BD9

Sorry, Carichner and staff. When marching under him,, we always used that moniker, forgot he has a real name. My bad. As for guard....I really don't know much about them, unfortunately. Also, I pay attention to the hornline a lot, so I didn't really notice too much. Sorry, weakness there.

BK- Not bad...the whole beginning was way too much and way too cheesy synth though. Looks like they were all exhausted, posture was terrible, lots of visual "wtf"s all over the field. Had some nice moments musically, but for the most part....to me, at least, a pretty poor performance for them. Phantom- Immediately impressed by how clean the show was already, and they did sound fantastic. Visual weak at points. Nessun Dorma was great. Great meaty low brass sounds, TT is doing a great job with the hornline this year. If they can keep this up.... SCV- Wow. Blew me away. In my opinion should have beaten Phantom, bu hey that's just me. Incredible show design. Great execution. Yeah, some visual issues here and there and one botched release, guard was pretty much invisible and meh, like others they have a long way to go but I feel they should have won the show. Definitely my favourite of the night, and I never really was an SCV fan. Academy- Holy brass. Just as loud and full as the others. Honestly, better brass sound on field than BK. By far. Visual was meh, show design was also kinda blah (I got absolutely nothing out of the drill, might be because it wasn't readable but really doesn't seem to add anything, at least where I was sitting. But definitely should overtake BK once they get the other 2/5 parts on the field. Definitely better than expected and better than the scores show. We'll see what happens with the visual program. Also, guard uniforms not there yet, which probably hurt a little too. And drum majors with batons now...cool!

For me, it was between the Coats, Madison, and Blue Devils. Academy and Crossmen were excellent as well. Well...all the shows this year were, but those just stuck out to me. Honestly I just wasn't a fan of the Cadet's show this year (oh, the horror!). Just didn't really get me like other shows. I wish I had seen more of Regiment, but as a MM last year, they were usually performing while we were busy, and I haven't really seen anything online or on the fannetwork yet. what I did see was great, though.

There would be a lot of Blue Devils and Cadets shirts floating around in that case..

Heard crown has some, can anyone confirm?

I like the idea. But realistically I don't thinkit would work. I mean,look at the cost of starting a corps. Membership dues for those of us online would have to be insanely high.

Eating at a local pizza joint wearing my corps jacket, when what can most accurately be described as a group of giggling fangirls come up to my table and ask if I really marched. I said yeah, and was with some of my corps buddies. I felt like I was a rock star.

Devs Cavaliers Crown Cadets SCV Bluecoats Boston Madison Phantom Blue Knights And fighting for finals, SOA Academy Glassmen Troop Crossmen (oh, that's going to be another bloody battle...but IMHO, unfortunately, Academy has stayed stagnant too long, the staff additions are nice but talent dropped and poor vet retention. SOA will probably stay in, carrying the momentum from last season. I'd like to put Crossmen higher but I just don't think that they'll surpass Glassmen. maybe Troop and probably Colts though. Glassmen and Troop I just don't see dropping much, at least not out of the pack.)

If we pulled out the college kids, quality would fall on both ends. For one, less incentive/motivation for the highschool kids to work their butts off to try and get in a corps. Also, many DCI corps are made up of the best of colleges as well. With ASU , I know many of the brass players in the marching band just aren't up to a WC drum corps level. Also, in college, where are you going to find enough talented people with the interest and dedication? You probably aren't. Also...I would much rather drive out/work my butt off to pay for flights to the corps I wanted to march than have to march somewhere where I don't like the staff, the atmosphere, whatever. And to me, sleeping on gym floors and cold showers suck but are part of the experience, my corps experience wouldnt be as satisfying without.

...other corps get flack. But not to the extent BD does. When I said I wanted to march Devs, I got SO MUCH flack. In fact maybe only two people among my peers really supported me. Compared to other friends who went and marched Phantom, and when I marched somewhere else last summer, we had the full support of peers. At least with the people I know, Blue Devils definitely aren't exactly a favorite. There definitely is a lot more flack going their way than others, that much seems obvious.

First show that got me hooked: 05 Blue Devils. The energy at the end was incredible. The whole style of the show and the cleanliness was awesome. The show that made me want to march... 09 Academy. My first live show, which really I was kind of bugged incessantly to go to by a friend of mine (and his mother, who I kept running into randomly) who was a member that year. The volume of that hornline was incredible. I remember turning to another friend sitting next to me during the big ballad hit and yelling, "Oh my god this is awesome!", and hIm yelling back, "What!?". So cool.

Academy is having thEir callback camp this weekend..But as far as I remember the cymbal line wasn't set till march

Well to pay for drum corps I fundraised. A LOT. Sponsorship letters, car washes, the whole shebang and was able to get all the money for that. Also save what money you can from your job, if you have one. If you're living on your own in college and not already, eat cheap.

No, it means I worked my butt off to get Scholarships, fundraise like crazy for drum corps, and kept a job to pay for the rest. No I'm not everybody or even the majority and yes there are some people that are rolling in money that march corps...but at least half the people I know have done similar to me.

The corps I marched with last summer had yes plenty of music majors. And plenty of scholarships. Also, many went to ASU/UA/NAU where my costs are $18,000.a year. Not $40,000. Combine with fundraising and saving from jobs...I can tell you that's how most of the members I know paid. It was actually mostly the high school kids whose parents paid. It's entirely possible. And yes this is just one of the world class corps, and it's not one of the top groups, though it's still just as expensive as them. If not more so. Also....just my thoughts (and I'm sure I will get plenty of negative response here), but if it goes back to "just high school kids wanting to do something over the summer"...I may just be misunderstanding that. But IMHO drum corps shouldn't just be something to do over the summer. It's an activity for the best of the best, whether that be music majors or high school kids. It all comes down to work put in. This includes getting in, succeeding in, and paying for drum corps.