepts for the first time. * There's a lot of modern drum corps stereotypes, but I'm old so whatever I'll deal with it. 2019 drum corps, you just kinda have to accept it's part of the game. I think Cadets have been doing this stuff the past few years so it shouldn't be too surprising. * Despite those modern stereotypes there was also a lot of stuff that reminded me of classic Cadets' shows. Specifically 93/97/98/2015 regarding tempo changes, tempo speed, and exposed/challenging music; those shows had some insane difficulty keeping things clean while changing tempo and keeping it around 200+bpm. * I actually didn't know Sacktig wasn't involved with Cadets anymore until I looked at their truck after exiting the stadium and it said something like "In dedication of Jeff Sacktig". I thought he died or something lol I guess he's just at Crown now? The drill seemed fairly "Sacktig"-ish during points of the show. I have my own opinions on the overall design of the show, but they're not using costumes and I didn't see the full show so there's no real point to valuing that opinion just yet. I don't think anyone should put too much water in those opinions until the first preview is put on the field on the 18th.

Hey all, not sure if this is the right way to do this, but I'm looking for a specific recording of BD playing "Legend". I'm not asking for a pirated copy. I just have no idea which performance I'm looking for and was hoping someone might know which recording I'm talking about so I can track it down and get it for myself. Plus, this is IMO the absolute best performance of "Legend" I've heard and you guys should check it out too once I figure out what it is. Every time I try and search for it I always find the wrong recordings so I'd figured I'd ask. Short story - I had a recording of what sounds like an alumni BD group playing this a long time ago. I got it online so I'm not sure of the source, but I have since lost it. Now I have no idea where to find it, what year it is, or what specific performance it was part of. Some details about it that make it stand out as IMO the best recording of them playing it I've heard: * It sounds like an indoor performance with a live audience. I remember a few people shouting "BLUE" at the beginning of the track. * It seems like this was an alumni group. The recording starts with an actual drumset solo (and I can't honestly remember if there was a battery involved). * The mellophone (though it could be marching F horn) solo is godly, especially the very end of it when the chorus comes back. Completely rips through the ensemble. * There's two sops screaming at the end and both of them slide up to the top on the very last note at a huge dynamic level while holding on. That's about all the details I got. Thanks for your help, and sorry if this is the wrong place to ask for this. Figured I'd pop back in here in case anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Um, why are you showing drum corps in a psychology class? Most people would not care about drum corps nor be able to appreciate what the show is trying to accomplish from an artistic standpoint. I could understand if you were showing it to an arts class (dance, theatre, music) but showing it to your Psych class seems a bit of a waste of time and you might just end up boring people unless you know 100% they understand and will be engaged by what you're doing. Seems a bit cringe-worthy. I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you know everyone in the class will be interested in watching 10 minutes of a "marching band show". That said, since no one else bothered to expand upon their choices: 1988 Suncoast Sound: "Symphonic Dances for the Contemporary Child" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alfk4uOhQ8o * This is one of my absolute favorite shows of all time. If I recall, the main psychological idea of this show is that "Children want to act like adults, but adults only act like children". * It begins strangely hopeful with a solo female dancer approaching an inflatable ball colored to represent the earth/world. She begins playing with it, slowly drawing out the colorguard who arguably represent the children of the world. The music remains hopeful throughout the entire opener with fantasies on common children's songs like "Jesus Loves the Little Children", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and "Go Tell It On The Mountain". The colorguard (children) are dressed in a very off-putting color scheme, intentionally to literally match lyrics of "Jesus Loves the Little Children" (red & yellow, black & white) * At the end of the opener (2:56 marker on the video) the corps-proper forms a set in the shape of the world. The ball that our main character picked up is now represented by the entire drum corps with her by its side. We will now see how a child views the world and may hope to play with it. Of course, they still want to act like grown ups. * The next portion of the show could be called "This Is The Way We..." and further explores the idea that children will imitate adults. The music becomes jagged, angular, and somewhat uneasy. Maybe imitating adults will not be as easy or fun as it seems. Part of the female colorguard (3:10 marker on the video) now dresses in fully masked odd looking red/yellow/black/white outfits. A soli of these female dancers come out in dresses, perhaps intended to represent how a child