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To this day, the longest, most sustained, audience applause that I've ever heard at any DCI Finals, was the long and sustained audience applause the 27th Lancers Reunion Corps got from the DCI Finals audience in 1994.... and they were not even competing.

I will always have a tremendous ammount of respect for the members of the 2007 tour. If memory serves me right the corps was giving serious thought to not fielding a corps that year and the staff was assmbled in the late spring. There were definite struggles with the original visual designers thoughts on the drill at Memorial Day camp, and eventually changes were made early/mid/late season. The staff chemistry was good, but since everyone was a new face, it was definitely not to the level of staff chemistry/cohesion that a corps has with steady staff retention. Be that as it may, the season was a very positive experience in my mind for the members. I believe the 2007 administration treated the members more as adults and less as kids. That is not a slam on the previous administration, that is just my interpretation of what the members told me throughout the season. If I recall, there was a good ammount of member retention for the 2008 year. I'm not really sure how the members dealt with all the changes, but I know that we never had the ammount of changes thrown at us during my marching years. Because of this, I will hold the members of 2007 on a pedastal for carrying the corps through a very uncertain time. In my mind, they are arguably one of the most important corps in Madison's history.

Absolutely meant in fun, "on any given night...", etc.

www.joinsouthwind.org Sorry for duplicate post

174 replies? really?

IMO, and this is only my opinion, they would have won in '88 had it not been Madison's anniversary. My second-hand information is that Gail Royer knew it was a great show and intentionally repeated it in a year when there were no extraneous circumstances affecting the outcome. I've always believed what Gail believed.

Robert W. Smith was integral to pulling the corps through some potentially dark times, as was Jim Mason. And now it's time to move forward again. As the person Scott asked to break the news about the departure of himself and others some years back, I'm delighted to see him back with Scouts...and Scouts back with him. A strong Madison Scouts is good for ALL of drum corps.

We see less coverage of the body from 15-year-old figure skaters.

Long overdue. Boerma's 1990s Scouts charts are some of the most listenable, replay-able music ever to hit DCI.

I know it's only been two weeks, but I can't imagine this show ever entering the "rarified air" of shows like Cadets 83, Star 93, BD 94, etc. More than anything, I think it was probably the finest example of a program matching the sheets in DCI history, combined with a great performance.

I heard stories about the financial troubles in 06 & 06 under this regime...& lets just say that there was some extravagance that was disturbing & disgusting. I will leave it at that.

I can't wait to see what James Sparling can do now that he's been given the keys. I hope we have grabbed one of the up-and-comers at just the right time. Personally, I think we have.

My highschool played a slightly shorter version of SCV's 89 show (we didn't play "wishing you were somehow here again" and "track down this murder." Instead we added in our own drumbreak). So after marching that show for a whole season, the differences between 1988 and 1989 are quite big to me. I prefer 1989 for sure.

Let's not discredit BD here. They had to create a spread to get anywhere near the 99's. They could've easily won the championship with a 97.3.

the score is relative so BD should be thanking the 4 previous corps for creating the opportunity for their high score

I use to teach scatter drill with firecrackers Actually, I teach everything with firecrackers

I know I am in the minority here...I don't want them to do a tribute show.

The problem is, you end up rewarding only a certain type of show, which will lead to everyone doing that type of show, which will lead to complete and utter sameness and boredom. I mean, let's use the Govies example. They have a certain style that works for them. The crowds like it. Sometimes it wins. But do we want every Class A corps to copy that style? Hell no. If they did, we wouldn't have had last year's incredibly sophisticated White Sabers show. Right now DCA has an incredibly diverse number of corps and styles, and that's fantastic. The day we have ten Caballeros copycats or ten Buccaneers copycats in finals is the day I stop bothering to follow the circuit. Yes, you can have many different kinds of "in your face" entertaining corps, but what about the corps that designs, performs, and executes more subtle material? If they engage the audience just as well, shouldn't they be rewarded? And we haven't even factored geography into the mix... If you want to give an award to the corps that peaks the most decibels on an applause meter, I'm all for it. But that shouldn't decide who wins or loses. That said, I do think DCA and the judging community could do a better job explaining the criteria and philosophy of the entire system, not just whatever "communication" is.

Sensuality, not sexuality. Big difference. BD's guard exuded tongue in cheek sensuality. I found nothing lurid about it.

That's simply not how it works in the larger most successful non-profit world. While their boards strive to make the charity successful (in cases where the charity charges for the services), at any symphony, theatre, or youth non-profit, "give, get, or get off" is part of the mantra. This is driven home by the corporate and foundation granting world, who will ask you point blank how much money you raise from your Board members' personal and business connections, since Foundation X is less likely to support an organization whose own Board isn't driven to support them. I'm in a big city with some heavy hitter organizations, and at most of them, if a Board member fails to provide $40-50k a year in personal and/or company support, they're invited off the Board. A good drum corps board is going to be made up of people with good business and marketing sense, but unless the Board has created a mechanism for totally self-funding the organization through profit-making activities, they should be expected to be personal participants in the funding of said org.

