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Annapolis is available in 2014 (Navy plays Ohio State in Balitmore), but not 2015. I will be politicking pretty hard to get the 50th anniversary of DCA (2014) here in Annapolis, but I know they prefer 2 year bids. Jeff

I have been a drum corps fan since I saw my first McCormick how to marching video in the fall of 1975. I went to my firstDCI contest in Atlanta, GA in 1976. I have attended 3 DCI Championships (1980,1984 and 2000). I have a minor in music and I wrote for Drum Corps World from 1983-1996. With all of that drum corps fan experience up until last night I had never seen a DCA corps live. So here are some random observations: 1) The DCA corps are more fun to watch. They haven't got caught up in all the "I must play music the audience may not understand". 2) The DCA corps are not electronic junkies. My observations is the DCI corps have lost their way in the electronics. If I want to hear an electric piano I have plenty of Chick Corea CD's I can listen to at home. I go to a drum corps contest to hear brass, percussion, not MIDI music. The Blue Devils this year used mics for their soloist--I had no problem hearing any of the non-micro phoned DCA corps this evening. 3)The DCA Corps were not hung up on props. I know some of the DCA corps this year used props, but all the ones I saw were tastefully done, fit in the show and were not covering up for some lack of imagination drill design. 4) The fans of the DCA corps are more mature. The crowd was not full of high school band students. 5) I was surprised to find out that the upper deck of the stadium was not utilized for seat sales. I actually thought my ticket was in the second deck only to find myself considerably lower in the stands. 6) The DCA corps are not afraid to play loud. Nothing stirs up an audience like pure impact volume. Many of the DCI corps have cut back their volume level to sound more musical....bad trade. I don't expect a drum corps to sound like the London Symphony Orchestra. I guess the biggest surprise was the size of the crowd. The crowd was a fraction of what I saw at any of the DCI championships I have attended. The DCA corps are great! Many DCI fans maybe missing out on the best half of the activity. After the second open class corps of the evening I was wondering why I still followed DCI when this experience was so much better. The good news is I don't need to choose between the two halves of drum corps, but if I had to make a choice I would attend DCA first. I am already looking forward to attending next year. Scott Smith

And for this reason, the degree to which they enhance or detract should be reflected directly on the sheets. It's time to start holding corps accountable for the disasters created by electronics, and rewarding for when they work well.

Chances for getting rid of electronics: 0% Done right, they enhance immensely. Done poorly, they detract. The only thing one can say for certain is that the best musical seats in the house no longer exist in the 10 rows between the 45 yard lines. Chances of getting rid of themes: 0% It is no longer acceptable in terms of guard costuming, drill design, musical continuity or "purpose" of a show to just be a random sampler of unrelated music. Even 40 years ago, "themes" were present in programming. What would a non-themed show look/sound like? We only have 11 1/2 minute shows. What would you choose to do with your 11 1/2 minutes? Chances for playing "recognizable music": 100%... if you actively listen to a wide variety of music in your day-to-day life. Significantly less if you don't. I recognized every piece of music played this summer. Others did not. Who decides what is "recognizable"? We live in a world of themes, electronics and diverse musical influences. Drum corps does not exist outside our culture in a vacuum. Chuck Naffier

I have not read all of the stuff here yet, but I saw a lot of complaints on Facebook and in the stands about the whole weather thing Saturday. And to them I say "shut the #### up". You did an awesome job handling a very fluid and moving situation, and best of all, no one corps wise flipped out or was severely affected. Yes, it would have been nice to hear stuff under the stands, but so what? Thank you for finishing the show, making it fun for those that stayed, and best of all, ignoring the ######## who tried to arm chair quarterback the situation

