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This has turned out to be a productive day. We have established that Mandarins are doing a Godzilla show featuring the music of Gojira & Blue Oyster Cult. Well done everyone.

Would have been nice if I didn’t have to click twice to find out wth corps this is about….

But ... Year of the Dragon and all. You can't tell me they haven't been planning for this year for some time...

My Uncle Bruce and I have had a few drum corps watch parties, sometimes with a theme, sometimes just going with what we feel like at the time. Yesterday, our theme was our favorite Phantom Regiment shows. This was our third watch party focused on a specific corps (Blue Devils and Vanguard were our previous specific corps), and it was a blast. https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/28/gamin-drum-corps-watch-party-phantom-regiment/

I'd go for whatever Thrower wants to do with Angelique Kidjo's cover of their Listening Winds! Some polyrhythmic stuff going on in that. Now that Bloo has shown with Bump that some deep polyrhythmic stuff can be done on the field, read coherently by fans, and rewarded by judges....lets go!

Picturing contras doing the guitar riff for Blue Oyster Cults “Godzilla”. 😳

Oh, that is a fantastic idea, or phantastic idea. Regiment did a great job with Wild Nights in 2003.

Gojira..Oh my!!

This gives me an idea. Assuming Godzilla is a dragon.

Exactly.

A tribute to the music of Lester Young. Everyone wears porkpie hats. Finals week slow tag added to exit the field...Charles Mingus's tune of course.

This time of year is tough. I like the suspense, but I also wish there was earlier transparency on themes. It’d be great if DCI had a reveal day each March where all the corps present their concepts.

Are you resurrecting all the old threads that reference bodhran players? 😂

Or SCV troubles threads, Blue Devils judge payoffs, woodwinds in drum corps, Taylor and Travis, best pizza, best burgers. Enough dead horses out there to keep every Kindergartner in America in Elmer's Glue for eternity. As Tony Soprano says, whattaya gonna do.

This is another example of how drum corps members are cared for now better than ever. I still remember trumpet soloist Noah getting bonked in the forehead by a wayward rifle during ensemble in Castleton in 22. The corps doctor and one of her assistants were on the field treating him before the rep was even finished. And, she did the stitches herself!

Maybe Fiddler on the Roof? Or maybe a show about dogs including ‘Bingo (was his name-o)’

The Bluecoats have a special place for me. Bluecoats were my introduction to drum corps back in 1990. Staff from the Bluecoats assisted my High School band, along with a few visual techs from Star of Indiana. I was entering my freshman year, and was being introduced to marching band at freshman band camp in July that year. I happened to arrive early on my first day, and was greeted by the staff of my band as I walked into the band room. As I walked in, I saw they were watching what I thought was the most amazing thing. The sound, the drill, the execution, etc. of it all, I asked what high school band this was. Of course, I was swiftly corrected that they were called “ corps”, and was advised the corps on the screen was the 1988 Bluecoats from Canton, Ohio. And at that moment, began the 34 years that I have marched, volunteered, and most of all, been a fan of this activity. Later in 1991, I saw my first show live. Bluecoats and Star were at the show, and I was fortunate enough to sit in on their arcs in the lot. Thats a story for another post- but an experience I’ll never forget. Since that time I have not seen a Bluecoats show that wasn’t entertaining or one I didn’t like. Sure, what they are doing now has put them in the hunt for 1st nearly every year since 2014. But I can go back to 1987, 1988, and 1989 and say I love those shows too. I have heard stories about 1987 from various people who saw them that year. It seems like their hype was real at the time. The World War II show from 1995 is a great memory I took a WWII veteran to a local east coast show that year to see that show, along with The Cadets. Bluecoats along with Madison have always been the two corps I look forward to hearing every year. I have always known that whatever they do, they entertain. And while they took a step in wildly different and unique direction in the last 10 years, I look forward to whatever they put on the field every year, as I always have. ,