DarrenE you are my friggin hero! I marched in drum corps for 16 years, I marched in the late 60's, most of the 70's and in a senior corps in the late 80's and early 90's. My first 5 or so years were in a Class C corps which was a feeder corps for our Class A corps. Then I marched in the Class A corps for 9 years, I think I'm pretty qualified to an opinion here!
I have been going to Allentown for the last maybe 32 years, this year I saw a lot of things that I didn't like, along with a lot of things that a lot of other people in the stands around me didn't like. I know some of the amps out on the field were way too loud! When you can't hear a world class corps hornline or tell when it was the hornline blasting or if it was the amps, they are too loud. There were a few corps who used the synthesizers, (I know, I probably spelled it wrong, so shoot me,) for some pretty cool sounds, but they were few and far between. I really liked Teal Sounds show, but do they really need a couple of people playing bad guitar music when guitars aren't really what Drum Corps is about. If you think that the normal Drum Corps fan likes electric guitars in a Drum Corps show then you weren't sitting in the stands anywhere near me. People were shaking their heads and saying things to their friends and people around them like, "This don't belong in Drum Corps" and Electric Guitars in Drum Corps Sucks. I'm not making this up, just telling you what I saw and heard in Allentown. If the World Class Corps don't care about the fans soon, there won't be any fans in the stands, hence, there won't be any friggin World Class Corps and you can all go to Bands of America shows. I'm not dissing bands, but they aren't Drum Corps! As far as the music, how many of you out there can hum or whistle many of the songs that the corps are playing, not me! I hate to say in the old days we would know the whole show of what most of the corps were playing, I didn't know just about any this past weekend in Allentown. If the shows don't change at least some, fans are going to keep drifting away from DCI Drum Corps, which I think will probably benefit DCA corps greatly. I know a bunch of you will have a bunch of crap to write about what I have said, but it was a lot of peoples opinion this past weekend in Allentown, I was there for both nights, hung out in the lots for about 5 hours each night prior to the shows and after the shows, and talked to a lot of people and drum corps veterans, dinosaurs as some of you call us, and there were a lot of disgruntled Drum Corps Fans in the house!