Neither. If you or your family is offended by the cartoon sexy and cartoon violent nature of either of those two shows, you should probably give some real consideration to moving to central Pennsylvania or Ohio and becoming Amish, or going an living in a cave somewhere. It's not my, the corps, or society's responsibility to shelter you or your family from whatever little thing you find "offensive". Now obviously, I don't mean "you" as in N.E. Brigand, but "you" in the general sense. But the point stands. We're not talking Game of Thrones here, and even if we were my answer to you would be "don't freaking watch".

In 2000 and 2001 they started feeling the heat from not having a decent colorguard, visual program, or going after the "total package" GE design that Cavaliers led the way with. Scott Stewart's philosophy on the colorguard and overall design unfortunately was holding them back while other corps moved on. Their brass was still ridiculous, but visual and GE were still pretty dirty. Essentially performing an early 90s show in a new decade. They started dropping to the lower part of finals. 10th & 11th place compared to the 6th place 99 show. In 2002 they dropped out of finals. Getting beat by both Seattle Cascades and Magic of Orlando. Same reasons as before; weak visual and GE. Their drill was exceptionally difficult for a 14th place corps. The rewards for difficulty vs. cleanliness especially hurt them in this season. In 2003 they hired Sal Salas and Mike Cesario to kind of get a grip on the new design road. It worked briefly. New uniforms and all. Scouts placed 8th in 2003 while still playing G Bugles. The show wasn't much of a total package, but visually it was a huge improvement over 2000-2002. Couple this with a stronger cleaner drumline, and things were looking up. It wasn't the same "IN YOUR FACE" Madison as the past, but at least it got back into finals. In 2004 they switched to Bb and began toning down their show. No more in your face stuff. Everything was much more... "symphonic" I guess. Even playing Malaga, a lot of fans felt there wasn't much to cheer for aside from the ending. Madison was placing in finals, but fans still seemed to miss the old Madison. On a bright note, their drumline was really starting to show signs of amazing quality. Pete Weber, a new upcoming drill writer, started showing signs of life for the visual program. 8th place overall. (Edit: Technically there were just new gauntlets this year) 2005 was the best year (competitively) for Madison from the decade. The show was a modern adaptation of Carmen and featured a female solo dancer. Pete Weber's drill was on point, the colorguard was the best it's ever been, and IIRC the drumline placed 4th overall. Screaming solos and all. IMO this was still a fairly tame Madison show and still had a lot of design problems, but again, competitively it placed well. 6th place overall. (New Uniform Jackets/Hats/Gauntlets) 2006 was when the problems of Salas' management began to make themselves known. If I remember correctly there was a lot of staff issues this season causing behind the scenes drama, but someone else might want to chime in on this. I think their lead screaming sop went down mid/early season. And to make matters worse, this was a very very symphonic Madison show with incredibly little old feeling to it. Pete Weber was swapped with Myron Rosander, and the Scouts had an unbelievable beast of a visual program that was of course impossible to clean. Drumline was still incredibly talented with Lee Beddis at the helm, but unfortunately there was no room to make up for the design mishaps. Despite having finals at home in Madison, the Scouts placed 9th overall and were unable to improve on last season's success. They also had new uniforms in a modern adaptation of their 1983-84 uniforms that didn't go over well. A new uniform for every season since Salas came in means a lot of expenses... 2007 was a scary year. There was a huge staff departure, and for good reason; Madison was in huge financial trouble due to the managing of the Salas years. But they were still afloat for now. The goal was no longer "make Finals", and unfortunately more along the lines of "make Finals and... OH we need to stay alive". The 4 tunes chosen for the show had very little "Madison" feel to it, and the corps itself seemed depleted from the shortcomings of staff departure. It was clearly trying to match the new direction of DCI design, but unfortunately didn't have the ammo or design chops to compete. People often claim this was the identity crisis at its worst. An old corps trying to be new. The opening of the show was actually pretty amazing, but aside from that this corps seemed like it just needed to keep its head above water. After an incredibly terrifying series of early season placements, the 2007 corps placed 15th overall. (New Uniforms... AGAIN) 2008 was a decent rebound year. The corps was a bit more stable and started showing signs of life. Madison Alums Dr. Nick Williams and Dann Petersen sort of led the helm while a few BD alums kept the drumline above water. This show was fast and nonstop, but the execution stayed high enough to keep it in the hunt for Finals. In the end things worked out and Madison snuck back into Finals with a 12th place finish. (NEW UNIFORMS AGAIN). Fun fact: Madison is the only corps in DCI history to place everywhere during Finals. At some point in their history, they have placed anywhere from 1st to 12th. 2009 was another scary year. Some very poor design choices. The designed a Latin superhero show... without a villain, making things incredibly hokey. The drumline, especially the bassline, was incredibly talented. IIRC the bassline won I&E that year and had an insane lick during the drum feature. Unfortunately the product held them down the entire season, and the Scouts fell to 15th place once again. (NEW UNIFORMS... kinda. I think it was just a new gigantic red sash that didn't work well) In 2010 Jim Mason was brought on, and from there staff members just kinda came out of the woodwork to provide a huge amount of stability the Scouts were not at all used to. Jim Prime (Garfield, Star, and Blast! arranger), Jon Vanderkolff (Star 93 and Blast!), Thom Hannum, Nick Angelis... things were looking up. In 2010 the Scouts stormed back with an untitled old school show and placed 10th at Finals. From 2011 to present the Scouts have been putting on great shows, but unfortunately cannot crack the top 8. Mason brought stability, but a lot of the design choices just weren't efficient enough to put Madison over the edge. It seemed like every year they'd get jumped by Boston or Blue Knights at some point and never catch up. 2011 - 10th Place, 2012 - 9th place, 2013 - 9th place, 2014 - 11th place. So right now Madison has a bit of stability, but are still looking to push past the top 9 into better competitive territory.

