Cainan

Not really sure whats going on with Madisons percussion scores. To my un-learned eye and ear I am not seeing an 18th place percussion section. That said, they have a really good show... the brass line is playing like the Madison of old. They are currently in top 12 and I do not see them dropping out. IF they can sort our the percussion caption (by all accounts the issue is in front ensemble from what I am hearing) then I think they can not only stay in top 12 but I actually can see them improving. I am not at all sold on Cavies and I can see them dropping another place to tenth. I dont think its out of the realm of possibilities that Madison can compete for that spot as well. As for 12th, I see that being Troopers to lose... for now. We talked about Troopers at length in this weeks Marching Arts Network Podcast. I think that show has some serious design deficiencies. In my humble opinion, the electric guitar part is just unnecesary. I like the flamenco guitar behind the percussion feature though. As for the devil character... Allow me to digress for a moment. My wife is a casual drum corps fan at best. She watched Troop with me on Saturday and her words.. not mine... "I dont get what the deal is with that devil character. I understand the show is called Dance With The Devil but I dont get what his character is about at all. Also, he looks like Mickey Mouse on meth"... but yeah, i think she has a point, the character has no character development at all... He's just sort of there with his light sabre and then he gets stabbed after an overly long fight scene and sent back to hell.. Oh and he plays the guitar (quite well I might add though). And as for the fight scene.. that is just staged all wrong. Its off to the side... the guard is up in the corner and the rest of teh corps is off to the number 2 side. The fight is too long and its hard to follow. That needs to be staged on the fifty, with the guard and brass framing and interacting with the fight. Otherwise its just all too distracting. Blue knights on the other hand has a pretty accessible show and they play and march quite well. I dont think the question is about IF Madison makes it in as much is it is about if the Troopers stay in.

Troopers had a rough run visually

OK then.... Intermission over... lets get on to Part two... These are my thought as I think them... Spirit of Atlanta... First things first... I hae had numerous reads of this show, and I have said from the first viewing that if this does not make finals, I will wear my underwear for a week and eat them on a livestream and I stick to that sentiment. That said, there are a LOT of moving parts in this show and right now, I think it has been scoring pretty fairly. I also think this is a show designed for INDOORS and in a big stadium, so this should be a pretty good read of it... GREAT opening statement. That battery certainly came to play tonight. Though the first trumpet feature was gonna get a bit sqiffy but they reeled it back in. Some really nice unison guard moments, especially in the flags in the second movement. I like the moment with the guard and spreading the wings of the wing flags. Trumpet soloist seemed to be off tonight. Overall though tonights performance seemed a bit restrained to me. Still enough to be over PC and Music City though... I reckon this cracks 80 Blue Knights... fo ryears these were my hot dog corps. Not anymore. This show is starting to grow on me. Probably because it isnt forces esotericism. Trumpet feature on the props about three minutes in was pretty squiffy. Loving the 16 tubas. I like the uniforms as well. Nice to see the dots back. Solid brass sound. Love the Into The Light ... err, I mean the New Moon In The Old Moon's Arms section of the show. Some really nice playing there. WHOAAA.... some weird balance issues with the trombones right at the end of the show! I think this edges Spirit tonight but its close. Madison... OK.. lets see if this corps is for real. We have had a habit over the last few years of showing strong until San Antonio and then fading away... Well... holy crap. For the fist time in YEARS I heard THE Madison Scouts! Pre season, I had these guys nowhere near finals, but I think they may just be a lock. GREAT run tonight. Crowd ate them up. First standing O on the night. EASILY above everyone else to this point. Troopers... This is a make or break show tonight. They have found themselves fighting to stay IN finals and I dont think they expected to be here, but here we are. So as far as tonights performance... Brass was on fire. Some really great moments and some downright fantastic ensemble sounds. Percussion is a huge strenght as well. NOW... lets get a bit critical. The guard while improving and already better than last year is still miles behind the other two sections of the corps and are very dirty. And lets talk about the Devil. His character never really develops. I think the electric guitar part is cheesey at best. Now the whole Desperado flamenco section is cool. I think they should drop the electric guitar part and further develop around the acoustic. You could get some real Dance With The Devil moments into that... And finally the end fight... there were some issues tonight. Also, I detest the light sabre. They should restage that whole fight section to the 50 and have the corps doing drill around them rather than have the fight on one side of the field and the corps on the other. That said, overall a good run, but I think Scouts nipped them. Crossmen... Hello Bones... Truth be told, I am not a fan of this show. They do not look or sound like The Crossmen. When I first saw this uni reveal I thought I was looking at Academy. They march and play well however but overall this show leaves me pretty flat. I put them below BK tand Spirit, sorry. Colts.... This show is starting to grow on me. Pretty bad draw because I do think this should be competeing with Cavies and they could have done with going on after them AFTER intermission. The uniforms.. I finally get it. They are meant for under the lights and up high because that is where they work best. Lets talk movement, bloody hell this corps MOVES a LOT. Loved Fields of Gold. And a shout out to that guard, I found myself watching them a LOT and I am not typically a guard guy. Really solid run from the Iowa corps tonight.. I can see this moving up though I am not sure how intermission is gonna affect them. Prediction thus far... Colts... 82.8 Madison Scouts... 81.5 Troopers... 80.9 Blue Knights... 80.6 Spirit of Atlanta 80.5 Crossmen... 79.9 Music City... 76.5 Crest... 76.4 Academy... 73.5 Genesis... 71.9 Cascades... 68.5 Surf... 68.0 Guardians... 62.9 Zephyrus... 61.0 Arsenal... 55.2

