CCond

You call the compliments I gave them bashing? Your bar must be awfully low on what is and isnt a compliment. Your apparent need to bring the Bluecoats down is every bit as silly. My comments on the judges stand tough. If you ever press them on their placements in a critique, they have nothing of substance to offer you. If your corps dominated all season for your ring, then you wouldn’t understand that. i also mentioned Ned that I don’t care where they place, I don’t have a dog in either hunt. Objectively speaking, Bluecoats design makes you think about what an artist is, BD brought a painting to life. One show is designed to make you think, one show is designed to make you say “neato that painting is alive”. Both cool, both challenging, both clean. They should be tied for all the farts I give.

This is an insanely misguided view. I feel sorry for the members that choose to read this.

The judges are puppets, madam, and their strings are not pulled by the people who pay to enjoy the shows. Have you ever been on staff and been in a critique before? DCI should serve as proof that art can’t accurately be judged, and that siding with the opinions of the judges doesn’t make you an expert. All that said, I could care less about where Bloo or BD place. The organization where I served my years of marching is in the lead and as a fan that’s neat. As a recently former MM, the scores are not what we do this activity for. We do it for the love of the performing and we don’t give a S##T what the the judges or their sympathizers think. If it were the opposite, everybody would go home after the slotting happens early to mid season.

Of course that said, bringing a painting to life on the field is an insanely neat idea and they’re pulling it off quite well.

Right? This is just kind of a strange year for design all around. The great thing this year is that everybody is so chalked full of talent that it hardly matters. There are incredibly complex and enjoyable parts to every single show. I think its great that the corps are providing us with so much material to speculate and share spirited dialogue over!

I’m sorry friend, but it’s my personal opinion that your statement is off-base. BD bangs you over the head with what their show is. “We’re making up a story out of a classic American painting” doesn’t really leave you with anything to take away for yourself. It’s a good story, and a cool idea. Doesn’t require much introspection and thought about what it means to you personally. Bloo gives you a little bit more room to think and take away what you like while still following their idea to an extent.

Bloo has clean feet, clean brass, a very generally effective show, the pace is better than BD, the transitions are smoother than BD, and it gets the people feeling something that BD’s show doesn’t seem to. Bloo taught us all that warming-over the previous year’s design doesn’t do it for the fans, BD decided to try it anyway. BD is clean, not cleaner. They sound good, not better, their show has good moments, but it doesn’t grab the majority by the shirt and say “listen to me right now” the way that Bloo’s does. It’s a shame it doesn’t click with you (personally I feel like you’re really missing out) , but that’s no reason to discredit what they are achieving here.

Analytics exist for a reason, old man. It’s a hip hop world, pal. Keep up or get out of the way. Being rude to each other aside, and a vanguard alum, I’d have to say vanguard had a few performance issues this evening. In addition to the microphones not working for the second production and the ballad, the timing in the feet wasn’t up to their standard, a few cues were missed here and there. In general, the run seemed a tad off to me. But flo had us looking the wrong direction all night.

“I’m curious about something only the recaps can tell me, but I’m going to be obstinant for the sake of being obstinant and not read them then poo poo people who tell me to read them” you folks constantly blow my mind.

I’m sorry my man, but I’m not sure you’re looking at the whole picture. The shows are far and away more difficult in terms of body movement than they were in the thick uniforms. The thick uniforms trapped more heat, sure, but I would argue that the visual responsibilities take more out of the members and they heat up every bit as much.

Yeah what the hell are they thinking not risking heat strokes for the MMs?

That's simply not the case, friend. There are about three battery breaks, and they are pretty long (but hey if you've got a strength, play to it). The closer has a lot of intricacy in the hornline proper. Double and triple tongue passages in the call and response section with the small ensemble. Not everything is handed off to the small ensemble.

Ah yeah bias and all that

Yo which Vanguard were you listening to?

Uber is t crazy expensive. It wasn't allowed in San Antonio when I moved away, but I know they've brought it back. Shouldn't be more than a 5 dollar ride from the dome. Y'all have a beer for me!

Bill Millers is delicious...but it's a San Antonio fast food chain, essentially. If you don't get Texas BBQ often don't waste the opportunity on the chains. I would recommend going to The Granary. It's under 281 in the Pearl Brewery area. It's a very short uber ride from the Alamodome. Delicious BBQ and it's a microbrewery. Win win. I'm from San Antonio, and that's the best BBQ you can get without driving for quite a long way.

I know you're joking, but the dome wifi has been garbage for years. You can't count on it for jack.

That stinks. For the last 5 years (excluding the one I marched) I've be going to watch a few corps and cool down then watch some lots to see my friends. I wanted to see Spirit and then watch my team warm up later that night.

So to clarify, if we want to catch a few shows, then go out to watch a lot we can't go back in to watch the other shows?

God almighty man that's another human being. Show some restraint.

I'm gonna save you the trouble of keeping the argument going. I don't really care about any of this or what your opinion is on anything. You think you're right, I think I'm right. In the grand scheme of things, none of it matters. This website is just chalked full of folks that would rather be right about their opinion than just enjoy the show, which is a shame. I truly hope you (and since you had to say that it wasn't your petition, I thought I'd mention that I am using the royal you, as in everybody) can learn to just enjoy the show. Have a great day, friend! Oh and you were right about something, there were only around 25-26 thousand folks at finals last year. That's still a pretty great number of people losing it for these sorts of shows in the live setting.

I believe that is a misguided view. The shows these corps are producing are far beyond what any marching band could achieve, amped or not. But more to the point of my first post at all; your petition won't do anything. DCI is a money making machine and they don't care what any of us think. If you don't consume it, somebody will. Since the finals attendance numbers are record shattering every year, I would guess that the activity isn't devolving in the eyes of the 30 or so thousand people that came to watch us all perform last year at Lucas oil. There will be more there this year, and my guess is they'll love it all too.

Well, tough luck. The folks at the live shows seem to be eating it all up. I get that change is spooky and all, but you're being a little melodramatic my man. The performers, if you haven't been able to see their close shots, are having the time of their lives performing these shows. I highly doubt the top 6 corps are having recruiting problems. Drum corps is going to keep going in different directions, and the common folk will go nuts for it, and DCI will make money.

I don't understand why This is an issue now... corps have been experimenting with this for years. I mean, did nobody notice that the bluecoats had more speakers on the field than contras in the hornline in 2016? That show was fantastic and almost everybody that saw it ate it up. This activity is designed to evolve. To become new and different, and to reach new generations. If we rehashed the same techniques we used when we were limited by the technology of the time how are we improving the activity? It's a hip hop world out there folks. Keep up, enjoy the incredibly hard work the members are putting in, or get out of the way. These shows are rather enjoyable if you let them be instead of choosing to be upset about things that are new and different.