imitates their mother figures in life. * From 3:50 to 4:00 our solo child is pulled aside by a female dancer before meeting a solo male dancer (likely representing the father figure). The father figure is joined by other male colorguard members representing father figures. The mood quickly turns sour as the group surrounds our solo dancer holding what appear to be belts. Snapping whip sounds are heard as they taunt our solo dancer and crack them towards her. The child may be imitating things innocently, but the things they imitate may not be innocent in real life. At 4:38 the corps-proper now forms a picture of a house with our main character inside, and the music approaches a dissonant attacked climax. * 4:40 Whistles sound and everyone scatters. Maybe we got caught doing something we weren't supposed to. * The section starting at 4:47 introduce faceless red, yellow, black, & white groups of colorguard members. Are they adults? Are they children? Are they how our character views adults? We're not quite sure, but our main character doesn't seem to be sure either. She curiously approaches each group, but is angrily pushed away by each one. No one seems to be very friendly or want to play with her. Or maybe they just don't want to play by her rules. Or maybe they don't want her to play by her rules? Perhaps its best left ambiguous considering our show's main idea that children & adults aren't much different. * At the 5:25 marker our main character begins playing with the inflatable earth ball again, but it catches the interest of our faceless colorguard members. They grasp and grab at the world, attempting to take it from her. * Our soloist regains control of her idea of the world, and runs away with it. The colorguard members respond by picking up giant flags parodying typical world powers in a red/yellow/black/white color scheme. The corps proper rushes forward in a company front with dissonant syncopations until our World Powers are represented backfield. * Now the 5:52 section. The big one. The pit rushes a timpani riff in a sort of fast paced death waltz. The colorguard members now dress in an incredibly off-putting green with pink colored melted fabric face covering. It's like a toy soldier crossed itself with an actual flesh soldier and climbed out of the uncanny valley to meet our lead dancer. Also for the first time in the show, rifles are picked up. And for those who don't know, this show was groundbreaking for colorguard and WAAAY ahead of its time. The rifle work here is very modern. THIS MEANS WAR! * From 6:25 on it appears that our main character is now playing war. It's not uncommon to see kids do this. Cops & robbers, video games, kids love imitating what they see on TV or hear about. She hops on the back of a horn player while wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle. Her melted toy soldiers still tossing rifles like crazy towards the front. * After the absolutely insane rifle tossing (culminating with the insane dual 15 yard chucks at 7:28) our main character brings out a flag representing The Bomb. The corps proper forms a mushroom cloud and everything crescendos to an unnerving climax. What's more is that the audience isn't given a chance to applaud the pretend battle. The syncopated cuts are given lengthy fermata rests that instead provide an awkward reflection time. What did we just watch? Did she just do that? Is that okay for kids to want to imitate dark things like that? Our main character has her "Bomb" stolen away by one of the colorguard members, maybe for the best. She throws her war helmet at the ground, either in disgust or frustration of what she just imagined. Is she upset about war? Is she upset she cannot continue the fantasy? The corps proper turns backfield to transition to our quiet section of the show. * At 8:05 the wall is raised between the colorguard and our soloist dancer. Though unintentional, the designs do not match up on one side of the wall providing another imagery of the struggle we've seen thus far. * Our main theme from the opener returns in a slow and dramatic ballad fashion. Our dancer finds some flowers and seems to want to connect with what lies beyond the wall. Eventually a single colorguard members appears to sign something in ASL to the crowd and the child. * 9:50 reveals the entire colorguard dressed in dramatic full sparkling white costumes revealing their faces. Our main character seems to respect and look up to them, so perhaps it is another image of adults. The main theme returns triumphantly with a bright explosion of light and sound. At 10:15 our main character poses in an outstretched reach for the flowers before the corps leads us into the finale. * Our character disappears backfield before the corps-proper restates many ideas we saw up to this point. Triumphant brass is followed by dissonant trills, but the main theme leads through some exciting chord changes before the powerful closing statement. * But no! You can't be happy with that fanfare ending. Our main character reappears from backfield with the inflatable ball representing the world. She happily plays and tosses it while the corps proper slowly dissolves into a company front. And then... * WHACK!!! WHACK!!! WHACK!!! It's not as much fun as you think little girl. Terrified, she gives a thousand yard stare to the audience before giving the adult world one last glance and running back to a safer place.

