Phantombass

i was speaking in terms of the judge's sheets from last night... i don't speak on anyone's behalf but my own. I know every corps' member's work their ##### off... just joking around... no need to take it overly seriously...

PR: 19.85, world champions... corps' saviors BD: 19.00, also rans... corps' demise (Said in jest, with 10% seriousness implied)

subdivision. practice measure after measure of playing just the second and third note of a set of sixteenth notes or just the third subdivision of a grouping of triplets. At the Div3 level you aren't going to need chops or technique coming in neccessarily. timing is going to be of the most importance to them.

New York State Field Band Association. NYSFBA; that's the New York group that oversees the marching band activity at the high school level.

Star Rochester Patriots Bridgemen Skyriders

looks like there won't be a repeat for the team from Rockford... :( Are devs really that sick this year?

Thanks for the review... I'm waiting to see anything till semi-finals in my local theater :( but was wondering if anyone knew why SCV got the one point penalty?? Thnks guys-

'97 Cadets released a casette tape, a fellow drummer in my H.S. band let me get ahold of it. Then I got my hands on a VHS copy of the 97 PBS broadcast. After viewing that I remembered (barely) watching the 95 PBS broadcast and wondering what (why) was it on tv? Listened to the Cadets tape like a ton, had a cadence, an early season run through of the 97 show (pre-crazy horn run at the show's beginning), and a copy of the 96 finals. Marched 98-2001.

Was bingo revenue dropping all sue to smoking? Or was the Foxwoods casino an issue as well? Being a former Rochester Patriots member, as well as East Coast Jazz member, it's annoying to see these eastern corps struggling with bingo issues. (Coming to think of it, being a former Syracuse Brigadiers member, it sucks to see them struggling due to bingo issues...) I hope ECJ comes back in '08...

with 6 kids you'd have to do 3 basses, 2 snares and 1 quad. Is it possible to bump an interested flute over to bassdrum to march 4? In my experiences many decent bass drummers come from a woodwind back ground, they'd probbably be good on a drum 2 (for most m.b.'s of that sizes writing difficulty) due to their good timing/rhythm, drum one should be a young player whose chops you want to build up for snare, bottom bass a larger kid, even if they are good, and if they say they think its the easy part, bulk their notes up for them, in closing I'd never stack basses, and btw, Blast and Corps "all-stars" are indeed both "all stars", so unless your kids are chop monster "all-stars" no way.

poole for sure... and goodhart?

Tar Heel Sun from the summer of 1998, first year out, loud, clean and until the final week of the season undefeated in DIV. 2, but by that Wednesday final, ECJ, Spartans and the Rochester Patriots had passed them, 4th in finals, a week prior undefeated. The moral of the story: Don't count your chickens.

28 could be done, but with a full dci hornline I'd avoid it at all costs... need that deep bottom bass boom. I actually think only a handfull of corps use 32's, 30 is usually the standard.

black max on the snares and evans on the basses is pretty generaly regarded as the way to go.... tenor head selection i don't know about so i won't comment on

how far back are you talking... I got into it in like '97 and don't remember a site named that... but maybe i'm wrong.

i'd have to say 18, 20, 24, 28, 32... 16 is too small and anything smaller than a 30 on the bottom is not a good idea...

5 years experience in DCI, top 12 corps experience. Lookingfor a H.S. marching band in KC or surrounding area to work with... Anyone know anything about Missouri or Kansas marching bands?

In Indy who is closer than the Colts from Dubuque?

