DCI-86 Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Just watched BD online from last night’s family day performance. No costumes. I would say typical BD. Virtuoso brass and percussion moments and a sense of moving/running around/resetting the stage between these moments (which are mostly played standing still). Obviously bare bones right now. Guard featured throughout most of the show but pretty dirty (as are most I suspect right now) but very well staged so they will be in contention for high guard. Very weapon centric show. Show didn’t make much sense to me. Lots of props (metal fences and ‘wooden boxes’) but ballad beautiful and feels like classic BD. They ended after the ballad. I suspect BD does nothing without consideration so I am sure will score well on the sheets. A very typical Blue Devils show with many thing we have seen from there before/what you would expect from a BD show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCI-86 Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Just watched Spirit online: much improved more coherent show. All makes sense. Music accessible (although didn’t recognise any of it bar the ballad). Guard seems much improved over seasons past and are the main feature in the ballad. Like BD, they use fence type props in the show. (they perform the ballad behind them). No idea what the show is about!! Guard book stopped after ballad. No idea how they will compete - probably in contention with Troopers et al. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 (edited) My not-so-good, but all for fun, predictions: Carolina Crown - amazing brass and killer music book. Blue Devils - A big wow! Great show! Will definitely please a lot of fans and will certainly compete for another title. Bluecoats - just a hunch. have not seen or heard anything. Cavaliers - Wow, was very impressed with what I have seen so far. Santa Clara Vanguard Boston Phantom Regiment - just a fantastic music book! Let's see what they do. The Cadets - Should be very emotional and fan friendly. Lovely sounding music ensemble! Madison Scouts Blue Knights Crossmen - a fantastic show that could move up to 8, 9 or 10. Love the sound of their brass! The Academy - love what I heard so far of the Brahms "Academic Festival Overture." All in good fun. I'm looking forward to a fun summer of shows. Love a lot of the repertoire. I really love Phantom's music. Have not heard Bluecoats yet. Love what the Blue Devils are doing. The Cavaliers really impressed me. With the right tweaks that show could be top 3 and a contender. Have not seen SCV yet but hope they are as good as last year. I hear Boston sound fantastic! They could be the dark horse of the top 6 and push into the top 5 or higher. Hoping Cadets have a fantastic summer. Their music is wonderful and it should be a fan-friendly show. Wishing them all the best. Placement does not even matter. I really want to see a Madison Scouts resurgence. I'll be pulling for corps like Troopers, Colts, Mandarins, and Spirit of Atlanta to make a push for top 12, and others. If I go based on music alone, I think Phantom Regiment has the book to have the crowd rocking in Indy in a big way. If they can give that music the visual needed to bring their story to life then they may have the show of the year, regardless of placement. Edited June 17, 2018 by jwillis35 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karuna Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 8 hours ago, brassdude6171 said: 6. Bluecoats 5. Carolina Crown 4. Cavaliers 3. Boston Crusaders 2. Blue Devils 1. Santa Clara Vanguard I have only this to say about Coats in 6th and Crown in 5th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karuna Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Crown BD Cavaliers Bloo SCV Boston Cadets BK Crossmen Phantom Blue Stars The Academy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 On 6/17/2018 at 3:49 AM, brassdude6171 said: Well, it's still Saturday somewhere, right? Anyway, as promised... 12. Mandarins – Headed in the right direction for the past five years or so, Mandarins took a huge step in 2017 contending for the last finalist spot. I’m loving the design behind this year’s program “Life Rite After,” especially in terms of telling a story that hasn’t been told before. That’s not something we see very often in this activity, and I trust this group to put the passion in necessary to tell it right. 11. Blue Stars – When I first was introduced to the activity in 2014, the Blue Stars tricked me into thinking that they’d be one of my favorites going forward with “Side Show.” They still are yet to produce a program that has caught my attention to that extent since then, and I really am not into the direction this show is going, especially the uniforms. Just not a fan. 10. Crossmen – It honestly pains me to have the Crossmen so low. I really love what they’re doing with their show so far this year – even if I don’t understand it yet. I just think that there isn’t enough difficulty to vault into a single-digit spot. 9. Blue Knights – A very disappointing program for me. I described myself hours ago to someone as a “Blue Knight fan to a fault” because of believing in Denver becoming a powerhouse after 2014 and 2015 and seeing the downturn they’re on now. 8. Cadets – Sans George, the Cadets are starting to find their footing, but it’s too little, too late to compete with what the top 7 is putting out on the field. 7. Phantom Regiment – I’ve already spoken glowingly about how “This New World” makes me feel. I love love love the use of the “Largo” movement from the symphony and the section features – tenor battery and trombone especially – blow me away. 6. Bluecoats – And here is where the bloodbath starts. 