Ok, first of all, I just want to say, that this is my 200th post on Drum Corps Planet. Yay! See the confetti and stuff? I've been a member since April of 2002, so that means I average less than 1.5 posts per month. I am trying to catch up to Jeff Ream for the posting record :) I am not going to attempt to thank everyone by name that helped make the 2012 DCA Championship happen, because there are a H3LL of lot of people to thank, and I will forget people, and someone will notice that and beat me up for it :) But I do want to thank Bob Jacobs from Jersey Surf. He literally provided Drum Corps In a Box for the Kidsgrove Scouts. Kidsgrove played on Surf's instruments for their trip here this year, and had use of Surf's tractor-trailer. Bob is always there for DCA. Thanks, Bob. And of course, DCP's John Donovan, the crazy man that runs this place. Once again, he provided Moon Pies at Finals to all of us who spent countless hours locked in the press box. The press box is packed with cables and wires and video stuff and computers and tabulators and digital recorders and runners and DCA people and "Mike Symonds and his Video Rangers", and Eric Brust (the graphics genius) and stadium people and printers and papers all over the place and announcers and ... MOON PIES. We have come to expect and anticipate the arrival of the Moon Pies for finals, and once again, John did not disappoint! So now you know our BIG SECRET. DCA is powered by Moon Pies. Happy 200th post to me. Wheee!

Hi all, There'll probably be an official article from the corps in the next couple of days bout the tour as a whole. But we're all back in the UK safe and sound. On a personal level as a member I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to every single person involved with the tour. From the staff to the fans in the crowd everyone has had an impact to the success of our tour. We've been lucky to have some exceptional staff on tour with us and they have gave up their free time and the work they have done with us was remarkable. We're so lucky to have people who want to invest into us and this will never be forgotten. Tom Peashey also deserves a mention for the hard work he put into helping the corps. It'll be nice to see him again when he joins us for DCE in Holland! Also a huge thanks to everyone in the crowds. The reaction we got was spine tingling, I had goosebumps all over! As a performer my number one box is that the audience are pleased and I hope that we achieved that. It was also great to have people approach us whilst around the stadium, everyone was extremely friendly and it was an honour to perform in front of one of the best crowds I have ever seen. A big shout out to The Hurricanes who we had the pleasure of sharing our hotel with. They organised room on their coaches to transport some of our members which I got to experience after prelims. They are a great bunch, they should be very proud of their production and I wish them the very best for the future. As I sit and write this it is hard to take in that the tour is over. It feels like the season is over, however the show must go on as we have just under a month left to go! Thanks once again to everyone, Sam Catcliffe

I have been to many DCI shows over the last 30 years, this was my first DCA show. It was a 9 hour round trip for me to Annapolis--Had Kidsgrove been the only corps I saw it would have been well worth the trip. Great show, great performance. Thank you for making the trip, you were the fan's favorite. Scott Smith Roanoke, VA

This. Also, I don't want to hear a bunch of rehashed tunes they've already played better in previous years. They've done enough of that over the years. I want something fresh and new from Madison.

Yes, Dick Pronti is sorely missed as was Donna Ernst before him and I ditto Donny on this. Nice recognition for Dick in the DCA program, Thank You DCA. Ghost Riders would like to say congrats to STAR for yet another victory, but also a special "Thank You" for the use of their podium that evening. Ghost came off the field very satisfied with our performance and the crowd reaction was superb .... Annapoliis is a beautiful city and our corps enjoyed their time together.

The customers. Same as it ever was.

Thanks for saying that those of us who didn't march BITD don't have real experience. The stands may not have always been full, but people were always on their feet when I marched.

