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aside from the creators,the other people who should be lined up and shot in this show are the judges who have rewarded it.

yet the beautiful people and wanna bees will tel you how cutting edge and wonderful it all is.

yes,in probably one of the worst designed,pandering,ill concieved "world class" programs i have watched this season...very little redeeming value.....just awful!

Okay I'll go far out on the limb on what blue will play: Masquerade - Rihanna Welcome to the Masquerade - Thousand Foot Krutch Masquerade - Backstreet Boys

Hornline.... there is no doubt that this program is going to be amazing. There were some "wow" moments as well as "H*ll yeah!" moments. I am excited for the Men of Madison this year.

I've become convinced that a Scouts thread is the only corps thread that can easily hit 50-75 pages before the summer even begins. Speaking of which, we're a mere 2 months from Memorial Day camps and move-ins!

Coolest and the Best of '11 Opener- Bluecoats Ballad/Middle- Cadets Closer- Madison Solo- Boston Drill moves- Blue Devils Guard- Crown

I beg to differ.

The Centurions from Feeding Hills, MA. are happy to announce their first ever..... COLOR GUARD REHEARSAL - This Saturday 3:00 - 6:00 PM Sacred Heart Parish Center 1103 Springfield St. Feeding Hills, MA If you have any questions, please send me a message! Thanks Larry

Wow.... I wish I could bring that press box with me to every show I work.

agreed! Ugh...and the show is entitled 'A Good German' 11+ million people were murdered in the Holocaust for crying out loud! Perhaps a better approach to this show would have been an adaption of Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" Heck...even that is a better show title. ...and that's not even addressing the design and technique issues I saw.

La suerte de los maquinas complicados?

"Spirits of 76": I'll allways remember the year of the "Buy-Centenial" as the season that the Madison Scouts JUNKED their ENTIRE SHOW after "First Tour", went back into "Camp" and came out with a rip-roaring "Second Season" that took them to a second place finish at DCI Philly. I'll always maintain that if they had had another day of practice they would have won. Elphaba WWW

French Dada show. Should be interesting. Sure to bum out many.

I was reading through the C2 Post and started thinking.... If this venture is successful for them, might we see other WC corps try the same thing? I think, if they could financially pull it off, corps like Boston, Troopers, Phantom, Cavaliers, and others could be successful. Any thoughts? Pro or Con What a great way for DCA to grow and become a truly national organization.

ALL...thanks so very much for your support and thoughtful words.Needless to say, I too wish that Bobby would be inducted in *every* HoF, via acclimation. I've done The Cadets, Pennsylania, and (Say a prayer!)DCI. Mass, NJ, and WDCHoF will have to wait until next year. To be perfectly honest, I thought it might be otherwise, but that's okay;unlike the Reublican prmaries,no one could compete against "Da Kid." Again, my sincer thanks to everyone. The waiting period will have a party for each of Bobby's inductions. Stay well........mario

Being a homer here... Freelancers 1992.. We were pretty atrocious early on in the season to come in 12 at Madison... Not too shabby. But we don't even hold a candle to Suncoast 1989. That was a corps that as I recall basically didn't even exist until sometime around April or May that season and it was questionable as to whether they would make it out onto the road or not. As it turns out, they came in 9th at KC. An honorable mention would also go to ... believe it or not ... the 92 Velvet Knights. Much the same as Suncoast 89.

Oh man, Ben Harloff is hilarious. I've never met Matt, but Ben was a tech for the corps I marched, and even though I was in the battery, we were often staged near the mellos or the trumpets, and he would make some of the funniest comments I've ever heard.

I was almost going to say "Ballad - Cadets" WHAT??? But, then I saw you put "Solo - Boston". YES!!! I'll probably still be remembering that moment when 2011 is referred to as "back in the day".

watched black watch at the latest regional and definitely liked what they were doing with the sheer fabric, involving it in tosses, etc.. I do not like the change. Feels like they just recycled last years work but in white this time.. They definitely should go back to what they were doing at the last regional!

The "bald soloist" you referred to is Ben Harloff. As you may have guessed, he is the younger brother of Carolina Crown brass caption head Matt Harloff. Ben is a high brass tech with Carolina Crown. As far as his school affiliations I think he used to be the director at a high school in Minnesota but I don't know his current whereabouts. On a side note, anyone who has spent any time around Carolina Crown when both Matt and Ben are present, can tell you that they can sometimes be an endless source of comedy.

Yeah, but four of 'em looked like this:

Yeah it was baris, and it sounded amazing.