Ok I'm obviously not explaining my view as well as would have liked. It's not nearly as literal as you're taking it. Let's try this a different way. Uniforms obviously aren't the only expense, or even the biggest. I'm just saying it's obviously got to be a symptom of a bigger problem if that sort of change occurs almost every season prior to a financial crisis. As to "paying Cesario and Salas for uniforms", here's what I mean. Look at it this way: If you bring in the top designers in DCI, you're going to be paying them all an absolute ton of money. Especially if they are important enough that they can cut you a sponsorship deal with some company. Had Madison had other staff who didn't have a sponsorship deal and didn't switch uniforms every year, they would have less expenses simply because that staff would probably be cheaper. So it's not really that the uniforms themselves are at fault, but they are most definitely a symptom of a deeper problem. So my argument is that yes, they do have expenses whether it has something to do with the uniforms themselves, or the staff member(s) you hired that has a big paycheck that also gets you the sponsorship deal. This analogy kinda sorta works...: If you hire NFL star "x" on your football team, and with them comes a sponsorship deal with Nike resulting in new uniforms every season... or every game, obviously you're also going to be paying NFL star "x" an absolute ton of money. That person obviously is probably a huge name that results in such a big contract deal. Of course, since it's the NFL it probably won't cause too much financial trouble, but the point is that even though the uniforms themselves aren't directly causing expenses they are still related to something in your organization with a huge amount of expenses. I doubt I'll ever know exactly what went down in the Madison Scouts from 03-06 to lead them to that big of a fall, but the uniform changes are a symptom and obviously somehow linked to a bigger problem. Edit: I actually would like to know what specifically went down that season if anyone is sick of me blabbering.

How has no one posted this yet?

Well considering all the financial troubles they were in during 06-07, was it really a deal? Or did they "pay" for the uniforms by paying Cesario and Salas? I honestly don't know. But I'd be extremely hesitant to say that they got those unis for "free" through a sponsorship deal. Someone was getting paid somewhere. That financial trouble didn't just appear out of thin air.

Well first off every alum/fan is going to be different. But here's my thoughts: In terms of Mason's tenure, as a whole it felt much less like a Madison corps and more like a Star corps who was trying desperately to play to the fans. Like Star 92 every season. It was... ok, but nowhere near what I wanted. You look at shows like the past few Spirit corps that made finals or stuff like Crown 2007 and you wonder why Madison can't bring that same power. 2010 was probably my favorite out of all of them, mostly because it wasn't pretending to be bigger than it was. It was a show about the 2010 Madison Scouts. It had great drill and music, and it was fun to watch. 2011-13 was honestly pretty forgettable. I was rooting for Madison but had very little attachment to any of the shows. Again, it just felt like Star 92. 2014 was weird if just because it had some of my favorite rep with poor design choices that held it back. It definitely had the most talented corps out of any of the Mason years, but the interpretation of the show theme was just never mature enough to break into a new level. I like what the drumline was able to accomplish from 10-14. The brassline, while incredibly talented, was always given books that didn't feel very "Madison". They felt much more... uh... well they felt like they were arranged by Robert W. Smith. The guard had some great moments every year, but just never really had the most mature book out there. So most of my complaints have to do with design choices. Everything felt either safe or inefficient. A lack of maturity in the design program seemed to always lead to lower finals placements than desired.