Drum corps fans, let's just celebrate and enjoy another nice hire by Madison this week. Thank you all!

FYI - I checked with DCA and heard back from them that the Class A corps will go on first starting at 10AM. Order of Class A and Open to be revealed, of course, after this weekend.

The "no more ties!" In 2000 at College Park was pretty comprehensive too.

This is where he's supposed to be! This is where Scott M. Boerma is supposed to be!

Drum Corps Fan's Dream: Part Tres

To me this show was the perfect integration of Production Value, traditional drum corps, excellent all around execution, demand when needed and effective. This show was so accessible, entertaining, and well executed, that they still would have won if Crown took brass and Cadets took guard. The fact that the design staff hit a home run with the production and all the captions were as strong as they were is like catching lightning in a bottle but it certainly added up to an amazing finals weeks run. Sure it does not have the balls out demand of a mid-90s show or the in your face music of the 80s, but when you break it down it had these elements in segments that matter on the sheets now. Use of electronics was well integrated and not forced. I felt it BD and Coats did it equally well but with completely different approaches. I may prefer the balls out and more esoteric shows from the 90s but I cannot deny that this is a different era and how Felliniesque has set a new standard for show design (e.g Star '93) and performance level (e.g BD '94) in all captions. My favorite years were 1990-1995 from an overall perspective but shows are different now and are being judged/rewarded differently as well now. Good, bad, or indifferent is an entirely different discussion but what we saw this year from BD will stand the test of time.

i always look at him and try to calculate how many beverages a lawn chair joke will cost me

The title of this thread makes it sound like you're asking which corps has the most druggies. (Seriously.)

Crossmen hornline TILTing when second place was announced. Nice, classy gesture, guys. Congrats on your season.

Correct. Feel better?

Be sure to check your mail for your invitation to the Bushwacker Banquet.

Well said Mike!

here's what happens: sometime on Sunday DCa releases the order after the math gets done. shortly afterward someone sees it and posts it on here. from there speculation, #####ing and complaining and accusations of collusion. impropriety or other bias commence, pretty much happening over more than one thread between now, and probably into next week or the week after depending on results.

Captain Castile. John Williams. Moody Blues nights in white stain. Moody Blues. Danny Boy. celtic woman. Conguest ED Denon 1970 VFW national.

I had zero problems with them

KC was played a large part in the incredible guards Phantom had from 2011-2013

The Communication caption is usually the "applause o meter" with the exception of the Scranton show.

Yes.

1996 "And in second place, which is actually a tie for first place........ " bedlam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQgkJu-LHdw

The percussion is heading in the right direction. Ellis had a great book for the kids this past summer, and if he is still on board, look for them to continue to improve.

CABS, ALL THE WAY!! Always my favorite!!

I admit to being pretty bummed about Chuck no longer writing for Crossmen. I loved his book this year. That said, they need to look no further than the fantastic arranger that lives right in town and teaches at UTSA, Ron Ellis. He'd write a fantastic book for them.

Yes! We thought of this! And we found a BD drummer from the 2011 line who was willing to consider the transplant, and I didn't think her price was way out of line. But, upon reflection, the _Kid decided against it because he realized he'd have to paint his nails on that hand for the rest of his life. "There's some things I'll do for drum corps", he said, "and that's not one of them. Clarinets I can handle, but I draw the line at wearing nail polish." She expressed less hesitation. "A 15 year old boy's hand as my left hand? That might be useful in any number of ways now."

Madison to do their 95' show again. Let the kids that haven't experienced a real exciting Drum Corps show see what one is. Multiple standing ovations, had the crowds in a frenzy. Never seen anything like it. Drum Corps BADLY needs a injection of intensity and excitement again, get the people off their butts! I don't go to DC shows to see whatever BS that was that Devils put on the field this year. (Sorry, seriously NOT a fan of it...at all....).

Been a fan since the early seventies and I can identify with just about everything on that list. If I may add one thing; hearing drums in my head as I lay in bed, in a motel near a highway with tar strips.

Don't let your circle of friends watch the Blue Devils' closer in 1992 ("When a Man Loves a Woman"). Their heads will explode.

Maybe if an NFL cheerleading squad did half the crap BD's guard can do, I might actually pay more attention to them.