Mouthpiece1234

The Cadets. I love all 4 that they've had. But definitely the Garfield G, which is a frequenter on the souvie material to this day.

There was one absolutely haunting part of this show... the beginning of the closer with the HNC, Garfield G, CB, and 75. It was an absolutely amazing moment both musically and visually. What an absolute treat! Never had I seen and heard a backfield horn line moment like this. An amazing marriage of music and visual design. What a soft tear jerking moment. There have been several moments that bring amazement, chills, intensity, darkness. But I've never seen a moment that captured the audience with shear nostalgia; alumni or not. Thank you Holy Name!

I just don't want to see hornlines not march. There really is too much hiding behind props, standing still, sitting down (yeah that's a callout), posing, and free form this year. Just really way too much this year. It started in the early 2000s and it's really getting out of hand in my opinion. Most of the top 6 are extremely guilty of this. For me difficulty both technical and on physical endurance of a marcher is an effect for me and I'm certainly not alone on this thought. Corps have 100 days to max it out. Write something effective yet clearly hard and rehearse it until it's clean. There's got to be less "wow that's cool" and more of "wow look at what they're doing".

They struggled because of the work and the tricky flags and constant rewrites. Vets who marched 2005 said it was an absurd book in the beginning of the season.

The testament of the difficulty of his drill comes from the shear fact that the corps is playing extremely loud while marching.

Well this year it was on purpose with the recycling to celebrate the Corps' history. Backwards Z-pull, Rotating Block, HNC, Garfield G, the same way the Company Front formed in 1984, the Big X from 2007, the star from 2005/06, the Hour Glass, and the Meshing Company Front

I was facebook surfing and saw a posted video of Holy Name's 2009 Semifinals Performance and I was utterly amazed with the drill design. I'm sure all you DCI veterans have definitely heard The Cadets, Star of Indiana, Santa Clara Vanguard and The Cavaliers to be the leaders of visual innovation in the activity. However I felt that after 2007, The Cadets have been particularly leading another surge of visual amazement: shear elegance yet viciously aggressive with some extreme demand. After watching all of 2007, the end of 2008, and top to bottom of 2009: I feel as though the Cadets maybe redefining visual difficulty as an effect. What do you all think?

You and your politics.

2007 Cadets

Shame on all of you. You, member, staff, design team, all alike very well know that Cadets show is never set in stone and is subject to drastic alterations up to their first performance.

1999 Blue Devils 2003 Blue Devils 2006 Blue Devils 1999 Santa Clara Vanguard 1989 Santa Clara Vanguard 2000 The Cadets 2005 The Cadets 2007 The Cadets 2008 The Cadets Vesuvius! :devil: 1996 Phantom Regiment 2003 Phantom Regiment 2006 Phantom Regiment

There is a massive similarity between 2008 Phantom Regiment and 2006 Phantom Regiment. 2008 Phantom is almost a splice of Faust... so I don't see any originality there. One could also argue that 2006 Phantom Regiment came from 2004 Scheherazade and ideas used in 2005 Cadets. As charming as 2008 Phantom was, I don't think it revolutionized anything. Seems like the design team just used the Faust template because they knew it worked. 2008 Cadets, was revolutionary, but most likely did not revolutionize the future. Though it used characters, the primary goal was not to show actions of a character. Rather, it was create a feeling. Happiness. Now, that is very very hard and incredibly broad to do on a field. Similarities between 08 and 06 Regiment... 1) Pre-show Setup Time used to Generate the Environment and Characters 2) Colorguard is dressed in uniforms to accentuate the environment 3) Specific Characters key for visually centric cues 4) An Angry Classical Opener showing the unhappy environment created by the evil characters 5) Opener uses the Mellophone wail to end abruptly 6) Ballad with the "Love" theme going on 7) Ballad is transitioned to a dark piece by the evil character 8) One Production showing Good vs. Evil with a Characters' Death 9) Final Production uses a majestic ending with half-time triple forte where Evil is destroyed

2008 just because of that closer. Wow. The last 2 minutes was definitely the most intense demand out of the top 12. Standing O

The 2007 Cadets were over 100 decibels. Brass rehearsals used a decibel meter everyday to make sure the volumes were at right levels, especially for hits.

China is certainly not thaaaaat that poor, and people aren't all striving now. There are developed areas like there are developed areas in other countries and run of the mill places the same. One thing is certain, there is a population. Going there annually, I've seen run down towns with almost every person with high-tech cell phones. I do believe it's possible in areas like Beijing, Nanjing, Karamay, Shanghai etc... that Drum Corps would be a respectable activity to join. Most high schools have coreographed military-like colorguard practices and exhibitions. Drum Corps wouldn't be a stretch for some of those kids.

Hit the nail on the head.

