Panther Pilot

That was a great article. I never knew so much about the Bridgemen. Sorry they had to go, I bet they made DCI senior leadership pull their hair out. I like that. Come back to us some day Bridgemen!

I was also at the Lynn show did you see the Boston guys beating their fist in the ground when they finished that show. You could tell those kids left it all on the field that night. Very emotional peformance for The Crusaders. Crowd was really into that show as well. I never heard such a roar from a home crowd. It was a fun show - now if they just fix up/clen up the stadium.

Great review and I agree 100% with your anyalsis of Cavies show. Actually, I think we see things pretty much the same as far as the Top 12 corps this year, but I don't like the tango section in Blue Coats show. You love BD and it shows and me Madison. You are 100% correct, BD has a great show this year and will make it Championship #11. Got to love that big hill in Allentown ... the joy of trugging up that thing.

Thanks for your review. I know you hadn't seen the recap sheet when you did this, but you said Cadets drums were on fire and they won percussion in Qtrs. Madison drum line and color guard were both 12th, visually they were 6th. I would sure like to see Madison 6th this year, but just don't think it will happen. Thanks for the info though.

Coro, nice review. Nice meeting you at Hard Rock. The Cavie guy on here that took your comments so personally, he wanted to know why Cavies were 2 points ahead of BDs. Its the music man. Blue Devils have a challenging book that has runs and high solo parts etc. Cavies are playing a very controlled sound and doing so they can tweak the crap out of it. Much easier to keep whole notes and quarter notes in tune rather than 8 note runs. Van Mathews isn't done with the Blue Devils horn line and I think Mr Gibbs wants to dethrone the Green Machine. Seperate note, last year was the first musical book since I've been around since 91 that I did not like from the Cavies. This year, I dislike this book much more. Music is melodic, but doesn't do a thing for. If it wasn't for the visual package this show has, I'd be out in the hot dog line getting a soda during it, because the only emotion the 2003 musical book SPIN envolkes with ME is a YAWN.

:P :P :P :P :P Harvey you crack me up. Yea I got flamed out by putting out something "bad" about the Cavies. If it wasn't for the drill I'd been out in the hot dog line during their show. This guy from Cavies knew a lot of information about the amount of music they "looked" at. My major fault with the Cavies show is the whole sound control thing. PR came out and had this huge sound and then the Cavies played mesto forte the entire show almost. Haven't we seen some of this before, Star 93 undefeated until finals night and Cadets turned in one of the best guard and visual shows this DCI fan had ever seen. I was sure Star would win, but didn't. Afterwards, Star went their seperate way.

Nice job keep it up.

What happened to Madison. Scores dropped again. Madison's drum line seems to be taking the big hits. Just an off night, new changes, I was hoping to see some low 70s out of Madison at this point. Very nice review BTW.

I don't know. Lots of hype this year on corps. While I see a battle for 10, 11, 12 this year. That battle will be between Spirit, Magic, Seattle, Colts, Blue Knights and Crown. Too early to say, but I think come 19 Jul, 3 weeks before finals the top 12 will be set. Lets compare last year Southwestern showdown to finals and see. 20 Jul 2002 Cavies Cadets BD SCV Gmen PR Boston Blue Coats Crossmen Seattle Spirit Blue Knights 10 Aug 2002 Cavies BD Cadets SCV PR Boston Blue Coats Gmen Crossmen Spirit Magic Seattle With the exception of Magic being added. The Top 11 remained. Big dropper from one show to finals was the Gmen. Basically, others just flip flopped positions.

Thanks. I won't get to see any of the shows until a month from now. By then who knows. The California corps have yet to come out and by 19 Jul when I see all of the corps, the writing will be pretty much on the wall, who will be where come finals.

Fair enough, but I would just like to see Madison get some consistency in judging. Scores seem to always skew wildly in any direction, usually downward.

Did you see a 6 point difference in Madison and Cavies? How would you have placed them. Recap shows Cavies guard over Scouts. Madison's drum line had a bad night with even the Colts beating them.

Did you see a 6 point spread between Madison and Cavies. Based on your review sounds like if you had to place them Madison would have been over Cavies.

Great Review. Thanks for taking the time to write all that down and thanks for the photos as well!

The staff of the Cavies have figured out the DCI score sheets and are writing and performing shows to achieve the MAX score. Hats off to them for being able to do that. But I sure hope the music is more accessable that last years. By accessable, I mean hum able. It doesn't have to be a West Side Story for me to hum it. I hum'd Pines of Rome for days after I saw that show in 1991 and that was the first time I'd heard that.