Drumcorps4life

I love how people always will find ways to argue how the corps that always beat the corps that they do will pull away just like they did in 1988 (1 years ago). We will just have to wait and see what happens this year :-) Mark

I talked to a frieind in the cadets. The conversation went like this Me I felt bad for you guys. Cadet I felt bad for us. lol Also I don't think cadets will run away with much when their show his finished. In my experiance with the bluecoats the last 5 years when we would finish our show after a few weeks, it never really made any noticable difference at all. Of course they are the cadets lol. Mark

I don't know how long this will be so bear with me. My background Marched 97-99 Lake Erie Regiment (Baritone and Contra) and 2000-2003 Bluecoats (Contra) Just graduated college with a degree in Material Science Engineering and will be going to Navy OCS to be a Nuke SWO officer eventually! Anyways the show. Elizabeth is a nice little show to open the season with. Biggest news of the night definently was the Cadets horrible amp snafu. It was really bad. About as bad as it coudl get. It happened numourous times. I'll say more about it later. The show. Started late. Go figure Cap Reg. My friend and I were discussing if they would be able to improve on last year or fall of by the way side after comeing close to finals. I think at least last night it was more of the later. I was excpecting a lot more out of them. They didn't have guard uniforms yet and they did not march their closer either. Actually they didn't even play it. I was told they had a lot of people quit in the last week and there were some obvious holes in the drill. Full size corps though. There is a large prop on the field that they just wheel around. Not sure what it is for but i think I noticed they put some flags on it. The hornline wasn't really loud at all and played very sloppy. Marching was sloppy as well. THe percusion feature however was very nice though. Those of you that were hoping that they woudl be close to glassmen to open the season, I'm sorry to disapoint. But they aren't really anywhere near close. I'm not saying anythin isn't possible but they have a lot of work to do. I'm not sure if I like this show yet or not because it was just a little bit to sloppy and underperformed to get a good read yet. Glassmen YES! I think this will be everyone's favorite glassmen show ever. A New World takes a very different direction for this piece of music, and its really cool. THere were a couple of parts that were kind of cheesy but there is plenty of time to fix that. Big step up in the performance level. First corps to have a full show and a full guard uniform. They are going in a very good direction. I do have to say that I thought the guard uniforms were a bit fruity and out there. Bluecoats My alma mater so take this for what its worth. They were defientnly the first corps to come on tonight and be really loud (THank god the new horns have made a huge difference). I believe they were another step up from the glassmen even though the score didn't reflect it. There was some dirt in the marching but they hvae a very difficult book, (Over 200 sets I believe). The hornline sounds fantastic and the drumline is out of this world. This was my favoirte show fo the night and from what I udnerstand it was most everyone at the shows favorite show (Glassmen was my second). They still have a lot of coreagraphy to add as well because tehre are lots of points where the hornline is just standing around for a few counts (Show is complete by the way. I think something needs to be added to the balad to make it a little bit more engaging yet. Yes bluecoats use amplification this year. The pit does beat box type stuff as the percussion is playing. I will say this about it. Its very cool. However, even though this is my corps, it still doesn't soudn right through the speakers, sounds sort of cheesy compared to everything else you hear... Oh well. I think Blue is off to a great start and think things will only get better for them. Cadets I also enjoy this show. It is neat and gimmikee. They also have a prop, a door in the middle of the field. It just stays tehre and I think some people come out of it. My only complaint about the door is that it looks very poorly built. The new uniforms are awesome in my opinion. When they turn around its so cool. (I hear they might not last long though) There drill was also not complete. I felt like they were a little bit more mature in their brass sound and marching tongiht than the bluecoats. This was by a small margin though so it will be interesting to see how things shape up. I also believe that the cadets can really make something of this show with the right tweaks. The amp problem. THe cadets also do a beat box thing. ALl the sudden they started getting terrible feed back. It drowned out everything. Then it happened again, and again. It was really bad. Everyone in the audience was laughing I couldn't even watch. It completley ruined their show... I was told taht they think it was the abulance radio interfering with their wireless mics. WE'll have to see if they can fix it. Intermission Encores Cap played some of their show. Then they played hang on sloopy. Didn't seem to get into it to much. Glassmen had a really nice Encore, played some of their show, corps song I believe a few other things. Bluecoats performed next. My one gripe about it was that every otehr corps arced up on the track as to be louder, and the bluecoats arced up on teh field and they werent' as loud because of it. I thought that was kind of lame oh well. They played autumn leaves which was great to hear. Cadets did their encore (no pit) It was really great. THey have thish small group that is phenominal; that plays forever a bunch of different things (the whole corps playes moondance at one point) Awesome encore. Only complaint, was that I just sat through an intermission and then three encores and theres was so long! All I wanted was the scores. The scores. I agreed with cap I agreed with Glassmen. I thought the Bluecoats should have been higher I thought the cadets bluecoats spread was about right. One thing to note, Cadets gained two full points on glassmen and bluecoats in just the guard caption. Bluecoats won GE. Thats all I'm out Mark

