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Most corps would be much better off paying down debt and otherwise shoring up their balance sheets than reducing tour fees or splurging on new equipment. It's not the nice option (cut tour fees) or the sexy option (new stuff), but its the smart option.

Their musicians play very well, actually great most of the time, their guard is usually pretty phenomenal, they march great. Their show designs, well they leave a lot to be desired some years for fans, but are usually done well. That's my take. That 12.25 show, IMO was absolutely amazing, and I thought didn't get the credit it deserved. Last year's show, musically/visually what you could see was done very well, there was just that stage and the lip-syncing narrator that got in the way, for me anyway.

Nope. I stand by my comment. In the top tier corps who all have strong talent, the design team wins the championship. Crown won 2013 and I'm sure had a great winter in 2014 but fell to 5th because of design. Cadets won in 2011 and came out in 2012 playing jingle bells and fell to 4th. Coats moved from 5th in 2013 to 2nd in 2014 because of design, not a better brass line or percussion.

^^^^^ You are confusing your opinion of their "show" with their performance level. I didn't love their show last season but they march, spin, drum and blow extremely well. I saw them a few times last year and was mesmerized by their proficiency. Didn't love the show but they are championship caliber almost every year.

Hmmm...that is a rather personal question to be asking. What? Oh...never mind!

And some were wondering who the old guys were in that huge band. :-)