So, I was all set. Fresh tablet, as I was covering prelims for DCW, 3 pens, awesome crabcakes in the councourse, and since they did not serve beer but instead had variations of Bud, I was going to have a great day writing, even doing 20 corps and 14 of them first viewings.Until...... So we get to the break after Kidsgrove and Empire, and I leave my stuff at my seat and go down for food. While down there I found out about the weather delay. Security, and I don't blame them, would not let me run up to get my stuff. Guess what kind of shape my stuff was in after the weather delay? So, this will be piece meal. As pages dry out and become legible, I'll write stuff for DCW first, then fill in hereAs always, I pull fewer punches here, so feel free to red mark me if you don't like what I have to say. However nasty pms/emails will bring hell down upon you! That said....LOVE the venue. 50 yard line seats, 27 rows up both days. Alumni guys, I know I am one that always reviews you, however with Sadie's arrival in June, a weekend in Annapolis wasn't happening. Being that it's almost 2 hours from home, I drove down for prelims and finals. Had to miss the alumni show, so I do apologize. But prelims had an added bonus...Dad came along! First trip to prelims since the late 90's, and he loved what he saw. Got to see many faces, and got to see corps he only ever read about or saw when he'd borrow my dvd's. He's already asking if we can do next year like we did this year! Excelsior: "All the Kings Men".....looked to be based on some form of video game, but reading the program when it dried out informed me it was about chess strategies. They had a huge pit which did not overbalance the corps,and they did their best to stage the brass in ways to make them seem and sound larger than they were. Storyline was hard to follow, but the white knight did win the fight. I'll be honest, they had some performance issues, but I'm willing to give credit where credit is due....the heat and humidity had to be hurting them. In fact the bottom bass struggled through the last half of the show, as he fought like hell to not go down. Shenadoah Sound...big jump in performance in a week.Most of the brass to percussion balance issues were gone, and it was cool to see the crowd get involved snapping their fingers to help make rain sounds as the storm approached in their show. Honestly, I had them a spot higher. Cincinnati Tradition: An Evening with Kenton was their show this year. I think and they and Sound knew what was coming, as Cincy opened with "Here's that Rainy Day". there were some dynamic balance issues in spots, and when they hit Malaga, the corps had some serious ensemble issues, possibly due to heat fatigue. Based on previous scores i was expecting a possible push for finals, but in fact I would have had them down to Sound. Sunrisers.....I expected them to be a lot closer to White Sabres, but looking at the recap, it seems the field captions were what did them in. A nice rendition of Carmen, done to be recognizable without being just "another Carmen" show. brass was the first line of the day to really show some power, and it seemed up where I was the percussion was having a good day. A fun show to watch, and while not a finalist this year, the Sunrisers are still here and kicking! White Sabres...The corps did a really good job selling their "emergence" from the graves at the beginning of the show. The show in general held together better than last week at Reading, and the return of bass 1 helped the percussion out a lot. The corps showed control where needed, but had some real power to go with some great solo work. I think one of them was named Allen. Actually, at finals I think 2 of them were named Allen. Good finals run, better than prelims. must be that "DA" magic Windsor Regiment: taking music like Stained Glass and Angels In the Architecture, and using them with a small corps can be risky. At times, they delivered musically, and at times it seemed they were spread too far apart and it hurt the sound. The corps was visually solid, especially with the guard. In fact, the guard drew me in most of the show, and I may have missed musical moments. Finals...better run, of course less heat and humidity challenges. Sound still thin at times.....I wondered if the staff designed for A Class or Open at times. some big risks taken for their size. Carolina Gold: Good run at prelims. lots of percussion tastiness, and the guard's changing of the uniforms was hidden this week by a screen. At times at prelims, the brass sounded a bit gassed, but way better than last week, and really dominated in percussion as that sheet alone called the show ( ###### drummers). Seriously, some clever visual moments like the "shadow"drill and body at the beginning, and the integration of the guard at the end worked really well. Finals....no contest really. Gold really delivered Govies: John Mayer is a class act. Christine says thank you. Next year, we MUST meet. Now on paper, does a show that contains Cole Porter, the Doors, Johnny Cash and disco sound good? it does if Govies do it. With their annual on field intro by John ( albeit interrupted by someone who wanted to dance with him), the Govies were off and firing with "Hot". Tons of fun, and Light My Fire worked as a ballad before it morphed into Rings of Fire, and props for throwing in a little Deep Purple. And...lol...the corps did the Hustle. So much fun, some good brass stuff, but it seems percussion was what really hurt. Finals...cranked up the fun, but alas, Gold was on, well, fire. Still so, so much fun. You know how to design for A Class and should give classes. Open Class to come....The Marines....they just get better!!! Incredible percussion section, great brass work, and of course the precision marching. battery was so zoned in it was scary, and easily the best bass tuning of the night. So thrilled to see them in attendance and would love for this to be an annual occurrence. Did I mention the battery was incredible??