So I head to a seat (Not mine seeing that I got one of the cheap seats and the stands are more than half empty. As the clock hits 12:45 I see a corps come out with a hint of bright orange. Looking around I see about a thousand people as the announcer announces, FROM THE NETHERLANDS, JUBAL: Opening Statement hits (Sop, Screamer... ohhh... cool). as I watch the show I can't stop thinking of the parralels between this corps and East Coast Jazz. Both are smaller corps and like to play BD style jazz. And both do a pretty job at working with what they have. They had a pretty loud hornline for the under 30 horns they had. They were BD right down to the final, whop whop whop horn tag at the end. If it just gets better from here on out it just may be a good day of drum corps. The Madison Scouts: Opening Statement (WOW!). Impression at the end of the closer, Madison will make finals tonight. Counter rotating circles in the closer were simple, but visually effective. Had the fans on their feet by the release of the last note. As I said in part 1 the guard is holding them back BIG TIME. When I found out that they didn't make finals I was amazed and kind of outraged. I didn't think the Colts should have made finals, but with that hometown crowd it was an obvious assumption that I just failed to make. From Kitchner Ontario (The other) KAVALIERS: This was my second viewing of Kiwanis, and let me say right off the bat, LOOSE THE MASKS! With that being said this is possibly Kiwanis' best corps ever, if not at least since 98. Drill looks pretty good from up top too. The rotating drill block in the closer was nice. The show kind of reminds me of a college marching band halftime show. In closing I just want to say it's dissapointing that Kiwanis is doing so well this year, when all the other corps are doing better too. I wish I could see Kiwanis up around 12 or even 15th, but not this year. This is a good year for corps. SOUTHWIND: Playing farmiliar music. Couldn't tell you what year or corps but I can tell you a top 12 corps did some of it in the 90's. A snare playr dropped his stick in a snare feature-type part. Their drumline is better than it is most years. The pit was interrestingly positioned on the left of the fifty on the actual field not to the front. A good corps, don't know why they're scoring so well, they should be closer to that 10 to 15 pack IMHO. PIONEER: Initial reaction, OK, there are picnic tables on the field. A guard girl stands on the 50 twirling her hat for about two minutes, where are the Drum Majors? Finally they appear the judges and DM's give the go ahead and the show kicks off. It's a decent crowd pleasing show from this corps. The hornline reminds me of the old video game Lemmings when the scramble around dragging picinic tables acrossed the field. Pioneer is kind of small this year. COLTS: Guard, riffle tosses, nearly 40 girls in unison, they are using this guard to their advantage putting them front and center. Pretty good flag work by the ladies as well. Colts always seem to spread the entire length of the field and this year is no different one 10 to the other a few times in the show. Drumline (When they're not dhutting too loud!) Are rocking those Premiers, no standout percussion moments that I can think of. TROOPERS: America's corps. It's the Troopers playing Troopers music. There are some neat backsticking parts for the snareline at one point. At points in the show it sounded like even the Troopers are giving in a little bit and updating their musical scoring. CROWN: Seem MUCH better than a month ago in Cortland. drumline was the first since Madison that made me think, now THAT is a top 12 drumline. Last half of the show seems more resolved. Drill seemed to be cleaned up alot more. SEATTLE CASCADES: The corps I had been waiting all morning to see. Would they live up to the hype? First impact.... Welcome to the top 12 Cascades :D End of opener impression: "d###! This is the best thing out of Seattle since Starbuck's!!!!!!" Guard was wearing business outfits/suits. This guard was the hottest one of the day look wise (Not to be sexist, but the thought hopped into my head that these were some good looking girls.) Standing O at the end of the park and blow. At the end of their show was the biggest standing ovation since Madison (IF NOT A BIGGER ONE!?!) Seattle, you guys rock. If you can get those souvies up to par you're in it to win it. Spirit of Atlanta: Initial thought: They're small. Then the guard jumps from behind the hornplayers. Then they appear to be quite large. They're big and the accompanying horn sound, it's big too. Not quite the Spirit of old, but good enough for now, that's for sure. Like the drum book, but the bass line is either weak or just got the shaft in the writing. There was no bass feature in the show after a quad and snare feature was a pit feature, I was dissapointed with that. BLUE KNIGHTS: Oh man, 2 bass drum let downs in a row. BK, the perennial powerhouse bassdrum line only has 4 bass drummers. And it seems like there aren't nearly as many beats as the previous two years stellar basslines. Pit is actually on the football field and the hornline is loud. A better show than last year but the competition is also much improved. Looks like a 13th or 14th place finish for this team from Denver. CROSSMEN: Last night in Tennessee they scored really low in drums. The line was really solid when I saw them in Cortland NY a month earlier. I like the show alot, but judging from the recent scores they may have peaked early. Lots of toe tapping in the audience as they played that killer opener. At the end of the opener I got some goosebumbs as I thought back to the killer 97 show. One part that was not good, at all was a snare brush part where they were spread out. It sounded like unreadable garbage. Needs to be addressed big time. Also the sop trio, much improved B) last time I saw the show it wasn't too hot. So then I left before scores were announced. My 4 making finals: Seattle and Crossmen, then Madison and JSU Spirit. I was wrong about Madison. Oh well, wait 'till Madison.

