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The history of the Westshoremen


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Regardless of what any of us thinks about their music choices, BD out-designs and out-performs everyone on a regular basis, IMO.

I love Carolina Crown... best drum corps brass line I've ever heard. I hope the corps wins the DCI championship some year soon. But last year at the Thursday semifinals show at the theater, when BD went on after Crown, it was obvious... at least to me... that the Devils are on an entirely different level than any other corps, anywhere, ever.

BD shows you they can do a skill ###### well, the moves on. they do not rely on the higher faster, louder, more more more approach say Crownand Cadets do. I think Crown needs to upgrade the percussion big time and fast, and do less of the hop skipjump stuff.

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the guard was slightly ahead of DCA's times. Sun was ###### good in 96, but it was a lot of good old fashioned equipment work...we were a little more into the dance and body.

as for the visual well....we had feet issues. I won't name names, let's just call them Baritones

:ph34r:

Yeah... I didn't say the execution was the best, just the design!!! LOL

And you're right... the guard was really solid.

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Yeah... I didn't say the execution was the best, just the design!!! LOL

And you're right... the guard was really solid.

even percussion design was...eh.

I think the game passed a legend by

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even percussion design was...eh.

I think the game passed a legend by

DD? He still in the game?

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DD? He still in the game?

no, Hannum. His two years at Madison the book was eh, and then last year at Crown was really eh. I mean stuff I saw dirtyas hell in July....and no amount of time working on it would fix it...was still dirty a month later.

DD...LOL. Love him or hate him. I love talking to people before they go to WGI Regional when Dennis is on the panel....they worry which Dennis will show up. Happy Dennis ( prelims for scholastic A at Unionville this year) or cranky Dennis ( many a Norristown regional year).

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Crown does prove you can have a hellish loud hornline in B Flat. So does MBI. As for percussion- if it slit their throats, it slit it.

I was really underwhelmed with the Crown-man/Carolina Girl superhero costumes in the guard, and truthfully, the whole theme of the show was pretty much Feel-Good/Up With People/HS Band.

"Inside every one of us is a superhero, and working together, we can achieve great things."

That was really hard to come up with, lemme tell yah. No real original thinking regarding that premise. Give me Dada and French poems any day over lameness. At least that was thinking outside the box, the beer bottle, Dewar Flask, or theoretical four dimensional container.

Went to school with Klesch. At least I still have my hair on top of my head, gray or no gray. I still remember attending his senior recital, where he sang Copland's arrangement of "I Bought me a Cat". I tell people that when people try and make him into a cosmic interstellar Wile E. Coyote super-genius. The guy does put his bermuda shorts and sandals on like the rest of us. This, I do know. I do brush my hair differently than he does, though. Most of us do, I won't name names. :tongue:

If they wanted real original or crazy innovative ideas, they should buy me 3-4 bottles of that Wild Turkey keg beer, sit with me, let me drink it, feed me a Prime Rib with a salad and Baked Potato, and I can prolly come up with 3-4 show ideas during that dinner and beer that would be better than that for Crown just brainstorming and getting imaginative. I have believed that DCI was supposed to set trends and go beyond the HS scene, not simply regurgitate what many of the DCI corps staffs are already doing with their pet BoA units.

Crown is everyone's Great White Hope. Everyone seems to be praying they can beat BD and roots wildly regardless of what they do cos it's real frikkin' LOUD and there is no French poetry reading. Reminds me of the people chanting "East! East! East!" BITD for Two-Seven for much the same reasons.

I'm waiting to see who will be the DCA Great White Hope this season. The money's on MBI again, dark horse the Cabs. :cool:

This rant was brought to you by the letter W (for every good reason!) and the number Zero, which is how many DCI titles Crown has.

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no, Hannum. His two years at Madison the book was eh, and then last year at Crown was really eh. I mean stuff I saw dirtyas hell in July....and no amount of time working on it would fix it...was still dirty a month later.

DD...LOL. Love him or hate him. I love talking to people before they go to WGI Regional when Dennis is on the panel....they worry which Dennis will show up. Happy Dennis ( prelims for scholastic A at Unionville this year) or cranky Dennis ( many a Norristown regional year).

Ah....Seeing pictures of him lately, he doesn't have that "look" about him when his #### was intense :devil: so it doesn't surprise me.