How much for one set? Mark

Bluecoats beat crown actually Mark

I was at the Pittsburgh show and it was a very enjoyable experiance. I sat on in the 2nd row up but the wall was about 15 to 20 feet high so I had a decent vantage point. I was also on the 40 yard line. Court of Honor - I was very impressed by what I saw from this first year corps. Big sound for Division III. I loved the uniforms though and the music was catchy. I thought the drill was well designed. Something was kind of wierd with the music though that I couldn't put a finger on. Not the performance but just the songs themselves. Overall I really enjoyed the show and it was a great way to start off the evening. Pioneer - It was pleasant to see them with over 40 horns and they were putting out a lot of sound for the size of hornline. I really liked the show as well. Deffently the best Pioneer has been in awhile. Unfourantly for them their drill and music is more difficult than their nearest compition and they are dirtier. During their one percussion break the horns do this really nice horn move sequence. I don't know how to explain it but I really liked it. Biggest problem is just overal dirty from horn moves to drill, to playing. I liked the guards plade skirts as well. Southwind - I heard they weren't loud enough for a corps their size and I can agree with that with the exception of the very last note. Super loud. It seems like once their honrline moved back towards the front hash they stopped projecting and the sound became very week. It is an enjoyable show. My one friend who was with me that night liked Southwind the best out of everyone and he wanted to buy a shirt but had no money for it. Troopers - I was a bit dissapointed with them. Their drill was very easy but cleaner than the first two corps. The middle of their show it gets very cheesy.... Esp. with the flags that have horse heads on them... I felt kind of bad. The taps at the end also didn't really make a lot of sense. I could have used more sound from the hornline and the guard did not project at all either ( I am talking about their facial expressions that is). I did love the magnificent 7 number though. Such a fantastic song. Did I say that I really like that song. Intermission - Too long. Glassmen - Tons of improvement since I last saw them in June. I really am starting to enjoy this show. One thing I don't like though is at the end whenever they are building into the big Simple Gifts Push and it just becomes Medea... Didn't make a lot of sense. They woke the crowd up though. I didn't really pay much attention to cleanliness of this show. I just sat back and enjoyed it. Kudos Spirit - Whoa did they pump up the volume since June. Very pleasent surprise. This show has also really grown on me. One thing I didn't like was when they shout straight out of compton. Didn't make much sense. Also they keyboards were amped way to loud at points. They just jumped out at you and smaked you in the face haha.. 12 contras is also always lovely to see esp. since I am a former contra player myself. I really had no idea who would win tongiht between them and glassmen. Styles are so different and execution is very similar. Madison Scouts - Can you say loud??? I can. It was very nice to hear them. First half of their show was just like everyone has been saying though. Nothing to really talk about. Ballad is just sort of there. Then Malaga comes and it becomes a fantastic show. Solist were on fire of course. At the end where they just have the low brass and percussion playing as loud as they can and then the high brass comes in. A 10. No doubt. Loved it. I saw a lot of mental mistakes though. People stepping off when they shouldn't and the drill was a bit dirtier than I expected and some missed releases. Blue Devils - WOW WOW WOW. Holy clean. iceman was rigiht when he said they are just showing off. The stacatto hits are perfect. Releases are right on. Man I loved it. It was a clinic in being perfect. Playing wise at least. Drill is super clean as well but I saw room for improvement. Ididn't hear anyroom for improvement brass wise. I love the part where the corps is playing ( I believe it is flutter tounging) as loud as they can and then they hit the pedal. Its so gross I love it. I also though they did the best job with amps tonight. I think there system of an amp on every keyboard is the best. Of course maybe not everyone can afford it. Two negitives. I didn't hear one power chord in the entire show. And although the ending makes prefect sense and is really cool... It is a let down. It didn't feel like it shoould be oever at all and it didn't feel like we should have even clapped.... Scores - I agreed for the most part. I think the bottom three corps should have scored higher and I thought court of honor should have been in the 70,s. I predicted BD would get a 91 and they did. Go me!!! Victory concert - fantastic. I sat right infront of their solist and my ears hurt. Thos guys can play holy cow. F tunning was insanely loud too. It doens't get better than that. Overall thoughts. Great show. One problem I noticed. Every corps had lots of problems wiht releases, except BD though. Also its a shame that all the corps don't know america O'Canada better. That coudl be so amazing and it so isn't... But as always I always leave a drum corps show in a good mood. ( Unless I'm listening to singing and narration through amps!!! BLAH!!!) Till Next time. Mark

