radiosteele

Vicki MacFarlane of the Colts.....but I doubt she would take it. They're red hot now

I have two last minute tickets to DCI Southeastern in Atlanta. I'm a teacher, and need to use travel-related expenses for the upcoming school year instead. These seats are in area 320, mid-height around the 20-25 yard line. After fees, I paid $80.99 for each ticket. I will sell them both for $120.00 or make me an offer! Message me here, or e-mail me at millsdebate@gmail.com and we can work out details. Thanks!

I also have two tickets for sale as well! Posting here to keep from cluttering the forum. Area 320 mid height around the 25-30 yard line. I paid $80.99 for each ticket. I will sell them both for $150.00 firm. E-mail me at millsdebate@gmail.com and we can work out details. Thanks!

Visually, the PC show looks clean, polished and cool to look at. Musically, the esoteric feel is consistent throughout, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. Their phrasing and inflection is quite flat, and that hinders general effect as well. Spirit and Scouts both have the most cleaning left to do in that cluster of corps, and if they can reach PC levels of precision, one of them will end up in 12th. I will favor Spirit over the Scouts, because Madison has more ground to make up in visual and guard. Ignore the DCI Austin spread between Spirit and BK. One GE judge hosed them royally, putting them in 7th behind Genesis. BS. The Delta is much closer to 12th than it appears.

Any reports from mid-season rehearsal block? I would appreciate a reconnaissance report on what those rowdy rascals are up to. You know they're changing some ####.

Spirit has a vehicle with attitude, swagger and fun. These kids are owning it and it is a matter of the gel factor now. This is be a six-corps shootout for finals the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. Also, if Music City finds a balanced brass ensemble sound, don't sleep on them either. Between a pick'em top-4, and middle-tier brawl, and a schoolyard scrap for 12th - 2023 is going to be a glorious bloodbath. See you all in Atlanta 🙂

I'm interested to see how Troopers are going to tackle As If a Voice Were In Them without it being Carolina-Crown-Level balls difficult. Their brass is either going to get completely shredded all season, or the caption will make top 5 if they pull it off.

Meh, I'm not so sure on number 4. 10 days is excessive for corps to go without scoring. Scoring provides a solid metric that is summative. Just blah, blah narrative criticism is great for staff, but this feedback doesn't resonate with the younger members like a numerical score can. All other suggestions are great. Really good year for rules proposals.

Thank you. I'll revise.

I'll like it either way. This is BD's most entertaining show in years, and their visual program is amazing. BD is not the only corps pushing up in percussion, so is Boston. They have topped Crown head-to-head and are on Bluecoats' heels. In the end, it's just my worthless opinion, and likely nowhere near accurate. I'm glad the DCP lords have given us a place to park it.

I hope you're right. If they can snap the visual program in place they'll bounce back. Percussion gets the title this year - no one is touching them.

I agree. They have everything they need in front of them to do so. The show is wildly satisfying, and the music captions are shredding.

At this point in the season, there are some expectations and predictions coming to fruition and a few unexpected developments literally no one could have seen coming. I want to address those first. 1) The tenacity of excellence - Blue Devils, as expected, has a younger group, but I did not expect their program to be so purely entertaining and accessible. It connects with the audience in a manner I have not felt since "Metamorph" and "Phenomenon of Cool". Their brass book has motifs of 80s and 90s Blue Devils' iconic jazz and their visual program has considerably more straightforward marching than in previous years. Their staff is willing these performers to win with a fantastically programmed show. If they do not place first, it will be because Boston, Crown or the Bluecoats earn the championship, not because BD loses. The Devils lose nothing this year. Now, if you think Boston is not going to challenge for the title, please have a look at their color guard and integration of all captions into an organic flowing program. They will be close. 2) I told you so - So will gloat first before I eat humble pie later. I was very confident that Boston and Mandarins had challenged themselves during the pandemic seasons, and they would benefit from it. Boston is sitting in 3rd-4th in score rankings currently and the only way it will change is if Bluecoats or BD max out their shows before finals. Boston and Crown will rise in that case. The Mandarins had an aggressiveness in their exhibition year I had not seen from them before, and their meteoric rise was in no jeopardy of fizzling out. I knew they were going up the ladder but I did not know how far. Now.....potentially...6th? What a great result that would be from a great corps with this years' most entertaining show. I also noted that the Colts could break out, and they are scary close to jumping over Blue Knights to lock down 12th place. They have the show to do it. Right now, they seem as if they are still trying to nail everything and are not organically performing the show like it is instinctive. Once they gel and let the heart & determination take over, watch out. 3) I TOTALLY blew it - Phantom. Ya killin' me Smalls. All captions are going as expected, EXCEPT for visual proficiency. Phantom is trailing Blue Stars by THREE POINTS in visual proficiency alone, finishing last in their contests this weekend, out-marched by Madison and Colts!!! If not for that one subcaption, Regiment would be sitting in 7th right now. I never figured for one second these kids would struggle with marching after an amazing effort last year. That being said, finals is still a lock of PR, but I have to back up off that top-6 finish prediction a bit. Some reasons for optimism: they were hit very hard by COVID that cost them 4 days, and this early in the season, the visuals are still very cleanable. They will stage a comeback on visuals. Some drill rewrites and helping these kids with circles and boxes should help them quite a bit. They should finish above Crossmen if they max out. Madison Scouts, from a programming perspective, have done a 180 from their aggressive, powerful exhibition show last year and gone more avant-garde, which doesn't fit them. They are struggling in GE and visual. I predicted they were a shoo-in for finals - it doesn't seem that way now. Prediction reset I will probably do one more round of this analysis in early August, but here's how it is shaping up now: 1) Carolina Crown 2) Blue Devils 3) Boston Crusaders 4) Bluecoats 5) Cadets 6) Mandarins 7) Santa Clara Vanguard (I love you both Jim & Dawn Reed; your percussionist son is NOT the problem here - the pit is marvelous) 😎 Cavaliers 9) Blue Stars 10) Phantom Regiment 11) Crossmen 12) Colts ***************************** 13) Blue Knights 14) Troopers (they're just dirty right now - their show is fire) 15) Madison Scouts 16) The Academy 17) Music City 18) Pacific Crest 19) Genesis 20) Jersey Surf Until next time, squirts............

I think the beginning of thread predictions are off considerably. So.....let's get some last minute prognostication. Based on nothing but my amateur senses and hype meter...... 1. Boston - 75.3 2. Bluecoats - 74.5 3. Phantom - 69.7 4. Blue Stars - 68.4 5. Cavaliers - 68.1 6. Crossmen - 64.8

I didn't know what to say about them, so I didn't. HD video will only show so much and their brass sounded a bit restrained in '21. However they could have been blowing their huevos off live. The mid-tier corps have stepped up their game, so I cannot say what placement opportunities this has for Cadets.