First off let me start by saying why does everyone reffer to the show as the INDY show. I think it's the fact that most of us drum corps nuckle heads can't spell a darn thing. This is a review of an adventure and a drumcorps show all wrapped into one, so lets get started. FRIDAY 7:30pm I depart Syracuse New York with my car loaded to the brim. I am hoping to make it to Columbus Ohio before going to sleep in my car for the night. SATURDAY 12:02 AM I am pulled over on the side of the highway in the lovely state of Ohio. Only here can you get pulled over for 76 in a 65. Unbelievable. 110 dollars wasted. 5:45 AM Pull into the RCA dome parking lot, first car there. Couldn't get to sleep after that Police incident, so I just drove through. 8:30 AM Awakened by the sweet sound of Doc Beat in the parking lot maybe 30 yards from my car. I get up, put on some sandals and begin one LONG day of drum corps. I watch the drumline march some boxes and do some basic warmups (8's, triplet rolls, etc.) I am surprised to see Madison marching only 5 bass drums. And the cymbal line isn't with the drumline, they're over by the pit... something odd is going on. 9:20 Madison assembles as a complete corps dor ensemble. They run the entrance (Pretty neat) then the opener right off the bat. After the opener: MY REACTION: Flags are REALLY dirty, I'm a drummer... I shouldn't notice that!" 2 GUYS NEXT TO ME: "They've (Guard) gotten worse since we saw them in Toledo!" Guard Caption Head: "Guard, not bad for a cold run guys." (TWO GUYS and I Gawk at eachother in disbelief) Now more people start showing up and as often is the case so do some pretty STUPID comments, ones such as... "Glassmen, I mean I don't like their music, but it does something for me." IN RESPONSE: "Yeah, but Phantom is getting louder." I continue to watch as Madison runs through its show chunks at a time. After close inspection I honestly feel that if Madison DOESN'T play Saturday night in Madison they will be my favorite 13th place finisher ever. Guard is holding them back. If they had Southwind's guard (*HINT HINT*) they'd be a solid 10th. After meeting up with a guy I used to march with who just left his DIV 2 corps of 4 years to march MADISON this year (What a year to go to Scouts Tim...) I head to the stadium. First I meet up with the PR souvie ladies and inform them that they are the hit of the internet with their bobble heads and other knick knacks. Then I head to the DVD display that is being set up. The following is my exchange with the person setting up the display: Me: 40 dollars each? Him: Yup. We have 99 down to 84 and 81 in stock here. Me: So the question everyone is dying to know is, last 2 years, top 12 coming out on DVD? Him: Eventually, a few years in the future. Me: This year's top 12? Him: Yes, we're trying to compress it on to a reasonable number of discs. Me: Like 4? Him: Actually 3. 2 for the top six with all the judges commentaries and features from the past 2 years and bottom 6 on disc 3 with high view and multi view, no judges tracks. Then I go to take my seat and wait for the action to begin....

Boston will probabbly not beat Crossmen. I misspoke when saying I thought that the way YEA recruited and ran the corps was ridiculous. What I had meant to say was that I didn't think other corps should be competing with the YEA! corps, let alone beating them. The budget of running these corps and the high number of people that go to the first audition camps you'd think that a ring was a sure thing. I am sorry if I offended anyone here on the board and am also appologizing to Mr.Hopkins, I didn't mean to rub anyone the wrong way. And it's pretty obvious that I like what both the corps are doing this year. I just wanted to make my observations seem unbiased, and it seems in the proccess I made myself look like an idiot. I should stay off the computer when I haven't had enough sleep. Anyways thanks for the explanation on the clinic thing too. Later ~

Actually, having marched Phantom I do not particularly like either of the two YEA corps. I felt last year Cadets weren't that entertaining and Crossmen had an easier visual package than most. But I feel both programs are good, fun, and full of G.E. this year. I do think that Phantom will edge off the Crossmen come Madison though :D .

Hey now, the uniforms are very nicely hemmed and fitted by some of the nicest uniform ladies in drum corps. That's all I'll say, I'm not going to argue with you now.

Learn to play boring music, perhaps you could listen to the theme song from BARNEY 2000 times in a row, Wait Nope that has WAY too much melody.

Can't work this Dell of my parents, the tab key just shortcuts to somewhere and the spaces I put in never leave the indentation once the message has been posted.