It depends on what your interpretation of "expenses" are, but yes I feel like any sort of uniform addition year-to-year is going to cost you some amount of money. I suppose I'm also assuming they actually had to pay for them and it wasn't covered via sponsorship deal or something. Though it should be noted I'm fairly cheap and would probably keep the same uniforms for a long time before moving on, so these changes just seem unnecessary to me especially. 03 was brand new everything 04 had new gauntlets 05 had new jackets, gauntlets, and hats 06 had brand new everything So 2 brand new sets, 3 different jackets, and 4 different gauntlets.

I think they changed slightly year to year. Looking back it seems you're kinda right about them. They used the same jackets with different gauntlets. Strange how they made such a big difference in uniform in my memory though, especially for 03-04. 03 was mostly green with white gauntlets. 04 was the same jacket/pants combo with red accented gauntlets. 05 was new jackets, aussies, and guantlets with silver half fleurs. Regardless, that many changes just sticks out in my mind simply due to the amount of financial trouble Madison had to dig themselves out of from 07 onward. 06 especially was a headscratcher. Yes I think this is correct. I think 2006 or 2007 was the first year of the "playing and moving non-judged warmup timed with announcer". Madison started out the season concluding that opening section by turning towards the backfield, but sometime midseason made the very good choice of making it part of the judged program and turning towards the audience. It's one of my favorite openings they've ever done, especially with all the singing. Just one of those "I have no idea how this is cool, but it definitely is" things. That was an Alanis Morissette tune too! Seriously, on paper that had no business being one of the coolest things that would come out of the 2007 season let alone their entire history.

