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My favorite is: they want to destroy the corps / they want the corps to fold. One need look no further than the screed of a statement from CAE as they exited the stage. A case study in victim blaming.

I doubt it. Drum Corps isn't special and immune from the realities of the world. Sexual violence is sickeningly common in American life in general: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html "Sexual violence is common. Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes." This is only based on what is reported, let alone the unknown unreported (it's vast). But let's put that aside and go with the data for now. So to math out some of this data (i'm open to any corrections): Just shy of 42% of the USA population has experienced sexual violence in their lifetime based on that stat. A little over 14% have experienced rape. 80% of reported rapes happen before the age of 25. Choose any random 5 drum corps members. 2 of them already have, or are likely to, suffer sexual violence in their lifetimes. Now choose 7. One of them is likely to suffer rape in their lifetime. Choose any corps. Current capacity of 150 = 63 will suffer sexual violence in their lifetime. 21 of them will potentially suffer rape their lifetime. 17 of those people will experience it before the age of 25 according to the cdc page. I don't know the actual membership numbers, but let's say 15 of the corps are at max capacity. That's 945 people marching this summer that will or already have in their lives suffered sexual assault. 315 of them will or already have in their lives suffered rape. 255 of them will experience it before the age of 25. Extrapolate it back over the multiple decades many of these corps have existed, I'd be shocked if there is any corps where this has never happened. And even if a modern corps does everything absolutely right to protect their members, it will still happen. The sickness is in society at large. We'll never change what is commonplace by pretending it is exception.

BD losses in 08/11/13/16/18, the other corps was better, and earned their titles. Plain and simple. No excuses.

You should have been in a Senior corps. 👍 Had one snare drummer light a cig just before he was told time to do warm ups. Muttered “I ain’t wasting this” and smoked it while warming up with rest of the line. When done he just turned his head and spit it out about 5 feet. Never missed a beat the whole time.

Yeah.. I am quietly cheering for BAC to beat my fave and take that trophy Lol... I meant that. If i see that they have the show to win it all, i will be cheering loudly, but until then GO BD!

Lol! Funny you should ask....for years, I have been comparing F1 racing to DCI'S Top Twelve! Until recently however, I have referred to Lewis Hamilton (Team Mercedes) as the Blue Devils of that sport. Incredible organization, limitless funding, and unbridled winning. Max Verstappen is now surging in the sport....hmmm...perhaps the BAC of F1, Chief?? 😀

Oh I said something to them. It was something like WTH is wrong with you? Those are 16 year old girls.

I will be right next to you cheering for BAC as well. If another corps is better than BD, I have zero issues showing them love and support. 2018, I cheered SCV all the way across the finish line. Babylon has one of my favorite closers ever. 2016, You best believe I was all aboard the Bloo hype train. And that was a sweet train to be on. 2013, Crown was here in SoCal housing at my kids Alma Mater Vista Murrieta High School. BD was also housing a few miles away from my house as well. Guess what? I went to more Crown rehearsals than BD. I can support my favorite corps (BD), be a Mandarins Dad and fangirl their historic rise..................but also show love to other corps without tearing them down, spreading lies and false narratives because I don't like some scores and placements.

This is me every time I watch that Methods of Madness opening drill. 150 human beings are not supposed to move that effortlessly across the field. No one moves like BD. No one.

Yes we don't want to jinx it at all.. But i am truly looking forward for that season of pure brawl battle between BD and BAC with Boston coming out on top.

I told my son after the 2022 season that BAC will win one by 2027. I am sticking with that. As for this year and the foreseeable future, no one is stopping BD. I'll have to see it to believe it.

I think I read that since Covid, Max Verstappen has won like 80% of F1 Races?? That is insane! The only time he loses is when his car has issues. No one has straight up out ran him since I believe 2021/2022. Blue Devils is Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen is Blue Devils. Depends on which way you look at it lol. FTR........BACs title is coming sooner than later.

Here is something for you. After watching F1 this weekend, who is more dominant right now, BD or Max Verstappen?

This thread can serve no purpose.