A great night of Drum Corps in Annapolis. I was seated 11 rows up on the 40, to the left of the 50.This won't be a full blown review, but I thought I'd comment on the performances I witnessed last night.... I'm a brass player, so that's of course where I tend to focus when watching a show... Marines- Very enjoyable, and of course technically proficient... The brass line handled many difficult articulation passages ( re; American Salute) with ease. Great soloists... Really enjoyed the percussion section as well... Loved the tuning of the bass drums. a great way to start the show. White Sabers- A show whose design fit the size and talent level of the corps. Very smart programming. Some talented soloists throughout the show. My favorites were Love Potion #9, and Moon Dance. You can tell the corps enjoyed performing the show... Windsor Regiment- Nice field coverage. Contras really fill out the brass line sound. I'm not a big fan of mixing sections in the brass line, especially with a smaller horn line, I think that affected the brass sound, as it caused individuals to stick out of the ensemble. Definitely a step up from their inaugural season though, they're on the right track. Govenaires- Always the entertainers, this year was no exception. I'm sitting there watching, and with only 12 brass (11 in the opener), they are really exposed....if you have an off night it can ruin the corps show, well no one had an off night! Particulary impressed with the playing of the 3/4 sops, and 2 contras. Fun show with all "Fire' related tunes, including disco and Rock songs. Held my interest from beginning to end. Carolina Gold- Great guard, and impressive field coverage. Percussion was notable, and their pit had some really tasty stuff going on. Brass also projected very well. A well deserved championship. Fusion Core- Holy Cow! one of my favorite shows of the night. What major strides they made since last year. They belong with the big boys... Where'd they get that killer lead trumpet line? Very exciting high -energy show. Great soloists ( this will be a theme throughout the night) seem to tire a bit at the end, but very impressive performance... Renegades- Have been a fan of these guys since they first came east years ago. Very powerful brass and energetic percussion throughout the show. Nice contrast with the guard in white , and corps in black, made the guard work standout. Like the use of the stage for the soloists, and solo sections, but maybe a little too much of that during the show. The sop soloist in the red/cranbury shirt was incredible. I expected to see a pack of dogs charging toward the 50 and any moment due to the amazing range this guy displayed. One thing missing to me though was a recognizable tune that I could get into. Anyhow great to have these guys back east again! The face that they finished 10th is a testimony to the quality of finalists this year. I can recall finals in the 90's where after the top 4, you had nothing but "Hot Dog' corps... Atlanta CV- Very powerful brass, excellent guard, and a talented pit were the highlights for me in this British-themed show. Thought in portions of the performance there were some uncharacteristic ( based on my viewings of CV in the past, individual brass players sticking out of the ensemble. Nice job with Bohemian Rhapsody! Placement and score were right on. Kidsgrove Scouts- My favorite show of the evening... In your face brass... lots of movement drill-wise... some excellent screaming trumpet work as well. This show held my interest from start to finish, and had me bopping along throughout. Loved the Miserlou arrangement. Thanks for coming to the states! Empire Statesmen- Well you can tell these guys play in "G" . As always very entertaining. Thought the integration of the guard in the show was very good. Percussion seemed very aggressive. A show full of tunes you can hum, played quite well. My favorite was Luck Be a Lady. Any other year this show would probably be in the top three... Cadets2- For a first year corps, very impressive... The standout section for me was percussion.. excellent battery, and a very confident , and talented pit. They moved more than anybody drill-wise, and for what they were attempting did quite well. Brass was a little too controlled for my liking, and to me the brass book really didn't any "wow" moments, but well performed none-the-less. Welcome to DCA, looking forward to seeing how they progress next year. Hurcs- OK, very enjoyable brass book.. but to me also probably one of the least challenging, and therwfore I guess I expected it to be performed a t a higher level ensemble-wise. The guard as many have said was excellent,and percussion was kickin' it. To me though although an enjoyable program, I think it wa scored two places too high. Cabs- The best product they've put out in years, and a very different one at that...Outstanding solo work, impressive guard, and groovin' percussion contribute to this fine show. This is the best balanced Cabs hornline I've heard in quite a while.. they played extremely well as an ensemble. My favorite was the closer, got me movin', and groovin. Well done Hawthorne! MBI- These guys remind me of an all-age version of the 70's and 80's of the Blue Devils...Very assertive playing, wailing Trumpets (ok they were sops BITD), and playing tunes you can hum, and tap your toes to! Loved the "bullet hole effect to the "Bonnie and Clyde Mobile" Did I hear a little Big Phat Band stuff in this show? Great Performance, might have been another winner in a different year... Bucs- This crew has the whole package. Every section compliments each other. I'd put that percussion section up against the top DCI lines ( and the rest of the corps isn't far behind either). They have raised the bar once again. Congrats Champs, there was no doubt who the winners were going to be! Star United Mini Corps- Excellent Ensemble sound.... Complete with drill!! What talent!! Congratulations on defending your title again. Very impressive!! As I said earlier, the corps have raised the bar once again. Looking forward to next year! RCC

