Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if all the corps had been mandated to do non-uniform shows. Maybe there's more tolerance for risk with these newer uniforms than previously (that's not snark - I'm guessing(?) the newer ones are lighter?)
Yep, that happened. It was also the third show draft of that year, and that ballad survived about one week on tour before the decision was made to replace it. We didn't learn it until we got to Georgia.
This show is awesome. Not really criticizing the current uniforms, which aren't that bad, but I'm sitting here wondering what it would look like if they had just done the traditional Kelly green tops (pre-2010). Just a thought exercise, I suppose.
BK, with a shift in brass caption head but otherwise the same, I believe:
http://ascendperformingarts.org/blue-knights-announce-design-team-caption-heads-for-2018-season/
I know we've all observed the improvement in competitive quality/talent across junior corps over the last few years, but for as good as the USMC corps was a few years ago, they've clearly improved as well.