Cainan

Nice! Looks like they have found a bit of fire in their bellies!

Nice CLEAN FEET Crest!

YES!!!! Nice first big brass hit. This is a show that HAS to be in Top 12.

That has been driving me nuts all summer. It's ALWAYS just a bit off but just enough of a bit to trigger me.

Come on Crest.... I'm pulling for you!!

This version of Academy is a very good drum corps... and this show is performed very well. I just do not find this show to be particularly engaging. When they did show like Drum Corpse Bride and that bunny show, I felt they were starting to finally carve out an identity as a bit camp and dare I say it a bit Velvet Knights-esque. Since then they seem to have just gone a bit...vanilla.

S0mebody in the crowd just shouted "Let's GO SEATTLE" Hate to break it to you pal but THAT is Academy

"Seattle Cascades... paging Seattle Cascades to the performance field"

Academy better be good because I reckon Genesis may be targeting them with that performance

That was fantastic. Best performance I have ever seen from this corps. Best Ever.

This is a completely different show and drum corps compared to last weekend

I absolutely adore Imogen Heap... She really is a musical genius and THIS part is starting to sound like it should.

Seriously though... this brass section is really starting to come together... These kids can PLAY

Some that come to mind... The Batallion... Shirley Temple Troopers... Whiskey, straight in a dirty glass please... or an Oil Slick Blue Stars... Anything at all.. EXCEPT Absinthe. Bluecoats... DEFINITELY absinthe... as then I could understand their shows of the last few years on a completely different level

OK... LONG POST ALERT I made a wild prediction before the first show, but now we are a few weeks in, I will revise said prediction and why.... 1. Blue Devils Haters can hate all they want but anyone with even the smallest knowledge of this activity would have to agree that this is simply the best design by some considerable margin. Is it the hardest show out there? No. What it IS though is the SMARTEST design. The staff knows how to design to their membership and they are absolute scientists when it comes to scheduling and logistics of touring and time management. They push the corps just hard enough. As for the show design itself, it is just hard enough and in all the right places to maximize exposure across the board. The show grabs you from the off and never lets go. Chip Crotts must be spoken of in the same breath as names like Cipriani, Harloff and JD Shaw as an absolutely elite caption head. He has elevated that line to a different level. I'm not sure that this is the best Blue Devils corps ever (it may yet prove to be) but this is by FAR the best SOUNDING version of Devs by a wide margin. 2. Boston Crusaders Truth be told, I did not like this show early on but it's very quickly growing on me. The members have obviously totally bought into the concept and are performing the guts out of it. All sections are clean and competitively from a caption perspective, there's not much in it between them and Devs. The difference in my opinion is down to design. White Whale is a cool concept and Boston is the PERFECT corps to present this show... It is my opinion that the thing that will hold this show back is the fact that the show is pretty difficult to read for the first half and the transitions between movements are a bit disjointed and clunky. 3. Carolina Crown This is the best version of CrownBrass since E=MC2... and we know how THAT went score-wise. Percussion vastly improved. Great Guard. Weakness (being a relative term) as I see it is visual design. Having watched Atlanta, there are still a lot of spacing and foot timing issues. These are hidden well by the black lower halves, but those same black lower halves dont help with visual readability from upstairs. 4. Bluecoats I went to the garden of what the hell is this show actually about? Performed great but I am sure I have seen this version of Bloo in 2022.. and 2021, and 2019... And here we go.... 5. Mandarins Sinnerman has been an absolute revelation. I know that a lot of people seem to think that Mandarins are simply benefitting from the demise of Vanguard. They'd be quite wrong... In fact, the vast majority of Vanguard diaspora went to Phantom. Anyone that has been paying attention for the last few years should have noticed that JW Koester and his team have been laying down the foundations organizationally for Mandarins to be a powerhouse and the first phase of that was simply making finals. Welcome to phase two. This corps is absolutely fearless and they are absolutely for real. 6. Phantom Regiment Exogenesis has been a fantastic vehicle to allow for the much needed change of direction for Phantom Regiment. If you'd have told me at the end of 2019 that Phantom would be here in 2023 I'd have told you you were nuts. That was a corps clearly following the same trajectory as the Madison Scouts right out of Saturday night. Kudos to the Phantom board for taking the brave steps needed to bring teh Regiment back to the top half of DCI where they rightfully belong. As for the show, I am not sure what else they can throw in to make this have more substance and this is starting to show in the recaps with execution scores outpacing content... which I think is what will ultimately land them (just) behind the Sacramento corps. That said, if 5/6 flip flopped or even tied, I would not be at all unhappy. 7. Cadets Atlas Rising is a great show. That said we are now two weeks away from finals and I am only JUST now starting to be able to get a read on this corps and what the show is about. I know Cadets have a history of late-season surges, but I just feel that the two corps above them will separate themselves over the next couple of weeks as all they need to do is clean whereas the Erie corps is still developing their show arc. 8. Cavaliers A fun throwback show. Great uniforms. Clunky design wise especially with musical transitions. Two weeks from finals though and we still do not know how to dress a simple file. foot timing was bad at Atlanta and it showed in the recaps having dropped behind Troopers. That said... when is the last time an eighth place corps at DCI finals won a Fred Sanford? Write this down in ink as this is GOING to happen this year. Their battery had some moments that even this old brass player marveled at. 9. Troopers They are lassoing that sun folks. Visual was the weakness early season but they are getting clean. That said... the Achilles heel of this corps is that Guard. They are working their arses off but that design may just be too much for them to handle. The problem is that design isn't particularly demanding. I have Troop in 9th here on the strength of GE, percussion and upstairs brass. While I feel they are a lock for finals, I reckon there's less than a point between 9th and 11th, and Troop could just as easily end up 11th as they do 9th. 10. Colts Nice show with a really really solid brass program. There are no real standout captions here for me as this corps is nicely balanced across the board. They move and play well and again, a lock for finals. 11. Blue Stars Great corps.. they perform the hell out of this show but there's just TOO MUCH of EVERYTHING here. I cannot figure out what this show is about other than if I drink Absinthe I will turn green and crazy Just don't get this one... looks to me like the design team wasted a golden opportunity here. AND HERE WE GO.... 12. Pacific Crest Goddess is just a really nice show and will make a well-deserved finalist. The theme is portrayed throughout the show and it's pretty easy to follow. My only criticism of this show is from a visual design standpoint as this show lacks the velocity we see from the other finalist corps. That last set takes forever to form as just one example. That said, I think Crest will get past this bit of a rough patch they have currently found themselves in to just squeak into Saturday night.

DO IT UP DEVILS!!

Oh.. Bloo is coming on! Lemme just hit this right here so I can get "into" their show. I kid.. Less go BLOOO

Good run by BAC, but their brass seemed to be holding back a bit... Pressure?

100 yard ensemble spread... It's like tickling the GE judge's belly...

Love the mood setting preshow

LOVE LOVE LOVE this shows musical book but would someone PLEASE let Arthur know not to smile after getting not just stabbed bu completely impaled?

goosebumps

Crown brass.. it's like bathing in gravy.... MMMmmmmmm....

Good run... Unpopular opinion though... The brass book is what will relegate them to 7th at best. That is by FAR the easiest brass book in the top 15

Stepover and Flo will be Flo