Stryfe

Seeing as that snare player isn't marching this year, they probably won't use the Ms on the drums, and the uniform is supposed to be altered Yes. Edit: I feel like if I leave this post this implied, that people will continue commenting on this image. This is 2010, not 2011. There. :)

You don't tug on Superman's cape, etc. etc. No shortage of hometown love, believe you me, but I honestly get giddy thinking about getting to see every single corps this season. Even if I actually don't get to see every corps :\ details!

See the posts just before this one. The percentage of Phantom vets that went to SCV is not astounding.

SCV has Rennick, sure, and that means some nasty beats, but they don't have a whole lot of vets from Phantom or SCV. I think it's a stretch to throw two different teams together (SCV vets + Phantom vets) in a new house and predict a title out of it. I think SCV's percussion program will get great eventually, but not yet. (I'd love to be proven wrong!) I know a lot of people in Cavies percussion, so if they won I'd also be psyched, but, again, it's their first season at Cavies -- it's not a vet-heavy line. They've been playing together for a while, so I think it's slightly more likely, but still not the highest chance for me. Bluecoats, though, I know to be stacked. Eight of nine snares or whatever, a great majority of the pit, and more delicious writing. That's where my vote is. Also I won't pretend to know anything about BD or Cadets, because I don't.

Saying that the storyline or narrative of a show entirely justifies a uniform is ridiculous. He doesn't mean the crest makes no sense, he just doesn't enjoy the overall design of the uniform, especially as compared to those past. The Scouts' "Relàmpago" guard suits from 2009 fit the narrative perfectly well. Did that make them impervious to scrutiny? There will always be people who don't like this change or that one for varying reasons, valid ones and invalid ones. But this is a valid one and is left entirely to the realm of opinion; it is beyond "understanding" anything.

Just to play devil's advocate, I'll still weigh in that calling them dress rehearsals, by this definition, is flawed: A) "A rehearsal" Dress rehearsals in drum corps are hardly rehearsals -- they are performances. There is no staff feedback -- no more than there is at any show. B) "prior to a public spectacle" Dress rehearsals in drum corps ARE public spectacles, and they can't precede themselves. Unlike dress rehearsals in other media, drum corps dress rehearsals aren't private, and, as I mentioned previously, they don't act like rehearsals. It's not really something I care about at all, but a lot of people are following a red herring and attacking OP for "dino rage" and implying he doesn't think dress rehearsals are necessary when he's said that he does. Unlike him, I don't think "second dress rehearsal" is a problem -- there's no limit to the number of dress rehearsals possible. But I do think it's worth examining.

I'll play it safe and record here that I expect last years' Finals order, even if it's not what I want to see.

My extremely erratic sleeping schedule puts me up randomly, at all hours of the day -- and night. But more often, night.

Not really an ad hominem in the first place, but doing better than that would be pointing out that not only were those chords not power chords (not root-fifth chords), none of the mallet runs were chromatic, either (most of them sounded minor or perhaps octatonic). It's weird that there's people predicting it will be "too weird" for fans to get into and yet people claiming it will be "too standard." I don't think anything about this show is average. Also, the stigma attached to "intentionally dissonant" music is kind of disturbing. If you listen to the , you should find it listenable, especially because the tonality and musicality of it is reflected in a lot of highly-praised drum corps programming. Phantom '06 used Corigliano, whose large-ensemble music even I find a little hard on the ears, but I don't see many people saying that show was not fan friendly.

I'm just fine with the concept of dress rehearsals but I'm a little put off by the name, as it's a bit disingenuous. These performances are almost never "rehearsals" insofar as they don't operate like any of the other drum corps rehearsals do. They resemble performances more than rehearsals, and seeing as most of them are performances, I prefer to call it some sort of public performance. But other than that little nitpick, they're obviously fine. That being said, I think OP actually had an interesting point in, "Are corps these days reluctant to perform and compete in early season shows because their presentations are unpolished?" And, outside of the other reasons for why the season starts so late, I think it's actually more or less true. But I know, even as a member of various musical organizations, there've been times where I've not really been so chipper about putting something on the field that wasn't what it was supposed to be due to time constraints or whatever. And I don't think it's really a bad thing, in and of itself.

I think this is starting to get off-topic at this point. It's also worth pointing out that not every "Corps Director" is the same kind of director that George Hopkins is -- e.g. in the 2011 Madison Scouts, Dann Petersen (corps director) doesn't design the show, Jim Mason does. I trust that the Scouts administration will do what is wisest when they break into the top 8 if the ToC is even still around. But based on what Mr. Mason has said before and the inherent flaws in the design, I doubt it.

... What? Ouch.

This and whoever said "Cadets 98" were two posts where I was like "Yeeeeah!" I can't think of anything more generally effective than making a pentagram that spans the entire field.

That guy's beard is the reason clean-shaven is a bad policy. Ideally: >inb4 someone points out how bad I am at photoshop

I think you have a very interesting point. I would like to know specifically which Madison director you mean, as I can't place what you're talking about into history. Regardless, I'm sure any past event where Scouts may have resisted change was, on orders of magnitude, less complicated than this Tour of Champions system. I also think that they could still put on a very competitive show without attending these shows. It is up to this season to show how effective these shows are at separating the G8 from the rest of the pack. So... maybe. We'll see, I guess.

