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It's a balance of achievement weighted against the content. You all are counting ticks thinking that the content for all the groups is the same and it isn't. The bloo members were marching up walls while doing body and keeping formations. That's a whole energy and technique that no one has explored, ever. Their movement vocab was much denser than other groups. It isn't a bunch of keep the right hand on the horns and use the other three limbs. They actually put their instruments down and dance. They started their show with the drum line dancing with no drums on. No one else took their drums off and asked their drummers to dance. Exposure, look at the uniform. The opening dance block? No one was as exposed as that. They actually had to be performers who used their faces. Every other drum corps hid their faces under a big hat. That's a whole responsibility that no one else had. Bloo was hauling around the field. They jazz ran a lot. Their drill isn't all on, 2 off and splitting like most other groups have been moving towards. Thanks Pyware... I mean Obama! I really mean pyware. Their content was denser and when you weight that against their achievement they did a great job. They had blemishes but they were good enough visually to get them in a winning position and they did. Looking forward to 2017.

Yeah it was difficult to hear the battery and hornline over the roar of the crowd.

Sloppy as hell, visually. Inventive and fun as hell in every other way. Should have won, did win.

I still love the show, it grooves so well. Lots of dirt is showing upon later viewing. After watching BD a few more times Im not sure Bloo should have won. I know it was ge that really carried them so I dont know. Any thoughts?

All the shows mentioned, GE took the gold. When the audience is noticeably louder/more energetic for a certain corps, that is going to influence a judge's final GE score every time. Also I was thinking about the dirt in Bloo's show this year, and I keep going back to this being a great example of smart show design. This time I'm going to call out the uniform design as being a winner. Feet and bodies were messy, much messier than we'd expect from a champ. Fortunately, when you put the corps in all white jump suits, you mitigate these things. Having the same color as top and bottom, arms and chest, drastically reduces whether or not you can see consistency from member to member. Same note, it's much much harder to discern clean feet in a sea of white legs all topped by white upper bodies. And I'm firmly of the mindset that all of this, both the GE/audience reaction and the visual dirt/uniform designs is fairly, squarely within the rules. Rely on your strengths, fix what you can fix, hide what you can't.

When I said hype, I was referring to my excitement to have drum corps back after such a long offseason. Not to expect a big competitive return for corps x. Or to expect certain placement from corps y. I'm really just excited to hear and see new stuff. Though on that note I can't lie, I'm curious to see how Boston does...

My top five (5-6 months after finals) rankings: 1) SCV -- Easily the most rewatchable show. Those Mellos man... and the tag ending, sweet! 2) Crown -- Best brass + Roxanne + great guard work. The non DCI followers in my household thought they were the winners. 3) BD -- Loved the ballad, and the use of the trombones. They found a nice way to present the Tempest theme in a typical BD way. 4) Coats -- Great energy, loved Todo Tiende...But a little saccharine over repeated viewing. 5) Cavvies -- Getting back into contention, liked this one more and more as the season progressed.

The closer drill, particularly the insanely fast spinning parallel pinwheels in the rotating circle right before the repeating charges up the slides where incredibly insane and consequently visually dirty. However, the feel of the velocity seeing it live is lost in translation in the Blu Rays. It just can't be appreciated unless experienced live.

... someone missed the point...

I thought the show was a really neat idea and was executed probably as well as it could have been. Personally I thought the biggest hot mess on the field was Cadets. By far, IMHO the worst designed show at finals. People ragged on Regiment's design but compared to Cadets...really?

What? No. The feet are a little dirty, yes, but definitely Box 5. Not being able to pick out a cohesive marching style is a byproduct of the hide-what-you-can't-fix I mentioned earlier, which stems back from the uniforms and additional body movements.

Don't throw them out...Just like TennTux said you can digitize them...Looks like he has friends interested in doing just that...I digitized my 1990 performance when I marched corps...back then you could buy single corps performances at championships...or at least that's how I remember it...so for me it was a little easier...

