Gentleman Marcher

Regiment '03 didn't even make the main list--it was one of the bonus shows?

Seconded for Mike Grimes. If Mike got wind of any funny business the dude would be canned so fast his head would spin.

Having known a lot of the kids...it took all types. There were some who had no prior drum corps experience. There were some with prior Open Class experience (e.g., Colt Cadets). There were some with prior World Class experience. And there were a lot of vets who've stuck with the Colts for years. Being on the road with them gave me the impression the Colts have an incredibly diverse experience mix--can't say if that's typical for every season but that's how it struck me this past summer.

That's...actually pretty good. Way, way better than I was expecting with the very short "contest" they did. Props to the designer. Clean, few "moving parts" and will reproduce pretty well at every size. The hallmarks of a solid logo.

Their corps battlecry is "Mojo." Which explains why no one else dares to say that word on tour.

When their drum major takes the podium, the audience salutes him. The color guard only throws their equipment once--at the start of the show. Twelve minutes later they catch it in perfect synchronicity. Their drum major doesn't pull a baton out of his uniform--he pulls out a mace. The Cavaliers' "diamond cutter" was a poor imitation of their "cube cutter." To reassert their dominance they're debuting the "tesseract cutter" in 2010. They never go "horns to the box." Instead the stands collapse so the box comes to them.

I laughed hard at this one, Mike. Looking forward to reading this year's liner notes, by the way.

Got some baggage there? Say what you mean to say.

So...anyone able to give a (dis)confirmation on Madison's cymbal line? I would be a sad panda if they gained this phenomenal staff but their cymbals fell by the wayside again...

Yeah, needs a bit more speed an intensity...but I was laughing the whole way through. Well played, sir.

"The Puck." Whoever choreographed that segment was a genius. Other highlights: 1. Colts missing it, Troopers in--strong feelings about both for me but no regrets. Good job, Troop...watch out next season! 2. Vanguard's company front. Goosebump moment for the ages, like only Vanguard can create. 3. End of Cadets ballad. Cheese? Yeah. Awesome? Absolutely! Another weird one that will undoubtedly stick with me...no show the Colts were at was rained out! Even ones like Lawrence where it looked like a sure rain-out went on. Apparently it was a very weather-lucky corps...they must have earned their stripes during camp in Platteville (what an ugly week for weather!).

I have a friend whose high school percussion instructor marched corps, and got a full-back tattoo of a skeleton wearing a marching snare. I have wanted to see that tattoo ever since.

Well, I immediately knew Crown, Colts and SCV were in my top five for this season. Then it got tricky. Cadets make the cut, though really I liked all the "moments" they created in the show--but I thought the production as a whole suffered a little from some slice-and-dice arranging. But stuff like the drumline ramming home the end of the ballad and the jazz-running company front push it into top 5 territory. Then I realized I was incapable of picking a fifth show simply because I had so many holes in what I had and hadn't seen. So I'll get back to you around November-December.

Awesome.

Man, that tuba is hyping like crazy. I dunno...you'd think if you were the cameraman you'd take one look at the man's face and back up a few feet.

wat

My biggest issue was a design thing--they could have turned it into a "character" show, not unlike when they did Carmen or when Phantom did Faust, have one "hero" character from the guard and one "villain" character, and have used a simple plot to convey the story. Give each of those two characters a different costume from everyone else and the audience can easily follow along. Unfortunately, that wasn't the direction they took, and although there were some cool things I still never "got" the story, if there was one. A story in a drum corps show is something you can't do halfway--either costume the characters and stage them appropriately or pick a theme and convey it more abstractly, but leave no doubt in my mind as to which one I'm watching, story or abstraction. I was also not a big fan of those guard outfits, and they didn't grow on me over the course of the summer--couldn't they have done a green and red variation like the guy on the poster?

Troop had a heck of a sound last year, very mature...Cavies should do well by Scott.

Seconded?

$64 question...what kind of headgear to go with this one? I'm thinking shako with the long, black feathered plumes BD used before they switched back to white, but I could also see this working with a modernized variation on the Belleville Black Knights helmet design. (also, this is Final Fantasy 8, right?)

Between seeing Capital Regiment back on the field and speaking with a couple of Southwind alumni this summer, I realized how much I actually miss Southwind. Here's hoping they can surmount whatever issues are keeping them from competition and get back on the field in some form. And after seeing Cap's open class season I hope they aren't ruling out Open Class as an option. Does anyone know if they're still set on trying to come back as World Class?

Colts corps song is "Morning," they played it in their 1998 show and adopted it as corps song a few years later.

Anybody know the story behind that guy? I seem to recall hearing from a DCI person that, unlike Bones, he isn't "officially" associated with the corps.

Uh, aren't those also on the DVDs? Between '03 and '05, '03 gets the edge in my book for one reason: cowbell. Tasty, tasty cowbell.

I would have picked Colts, honestly--their biggest weakness was ensemble sound, which Troopers had in spades this year, but I felt the strength of the Colts color guard and show design would have carried them over Troop. That said, seeing Troop enter the field and the standing ovation they received made me feel a lot better that Troopers made finals and Colts didn't. Even if my choice for 12th didn't win they couldn't have been beaten by a better corps. Good luck to both Colts and Troopers in 2010.