My funny DD story: I think it was 82 since Muller was still our instructor. At the beginning of the year Robb "forced" us to use Dennis' sticks...we were beating the crap out of them breaking them like crazy etc. Thankfully he had them at a "discount" and we were able to easily replace them. At one of the early shows with Sun, Dennis was hanging around with Robb, and he invited him to our warm up session (Robb was a Bridgeman, and Dennis was his mentor, so he wanted to show us off) When he introduced him to us, we all just tossed our sticks at him and said they were "crap"! :tongue: Robb was EMBARRASSED! Dennis didn't know what to think...but as a good businessman, said he's replace them no charge...then we played for him... he liked it, and when he came back once later in the year we were nicer to him.(The sticks were still crap)

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Crown does prove you can have a hellish loud hornline in B Flat. So does MBI. As for percussion- if it slit their throats, it slit it.

I was really underwhelmed with the Crown-man/Carolina Girl superhero costumes in the guard, and truthfully, the whole theme of the show was pretty much Feel-Good/Up With People/HS Band.

"Inside every one of us is a superhero, and working together, we can achieve great things."

That was really hard to come up with, lemme tell yah. No real original thinking regarding that premise. Give me Dada and French poems any day over lameness. At least that was thinking outside the box, the beer bottle, Dewar Flask, or theoretical four dimensional container.

Went to school with Klesch. At least I still have my hair on top of my head, gray or no gray. I still remember attending his senior recital, where he sang Copland's arrangement of "I Bought me a Cat". I tell people that when people try and make him into a cosmic interstellar Wile E. Coyote super-genius. The guy does put his bermuda shorts and sandals on like the rest of us. This, I do know. I do brush my hair differently than he does, though. Most of us do, I won't name names. :tongue:/>

If they wanted real original or crazy innovative ideas, they should buy me 3-4 bottles of that Wild Turkey keg beer, sit with me, let me drink it, feed me a Prime Rib with a salad and Baked Potato, and I can prolly come up with 3-4 show ideas during that dinner and beer that would be better than that for Crown just brainstorming and getting imaginative. I have believed that DCI was supposed to set trends and go beyond the HS scene, not simply regurgitate what many of the DCI corps staffs are already doing with their pet BoA units.

Crown is everyone's Great White Hope. Everyone seems to be praying they can beat BD and roots wildly regardless of what they do cos it's real frikkin' LOUD and there is no French poetry reading. Reminds me of the people chanting "East! East! East!" BITD for Two-Seven for much the same reasons.

I'm waiting to see who will be the DCA Great White Hope this season. The money's on MBI again, dark horse the Cabs. :cool:/>

This rant was brought to you by the letter W (for every good reason!) and the number Zero, which is how many DCI titles Crown has.

Crown is trying too hard. Really, looking at it, it's kinda easy to fix:

upgrade the percussion, especially battery and performance

cut down on the jumping, rolling, etc...it affects the music.

develop the concept better.

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Ah....Seeing pictures of him lately, he doesn't have that "look" about him when his #### was intense :devil:/> so it doesn't surprise me.

My funny DD story: I think it was 82 since Muller was still our instructor. At the beginning of the year Robb "forced" us to use Dennis' sticks...we were beating the crap out of them breaking them like crazy etc. Thankfully he had them at a "discount" and we were able to easily replace them. At one of the early shows with Sun, Dennis was hanging around with Robb, and he invited him to our warm up session (Robb was a Bridgeman, and Dennis was his mentor, so he wanted to show us off) When he introduced him to us, we all just tossed our sticks at him and said they were "crap"! :tongue:/> Robb was EMBARRASSED! Dennis didn't know what to think...but as a good businessman, said he's replace them no charge...then we played for him... he liked it, and when he came back once later in the year we were nicer to him.(The sticks were still crap)

well Thom, like many big names, isn't on the road 24/7 with the team anymore. So that would affect intensity.

Hey...guess who thread in this forum...look at pic #485...is that Plotts?

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well Thom, like many big names, isn't on the road 24/7 with the team anymore. So that would affect intensity.

Hey...guess who thread in this forum...look at pic #485...is that Plotts?

Yep! That's Plotts! I'm guessing 1979...only because that looks like Gary Ferris (Rochester) in between George and the Hurcs guy (is that Ray Fallon?)....AND if you notice the glove on Mark's hand, there are "snowflakes" on his gloves...IIRC, they were plastic, and sewn on by a thread...I think they broke at one point....so that might even be an EARLY season show.

And re: Thom...I'm sure there are other factors affecting his intensity, as well.... :tongue:

Edited by Jaminbenb
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