Yeah I heard a few things in the late 70s from an instructor regarding two of our high school aged guard members. Then didn’t think too much of it but today 🤮

Cavies are doing very well in the backyard brawl

I had one instructor say”screw you” to me once and I left. I obviously came back but that’s unnecessary at any time. And counterproductive. We had an assistant drum major who wasn’t with the corps the whole winter, made up some cockamamie excuse as to why he couldn’t play a horn so in true Peter Principle fashion, they appoint him assistant drum major. FF to summer in some Godforsaken place and we were waiting around for something and a couple people weren’t at parade rest. So he says something stupid like “go to parade rest like we learned in the winter”. Well, me being well… me… I said “How would you know? You weren’t there in the winter.” Next thing I know the real DM is dragging me off the field.

I hope BD does something out of the box so people can scratch their heads 😁

DCI does track the demos based on surveys I’ve gotten even just after ordering tickets

pretty easy to pick out 3 or 50 conventions that every other top corps uses every year. i could do it for boston and bloo, but i'm an adult. i'd love to see the top 3 from last year all change things up. the formulas have gotten alittle stale to me even though i've liked the products.

IDK if BD will four-peat. But I am confidently predicting that if there is a four-peat in 2024, it will be Blue Devils.

Good grief. Here we go, again. What part of "they are now a part of drum corps history" don't some people understand? Stop clinging and just let it go, already.

Interesting post. Thanks for sharing

That's right! That's the spirit brother. We should celebrate success of any group whose rising to achieve the highest. We win in every ways, great shows, great corps, equals the best entertainment. We do this in pure enjoyment of the activity and pure happiness of the all the kids journeys'

Yes i feel the same, once i see that show and it's undeniable, i will definitely cheer for Boston, doesn't i am not cheering for BD because that's untill the day i stop breathing, but i will cheer on BAC real Louder for that season.

Gosh, we are very aligned. When Ghostlight was announced I was rejoicing thinking we were in for some wicked minors beating us down again. I was bummed when I first saw it, not bc it was bad, but bc I had a totally different desire. They still put out a good product, per usual. I don’t think we will be getting dark show with a theme of The Romantics. But who knows?! Im always wrong on here…lol. Maybe they want to subvert expectations and throw us a surprise.

How about playing a 7+ minute Buddy Rich song that has a drum solo in the middle? oh - wait a minute edit - this was way out of the box in 1976

I also appreciate your thoughtful response as well. Go Kingsman! 😎

I think this season tour schedule looks good for a late season surge. In 22 we did ATL then did Huntington WV that Monday then we had 3 or 4 days in Newark Ohio where it was not 100 degrees, and a lot was accomplished improving the show before Allentown (we added the Chevron for one thing). For the rest of the season scores went up and we moved up a few spots from Atlanta until Finals. Last year 2023 we did ATL, then Huntington on that Mon (Which I thought was the best show of the season, though I may be biased since most of the time I saw it from the 10 or 20 yard line and that day the sponsor invited me up to where the judges were on the 50) . Then we went to a spot in PA which was a good practice for 1 day then we went up to Boston. There was an incident with one of the staff busses (no injuries) but it seemed to get everything out of sync. One good thing was that a lot of the members had time after PR performed and were able to come back and watch Boston do their home show which I think is a neat thing. However the show did not improve as much as our competitors shows improved from Huntington until finals. Some people say the show didn't have room to grow after ATL but I am sure the lost practice times going up to Boston did not help the scores. Anyway for 23 after ATL the Huntington show is on a Wens and that gives PR 3 or 4 days to beef up their show where it will be cooler (not in Texas) with fresh mountain air before Huntington Then going to Allentown I think we will have a pretty nice practice facility there. Hopefully they will not be plagued with rain that last week and the Corps will be at its absolute best going into finals. I have a lot of faith in the design team and I think that they will be doing great things with the show design and continue PRs climb aback to the top echelon of DCI

That might be an overstatement.

I was for two seasons 2000 and 2002 . Much different than juniors way back when. The worst thing I saw was these old men ogling the Capital Sound color guard in 2000. Absolutely revolting.

They would first have to pay the victims money for their past mistakes. Then we'll talk about a return...or NOT!!!

