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DCA's prelims and finals... my thoughts


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Ok..DCA's and what a weekend.. on many different levels. Just to let ppl know I was not around for all of prelims.. but I didnt miss any corps this weekend.. if I didnt see them in prelims i saw them in finals. So it all worked out..

First of all.. weather.. may have been a little cool at night.. but perfect conditions none the less. The setting of the stadium is so beautiful.. I love it there on the hill.

One thing that really annoyed me more so in Prelims then finals.. is that ppl (people) kept moving during corps performances.. It annoys me because.. it shows disrespect for the corps. and the ppl sitting around them.. I was raised that.. if a corps is performing.. that you wait until they are done to go to your seat.. and the announcer did make mention of not moving during performances.

One thing that really upset me... and I hope I dont offend anyone here.. but it was really upsetting .. that there were no ambulances in attendance.. at prelims.. I have never been to a show where they didn't have them in attendance.. it was very heartbreaking that when one was needed.. none were there.

Ok.. now on to the corps

Im going to do this sort of weird.. so bare with me. Im going to start with non finalist corps.. and then move to those who advanced.

In reverse order of finish

Mon Valley Express. There were seven new corps in attendance, at this years DCA World Championships and among them was Mon Valley Express. I do remeber these guys were very little.. Im not sure if they were the tiniest corps out there.. but they were little. And all I have to say is.. good effort.. you did very well.. very glad to see you guys on the field and be putting forth a great effort. I do have to say to the only member of the guard.. that i was very proud to see you doing your best.. its hard to be an all time soloist.. and you did well.. good job.

Shenandoah Sound. This corps reminds me of some Div 3 corps.. in the thought.. that they go out there do there show.. no matter how big or how small they are.. and have a ton of fun doing it.. It seems like you guys just enjoy beeing out there.. and that to me is a true performer. :) The one down side.. is that once in a while the odd member seemed a little lost.. but.. none the less great effort. Nice to see you there.

Gulf Coast Sound. Nice to see you guys again this year. I love the show concept of "Pulse" your back drops were very cool. I just felt bad that some of them blew over. Very unique guard equipment with the pulse shaped poles.. Very creative. Guard was very dirty though. and seemed very lost in parts.. The brass even came across as lost in the music at times. but I still think.. that you put forth a great effort.. and you seemed to be happy with your show coming off. Good job.

Lakeshoremen. Another new corps on the field. And first corps on in the day. Pretty impressive.. If I heard the announcer right I think he mentioned that this was your first competition. If this is true,, then very good job. In all honesty it was a pretty good sound and a very nicely done especially for being the first of many things. First time at DCA, first time in competition and first on the field.. nice job.

White Sabres.. Another new corps on the feild this year at DCA. I have seen you twice already so I was looking forward to seeing you again. I must say .. you could see a bit of nervousness on the field.. didnt seem as relaxed as I had seen you in corning. I think the nervousness may have led to little mistakes here and there.. but nothing major, aside from the nerves.. it was performed very well.. and on a whole it was great to see you again. IMO you had a very successful season and I look forward to seeing you on the field next year..

Heat Wave. I never really know what to expect with this corps.. and this year was no different. Hmm.. what to say... your brass was not as enthusiastic.. (might not be right term) as I was hoping. I was waiting for a moment.. to say.. wow.. that was cool. but I dont think I really ever got a moment like that from the brass. and the guard was shaky at times. The drum line.. was very good though.. and no matter what. This corps always goes out and perfoms... and always goes out and has fun..

Music City Legend. Here is one more new corps for you.. and I was very impressed. They had a very decent sound and a very entertaining show. Their guard was a bit iffy at times but managed to pull through. There drill was done well from what I saw.. and they really performed.. I actually thought that they would have made it into finals.. but alas (unfortunatley) I was wrong. Excellent job looking forward to seeing you next year.

A class Finalists

Aliance. One thing that really impressed me about this corps was their use of the guard and visiuals (I guess thats more then one :P ) There guard was very good and IMO thought they had top guard in prelims. I love the big flags you use in the middle of your show, so much colour. (Canadian spelling of color) This brass line was a bit quieter in prelims. your really seemed to step it up a notch in performance at finals.. I thought personally you guys had overtaken Govenaires (really shows you I dont know much about this sport.. I just love watching it) Im glad you made finals.. great show .