Agree on the financial stuff. The reason we are 'stuck' is because electronics are adding some great musical moments in modern corps, so I hope we stay 'stuck'.

So what if, for next year only, we say "no drill" for minis? Or something along those lines. Heck, hype it up and make the score all about music performance and music effect ONLY. The cool thing about minicorps is that it's fluid, and super-easy to tailor your show to a venue if you know about it in advance. Make lemonade out of lemons...

Thanks Sam... can't wait to rejoin you on the 21st at Friday night rehearsal before DCUK Mansfield... My biggest contribution was hooking you up with my son-in-law Teddy Mascari... he helped your drum line improve by leaps and bounds... it was amazing to watch the improvement every day... Big shout out to that 3rd place color guard... flat out amazing performance... and brass? What can I say... LOUD IS GOOD - but loud with amazing intonation, control and tremendous blend... THAT is special... Finally, John Swindells - 60 years with one drum corps is beyond special and then there's Rob Swindells. It didn't take long to figure out who the "heart" of the corps is... Great Visual Designer, Rock solid Drum Major, a born teacher and leader... Two lessor directors and the world would not know how good the Kidsgrove Scouts really are...

And I never would have marched prior to 1984. See, it can go both ways.

With or without these things, Corps have always improved from June to August. Same as it ever was.

Actually, if we're not going back to Annapolis after next year, DCA needs to look at options now. And I believe I read that they are doing so. This is not, by any means, a slap against Annapolis. I loved the venue and would go back there every year given the choice. However, my understanding is that Navy football is playing at home during Labor Day weekend in 2014 so it may be off the table, at least for Saturday. And to think they'd move the football game to accomodate drum corps? Probably ain't gonna happen. Do the "Powers That Be" in DCA love Annapolis enough to be flexible with their schedule, perhaps by moving prelims to Friday or continuing to hold them on Saturday, albeit at a different, smaller stadium? Since prelims doesn't pack the crowds in, that could be feasible. Annapolis hotels might also book up with football fans but with BWI and Baltimore hotels a half hour or less away, that probably isn't a horrible scenario. The point is, wherever DCA goes, the best venues will probably be college football stadia. And Labor Day is opening weekend for college football, so you're going to have potential Saturday conflicts if you go out more than a year or two. As for my Allentown comment, I wasn't aware of the Allentown Fair conflict. Thanks to those who pointed it out.