Cadets get the overall win for me from 2011. But the two corps that surprised me the most with how much I enjoyed them were Crown and Madison. Crown's concept just reeked of cheese when I first heard it, but ###### if they didn't totally pull it off by Indy. Sometimes you just want a fun show, and that was fun show. Plain and simple. Madison's production moved me much more than I anticipated. In all honesty, even as a Cadets homer, I'd have to say I think Madison's "9/11" show connected with me much more than what the Cadets did in '02.

Can't narrow it down to 1. Was a good year and I liked most of the shows. So in no order - Cadets - overall great show. BD - Bacharach? but it worked. Madison - most of it, specially the closer. Troop - Infini note! Xmen - in your face. Turquoise Noise - Even with a violin just liked it musically. OC - smoking hornline regardless of class. You missed out if you didn't see this one up close. (I did like 5 times lol) BDB - Hey it was the Police... 7th Regiment - loved the music, best use of Creep. Honorable mention (yeah I know it was not onfield) - Any time MC arched up and played Tennessee Waltz. Mike Edit: Oh and I give it up to Yokohama Scouts and Jubal for making the long trips. Both shows were entertaining.

As much as I HATED marching 1999's show, I have to agree with you. I don't know what happened at finals that couldn't have happened a little earlier in the season, but I was easily in tears at the end of that night.

The reason there are more baritones, euphoniums, contras in a DCI hornline, than in an orchestra has a lot to do with the acoustics of sound. Lower sounds are less directional. This means a low frequency noise is going everywhere, not just at the audience, whereas the higher a frequency is, the easier it is to "point it at something". In an orchestra hall, you are providing an enclosed space, so even with the sound not being as directional as the trumpet, it has far less places to go. A good example is when a hornline turns backfield when there are no back stands. The trumpet voice becomes almost instantly non-existent, but the tubas and low euphs can be heard very clearly.

Ran, Well said. Right on the mark IMO. Going back to earlier comments, I was in the Band at a major college football school. Our practices often coincided, side by side. If our practices ran a little longer than theirs they would often come by to cheer us on. A number of them said we worked harder than they. Kevin

I think what he's saying is, as band directors, we tend to lose some of the music education focus of our jobs when we have to deal with the difficult and sometimes thankless administrative task of running a marching band. True, it's a great opportunity for advocacy when you have a a large, semi-captive audience... but it sickens the heart sometimes to think that no matter how hard your kids work or how awesome your show is, there's always going to be NIU players, fellow students, football fans and school administrators who don't appreciate or even despise what you do because it's not masculine enough for their tastes. We got into music ed to make a difference in our kids' lives and share our love for the power of music... marching band can be a powerful tool for life lessons and self-discipline, but teaching the more artistic side of music is much easier in a concert band setting.

Oh, my; I absolutely agree. I'm not so sure I would refer to it as "energy," but the way it built emotionally gave it an intensity that was unreal. Okay..."intensity" equals "energy" in many ways. It's like how I feel when I listen to a great string orchestra playing Barber's "Adagio for Strings." I don't see it as energetic, but I I do feel the intensity. Madison's closer was one such example for the ages.

I thought 2011 was a fairly medium year for drum corps. My faves were The Cadets, Blue Devils, Boston Crusaders, Madison Scouts, and Spirit of Atlanta. Not trying to bag on them but I was not all that impressed by much outside of the top 12. I usually enjoy a few shows in the 13-24 range. I liked a few moments from those shows. Most notably Oregon Crusaders ballad "Hymn to the Blue Hour".

Best rifle line in history? The SEAL Team 6 line that took out Osama bin Laden.

Making uninformed assumptions is easy. So stop talking about stuff you don't understand and wait for an announcement... it's not that hard. If a corps doesn't want to announce the show yet, they probably have a reason. Show some respect.

Boston's show sounds interesting to me.

The time for experimenting with demons winning has passed. Early in the season or even an early regional might have worked, but at this poit in the season The Cadets should not mess with the winning formula. Just keep cleaning.

Weren't the old days: Prelims on Wednesday (all comers), Quarter Finals on Thursday (top 25), Semi Finals on Friday (top 17?) and Finals on Saturday (top 12). Now we have all comers on Thursday night, top 25 on Friday and top 12 on Saturday? The format seems to change annually.