In 2000 and 2001 they started feeling the heat from not having a decent colorguard, visual program, or going after the "total package" GE design that Cavaliers led the way with. Scott Stewart's philosophy on the colorguard and overall design unfortunately was holding them back while other corps moved on. Their brass was still ridiculous, but visual and GE were still pretty dirty. Essentially performing an early 90s show in a new decade. They started dropping to the lower part of finals. 10th & 11th place compared to the 6th place 99 show. In 2002 they dropped out of finals. Getting beat by both Seattle Cascades and Magic of Orlando. Same reasons as before; weak visual and GE. Their drill was exceptionally difficult for a 14th place corps. The rewards for difficulty vs. cleanliness especially hurt them in this season. In 2003 they hired Sal Salas and Mike Cesario to kind of get a grip on the new design road. It worked briefly. New uniforms and all. Scouts placed 8th in 2003 while still playing G Bugles. The show wasn't much of a total package, but visually it was a huge improvement over 2000-2002. Couple this with a stronger cleaner drumline, and things were looking up. It wasn't the same "IN YOUR FACE" Madison as the past, but at least it got back into finals. In 2004 they switched to Bb and began toning down their show. No more in your face stuff. Everything was much more... "symphonic" I guess. Even playing Malaga, a lot of fans felt there wasn't much to cheer for aside from the ending. Madison was placing in finals, but fans still seemed to miss the old Madison. On a bright note, their drumline was really starting to show signs of amazing quality. Pete Weber, a new upcoming drill writer, started showing signs of life for the visual program. 8th place overall. (Edit: Technically there were just new gauntlets this year) 2005 was the best year (competitively) for Madison from the decade. The show was a modern adaptation of Carmen and featured a female solo dancer. Pete Weber's drill was on point, the colorguard was the best it's ever been, and IIRC the drumline placed 4th overall. Screaming solos and all. IMO this was still a fairly tame Madison show and still had a lot of design problems, but again, competitively it placed well. 6th place overall. (New Uniform Jackets/Hats/Gauntlets) 2006 was when the problems of Salas' management began to make themselves known. If I remember correctly there was a lot of staff issues this season causing behind the scenes drama, but someone else might want to chime in on this. I think their lead screaming sop went down mid/early season. And to make matters worse, this was a very very symphonic Madison show with incredibly little old feeling to it. Pete Weber was swapped with Myron Rosander, and the Scouts had an unbelievable beast of a visual program that was of course impossible to clean. Drumline was still incredibly talented with Lee Beddis at the helm, but unfortunately there was no room to make up for the design mishaps. Despite having finals at home in Madison, the Scouts placed 9th overall and were unable to improve on last season's success. They also had new uniforms in a modern adaptation of their 1983-84 uniforms that didn't go over well. A new uniform for every season since Salas came in means a lot of expenses... 2007 was a scary year. There was a huge staff departure, and for good reason; Madison was in huge financial trouble due to the managing of the Salas years. But they were still afloat for now. The goal was no longer "make Finals", and unfortunately more along the lines of "make Finals and... OH we need to stay alive". The 4 tunes chosen for the show had very little "Madison" feel to it, and the corps itself seemed depleted from the shortcomings of staff departure. It was clearly trying to match the new direction of DCI design, but unfortunately didn't have the ammo or design chops to compete. People often claim this was the identity crisis at its worst. An old corps trying to be new. The opening of the show was actually pretty amazing, but aside from that this corps seemed like it just needed to keep its head above water. After an incredibly terrifying series of early season placements, the 2007 corps placed 15th overall. (New Uniforms... AGAIN) 2008 was a decent rebound year. The corps was a bit more stable and started showing signs of life. Madison Alums Dr. Nick Williams and Dann Petersen sort of led the helm while a few BD alums kept the drumline above water. This show was fast and nonstop, but the execution stayed high enough to keep it in the hunt for Finals. In the end things worked out and Madison snuck back into Finals with a 12th place finish. (NEW UNIFORMS AGAIN). Fun fact: Madison is the only corps in DCI history to place everywhere during Finals. At some point in their history, they have placed anywhere from 1st to 12th. 2009 was another scary year. Some very poor design choices. The designed a Latin superhero show... without a villain, making things incredibly hokey. The drumline, especially the bassline, was incredibly talented. IIRC the bassline won I&E that year and had an insane lick during the drum feature. Unfortunately the product held them down the entire season, and the Scouts fell to 15th place once again. (NEW UNIFORMS... kinda. I think it was just a new gigantic red sash that didn't work well) In 2010 Jim Mason was brought on, and from there staff members just kinda came out of the woodwork to provide a huge amount of stability the Scouts were not at all used to. Jim Prime (Garfield, Star, and Blast! arranger), Jon Vanderkolff (Star 93 and Blast!), Thom Hannum, Nick Angelis... things were looking up. In 2010 the Scouts stormed back with an untitled old school show and placed 10th at Finals. From 2011 to present the Scouts have been putting on great shows, but unfortunately cannot crack the top 8. Mason brought stability, but a lot of the design choices just weren't efficient enough to put Madison over the edge. It seemed like every year they'd get jumped by Boston or Blue Knights at some point and never catch up. 2011 - 10th Place, 2012 - 9th place, 2013 - 9th place, 2014 - 11th place. So right now Madison has a bit of stability, but are still looking to push past the top 9 into better competitive territory.

Please do not do Part Tres unless you've got championship caliber corps talent and screamers. I don't want to hear a mediocre "ending" to the trilogy. That said, if they get Taras Nahirniak back and do Pirates of Lake Mendota 2 or something I would be totally fine with that. Go all loosely-based-on-Of Sailors and Whales and have it about the cursed pirate king or something. Edit: On another note... he's at Western Michigan now? I figured he'd still be at M*chigan.

Good news. Beddis is expensive and Sparling was doing a ton of work already. Rookie being promoted to the majors type of situation.

Black Knights

WHAT brb arranging the entire Don Ellis catalog for jazz and marching band.