I would have loved to see/hear Kidsgrove a second time, or third, fourth....what a sound!!! There is FFF and then there is BYFBO volume. I hope I don't need to clarify BYFBO musical term. Scott Smith

Actually I was alluding to the idea that people view the present through rose-coloured glasses too. Your reply proves the point. You couldn't acknowledge that there are problems. Everything old = bad, everything new = good. Not so.... The truth lies in the middle ground - it's never an extreme.

This is how it worked. It was very simple. When the stadium manager told us to stop the show, we stopped the show. When he gave us the all clear to resume, we resumed. They have rules. We followed the rules. PERIOD. We called the mayor and asked for permission to go beyond 10pm because of our circumstances. He gave us permission, we finished prelims. Done.

Interesting idea as it contains top-down and bottom-up approaches with a meet in the middle philosophy…recommend tic system judges be volunteers with some drum corps experience to offset costs thus ensuring accountability! I’m assuming the tic judges will be on the field and aligned to the traditional horn, drum and drill captions, however, adding 3 field judges may require logistics in determining where to stand with a clipboard. I’ve always wondered that if a person is looking at a sheet of paper and writing, did they miss something in those few seconds at each and every musical phrase? I’m assuming a committee needs to be struck to develop the tic sheets. It’s doable based on the knowledge and resources from drum corps folks. Once developed, my presumption is that the system and sheets will be kitchen tested and tried to be true, possibly at a contest early in the season. This seems to adhere to reason? The sheets can then be critiqued not only at an informal critique amongst participants but also by the tic sheet committee and DCP. Oh my! As an aside, as chair of school council meetings a number of years ago, I’d assign the persons that complained the most the job of running our next fundraiser and then they stopped coming to meetings. How odd? Our meeting motto was ‘Focus on the Positive’ and we needed their help! I’m more content being Secretary or Treasurer. I like logistics

No, it was her choice, not SCV's.

That's too bad, jennifo did a great job these last few years. Wish her the best!

Recent history, but still a great set of shows. Cavaliers and Bluecoats in particular stand out - they managed to present futuristic, electronic-gadget shows while still putting out a traditional drum corps presentation. (And for the record, Phantom's Into the Light featured what I think might be their most creative drill design ever.) Mike

Translation: Drum corps was better when I marched and I spend every night crying in my soup because I can't like the activity for what it is today. Instead, I'll #### and moan and gripe about what drum corps should be like instead of taking my thumb out of my mouth and realizing that the kids on the field today are doing some incredibly hard stuff really freakin well. I know that there are a lot of other factors that contribute to slightly lower attendance than when I marched but I'll ignore them. Because I swear, we had 250,000 people in the stands at finals when I marched. Get over yourself, dude.

