Cadets 2017

[corpsband]

In begging the forgiveness of Cadets fans for once against succumbing to an irresistible urge to argue with an idiot, I offer:

 

[jwillis35]

8 hours ago, 2000Cadet said:

Reference the last sentence of the below post: 

And I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade. I just refuse to be hyped up after 5 years of being excited only to be disappointed at the end of the season. Cadets have a lot of making-up to do (with me). 

(Not necessarily directed at you, Corpsband), just pointing out the last sentence which pretty much summarizes what I feel right now.)

Totally respect your opinion here, and I am sure many feel this way.  For me I see the last 5 years differently.

Have the Cadets hit a home run like they did in 2011? No. But that show was crazy good and brilliant on so many levels. Have they had solid top 3 to top 5 shows in the past 5 years? Yes. Have they been entertaining? I think so, especially musically. 

Their 2012 shows has held up well, as evidenced by how people took to it this past holiday season when DCI posted the entire show a day before Christmas. That really was a fantastic show. Perhaps not top 2 worthy, and honestly that likely had to do with a few flaws in transitions and they didn't quite clean the marching at the end. Still a great and fun show to watch.

There are many who feel their 2013 show (Side by Side) was one of the best musical books that year, and one of the best musical books we've heard in the 2000s. They took 2nd in brass, 1st in percussion, won overall music, and absolutely marched their tootsies off. They struggled with the boxes and the guard, but short of that the show was a solid top 3 monster. 

I might be the only one, but I loved 2014. I thought they created a stately, restrained patriotic show - until the last few weeks when they cluttered the ending with cheese and unnecessary dialogue. Up to the last show of the season that corps was running 2nd all summer. Nobody beat them but BD (who was all-time great that summer). It was only at the end, after they cluttered the overall message with cheese, that Bluecoats caught them and knocked them into 3rd. Cadets had an excellent music book that year and really marched a tough and challenging show, yet one they could clean. Just wish they would have stuck with the initial design from early season and perhaps backed off on t he dialog in the last 1/4 of the show.

In 2015, while still in their Maroon and Gold, they seemed like an early favorite.  That doesn't always mean much but they did come out strong.  Once again they played a fantastic music book. They had killer brass and percussion (winning both quite often throughout the summer) and they tackled a killer drill. Ultimately that show suffered from GE because of the somewhat cheesy and/or simplistic theme. It also suffered from the black uniforms which, IMO, did not do that show justice. They were a top 3 contender all the way to the end, only falling to Blooo by a little come Finals. That corps with a slightly better theme and/or concept and a better integrated guard might have won. 

Last season (2016) was the first time I've seen the Cadets enter the season with a show that I knew from day one was in trouble. I sort of felt this way in 1991, but for different reasons. In 2016 this had a lot to do with tweaks they decided to make to their process of design, concept, movement, staging, music arranging, etc. They reacted to current trends in DCI, much the way other corps had to react to them back in the 1980s, 1990s.  Sometimes when a corps does this they pull their staff out of their comfort level.  2016 was the first time in many many many years where I questioned their ability to put a great musical book on the field. Loved the opener, but after that I was not wild about much musically.  Normally that is not the case with Cadets. 

Take their 2010 show. A solid top 5 show, but not quite classic Cadets top 3, top 2.  They mucked it up with horrible guard uniforms and an overly dramatized goofiness seen in the "Little Jeffrey" (sp?) character. Still, who didn't love that music book? They played awesome music and sounded fantastic by season's end. Normally I can always count on The Cadets to produce a solid if not awesome music book.  That usually drives their shows.  For most of the last 35 years, the signature of the Cadets was simply to play demanding and amazing music and march a frenetic and entertaining drill. They didn't really need a theme. Some shows had them, some did not. But most had great music and drill.  If they do nothing else, they need to get back to constructing fantastic music books and go back to marching a Cadets-style drill. Judging systems aside, and direction of the activity aside, I think it was a mistake for the Cadets to try to be or copy Crown, BD, Coats. 