Well, another year of junior drum corps is done. I was there with a friend who played in the Watkins Glen Squires to witness it from the 50 of the oil can as drum corps fans have dubbed the reverberation chamber known as Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Certainly not the type of venue or programs which we grew up with, but which I found almost uniformly enjoyable and often awesome. We had the pleasant opportunity to connect with Steve Rondinaro for lunch and were treated to some inside stories of DCI today. I also had the pleasure of meeting Dennis DeLucia for the first time and sharing memories of the Muchachos and Bridgemen. I have not posted on DCP in sometime, but I enjoyed the show so much that I felt compelled to share my viewpoints. I welcome your responses both pro and con. By way of introduction, this is my 50th season either participating or following the activity. Forty years ago I had the wonderful experience of playing in DCI finals with New York State's only finalist, the Auburn Purple Lancers. But enough about me, on to the show... 12th place- 86.225 Crossmen- they played gypsy inspired music complete with very authentic costuming of the guard. I found their performance stirring and full of mystery. They are very strong musically with great solo work. This is the strongest which I have heard the corps since their move to Texas...seriously good! 11th place- 87.575 Madison- their book was one of my favorites, a jazz oriented show complete with the intricate rhythms of the late, great Don Ellis. It was old time screaming Scouts (at least in the second half of their show) with a trio of amplified trumpeters worthy of any big band lead trumpet section soaring above the roar of the synth bass. I understand that they offered scholarships to attract the kind of players they needed for the pyrotechnics...it worked! You have to hear the finale of their show to believe it, a solitary trumpeter playing tasty licks leaping to a sweet double G as the crowd roared its approval. No pressure there! 😳 well done young man! This was the eleventh place corps. Hard to believe! 10th place- 88.950 Boston Crusaders- this was a bitter pill for me to swallow. I saw them several times throughout the season yet the show remained an enigma to me. It was based on the political satire, "Animal Farm". Very dark with the guard's faces hidden behind animal masks and a lot of emulation of animal behavior while the horn line was locked in a minor key the entire show. The fact that they beat two very good corps is testament to the strength of their performance with a book which was very difficult to sell. The one highlight for me was when the corps created a G7 formation near the climax of their show. This was a clever wink at drum corps own brand of politics referring to the so called group of 7. This is the George Hopkins led break away group comprised of the top seven corps in DCI which have begun to sponsor their own shows and are agitating the status quo of DCI. I am sure that Boston had hoped to break into this group, but not with this years show! 9th Place- 89.600 Blue Stars- this show grew on me over the 3 days of championships. Initially I felt the whole homey theme complete with a house blueprint laid out on the field was overdone and not particularly interesting. However, the great sound of the hornline and the joy which they communicated eventually softened me up. 8th Place- 91.150 Blue Knights- the surprise corps of the season moving past Boston and Madison. For a show based on narration, I was surprised how well I liked it. The narration was minimalist and served to set up the flow of the music well. It was a pre-recorded female voice which was both pleasant and compelling. Entitled That One Second, it was a tone poem about your whole life flashing in front of your eyes. The narration would make a thought provoking statement about life then back away and let the corps paint the picture with the music. They are a great sounding corps and communicated the changing moods well. 7th Place- 91.425 Phantom Regiment- Show was entitled Swan Lake and was based on the old Good vs. Evil fairy tale with a prince trying to save a cursed swan queen. Phantom is usually one of my favorites, but not the past couple years. I did not find that the beautiful musical performance communicated the high drama that I am accustomed to from this corps. 6th Place- 93.675 The Cavaliers- Wow! Now this is the kind of high drama that I expected from Phantom. Entitled Immortal this show was a superb performance of dark vampirish selections. In fact the guard was costumed as ghouls and one of the members disappears into a coffin at the finale! This easily could have been a very cheesy show, but the strength of the musical performance and the clever visuals prevented that. The wild dance with a skeleton by a guard member in La Danse Macabre had to be seen to be fully appreciated. A big step up this year by Cavies. The fact that they could not break the top five is telling of how strong the corps were this year! 5th Place- 95.675 Carolina Crown- Entitled Out of This World, a superior brass performance was unable to overcome a show which was out there. Nobody articulates the way that Crown does! At one point all the baritones and tubas picked up trumpets to create a massively articulating soprano voice which was breathtaking and unbelievable in its precision. The ballad is an achingly long crescendo which was very satisfying and demanding in a different way. I believe they would have won in many years, but this year there were four more corps to best them. 4th Place- 96.075 Santa Clara Vanguard- Entitled Scheherazade this show was a visual feast with beautiful costuming, an elaborate temple-like backdrop, an amazing flowing pattern drill, and a wonderfully performed lush Rimsky-Korsakov melody. At the finale, it virtually vanishes as the whole corps disappears beneath a giant colorfully patterned tarp and Scheherazade emerges through an opening in it center. Super job, Vanguard! 3rd Place- 96.875 The Cadets- Entitled Promise-An American Portrait this show left me a little flat despite a very crisp performance led by the #2 visual program of the night. It was heavily based on narration and replete with many historic quotes from our past presidents. At the risk of sounding like a pinko commie cynic, I found the show theme trite and lacking in originality. I agree with The assessment of many that they are in need of some new ideas. ###### if you do and ###### if you dont for this corps which until recently was scorned for its iconoclastic themes. 2nd Place- 97.175 Bluecoats- I was delighted to see them upset The Cadets. Their show was entitled Tilt and I thought that along with Blue Devils was the most imaginative and original of this season. Personally, this was my favorite show of the year. They stage this on a field whose boundaries they re-mark in a tilted fashion. The music is very contemporary and unfamiliar yet very interesting with a great sense of directionality. The ballad of Hymn of Axciom is one of my favorite tunes now. The sheer competence of the musical performance is second to no one. The final strains of the show with pitch bending and a member launching himself into the air from one of their tilting ramps was thrilling. (see the pictures I posted in our photo files.) 1st Place- 99.650 Blue Devils- Not to be denied this year, the corps returned to their accustomed position at the top of DCI after one year as the runner up. What was refreshing this year is that I actually found their music enjoyable. Entitled Fellini, it was based on the work of the iconic Italian film director. They completed an undefeated season in record setting fashion with the highest score in DCI history. They were great although I think it is arguable that they were almost 2.5 points above Bluecoats. The corps is at the top of its game in all captions and particularly strong in programming with a lot of acting done to communicate the mood of the music. The guard was outstanding as usual in taking the caption award. I loved the opening 40 trumpet double tongued fanfarewhat a sound!! So there you have it. The kids are better than ever and as different as it is from my day, the kids do a hell of a job performing their hearts out! Geoff

On November 8, 2014, Blue Rock alumnus Chuck Quackenbush was seriously injured in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. He nearly had to have his left arm amputated from the elbow down, but so far the surgeries he's had have helped avoid that. He's in for a long road to recovery and will require more surgeries. An account has been set up to collect donations to help cover costs that won't be covered by health insurance. If anyone is interesting in making a donation, you can find more information here: Friends of Chuck Quackenbush Thank you! Chris Haas drumcorpsvideos.com

I'm no judge, but I imagine it has something to do with how they march, spin and play better than nearly everyone in the activity.

Nice video of Madison posted on YouTube yesterday. http://youtu.be/K6Dm2vDWODg

That was one, funny link troon. Fracking laughed my frack off.

I agree George. I thought Side X Side was remarkable musically and visually.

The Cavaliers show has gotten more plays on my car's CD player than any other corps. It caused me to back and re-watch the Blu-Ray. Let's hope the 2015 show is as we'll designed as Immortal.