I guess I just want to get an explanation behind some of the “silliness” I’ve started to see in drum corps show design. I haven’t been following the activity for long, but from what I can tell, there were corps like the Velvet Knights whose “schtick” it was to be silly, and it was understood and expected. But most were just musical ensembles (like say a symphony orchestra, or a jazz band is) but with the outdoor visual and pageantry element. I think I like drum corps shows much as I do performances of those other groups, but the brass and percussion sound and marching aspect put it over the top for me. I’m just not sure why “silliness” should be the norm in this art form but not the others (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a “silly” symphony orchestra performance). Mostly I’m referring to these elements in overall show design that I find embarrassing, awkward and uncomfortable. Basically, ideas that I just have to sort of tolerate if I still want to enjoy the art form but seem totally incongruous to the idea of performance. One is the overall design of uniforms. I think most corps proper uniforms are fine; Boston Crusaders and Cadets stand out to me as particularly classy and serious. Most guard uniforms however I find to be entirely too outlandish and silly, absurd really. Unprofessional. Brash colors, accessories, crazy designs, exposed skin, etc. I’m not saying it’s bad, it just seems unnecessarily silly to me regardless of show theme. I assume there is a heavy WGI influence in DCI which permeates to some of the other parts I find uncomfortable, and that this type of stuff is expected in that art form. With regard to regular corps uniforms I feel like DCI has had to make similar accommodations as a lot are more “costume” oriented, tight fitting and less professional looking. The ornate, bold uniforms such as those from the Blue Devils and Madison Scouts of the early ’90s, some of my favorites, for whatever reason aren’t the norm today. I’m sort of curious about the history of WGI and why outlandishness seems to be the norm there, and when it started to influencing DCI so heavily. At this point you may be tempted to make the argument that design of such things must be progressive, and that the older styles I mention are outdated. But in a performance idiom such as this I find the notion of era entirely meaningless. If a uniform or musical style or instrumentation was better twenty years ago it was better twenty years ago; if certain other things are better now than they’re better now. It has nothing to do with time. Let’s not mistake change for progress or celebrate being different than the past for the sake of being different. You may also want to disregard my arguments by countering with something about the experiences of the performers. Don’t. I have never participated in any type of these ensembles and am only pointing out these issues as a paying spectator and fan of decades of drum corps performances. Back to the topic at hand, and at the crux of this issue, in today’s performances I find most of these uncomfortably silly moments to come over the loudspeaker. Not that there’s anything inherently silly about recorded material, but since there’s such a penchant for absurdity these days and this technique allows designers free reign for any audio material they want heard, most seems to be communicated this way. Not only can this material occur at disproportionately loud volumes with no effort, but the electronic nature with which is it is produced always isolates it entirely from the sounds that the corps are producing, so the listener is forced to comprehend it individually. Last night’s performances were spectacular, and I had been following the evolution of these shows over the whole summer, but I was left puzzled as to what the purpose of some of these silly electronic moments is. A recording of a contemporary pop song in the middle of Spirit of Atlanta’s show, and recordings of tired spoken word clichés about Las Vegas. The Blue Knights show. A sentence in the Cavaliers show repeated incessantly: “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” Baffling to me why something like this is remotely necessary to include in a performance. Loud electronic dance club music in the Cavaliers show. Why? Portions of movie and television dialogue being played throughout the Cadets show while the members are performing. Histrionically over-produced recordings of young men and women speaking, “alone,” “scared,” “fragile,” “abused” interfering with a beautiful horn solo in the Bluecoats’ ballad. If the point of music is to convey emotions without entirely transparently speaking over a loudspeaker what those emotions are, then what’s the point of playing in the first place? This one in particular stood out to me as being entirely unprofessional and overly sentimental and crude, unrefined in the exact opposite way that an orchestral performance and well designed drum corps performance is refined. It made me very uncomfortable and embarrassed. A man prattling in heavily accented English throughout the entirety of the Blue Devils performance, which admittedly had some fantastic musical moments. Why? Why? All of these moments made me uncomfortable and embarrassed and I struggle to understand their place in this art form. For one, they seem to detract from the “timelessness” that a good performance should have, one that remains equally impactful and relevant 10, 20, 30 years from now. But more importantly, drum corps has enough of an image problem as it is and these designers are doing everything they can to ensure it avoids impacting those interested in other types of musical ensembles. There is nothing inherently unprofessional or uncool about choreographed ensembles of brass and percussion performers, or anything preventing drum corps from having widespread appeal. But all of this stuff is doing just that, and it seems show designs of today are less enjoyable for a number of these reasons. This is different from how things used to be, but is it better? How did things get to be the way they are? And how can the trend start to move away from silliness in the future?

I may be an anomoly in the dino world, but I could care less about Bb vs. G. I would assume there is far less money in the electronics than there is in the hornline. I don't see that as a compelling reason to believe we're stuck with it.

No, you tried unsuccessfully to do that. No problem ignoring what you have said in the past, as it did not 'debunk' anything.

Geez, after the opener Reading could have finished out the show to a rim tap and STILL won!

I wish there was a new rule in DCI... Before every show, while the corps enters the field and is setting up, each corps is REQUIRED to do a warm up facing the audience. This warm up will no longer be a "pre-show" or part of the show theme for that season, but rather, a chance for the corps to warm up and engage the audience while playing their "signature song." This warm up MUST involve playing a tune that is significant to the corps, their history, or their IDENTITY. The corps members will hype. The alumni will cry. And the audiences will go nuts. Just a suggestion.