Thoughts so far.... Spirit of San Antonio UTSA... Nice rendition of the National Anthem. Shame they weren't called for the Home Run Derby! Aresenal.... Nice performance bearing in mind the size of the group. It was nice to be able to actually READ visual design and performance.. unlike some championship contending corps... Zephyrus... MUCH better than I anticipated... They will make a nice addition to open class Guardians... Some really nice brass moments in there. Shame they are only doing the Texas tour Genesis... I liked the show but did not LOVE it. I LOVED their show last year. They are definitely improved over last year but that accessibilty that I liked about their show last year just isnt there Surf... They just need reps. What is hip is too slow. Needs to be bumped up at least 50bpm. The performers need to become comfortable with body movement and loosen up. They are NOT funky at the moment BUT.... THEY LOOK F****N GREAT! Cascades... Again, some nice brass moments. I understood the theme of the show. Kavl Sviri is one of my favorite pieces of music ever so they had me there... Academy... very much so a step up in class. LOVE the uniforms. BIG brass sound. Solid battery. SOme nice visual moments. Visually my only complaint (amazing considering I marched with the Freelancers) is too MUCH Red, Black and white... would have liked to see more contrasting colors. Pacific Crest... Possibly the crappiest draw of the day having to go on before first intermission. I fear that going on before first intermission will be a really tough hill to climb if they want to beat Spirit tonight. I absolutely love the color palette. Love the skirts on the guard. Really leaning into the Mexican aspect of this show. BIG BIG brass sound. Really nice battery. The guard to my untrained eye does seem to be the highlight of this corps. My concern is however, and this is a pretty big concern... as a group, they do not march very well at all. NUMEROUS memebers out of step, and at this point of the season that is simply unforgiveable. They need to get down to some serious visual basics. That said, I still think this is a completely different level to Academy who I believe are stuck on an island with Music City, and was undoubtedly their best run of the season to date. Music City... Nice thematic look... certainly better than last year. This is my first viewing of this corps. Drill design is very compact. Would like to see the brassline use more of the field. Great brass ensemble sounds with no one particular section or individuals grabbing my attention. They march quite cleaan. Nice baritone soloist in the ballad. Their battery can really play. They seem to PERFORM better than Crest, and you know what, I think this may be the first upset of the evening as I have them ever so slightly above Crest.. Prediction thus far... Music City... 76.5 Crest... 76.4 Academy... 73.5 Genesis... 71.9 Cascades... 68.5 Surf... 68.0 Guardians... 62.9 Zephyrus... 61.0 Arsenal... 55.2

So... I did a deep dive on Bluecoats yesterday. Their performance the other night was 13 minutes long (do we not have timing penalties anymore?).. annyways, in that thirteen minutes, I timed approximately 7 and a half minutes of brass instruments sounds. Now... that on the surface doesn't sound too bad until you figure in that nearly 3:45 of THAT was either solos, duets or soli sections. The longest sustained section where the entire hornline was playing came in at jus over one minute. So, in reality, the HORNLINE only played about three and a half minutes of that show. By comparison, the synth played the ENTIRE show... and this was just the Bluecoats... In the interest of fairness, I am sure that the rest of the DCI slate would measure in pretty close to the same. Just sayin