So I continue to enjoy them since their 2011 show, but no doubt last year felt like the least Cadets-style show of the bunch. Placement is not that important (I know some would argue). The last time they placed lower than 5th was 1991. That show was adventurous and monstrous in demand. Prelude Fugue & Riffs (their closer) was daring and difficult to clean. I'd take that show any day over what they did in 2016. If they take 5th or 6th this year...fine, as long as they go back to being The Cadets. At least that's my two cents. :)

[2000Cadet]

8 hours ago, aLittleBird said:

 

Maybe I did overreact. It just bugs me that the "big let down" is whether the corps medals or wins or what have you. To me, that's not really the point. It's okay to be excited just for the sake of it being summer and it being corps season again, and getting to see your guys. It's cool to be excited about that. If the metric by which you were allowed to be excited for a corps was their likelihood of medaling, you could only ever be excited to see about 4 drum corps any given year. Sure, 2016 was a letdown because the show was below the level the Cadets usually perform at-- but it was the wildest dream placement of a lot of other corps. 

 

Even if you feared the worst, in my opinion there is a difference between "wait and see" and having about 10 pages worth of content in this thread of "I am not excited for this season, refuse to be excited for this season" etc. There's a point where it becomes pessimism, and that's kind of disheartening when the activity (in my mind) is just about watching some cool drill and listening to some good music.

Sorry, but I'm not sorry. I've been one of the biggest, if not, THE BIGGEST hype machine of Cadets since before I even marched in the corps. Since I initially created an account on this site in 2006, I have been constantly defending them, attempting to destroy anyone who had the audacity to criticize them, so you cannot argue that I am a pessimistic person in regards to The Cadets. I don't "refuse" to be excited for the season; I have no reference from which to draw any excitement, given they've taken my advice (inadvertently) and shut the hell up most of this year. So forgive me if I'm not throwing babies in February at a show about which I have no information....in February. I know it's not all about winning, but even the Cadets of the 90s drew out the most excitement from me and they only won 3 times in that decade. So spare me the "it's not all about winning" crap because I know what it's about. For me, I want them to stop jerking around and become competitive again.

Edited February 16, 2017 by 2000Cadet

[George Dixon]

5 hours ago, corpsband said:

In begging the forgiveness of Cadets fans for once against succumbing to an irresistible urge to argue with an idiot, I offer:

 

and cue the personal attack. 

[George Dixon]

19 hours ago, corpsband said:

Of course I never said George (or any other fan) made such a statement.  But that's beside the point right?

What I said was George's hype could lead one to believe such a thing -- which is a FAR different thing. 

But don't let little details (like what I actually posted) get in your way  

 

except that never happened - I never made a single prediction or statement that suggested I thought the 2016 Cadets were going to win the championship

I actually DID predict that Crown would win in 2016 = repeatedly (until I saw the Bluecoats)

Edited February 17, 2017 by George Dixon

[SFZFAN]

9 hours ago, churchboy said:

That's funny Madison only has 20 pages on their 2017 thread. This one has what 272!

 

That's because 270 pages of it are people arguing about a moot point. Foolishness!

[HockeyDad]

Some people just don't know how to say "my bad."  The last 5 pages  of this thread could have been avoided. 

[Tobias]

7 hours ago, corpsband said:

In begging the forgiveness of Cadets fans for once against succumbing to an irresistible urge to argue with an idiot, I offer:

 

God that flag line was a mess. April must have crucified them afterwards. 

[chaddyt]

I hate coming on here after a few days, seeing that the number of pages on the thread has increased substantially, thinking that some information must have been released, only to find that it's either a discussion on arugula vs. waffles... or the latest episode of Honks vs. Haters.

Then I remember... this is DCP serving its most cherished off-season purpose and I go back to counting down the days until we can ##### about actual shows instead of theoretical ones.

[Eleran]

News update : 

The Cadets will be playing in Central Park with the NY Philharmonic in summer 2018.   They were hoping to arrange it for this summer, but were unable to finalize details in time.