Govenaires. I can say your guard was strong.. very nice guard.. the brass line was ok.. actually a smaller sound then I thought I would hear. Your drill from what I saw seemed to be executed very well. However I found that your prelims performance was better then your finals. At finals it seemed you were a bit flat at times. None the less enjoyable show.

Chops Inc. Ok this is not a new corps, but it was there first time at DCA's and again I was very impressed. Nice sound VERY entertaining, well performed. I did think they deserved the title. Love the arrangement of "Tommy." Im just wondering what happened to the ball at finals? Guard not as tight as Aliance or Govenaires, but deffinetly had good style, and performed very well. Excellent job and Cogratulations on your win

Onto OPEN Class

Frontier. The last of the seven to enter the field for the first time at Chamionships.

It was an enetertaining show. Very simple.. but recognizable music.. I remeber (for the most part) there being a nice sound coming from the brass line, the guard was ok, but lacked a little bit of confidence.. but did pretty good out there. The most important thing.. is they seemed to perform and enjoy doing there show. Good job

Sunrisers, Unfortunatly, I dont remember much about their performance. I think the problem was.. it just seemed there wasnt much excitement to the show. It was pretty clean visually from the looks of things.. but it lacked performance I think. From what I do remember, the guard as much as they were off in spots.. they looked good in a lot of places as well.

Kilties. What do you say about Kilties.. I think anyone would agree that there performance was the most emotional perfomance of the night. You could see and sense that ppl were pushing to get through there show without out crying or losing there focus. I will also say that this has got to be one of the most couragous shows I have ever seen performed.. there was not one person in that stadium that was not behind this corps. Fan or no fan.. everyone was behind them 100%. You showed what its like to be in a drum corps .. I am so sorry for your loss.. my thoughts and prayers are with you guys. Thank you for showing me.. that you really are a family.. and that is truly what drum corps is about.

Skyliners. Hmm I don't know what to say.. They really didnt grab me at all. There was just nothing overly exciting about this show. I did like however the bright yellow flags in there show (I think they were at the begining.) I don't know what it was.. maybe it just seemed flat. But.. I do think they put out a strong effort and good for them.

Rochester Crusaders. I did this time see improvements made.. the only thing is that they never seemed to be full steam through the whole show. they seemed to lose it a bit in the middle. But the guard IMO.. did make a lot of improvements.. it was cleaner through out the majority of your show. the end was stil a bit shaky.. wish you had one more week to clean the last 30 seconds or so, but the rest of the show was much better for the guard. Nice to see you back, looking forward to seeing you next year.

Kingston Grenadiers. Well again a better show then what I saw in Corning. Visually, it seemed to be a lot better then what I saw the prior week, and the guard seemed to perfome more and some of you actually scared me a bit.. (hehe :P ) The brass seemed to hold up all the way through.. and you gave a little more umph to your ballad. I think what changes you made deffinetly went in your favour instead of hurting you. Excellent job looking forward to next year.

And now the finalists.

Hurricanes. In prelimes.. I thought it was close between Grens and Hurcs, I couldnt make a prediction on who I thought should have been on top, the guard was VERY clean in prelims.. but seemed to lack a little performance. Brass seemed to holding back just a little bit... the drill was a bit dirty when I saw it. In finals.. the performance was much better, the sound was there, you were hitting your forms better, I just all around enjoyed it better. Unfortunatly as the guard performed much better in finals they were not quite as clean. But overall finals was much better good job.

Corps Vets. In prelims it seemed to be an all around flat show.. more so at the beggining then towards the end.. The guard was very dirty (I havnt looked at captions but) I thought Hurcs had your guard in prelims (and finals) Come finals.. you guys also seemed to perform much better then I saw in prelims.. The brass had a more open sound.. and more exciting, the guard, throughout the first half seemed a lot more clean then in prelims.. but the second half, not quite as good. Drill seemed to be pretty tight. Overall finals was more exciting.

Carolina Gold. Tough for you guys to go on the field after what happened with the member from Kilties. Just as a side note.. the guy booing Gold.. (for re-warming up after that incident).. was being a bit rude.. maybe things could have been handled differently, but what were they supposed to do.. if they went on the field with that being the only thing on their mind.. it would have been a bad show for them. They had to stay focused on their job if they were going to perform. I think Prelims was a good performance for this corps. Just like Corps Vets.. their guard was very dirty in prelims, but my theory is that some memebers had problems with them getting caught on the uniforms. So with that said... I love the guard uniforms... but felt they interfeared with their equipment. Brass had a nice sound and drill was pretty good.. I do think that finals was not that much better but I still think it was a good show. The guard was cleaner but still had some issues, with there equipment. I did however think that, Corps Vets may have caught them but I knew it would be close. Congratualtions on your first appearence in Open Class finals.