Oh, I have no doubt that's what you believe, but to assume anyone else believes that was why I pointed out how wrong you are. You're welcomed to believe whatever you want. It simply doesn't make you anywhere near right. Great design means nothing if the other factors aren't every bit as great.

Sky last did Macy's in 1964 ... Swan was one of the main sops in the number ... others in the trio/quartet that year were Joe DeFiglia, Johnny Guarino, Tommy Martin and Timmy Renne (sp) ... any given day could have featured any of the lead sops hopping from solo to solo ... quite a lead line back then ... I recall Hawthorne doing the parade several times and seem to remember the Matadors appearing in 77 or 78 ... The 92 and 94 "All Star" corps that was put together by Tony DiCarlo was amazing ... hearing Dreitzer's L'il Ole NY played by 180 brass was incredible ... I went down for the Tuesday night run-through in front of the reviewing stand and the crowd had never heard a wall of sound like that ... they almost sounded as loud as the 72 corps ... :-)

No comment.

I'm fairly certain we played "The Joker", form Anthony Newley's show, "The Roar of the Greasepaint". This was apropos, as the production had been running on Broadway. I was hoping Madison would do "Slaughter", a NYC classic.

And sanity yet is once again restored in the world....as it should be!! (P.S. -- Yikes...would somebody please keep this post hidden from N.E. There is enough fodder in one sentence upon which to base an entire grammatical thesis. )

I could be wrong, but I believe that " Giving Tuesday " will be BAC's musical opener.... " Comedy Nite " is next as a parody to DCI, with " Auction Stuff ", being BAC's 2015 expected closer, Ghost.

Excellent possibility. I expect another slugfest between Troopers, Crossmen, Colts, and perhaps Oregon Crusaders next year.

There were some wondering who were those old guys with all the face makeup on that KISS float too.

When the average age of your group is 19.5-20.5, that's the case every year, not just this year.

Will make a donation tomorrow.(just started to turn in). Chuck is a good friend and a great guy. One of the cornerstones of Archie (and other great corps). And a terrific gentleman. I'm so sad to read about his accident. Could you DM me contact info - he would give it to me, I promise. We go back... Thanks...

Thank you and your Brothers for doing it

and Madison did.

There are hundreds (or more) talented brass players and only a handful of top tier brass lines. . If Crown (ie) fill up their trumpet line, there will be some very talented kids that there is not a spot for. Maybe someone drops out of BD for a multitude of reasons, one of those cut trumpets from Crown may fit in there very well and vise versa. I would honestly say the talent for The top 3-5 corps is pretty comparable with BD ahead of that bunch a bit due to their current dominance. I think we all agree it's the "design team" that wins championships.

so a couple points from someone who actually participated in this event, and took it personally. thanks for all your feedback, good, and... well... seriously? sometimes, if you don't have anything nice to say, just... (comments censored) Hope you enjoyed your holiday. We sure as hell did. Anyway, we did it because well, why not. We have a corps that just celebrated 75 years, alumni who are very active in supporting the current corps, and three directors who wanted to "get the band back together" so to speak. I had the ability to hang out with guys who just marched, and guys who marched 30 years behind me and chat like we're all old friends. That's some magic if I've ever seen it. We couldn't do more drill than we could learn and clean in 12 hours (4 tues night, 8 wed, and practice time at the rehearsal site on our own), we had to make it accessible for everyone from the 15 year old current member to the 50, 60, and 70+ year old members, and to be honest, we have a boatload of participants, so it didn't leave room for much more than a park and bark. 2 step intervals just don't let you move around with a big old horn that easily. So yea, it was about getting everyone together under one roof, and trying to peel the paint off the wall. No, we didn't care about numbers of people for tv. We wanted representation. All of this was ok with all of the participants, directors, and yes, even Macy's and CBS and NBC who have to OK what goes on the TV. And no, no one cares about tv frame size or viewing angle. Not one single group. You as a ensemble cannot have any idea what the artistic director and production coordinator's are thinking and what they feel needs to be broadcast. I too, work in entertainment production, so don't talk to the masses here like they are stupid. They're not. It was out of our control, so we didn't worry about it. All decisions for your performance are approved by Macy's and the TV Stations. They have to approve everything you plan to play and do. If they don't like it, you have to change it. We had to cut music (we had all learned already) out of the performance last minute to make it all work in their time frame due to their proposed layout of performances during the broadcast. So seriously, as much as I enjoy the banter every once in awhile, shuddup. We jumped at the chance to go out and blow the windows out of the Foot Locker, and we did. We forced the recording engineer to ENTIRELY revamp his approach. haahahahahahah. Which was awesome. We went out and had some fun in the cold. For those of us who don't march anymore, it was a chance to not just put on a uni and pick up a horn, drum, or piece of gear, it was an opportunity to put on THAT uniform. You can say there are corps that change you when you put on a uni, but there's something different about being in the Scouts, or Cavies, Cadets, or BD or even Troopers. There's a history, and a tradition. I think that's why I have such a hard time thinking about forcing more injury onto my body by marching for someone else. It'll just never be the same. It's beyond inspiring to see gents from the 60s and 70s in the streets working on 5s till they were perfect. Gents who hadn't picked a horn up in 30 years to magically find a way to pull not just a buzz from their lips, but to pull together something presentable. And the guys who hadn't carried a drum in years to put on the harness (and a back brace) and hack until the wee hours of the morning so they felt it was clean enough to finally sleep at 3 am. I got a call from a friend tues night saying he's proud to be my friend, he'd watch for us, and there's not many corps that could pull off "pulling everyone together again". Even his own corps he aged out from he admitted they just don't have the support or pride from past generations to fathom making something of that scale happen. that says a lot. and it says a lot about the three guys who worked their butts off to organize this. housing, travel, busses, uniforms, horns, drums, flags, rifles etc etc etc. practice space and the family members who came out to help as support staff sewing unis last minute to make them perfect, dealing with food, checking people in and issueing horns and gear. So I hope you all had a happy holiday, if you enjoyed seeing us rattle the streets of NYC, you're welcome. This made the best start to a holiday season Ive ever had, and it bittersweet with this being the first holidays without my father, it became something my fam could really get into, Because Dad loved the holidays, and he loved the Scouts. I wish he'd have been here to see it. cheers.