Actually I forget if I added this to the review but the APD of crown I downloaded has more sinign than the show does now. They got rid of the sinigng that was going on during the loud horn playing. I'd say they sing for about 30 to 45 seconds. Then during the drum solo there is some spoken stuff that is sparatic. Mark

Thank you for the thanks!!! I like reading reviews so I figured I should post one.

I was at the show last night and I decided to write a review. I was a Contra player so most of my comments are horn and drill oriented with some guard comments. As always these are just my opinions and like anyone else I'm not perfect and I get things wrong. And don't be offended if I say something you don't like I read plenty of thingsi about my shows in the past that I didn't like, its just critisism. Part of life. Spirit of America - Not a bad show at all. They march much better than they play. At louder volumes some of their tubas and their one trumpet player like to play superman and they tend to stick out. THey also had a very good trumpet soloist. Wasn't crazy about the woodwinds though. Marion Glory Cadets - I saw these guys a week ago and they have made some big improvements. Their colorguard hash inceased from one girl standing on the sidelines to two girls that are actually doing routines. Unfourtantly you can hear them arguing with eachother during the show about which routine is right lol. Also I believe they completly redid the music to the end of their show. They stood in an arc for about the last three minutes. So I'm assuming they are just now learning the drill. As always with a small corps they need to work on blend and balance esp with a hornline. Its been so long since I"ve been able to watch division III I have no idea what the standard of excellence is so I can't comment on how I think they will do. Glassmen - Deffently a wake up call for the auidence. This was my second viewing of glassmen for the year and they have already improved a lot. I hear they won horns last night and I deffenlty woulnd't disagree with that at all. They really do have a really solid hornline and they can really put out the sound when nessicary. Drill is starting to clean up a lot as well. The show his deffently still a little bit out there though and some of the music esp in the closer is just so cut and paste together that it doens't really work to well in my opinion. But I think with some rewrites and more cleaning G-men will easily be back in finals and maybe as high as 10th. Magic - I really enjoyed the pirates theme. Music is recgonizable and they have some really cool effects. A lot of nice role playing by the guard that works really well. I like it esp. whenever the guard has one girl walk the plank. There is also anotehr neat portion of thier program where the corps is drunk and then they start playing really loud and in spurts. I blieve it is to simulate puking because at the same tiem the guard is throwing water everywhere. And when I say everywhere all over the horn players. I turned to my friend who marched cascades and I said man I'd be ###### if I was the hornline haha. Unfourtantly though for magic they have a ton of problems to fix. There was a very noticable drop in performance level from Glassmen to Magic. I hear the hornline is 95% rookies and it is very evident. There is tonsn of slop everywhere and esp towards the end of the show much of the hornline stops playing. Drill is also a major concern and their drill wasn't nearly as effective either as glassmens. I hope they can pull something together because as of now they will be struggling to makes semis.... Intermission - I ran into my former best friend from my first drum corps I marched in. He lives in pittsburgh now and is getting married and sat with me for the rest of the show. I was very excited to see him and we traded phone numbers. Best part of the show!! Spirit - I'm a big spirit fan but I was slightly dissapointed by this. It isn't like spirit from the last couple of years. The cavaliers influence is painfully obvious. Their marching techinque is identical, drill looks very identical, and horn arranging also has kind of gone the cavies route. They have some very cool effects and cleanliness was about where I thought it would be tonight. I think they could do so much more though with this show, but when it cleans up I think they can do well. Crown - Best corps crown has ever had period. ! Hornline is playing together very well for this time of year. They are overblowing in parts and it gets a little bit raunchy but the volume of it is enjoyable. After the singing part when the horns come back in is a very nice moment. Bohiemium is a very nice ending too. Kind of cheesy but nice. Drill is also looking very clean for this time of year. Ok onto the singing. The voices just sound terrible through the mics. If they had better mics and better speakers where the voices sounded more natural I htink I would enjoy it more but they didn't spend enough money to make their voices sound right. It soudns like they are coming out of the long ranger and it is just such a bad sound coming through the speakers. My friends and people around me were commenting on them too. NOt many people really liked it. Crown was my favoirte show of the night despite the amps. Boston - As they are coming on the field the poeple infront of me said oh my god its a BOA show. Technicallyl Boston is solid as always. There show has some nice GE but nothing stands out really. The voice overs are terrible. People around me were laughing and making comments about them while they were happening. And as I as saying for crown, the voice is so distored through the amp that it just soundsn bad and is very distracting. my friends who came wiht me and never saw a drum corps before also hated it. Sorry but thats what they thought and I wasn't a fan either. I did like how they ran off the field into the boxs where you couldn't see them. All I could think was that was my dream when I marched. I would have taken my helmet off, drank some water unzipped haha. Overall this his a solid show but I see them being overtaken by a few corps. And the voice overs need to go. "Courage is orange" give me a break. Crossmen - These guys have some fantastic solist and the first tune is rockin. Unfourtantly after that it starts to go down hill. Starting with the balad the horns really start to get ragged and so does the drill. Towards the end of the show stamina becomes a real issueu for them as well. As the su mmer goes on and they clean this up thsi will be one of my favorite shows I believe but I think Glassmen will pass these guys and making finals could be in question for them. Hopefully bones can clean up though enough that this isn't an issue. And yes I love their new uni's! Thanks for reading and remembmer just my opinions as I saw it. My friends who never saw drum corps before loved the show and I thourougly enjoyed myself as well. Till next time. Mark