Cabelleros. I have to admit that buy this time.. I had so much going through my mind I don't remember much about this show. (during prelims) so most of my coments are from finals.. I still don't know how to feel about the show.. I wish I had seen it a few more times this year. Parts of it I loved, but to me there wasn't enough of the Cabelleros that I am use too. Still the same look.. and same style of drill and such. I think it was the musical selections they chose.. With that said.. I can say it was a pretty entertaining performance. I love the guard uniforms.. and I love the flags of this corps.. and there was a hint of traditional Hawthorne there.. which was cool. Nice overall sound from the brass.. the drill however did seem dirty in spots. One comment to a sabre soloist.. you were a focal point cause you were in the middle of the brass line as they were in a circle around you.. I was impressed by you, you perfomrand, you had confidence and control (both nights I do remember) and your solo was very well done.

Minnesota Brass. I left before they came on the field in Prelims so I can only comment on there show from finals. And what a nice show, I love this show. VERY colourful with guard uniforms and flags and such. Brass sounded so nice.. very rish sounding, I love the music, Pat Methany. Well performed.. only problem was the weapons seemed to have some troubles holding on to your equipment. Other then that i loved it

Renegades. This is the point when I had to leave at prelims (not by choice :( ) so corps from here on out I didnt see in prelims only finals. WOW can this corps ever blow your face off. What I sort of don't like about this corps it that they keep things almost too simple in my opinion.. and a side from weapons having some problems catching... this show was VERY VERY entertaining. They know how to perform and make a crowd stand up for them. The crowd loves them and looks forward to them every year.. This year I did enjoy them quite a bit.. It was very good... The cool thing was when I got in my car after finals.. the song on the radio was "nights in white satin. " Great show.

Brigadiers. IMO.. rough start.. but got better.. You know this show just never fully grabbed me and said "LOVE ME ######" (sorry I am a bit of a nut), but It had some really good moments. Hmm.. the guard really impressed me in Syracuse.. but they seemed to struggle a bit tonight in weapons. but still they performed through it all. I thought it was a good performance from them. GREAT JOB.

Empire Statesmen. I know I know they finished second.. but they went on before Bushwakers.. so Im typing it this way. :P I did like this show again tonight.. I thought they deserved to be in the top three.. I think I said this before they know how to tell a story and they did it this year quite well.. I think it was a very good performance.. again a lot better then what I saw in Corning. It was a great performance.. and I didn't see a lot of drops.. so good job.

Bushwackers. Hmm.. this show was well performed and from what I saw clean.. very clean.. I wasn't sure if I would like this show or not.. (I didnt get what was going on with the music at the start when the corps was warming up... it was a bit strange but oh well) but I did enjoy it.. first time in a while that I have liked what they produced. IMO.. if guard was based off of execution they would have won.. cause I don't remember seeing one drop and they were VERY clean. Overall a great show.. and as much as I loved them trooping the stands I hope that isn't what caused the penalty.. even though Im sure it was. GREAT SHOW.

Buccaneers. WOW.. they just blow me away WOW... this corps was amazing.. their performance was wonderful.. deffinetly deservant of the title.. they did have more demand then any other corps on the field.. and the emotion form that ballad.. Im speachless about the ballad. Deffinetly the NICEST moment on the field this year.. I made mention that Bush's guard was cleaner and they were.. cause Buccs had way too many drops in there show (and breaks).. and some recovery times were slow.. but when in comes down to performance.. and composition.. Buccs were on top. This corps was on fire tonight.. musically.. it was wonderful. Congratulations. :worthy:

So thats my review sorry its so long.. but.. its all good. B)

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hey thanks for the review...to bad u didnt notice the drum lines...lol (ik j/k!!!)

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Corps Vets. In prelims it seemed to be an all around flat show.. more so at the beggining then towards the end..

Yeah, I was talking with one of my fellow corps members, and we both thought the second half of their show, with Strawberry soup, was far better than the first half. We thought if the first half was as good, they would have placed higher.

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Im just wondering what happened to the ball at finals?

Frontline left it on the truck. Oops. A forgivable mistake, considering the placement.

:worthy:

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the rules are that the top 3 corps in prelims make finals...

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