(line removed per forum guidelines - ee) But no it's good discussion. I feel the 90s was just this era of such style. I felt it was their way or the high way, arrangers were just going to do their own thing. This is when I felt that GE wasn't the crux of civilized Drum Corpdom

Well the excess tempo does get too much. there's only once where I thought it was just too fast... 1993 Cadets... It was so fast, i was nervous all the time except for that amazing ballad.

I know for many of you, the disappointing placement of the Cadets this season might have you overlook their recording. Or maybe you've had enough of the ending drill ravings (which if you haven't seen, you're 100% missing out) on this forum. I never liked the show, from the announcement of it, to seeing it live multiple times. Didn't care for a bit of it and almost expected a non-stellar Cadet year. I've been listening to Phantom and Crown a lot since the semis recording came out. I downloaded Cadets (still with my prejudgements) and found myself enjoying Jay Bocook, Niel Larivee, Aungst, Moyer, and Mcnutt's writings. Virtually the first half of the show was good and the narration did get a little much at times.... But wow... the last 3 and a half minutes I was completely captivated by Vesuvius. I've been playing it nonstop for the last few days and it still doesn't cease to give me goosebumps. The entire tune is totally BAMF, right off the get go with the percussion but then wait, a flutter tongue attack and swells and then crazy metered grooves, then runs, dark chords, and then more runs, and then a crazy push to the end. I'm blown away at the attention to detail and hidden minutia written in this piece. Every measure is absolutely thick with extra things to hear and stylistic depth. I haven't gotten my DVD yet, but I'm stoked to see these cats play this amazingly put together song on the move as the Cadets fly the way they do. Is anyone impressed by the writing as much as I am? Out of all of 2008's top 6 APDs, Cadets went from 5th most listened to 1st just because of Vesuvius. I wonder why no other arrangers stylize their pieces as much as this or Phantom. Seems to be a thing of the past. I mean yeah Jay Bocook has always been the epitome of notes and great arranging, but he certainly makes the piece his through the transformational process. Blue Devils used to bring things like this to the table like A Night in Tunisia and My Spanish Heart. But you really don't get things like that as much. I wonder why most corps aren't as "juicy" with their pieces as they were in the 90s. Is it watered down because of the visual demand? Are the kids not as talented as they were? Is it just the new style? P.S. If you haven't checked out the youtube video of that last minute and a half of drill. Do it now. (Search cadets 2008 finals)

I dunno... I was watching that clip and got excited to watch other Cadet endings, I don't think anything compared to that. 2000 and 2007 might be the only two that came close to the long periods of demand, volume, and excellence. What they need is a 2007 Aggression (and hornline) with 2005's Quality + 2008's Ending = The show of gods.

So I knew the show was Winged Victory. All I saw was Wings in the show, but nothing gave me a hint that there was some ridiculous struggle for a victory. It really just ended up being 3 tunes. One really good song tagged by 2 songs at mp-mf and then oh yeah wham loud typical ending chord. Marching wise, there were really bad interval issues, and just some not good foot-timing in the closer that can be seen from the high cam...with Black Pants. I'm pretty confident to say 2006 BD out marched 2007 by a boatload. From the opener, it was such a let-down. For me, as an effect standpoint, there were lower corps that kept interest longer in terms of design. But again as for their theme, nothing besides the wings and some triumphal music at the end really hinted to the continuity of it all. I'm honestly baffled as to where they came up with those GE marks. It's that part of the show that you can't even remember, like the middle of Star 1991.

Again, I've been watching that clip every time I pass DCP. I was watching SCV, they seem to try to fast endings like that, BD does it sometimes. But I'm just curious how The Cadets' hornline manages to play with such volume at those extreme demands. If I closed my eyes I'd forget that they were dashing across the field with a direction change ever 2 counts.

Look up 2008 Cadets Finals on Youtube

I wasn't able to see the show this summer. After reading this thread I figured I'd hit up google video, sure enough there was a clip. All I have to say is... JESUS CHRIST 2008 CADETS!! one of the most jaw dropping finishes I've ever ever ever seen.

2007 Had a lot of Rookouts. 1/2 the Hornline were rookies. So there were still a substantial amount of rookies in 2007. Personally, 2007 was so much better because.... The show was so fun to perform AND because of our adherence to the physical training program everyday. Without that, 2007 would have crashed and burned. Show wasn't harder, members were just in such phenomenal physical endurance to withstand 3 incredibly fast songs. I believe that show is hard as the members perceive the visual program to be. Which accounts 50/50 for design and physical shape. There was massive rewrites for the show in 2007. Work was redone many many times. The experience level for the corps was probably at its lowest. The good thing was the members had a great time. April was present for later 1/2 of the season. I don't know... A Cadet who marched those years behind my shoulder begs to differ.