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BrianL

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  1. I think there will be a natural counterreaction if the activity has gone too far. It would be great for a couple of old-school corps -- let's say two from among Phantom, Crossmen and Madison -- to announce that they will use only minimal amplification and props and to recruit members on that basis. I think it would work and be a unique identity for those corps, and then let's see how the crowds and judges react. I would vote with my pocketbook at the souvenir stand. The Bluecoats made their identity with old-school corps tropes when they started making Finals, and the crowds ate it up. I thought Bluecoats in 2016 was a legitimately great show which could have been altered to match the old rules and won DCI in any decade, although it would have certainly been pretty far out there in concept if you go back 20 years. If the Cadets had done that show (without amps, but with the props) in 1994, it would have been a legendary show that changed DCI's trajectory forever. And I think BD and Crown have been putting together some of the best brass lines in DCI history this decade. So, I don't think it's all doom and gloom and irreparably damaged... but I will admit that there's nothing from this season that I will re-listen to much.
  2. Bobby, I agree that things went too far this year and that it was a down year for the activity, but did you really not enjoy the Bluecoats' 2016 show? I think that show will still be watched and listened to in 20 or 30 years. Have you not enjoyed what Crown's brass line has been doing in recent years? You're creating these binary categories where drum corps in the present tense is mostly or completely debased, and I think most of us on this board are OK with pulling the reins back, but it hasn't all been bad. From the time I discovered drum corps (late '70s), I always thought it was a bit weird that drum corps had soloists playing (sometimes from the backfield) in football stadiums designed to seat 70,000 people; there is a different type of musical expression allowed when you're not having to play at FFF. That can be good or bad, but you're not going to get many converts if you say that, e.g., miking is ALL 100% bad. What are some recent shows that you thought were finding a reasonable balance?
  3. If there is a groundswell of people yearning for more traditional drum corps (I would vote for that if I could), why doesn't one or two perennial finalist corps make it their schtick that they are going to be a retro corps with traditional uniforms, few or no props, and no amplification? I've been rewatching some of my favorite historical drum corps shows lately, and is there any reason that '94 and '96 Blue Devils, 2000 Cadets, 2002 Cavies, and 2008 Phantom couldn't win DCI with those exact same shows? (Perhaps updated drill design for the '90s shows.) Heck, couldn't the '85 Cadets win or at least place top-3? Certainly the crowds would go crazy to see and hear those kind of shows. I'm also curious if anyone thinks that the Sky Ryders' Wizard of Oz shows in '85/'86 where a key inflection point for where drum corps has ended up 31 years later.
  4. Hmm, young crowd answering this. 1984 Garfield Cadets Best soloist in drum corps history, Barbara Maroney. She plays both beautifully and in a very exposed way. It's not a run of notes and it's not a ton of vibrato -- holding those notes in the midst of a very athletic show is beyond amazing. Stereo effects with call and response from different sides of the field. Drill demand and velocity was probably at the largest delta compared to the rest of the corps for any year in drum corps history. Company front out of nowhere at the end. Marching demands on percussion amazing even today. For me, the most relistenable show in drum corps history. The miking and the stadium for the '84 Finals were great, and in particular the G bugles really popped that year. Maybe the best mellophone line in drum corps history. (Not an expert to compare every single year, but they are featured a ton and are just stunning. I can play their feature in "America" to a drum corps novice and get a "whoa!" reaction.) The most iconic drill move in drum corps history, the z-pull -- this is the year where it became legendary. The whole corps is just absurdly talented. Yeah, a lot of corps throughout DCI history have had a lot of talent - '86 and '94 Blue Devils and 2002 Cavies also come to mind - but there was something transcendent about the Cadets that year. Every single thing was so #### good. Drill demands on brass while playing difficult chart compare very favorably to tops corps 33 years later. To put it mildly. My goodness. Would this exact show win the 2017 DCI Finals? I'm not sure, but I think it might, and there would be a lot of crowd boos if it didn't.
  5. Yes, that is it exactly. I think the cleanest horn line I have ever heard was the '88 Blue Devils, but when you watch that show (granted, different era), you understand that they were trading drill difficulty and pace for cleanness -- a lot of leisurely walks into park and barks. The Bluecoats are doing some extraordinary drill pace this year while they play difficult runs. It's a very striking difference to 2017 BD, and, without having read the threads here yet (read a little bit today), I thought last night "they (BD) are gaming the scoring system." I forgot to mention that the Bluecoats color guard is extraordinarily good looking. Sorry, male gaze and all that... but... wow. Still tasteful and I don't think anybody would be embarrassed to have their daughter out there. The Bluecoats stayed on the field and did an encore that easily lasted 10 minutes or more. I've seen a lot of encores, but I have never seen the color guard come down in front to lock arms and face the rest of the corps to be serenaded. At the end, the percussion were through and similarly came in front to lock arms with the color guard and be serenaded by the brass (including a vocal part). Autumn Leaves made an appearance. There were interesting parts that featured just the baris, handed to the mellophones (wow, that ensemble!), handed to the trumpets. It was a really special atmosphere of the corps loving one another that I haven't quite seen in that way before. This, too, brought tears to my eyes a bit. Besides the difficulty level of the drill, my main problem with the Devils was the distracting sound reinforcement, which was just obnoxious and bloated. When the soloists ascended the stairs, there were parts I couldn't hear because there was weird bass resonance going on. All the corps last night were enjoyable and doing ambitious shows. It seems like the lower tier corps raise their levels a bit every year.