I did not attend finals in 2008, so I can't speak for Phantom in 2008, but I did see Crown in 2013 and Bluecoats in 2016, and I do feel both deserved the titles they won, especially Crown in 2013. 2016 was probably the most intense year for drum corps that I can remember. After prelims I was on overload and those who were there to for every corps from beginning to end probably felt the same way. The excitement focused on the potential a new corps joining the top twelve which happened, the the possibility of Bluecoats winning finals, combined with amazing Open Class shows and a variety from the WC corps that was amazing. Bluecoats provided the excitement no question at prelims and semi's, but finals was not as electrifying, and it did seem vulnerable, especially when captions were announced. I thought we'd see Crown take it home in the end, but it went to Bluecoats. Did they deserve the title? In the end I would still say yes, but having watched the BluRay, I would say their show does not fare well on video, so I can see the OP's point. However, I'm not sure I would have given the title to Blue Devils either. The corps really on fire that night was Crown.

Maybe they'll do music by David Gillingham. He did a beautiful band setting of "Be Thou My Vision" that could also be sung by a choral group. Mix it in with "Stained Glass" and you have the music I arranged back in 2007 for the marching band I work with.

My thoughts are pretty much the same they were in the season. I think Blue Devils and Carolina Crown were better corps but their shows still have small things throughout that just don't add up to the absolute seamlessness and production value of what Bluecoats achieved with their show. Seeing them live I still think the right show won. I can totally see an argument for another corps or the over half point gap being way tighter. Still think SCV should have been way closer to the top of the pack than they were.

Not gonna' lie... that vocal ensemble sounds pretty good. I'll be interested to see how they mix/mic/blend this on the field. The acoustics of raw vocals in a choral room differ quite a bit from mic'd ones outdoors. But... I'm encouraged. Not enough to get super hyped and annoy Ghost, but encouraged nonetheless. Also... that piece was definitely religious. Curious if this is something that will be considered for the show, or if its simply a piece for these kids to sing/audition with.

What if drum corps had a replay rule like college and pro football, where a performance could be evaluated in the booth on the spot? "Upon further review, the judges' scores stand. Bluecoats win!!!" LOL

Its alright i understand BD isnt for everybody. I dont think BD should always win, but BDs ballad this year was perfect.

It always comes down to the green shirts, but it's nice when the scores match the fans wishes.

This really should have been the 4th place show. While it is a GE monster, it is so incredibly dirty visually and musically. I really couldn't get over that fact during the season, and I actually find myself enjoying the show more now, though my thoughts on where it should have placed haven't changed. I actually just just listened to the lossless audio yesterday for the first time. There is a lot there that I had never heard before, and it really drove home how little the brass and percussion actually play during the show. This show is driven by the synthesizer, and it was jarring to hear it so clearly defined in the lossless audio.

I've posted elsewhere that upon viewing the BluRay, I thought the show looked sloppy in places. I, too, like the show, and I expect it will fuel some good creative thinking from smart corps managers and designers. (Probably some less desirable imitative thinking, too.) For me, Crown and SCV had better overall shows, and I would like to have seen one of them take the top spot. (Yes, I know that skips over BD. I seem to have some kind of strange problem with recent BD shows. Totally irrational. Just no goosebumps for me. Remember that scientist in the original Andromeda Strain who blacks out when seeing red? I apparently do the same when that beautiful cobalt blue steps on the field.)

I looked at it like I did 08 PR. The fans wanted those two shows to win.

I'm interested what many of the corps will play this year, but I can wait until a corps show is posted in the first topic above. None show discussions interest me also. My "oh boy" comment to brassdude6171 was in regards to those of us who are not going to swallow the hype this year. I was thinking of your hype off this year post awhile back.

Hope you have a GREAT season, filled with lots of fond memories for you to remember forever, noahsigs !

Thank you, Lloyd Bentsen.

Hello DCP people Happy New Year !!!

Maybe he just didn't have all the information to answer it. Maybe he got pulled off his computer just as he was about to answer your question. Maybe he'll answer it later. Maybe I will get sick from eating too much chocolate. He's pretty respectful. He'll probably get to it when he gets to it.

Give it a rest.

Give him a break dude. He's not obligated to answer any questions.