I think he meant wrong about Madison jumping on the ToC bandwagon. Jim Mason was pretty vocally opposed to this idea last year. It also threatens to alienate some of the lower corps, which goes against the Scouts' respect of every corps.

That's tragic. It really upsets me. Missouri's facing a similar problem, although our music programs haven't ever really been up there in the first place. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about groups like Gateway Indoor, Momentum, and the perhaps late Freedom Percussion -- large-scale independent groups are the only way I can ever try to give back to my community and try to help it grow, but the funding is pretty unfortunate. Just in asking to be a tech anywhere around even urban Kansas City or St. Louis, many high schools either don't have any money to bring in experts or warn the techs that the salary they receive will be marginal compared to what techs get in Indiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, etc. That's particularly troublesome for me as a tech, obviously, but it also saddens me outside of any potential loss of revenue. That's a good idea. It would be a little troublesome to keep track of 100 kids or to try and send letters to every corps they might go to, though. Still worth considering.

I can't provide the other person with audio yet, so it's kind of hard to get normal people to watch silent drum corps. If anyone has any solutions to patch my stereo out to line in or mic using only software -- which I'm sure is possible -- please help me out so I can share the good news! (The good news of clean diddles, jazz runs and fortissimo hammer chords, of course)

Just like how it should have been [2nd place] in [year].

A list of ranges expressed so far in this thread (i.e. the highest and lowest these corps have been "placed")... This exemplifies what BRASSO was talking about regarding the concept of outliers. If everyone was right, we could have a very interesting Finals lineup. :) In order of 2010 Finals: Blue Devils: 1st - 5th Cavaliers: 1st - 5th Bluecoats: 1st - 6th (maybe 7th) Carolina Crown: 1st - 8th (!) Cadets: 1st - 6th (maybe not in Finals) Phantom Regiment: 3rd - 11th (!) Santa Clara Vanguard: 3rd - 8th Blue Stars: 5th - 12th (maybe 4th, maybe not in Finals) Boston Crusaders: 7th - 14th Madison Scouts: 5th - 13th Blue Knights: 8th - 13th Glassmen: 9th - 13th (maybe 14th to 18th -- astounding number of "not in Finals"s) Granted, the unpredictability of the numbers is less surprising as you get towards Semifinals, but Boston's results are interesting, because they have the narrowest curve of anyone except maybe BD (i.e. just glancing through the thread, I'd guess that about 90% of replies said 9th, 10th or 11th). BK's results were similarly narrow. Also, for the record, I've heard personal anecdotes from experience watching a corps rehearse, like "[corps x] is on fire this year and will definitely place [higher than what is statistically likely]" for Glassmen, BK, Scouts, Boston, Blue Stars, SCV.... yeah, everybody.

I believe you, but I've never heard that and it confounds me in how inaccurate it is, edit: especially since my personal rural marching band experience was worth about $0.05 in the $100 price tag that was joining a world class corps. I think OP's idea could work, but I think the weirdest part is that the "standard model" of drum corps involves a massive kind of pride, and I can imagine mid-season there'd be a problem with flakey kids who get all, "this isn't important, it's just a stepping stone" about it. Granted, maybe there are some people who do that in lower corps now, but they're generally shown the door if they don't want to give their all. Not saying it wouldn't work, just that it would have unusual problems.

Easily my new favorite Crown uniform. I was scared by some of the hesitance of people who had seen it, and am now bewildered -- I don't know who couldn't love this. (inb4 "I do!" or other snarky replies) Visually sharp in every way. Only complaint I have is that the pure white drumheads seem a little off to me with the whole uniform. Maybe I want them to be black. Not sure. Edit: I also appreciate that the drum decals appear to be randomized somewhat, or perhaps in sets of twos/threes. Either way, I would be a little disappointed if it was the same exact pattern of flames on all drums.

You sure are insistent on this Troopers thing -- enough to double-post about it with no supporting evidence. I'm not willing to take anyone to arms over any of my guesses, but that's just me. Do you know something the rest of us don't? With how confident you are it seems baffling that not everyone is putting Troop in 11th [exactly 11th, at that]. I'm honestly curious, since I haven't heard a peep from them.

Wow, that's kind of surprising, but definitely accurate after looking at pictures -- 5 marimbas, 4 vibes, 1 xylo/bells?/rack, 1 synth. The back-row vibes look like they'll be doing a lot of rack work. I wonder if it was within the pit's jurisdiction (which is usually nothing) to make the choice to go that small. I'm guessing not. I'm sure it will work for them, though, and I know very well that that pit is smokin' good.

Coming from the performance-over-competition corps, I still think this sounds troublesome. I always appreciated our encores, e.g. playing an old chart like Heaven on Their Minds or Brian's Song and singing Never Walk, but it sounds like this format won't really go with that very well. Even appreciating our encore as much as we did, it was never a rehearsal priority and the argument that the performance quality of these tunes could be lackluster is definitely likely. Even if the rest of the factors worked out, it would still bother me to take part in an event with such a separatist ego to it. On a sidenote, it'll be interesting to see what happens if the Scouts solidify themselves within the top 8 while ToC is still around. Hopefully they'll stick to their guns.