  6. Sorry to reply late on this thread -- I was at the El Dorado show and it was late by the time I got home to Hutchinson (homebase for the Sky Ryders in their heyday, and 70 miles east of the Argonne Rebels in their heyday; it's going back a few years, but Kansas does have some deep roots with drum corps). It was quite a nice night for drum corps, with temperatures starting in the 90's but quickly dropping to the 80's by the Blue-Blue-Blue finish. Not a cloud in the sky, and it was a smallish football stadium that I think makes for the best drum corps venue. I would guess there were 1800-2000 people there; I ordered tickets early and was 14th row right on the 50 (if I had known how tall the Bluecoats center prop would be, I would have done 25th or 30th row). The first 3 corps and maybe the Blue Knights were unfortunately staring into the sun as it lowered below the pressbox to the west, but the field was already partly in shadow by 7:00p. It was a bit breezy, maybe 15 mph tops at the beginning, and I was surprised there were some problems with the props, especially the Mandarins. It was not super-windy by any means, so I'm surprised they don't have that better worked out. I'm glad to answer any questions about the lower-ranked corps, who were all enjoyable and had some rather complex props. The Mandarins are the best I've ever seen them, and also the largest I've ever seen them. It would be helpful if all of the corps would coordinate with the venue sponsor and get a couple more paragraphs explaining their shows for the official program rather than the boilerplate location and history of the corps. I will admit to being puzzled by the Mandarins (giant fountain pen nibs?) and the Blue Knights. As for the two corps at the top: the Blue Devils have been my favorite corps since I really discovered the activity in 1982 and wore out my VHS recording of that '82 finals. If you give me a minute, I can think through year by year and give you all 17 championship years. Although I had looked up a few scores before attending last night, and knew that BD was undefeated, their show did not blow me away and it does not look like a championship show to me. It was very obvious that they had a drill oriented around park & bark, and at times it felt like a '70s show (albeit with more difficult repertoire) for 30 seconds, then march really fast to their next park & bark. I was glad that the crowd got the inside jokes for the opening (besides the obvious Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor, I think I heard La Suerte and As Time Goes By... and maybe Taxi Driver?), and that part was fun. The marching with guys purposefully falling behind and then catching up at the yardlines was... a bit funny? Anyone who has marched knows how easy it is to converge on yardlines. The brass line was very clean, the drumline less so, and I saw some drops in the color guard. A BIG problem was that the sound reinforcement was too loud for the small stadium, and there was a subwoofer type bloat that totally obscured the low brass at times. I am REALLY turned off when sound reinforcement obscures the actual brass on the field. The brass marching drill seemed to be low difficulty for a show contending for a title. I'm a bit stumped as to how they beat out the Bluecoats. The Bluecoats were great and by far the crowd favorite. The huge center prop has its downsides, but it does lead to some stunning moments, such as when you realize the drum line has disappeared from the field for 30 seconds, and then come up the back of it. I was on my feet maybe 5 times and had tears in my eyes a couple of times. The two company fronts with the marchers swirling back and forth hit really, really hard. I thought that the Bluecoats drumline was clearly better than BD's (cleaner and higher technical difficulty), and the brass reminded me of vintage Madison Scouts at their best -- not the absolute cleanest, but ####, they play the hell out of that. The soloists for the 'Coats were clearly better than BD's and were just outstanding. The sound reinforcement stuff was much better for the 'Coats, with a more appropriate volume level and wider stereo spread, and it generally seemed more professionally done. Again, I am a BD fan for as long as I've followed the activity, although they started losing me a bit in 2008 (I'm more of a '94, '86, '88, '03, etc., fan). Their show difficulty and GE does not seem championship worthy to me, but I thought the same thing in their "chair year." I would give the 'Coats a good chance of overtaking them, as their show difficulty is higher and the GE, once everything is cleaned up, should be higher. I don't post here often, but I remember posting after seeing BD and Phantom live in Hutchinson in 2008, and I wrote then that if Phantom could clean the show they would win the championship as it was one of the best drum corps shows I had ever experienced. I don't quite have the same feeling this year of BD vs. Bluecoats, but I will be puzzled if BD wins with a show with that marching difficulty. As an aside, shouldn't scores typically be higher for the second half of July? Whichever corps ultimately wins has got a long ways to go to get in the 98-something range in the next three-and-a-half weeks. Also as an aside, please, someone at DCI, don't schedule the only two shows in KS on the exact same day. I would have gladly driven to Olathe a day or two later to catch some other corps. KS has some deep drum corps roots, but I don't know that we have enough to cover two shows at different locations on the same night.
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