6th place in 2018 does not say anything about how good or bad the Bluecoats are. It says everything about how unbelievably good the top 5 is. I have confidence in the design for the 2018 Bluecoats, but I don’t have confidence in the talent matched up against who I have in the top 5. 5. Carolina Crown – The buzz around the top of DCI this year, and seemingly every year now, is that everyone is great, it just depends on your design. In this case, visual design will absolutely kill Crown’s chance at a fourth straight medal. Convolution will not be acceptable anymore. 4. Cavaliers – Cavies are back to their vintage style with the modern influence and man oh man is it fun to watch. They were the first group to give me chills this year just by a visual move, and I’ve seen a lot already. It’ll be fun to see how high they can pull this show – for me, it’ll all depend on individual visual achievement. 3. Boston Crusaders – What can I say about Boston that hasn’t already been said? Their music is unbelievable and supposedly the visual package is even better. We’ll see if the members can provide the necessary stamina to pull off that breathtaking ending. 2. Blue Devils – There just isn’t enough in “Dreams + Nighthawks” to get a gold this season. Their closer is about the only thing that feels gold-worthy to me. 1. Santa Clara Vanguard – I can’t wait to enjoy the full package of “Babylon.” Everything Vanguard does is done for a reason in their music and visual departments and this year, that reason is to win. I can’t wait to revisit some of these predictions. Not picking on this one in specific but I honestly think there are more ridiculous predictions this year than EVER i guess time will tell, George 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodmello Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Interesting thing I just realized looking at placement predictions on another thread. The corps usually in the convo for hitting 12th are Academy, Mandarins, Colts, Troop... well. Colts don't won't see any of those corps until July 10th, when they meet Mandarins for the first time. Does anything think this will affect their placement or scores early season? Academy, Mandarins, and Troop are all together right away in the beginning, easily allowing people to judge and compare corps to corps. My initial reaction is that it will hurt the Colts. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake W. Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 8 minutes ago, goodmello said: Interesting thing I just realized looking at placement predictions on another thread. The corps usually in the convo for hitting 12th are Academy, Mandarins, Colts, Troop... well. Colts don't won't see any of those corps until July 10th, when they meet Mandarins for the first time. Does anything think this will affect their placement or scores early season? Academy, Mandarins, and Troop are all together right away in the beginning, easily allowing people to judge and compare corps to corps. My initial reaction is that it will hurt the Colts. Thoughts? Potentially yes and if they're truly gunning for a top 12 spot, then possibly no. While they don't see any of the aforementioned corps until July 10 (!!), Colts meet up PLENTY with Scouts, Crossmen, Blue Stars, & Phantom before then. If Colts are truly making a run for Finals, then they need to be competitive-ish with these groups, or at least one of these groups, anyway, or at the very least, hang consistently within 2-3 points of this pack for the first part of the season. Genesis is also at many contests with Colts this year --- that will provide a solid "base" score for Colts. Not that Genesis is at ALL a base-level corps; I just mean that despite not having any direct competitors in their neighborhood for the first part of the season, if they can focus on maintaining a 4-5 point lead over Genesis at every meet up, as well as staying within a few points of last year's bottom four finalists, then not meeting up with any other Finalists contenders shouldn't harm them too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodmello Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 3 minutes ago, Jake W. said: Potentially yes and if they're truly gunning for a top 12 spot, then possibly no. While they don't see any of the aforementioned corps until July 10 (!!), Colts meet up PLENTY with Scouts, Crossmen, Blue Stars, & Phantom before then. If Colts are truly making a run for Finals, then they need to be competitive-ish with these groups, or at least one of these groups, anyway, or at the very least, hang consistently within 2-3 points of this pack for the first part of the season. Genesis is also at many contests with Colts this year --- that will provide a solid "base" score for Colts. Not that Genesis is at ALL a base-level corps; I just mean that despite not having any direct competitors in their neighborhood for the first part of the season, if they can focus on maintaining a 4-5 point lead over Genesis at every meet up, as well as staying within a few points of last year's bottom four finalists, then not meeting up with any other Finalists contenders shouldn't harm them too much. Honestly, my opinion is pretty similar. However, I think it gives them a bit of an up hill battle compared to the other group of finalist contenders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Schehr Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 3 hours ago, George Dixon said: I can’t wait to revisit some of these predictions. Not picking on this one in specific but I honestly think there are more ridiculous predictions this year than EVER i guess time will tell, George That’s why I never do predictions. Those things can come back to haunt you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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