Couldn't agree more. Its about the community.

Come on people...get real. Saying one top corps is easier than another to get in is ridiculous. Bottom line is that the top corps draw the most talented people in the world...period. How many NFL teams are there? How many top drum corps are there? It's no different. They are all at the very pinacle of their activity. It's very different now than it was back when I marched where every town of 10,000 people had a really good drum corps. It is a VERY select activity now. Every year is different. Depends on how many age outs a given corps had the year before, etc. Every corps has last minute spots that open up due to many reasons. My advice is to pick the corps that you really like and want to be a part of, then go do whatever it takes to get in. Don't listen to what anybody else THINKS it takes, including me. You will never make it if you don't try out. Make the commitment, put in the effort, do what it takes and then go and play your hand. You never know what they need or want until you get there. We are gong through this right now with my oldest son who is out at Blue Devil tryouts right now. He is having a great time, learning a lot, and...well...we'll see. One thing I would say that appears to be the case in all the top corps, at least the ones that I have contacts with, is teachability. How well do you respond to criticism and how quickly are you able to put that criticism into practice. Just go do it. You will never truly know until you try. As always...just my $.02. Dan

I was sitting on the bus with my K-90 during a ride to a show while marching Empire in 2000, and Jerry Kelsey, sitting a couple rows back, says, "How can you manage to carry that thing everywhere?" I said, "Every time I make a noise on it, I feel justified." The big Kanstul is a kick, the DEG supermags are pretty good, the smaller DEGs are an exercise in restraint, our custom Kanstul 2p/1r contras sound better in ensemble than by themselves, and the Duratones were actually pretty good, considering their size. But, man, that K-90... It's like it's the voice of God.

I marched both my years at Star on the same K-90. We all loved our horns, still. Many are still sick that the horn line was seperated and sold. In 92, I got lucky because a vet who liked me shared the horn until he decided not to march. No one asked to take the horn back. I got one of the best horns in the line. We got some real dogs from SCV to make the total 16, but the low C still sounded great on all horns in the line. The horns were relatively consistant. The 16 in 1992 was beefy, but I liked the line of 14 from 1993 a little more. The K-90 is balanced well enough to be played without hands. The high range, never used, sounded clear as a bell. One could really make the horn sound like a mello in the upper range. Listen to the end of the Chester Chorale from 92 to hear a good low C. With the flip of the right hand, the horn is at eye level and the left hand easily fits in the valve case. The best part of the K-90 was the way it land in your hands at carry. No parking that big bell on your belly in circle drill, so the ballance of the hands from left to right makes a huge difference. The K-90 kept the hands more together than anything I have played since. I teach a school that has 4 Bb Kanstuls and Marion has G Kanstuls. I like to play the horns because of the sound and the third valve, but the K-90 is the marching horn of choice. I would love to talk to King about the new construction versus the K-90. If you look at the new horns closly and remember the K-90, there is no comparrison. Russell