Ahh, the chaos of the first day of a new semester. Walking the hall to my next class, I get finger tapping my shirt and a female voice saying "Santa Clara is my favorite". I was wearing a Bluecoats t-shirt. Huh? Wha? Wait! Too late, she was already gone into the crowd. I hope this isn't creepy but, I'm gonna have to hunt this girl down.

i agree some guard unis are quite horrible mainly because many guard instructors also think they are broadway dancers as well as fashionestas..Chop and bop as many call it hasnt bothered me at all..I think bitd we called it a medley..lol..I kind of find it interesting how people fit things in musically and transition it from one thing to another...but again just an opinion

I agree with the posters that say that change is inevitable. But in the last few years the number, and speed at which changes have been made make it difficult for some fans to keep up. Most of the people that are going to shows are not the ones that participate in these forums or view dci.org regularly They attend 1 or 2 shows a year. I remember sitting next to a couple at 2004 finals when members of Crown started singing and reciting poetry(BTW that is one of my favorite shows ever). They were a bit shocked to say the least as were a lot of people. My point here is that the casual fan be allowed to catch up and appreciate the current changes. I would suggest a time period of a couple of years or more between changes, thus allowing us slower moving Dinos to adapt rather than become extinct.

I agree with alot of what youre saying Although I wouldnt look for many to agree here..lol..I think themes can be LESS involved...example...jazz of the 40s....leaves it wide open......history of Rock...than can be most anything you want...themes dont have to be dark or deep...or they can be...as far as what mucic is recog nized , well i did recognized alot also and have been around a long time in the activity and all I can say is alot of music BITd was not so recognisable either BUT corps played them over and over and over and over again...which year to year then people did recognize it..also there were corps that did pop or movie themes....Same probaly could happen now BUT corps dont do the same same same year to year. JMO

Jeff you have to take some credit for our big jump. Your critique of our Reading performance was spot on. We were listening! I would have liked to top Cincy but we were 0.4 short. My hat goes off to them, and Hairbear, we'll get you next year.

Someone mentioned Gilbert and Sullivan. Love to see a corps do The Mikado and add a little of The Hot Mikado to jazz it up a little. There is ton of stuff in that operetta to choose from plus the ancient Japanese theme offers a lot to work with visually.

total JUNK

Im not qualified to hand out scores, only placements.

Maybe a corps might want to use an actual can of worms in their show.

There is no next Bill Cook. God broke the mold after making him.

I don't know what the chances are of getting rid of these things, but if my understanding is correct, DCI isn't some separate entity that dictates to the Corps. DCI IS the Corps. Do the Corps want to get rid of these things? I also wonder what justification you have for your contention that "this is the way". Anyway, my personal view: The electronics are okay. I like themes.

5 people HATE that I asked a question??? I wasn't there and so I am asking a question, that's all! Oh maybe I am trying to start trouble? NOT!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5rwz_Ga_gI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfRcHlJp_6Q

well, there's more options for shows in Jersey now than in several years. So why should they haul ### all over the globe if they can get paying gigs in the same state? I'm sure I'll get red marks for this like I did above, but let's be honest people: drum corps is a business, and drum corps that arent smart about what they do financially go out of business. Yeah, it sucks for Empire that there is little left up there, but hey....it's not their fault, or Cabs fault or anyone else's fault Cru, Brigs and Grennies are gone.The onus is on those corps and their administrations. Bucs were almost dead 15/16 years ago, and got smart. They didn't haul ### all over the world, stayed more local, got in better financial shape, grew on the field as well, and look...the results speak for themselves. They did it without bingo advantages thatused to be available in NY, they didn't charge $1400 for their members to join, they didn't pay for vans to haul people to rehearsals. seems to have worked out well

hmmmm, I tend to give credit to a horn line that can play and move at the same time...