8 page thread in Open Class forums. I'm interested in how this all turns out. I just hope everyone keeps in mind that corps are in different divisions for different reasons. Some Open Class corps are true feeders for World Class, and will stay Open. Some Opens don't really tour or tour on a smaller scale, and will stay Open. Some World Class corps are only in World for financial reasons, specifically getting paid for appearances. Some Worlds domiated Open and moved up. Some moved to World with the intentions of making a move towards the top ranks and just haven't found that winning formula yet. At Prelims, some Open Class corps will score more points than some Worlds. Scores are not the only reason a corps should move up or down a division, many other factors play a part.

What a mess. With a different judging system the last TOC show should not have happened so close to finals. The last TOC should have been in July and "legit" shows and scores should have led up to finals.

I remember the night the Colts left town. Still holding a grudge.

I predict that the trend of experienced corps kids going to the G7 corps will continue, that the trend of the Top 3 perpetual medalists will continue and that the top ten corps will not change next season. I think the 11-17 corps will shuffle a bit, the best chance for flip floppling will be if a higher corps design fails next season and a lower corps steps up. Possible fresh face in the Top 12 at the lower end. I predict at least two negative votes for this post mearly because I mentioned the G7.

So every member of the drumline and pit were new to Phantom in 2011? I know lots of members followed Paul to SCV, but every former member must have aged out, went elsewhere or stayed home this summer. I would be interested in finding out how the numbers broke down.

Bluecoats: Creep was LOUD and powerful. Continuing John Mackey repertoire from 2010....no complaints there. Blue Knights: Awesome! Great music and show design. Most favorite show I've seen from them live. Madison Scouts: Robert W. Smith and ESOM....nuff said. Spirit of Atlanta: THE favorite. 17th to 12th in three years. It's apparent from their show why they were able to recapture a Saturday performance. Some love for the corps outside of the "top" 12: Troopers: Show was beautifully done. Infinity chord and ending was gorgeous. Crossmen: Best Crossmen show in the past decade, period. "Hallelujah" was one of my favorite ballads all year. Jersey Surf: some may not agree, but I thought this was a fun show. The opposite of what people coin modern drum corps ("esoteric")

since you can mic small ensembles, really you only need: 4 trumpets 2 mellos 4 baritones 2 tubas 12 is the max you can mic as small ensemble, right? You can mix it from the box and just adjust their volume on the fly. When the big impact is coming, just turn up the volume on all of them and ta-da, impact!

FC2012 Guard pre-season meet and greet!! Is spinning your passion, is guard the most amazing thing you have done and you enjoy giving up you weekends performing your heart out with friends who “get you” then the Core is the place for you to spend your summer. Be a part of a championship-caliber organization, receive expert instruction from an awesome staff, and spend your summer with a group of dedicated, fun and talented members. Sunday, April 1 (10-3 at Walmart, Rockaway, NJ) you’re invited to the first meet, greet and spin pre-season FC2012 Guard rehearsal. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow guard members, staff and have a fun day of color guard before the summer guard season begins on May 12th. If interested please contact Matt Steppe, Recruitment Manager for further details on this event and spinning this summer. If you can’t make because you have indoor guard, don’t worry you can still participate for the summer. Wear comfortable clothes, bring weapons, gloves and lunch!! Fusion Core is an “all age” drum corps who is Open Class competitors within the DCA Circuit. As we move into the 2012 season we’re gonna make you an offer you can't refuse! As individual members pledge lifelong loyalty, friendship, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty and obedience - this will be the glue that holds us together to carry out “The HIT.” Fusion’s 2012 production parallels the fight to the top and the struggles to stay there present in both the drum corps activity and traditional mob rivalries. Of course we have a Core face book ; The Core and a public website at Fusion Core Both sites will allow you to view pictures and videos from past seasons.

How many of you marched and then went on to instruct? For me....Marched with the Royal Coachmen and went on to work with Renegades (NY), Patriots, Rochester Crusaders, Schlossgarde (Germany), and Heat Wave (FL). You?

Plenty of intermissions, I don't see a problem with a long day. The judges have a great idea what to expect, so any super great or super bad performances will be judged accordingly. The only potential issue I can see is that some of the judges may not have seen the Open Class corps enough. I would hate for a corps to get a first read at their last show.

What's over hype?

Interesting question, but I'm not sure if it means much in the longer run. If an instructor has ambitions to move to a larger HS or to the College level or to go from one DC level to another, I don't think one can turn down this opportunity and thus the connection becomes broken, but maybe you get a better replacement. What difference does it make whether the DC's staff all teach at the same school or not, other than it's statistically interesting but probably a moving target? Drum Corps whack-a -mole? Arguably diversity can get you good results. Nevertheless, If someone has answers to the question, I still want to hear them. Kevin