More like Stern

Society changed. Alumni didn’t follow with the passion previous generations did, especially as corps folded. Fewer shows to go to. And in some cases design turned people off.

Ah. Well hey no one wiped out and got a 10 in Dayton last night

Boston isn’t winning year after year running the same playbook, but I digress. BDs current run is like the Cavies using original music and crazy drill in the 2000s, and people were eventually ready for a change. Lots of people are ready to see BD bring something new to the table. They are great enough to take a risk, imo.

98 they sounded AMAZING playing Tchaikovsky. Came right after a tremendous jazzy shows in 96/97. 00 they sounded even better (imo) playing a bunch of Herrmann that had more of a romantic than modern feel. That was after 99. Both of those were outliers to the jazz stuff they were most identified with. Neither of those shows won, though.... But I think BD could pull off anything and sound great.

BAC has their first and last full corps camp this coming weekend, and as of then, we will be only four weeks away from Spring Training in Castleton, Vermont. This year, they will only be up there 17 days, with the rest of pre-season on locations closer to the Boston area. Along with several local performances, many of us are thrilled to have the corps closer to the Hub. Can't wait for the start of the season!!!!

That is packed on the front sideline and around into the end zones. Concert side in Indy doesn’t hold as much as you think it does

And have reserves for future lawsuits since you own the name

Honestly the ballad was meh for me all summer

the Jojo's meledy was good but good lord, Tank! the year before was supreme. I still think a Seatbelts + Stan Kenton show would be amazing for this BD team to work with while they're on this idiom.

Yes. absurdity.. I don't what gets into us social media Drum Corps fans. Its seems like every preseason starting almost without fail on April 1st we're .. Constantly Risking Absurdity .😉

Yeah that flag feature was glorious. But, I disagree with you to an extent here. One of the most impressive things to me in colorguard is when the entire guard is on flags doing unision flagwork. It's extremely difficult and very impressive. I think the lack of cohesion has more to do with getting marks than having an impact. It's easier to get better marks without unison than with it. The guard is the main visual element and when we are not seeing the guard in unison it is far less effective IMO. There's nothing more beautiful than 36-40+ guard members all doing unison flag (or rifle, sabre, other) work.

Yes, yes, I've heard the explanation. Mr. Ream kindly explained to me how teaching in modern Drum Corps works. I "get it" but don't understand why. Instead of paying stipends to 17 people how about hiring 1 or 2 full-time to stay all summer? Which one of the 17 do you listen to. Too many cooks in the kitchen. I see a lack of cohesion in color guard. This one's throwing a quadruple, that one's doing pirouettes, while the other is doing flag work all at the same time. It's as if they're independent of each other. (Preface: Boston is the exception and sometimes Blue Devils). Makes me wonder if the revolving door of instructors is the cause. I do love modern drum corps it just puzzles me sometimes.

I was just trying to get the whining and crying started early. Lol. But now that I think of it, I screwed up and went out of order. First thing that is supposed to happen is to overreact to BDs Community Performance in Wyoming, when the show is literally bare bones and nothing of substance has been added yet. THEN I am supposed to cry West Coast Inflation after the first show. And I think the third thing is then make threads about performers sitting out like five years if they change corps to keep them from going to BD. Sigh, maybe I will get it right next year.

Nah. If Boston did that they'd be looking through classic literature to figure out which book had been adapted. If Bloo did it, they'd say, "Finally, the agriculture show theme has arrived! Composting for fertilizer!" Now do it for other corps

quick point of order from someone who was there.....the red flags were not actually very apparent until after said championship. I too miss my corps, and was there for the resurgence. but many decisions and actions made AFTER the championship are what led to the fall of 97, and pure stupidity by those who took over mismanaged the last years. I love you man, but you weren't there. I was, and you know the busybody I am, i asked a ton of questions and talked to a lot of people. A lot of us were fooled but the red flags didn't start appearing until the winter of 97. Come August well....they were full blown full field tarps.

To be honest, the REAL low bass sound (not enhanced) has been missing ever since the move to Bb. I don't know if it's a byproduct of the move or arrangers simply don't arrange in a way that produces the low bass sound.

Very excited for the upcoming season. Excited to see what the staff changes will bring to the table.