If no one else will I'll sit down and have a beer with DCM! Mark

If you would have listened the first jam section was from in the mood. The last jam session was also from in the mood. And that is not their closer. They just haven't learned the drill to it yet. By Louisville the real closer will be in. Mark Fosdick

The guy is only saying what he thought from what he heard on the CD's. That is all people. He did say that on the CD's he heard some bad sounds. This topic is completly off topic now cause everyone took offense that someone might not love how phantoms hornline sounded this year. Thats not even the point of the topic. And like other people said a bad attack is a bad attack even on a mic. and when something is live you miss a lot of stuff cause you are caught up in the moment. So to say your memory of a flawless clean show that you saw 3 months ago is more accurate than a CD you can hear right now is a little bit ubsurd. You know what I can remember from shows I watched this summer? Nothing. I doubt everyones memories is that great. And also if someone has something bad to say about a corps you like relax thats their opinion. If they think phantom should be 5th in brass than thats there opinion. I certiantly don't agree with all the stuff people have said about my corps on here but I just let it go.

This is the greatest idea ever in the history of the human race.

I was just curious to who all actually has made the switch for this year. I know the Bluecoats, Crossmen, Magic, LVK, have. I think the Glassmen, Boston have. Who else has or is in process of making the switch this year? Mark

I think these guys are on crack. Give it to me at 200 decibals for all I care. Mark

This will be my third year under the candians and I must say that they are a great team. Very funny too. Esp. with all the canadian pride!!

Actual Rubble, This Bb Kanstul Contras have the exact same bore size as the kanstul G contras. I don't know what the bore size was on our DEG's but these horns are virtually identical to their G counterparts. Well better in tune at least :p

Thanks for the support shawn. lol

Ok so I tried to sign my last name but apparently that is filtered by this list thing. My last name really is Fosd i c k. I think its funny that my last name gets censered on here. LOL Mark

If you listen to the 2000 cd's of the Bluecoats you will notice something. At the end of the opening tune there is a huge brass chord that is held out before the show moves on to the jazzier 6th day. At the end of that chord there is a big drum kick that leads into the 6th day. You can hear it on all the recordings from that summer. Except finals. The hornline completly drowned out the drumline. You can't it it at all. We might not have been the loudest of all time but I think we had to be playing pretty #### loud at that point to not be able to hear the drums. And I have to agree with ryan some, 99 BD was loud as balls. Mark Fos#### Bluecoats Contra 2000-2002 and hopefully 03