Well... Just some thoughts after seeing Corps at the Crest and Muncie... I was totally wrong. My ranking guess was just that.. a GUESS. May as well fit BD for their rings now. They could come out and play Mary Had a Little Lamb for 11 minutes and the judges will still wet themselves for them. That said.. I stand by what I said and say that weve seen this show before. It does NOTHING for me and I am a publicly outed Blue Devils fan. Vanguard... Glad to see them back, I genuinely am, but that show is kinda meh. I do not see how on a million Sundays that ever beats Mandarins but it did. Seems to me they may be getting some "Welcome Back" points. Mandarins... I like the bones of this show and it has a lot of potential. That said... they need some additional color in the uni to break it up. Soo much blue and from a distance none of the individual elements of the uniform are readable. Also, they had some pretty bad tuning and intonation issues... especially in the back half of the show. Some of that I think may have been fatigue, but some may also be on the sound board guys as well. Crown Brass... holy crap. Soooooooo good. REALLY nice guard. I do however stand by my statement that the show is overall kinda boring... I LIKE the show but I do not LOVE it. And yes.. percussion is their achilles heal again Phantom... I still see this show being a medal contender. It has SOOOoooo much room to grow. My OBLY criticism (if you can call it that) is I'd like to see some Phantomisms in the design.. give me a chevron and a kick halt and then id be like... CHEFS KISS Cavies... I think they may be in trouble possibly. Blue Stars (who I will talk about in a bit) are better than I expected and I reckon they could catch and pass them. This show is a mess design wise. Blue Stars... I wrote them off probably because I absolutely hated last years show and I hate Coldplay. I was wrong. This is a very good drum corps. This frankly is a show I can see really growing on me as the season goes. And I havent had a Blue Stars show ever I have said that about. So yeah.. I was wrong.

1. Boston Crusaders... I think Glitch may be something Special 2. Phantom Regiment... I think this show has the bones of Babylon... its just dirty now 3. Bluecoats... One too many ethereal shows 4. Blue Devils... Weve seen this show before.. 2019, 2022, 2023 and now again in 2024. I think the judges may punish them 5. Mandarins... Momentum is a scary beast to mess with 6. Carolina Crown... Great hornline... boring everything else 7. Cavaliers... Drumline too good to place this corps any lower 8. Troopers... This corps has such a solid identity and design direction.. plus a killer drumline 9. Santa Clara Vanguard... Slotting is real. Going on first at every show until San Antonio is gonna hurt them 10. Colts... Nice concept at the announcement but the show is meh. Talented corps though and too good to leave out 11. Spirit of Atlanta... Ive seen secret video... they are REALLY good 12. Pacific Crest... I like the look and the concept but its super rough right now... but they started out rough last year too. Just a gut feeling here 13. Crossmen 14. Blue Knights 15. Blue Stars 16. Madison 17. Genesis YES... I am perfectly aware that I put two new corps into 11th and 12th, and no I dont think I am nuts. A little caveat... my thought is that from 11th down to 16th is gonna be even more of a bloodbath than last year was. Id be shocked if there is more than a point and a half of spread between all those groups. You may as well drop all their names into a hat and draw them out at random because I reckon they will all be leapfrogging each other all season long

Nothing quite says "Vanguard" like the Blue Devils' EXACT shade of BLUE!

It has been pointed out to me that there wasn't in fact a 2024 SCV thread so I will open this one. That said... follow the Community Guidelines and play nice.

It has been pointed out to me that there wasn't in fact a 2024 SCV thread so I will open one. That said... follow the Community Guidelines and play nice.

With due respect, The site already has a community guidelines section... that pretty much covers the "rules" of the site... I should know as I have been on the DCP admin team since the site was less than three months old. I was kinda party in actually WRITING said guidelines. If you want a thread discussing 2024, Vanguard, then I am pretty certain that the 2024 staff is relevant to the topic. I feel comfortable speaking for the admin team on this that we are not particularly interested in enforcing arbitrary rules set on individual threads that sit outside the community guidelines.... and besides, there is already a 2024 Vanguard thread. Closing this thread as a duplicate.

As this thread has veered off-topic and no longer aligns with the intended discussion, it will be closed. We encourage members to initiate separate threads to explore topics such as age limits for drum corps, ensuring a focused and productive dialogue. Thank you for your understanding.

If The Cadets had simply folded due to the cost of fuel, housing, insurance, food etc, I could live with that. Sad but hey, them's the breaks and life goes on. The fact that this was instead 100% self inflicted, it kinda pisses me off to be honest. I see lots of comments about He Who Shall Not Be Named... well, these actions pre-date him. Looking at the big picture, I can now see how he did what he did as the culture was already there. FOR THE RECORD... I am in NO WAY excusing the actions... I think he should be in prison right now. Just that this stuff was happening BEFORE him. As much as I hate to say it, the corps SHOULD have died back in 2018. We simply got a bonus five years on life support. This is sad, perplexing, anger inducing and TOTALLY unsurprising I'm afraid.

No... literally no point. Beating dead horses and all...

I dont normally promote the March or Die podcast here but this week we have been joined by Spirit of Atlanta's executive director Jason Burns who generously gave us over two hours of his time for the podcast (dont worry, we edited it down to 90 minutes). I figured this would be of interest to the masses as Jason is very candid about "how the sausage is made". Would love it if y'all gave it a watch and if you like what you see, it would be even better if you subscribed. Next week we have JW Koester from the Mandarins joining us and I have several other interesting folks coming on in the next several weeks.