cjp87

Hey! I take from the icon you were a bari/euph player, though I can't see quite well enough (or, to be honest, remember quite well enough) to put a name to the picture. I was also only around for about three weeks, so I didn't get a chance to get to know everybody as well as I should have. My name's Colton, if that rings any bells. Showed up completely out of shape, and 15 lbs. later I marched the show at Allentown.

And it's downloaded and playing! Thanks again.

Oh nice. I guess I looked in all the wrong places. Thanks!

I couldn't find anything on their website or dci.org regarding media from that year. It seems pretty sparse in there, actually, so I guess they just don't keep a lot of inventory around.

Hi all. This is a little bit of an odd request, I guess, but I was curious if there was any way besides purchasing the DCI 2008 Semifinals DVD (which I don't particularly want or need for $30) for me to get a hold of the 2008 Troopers semis performance? I actually marched in it (thanks to a post on this forum that summer, in fact-- there was a request for an upper lead trumpet, and I saw it here and hopped on the bus in Kansas!), and never managed to get myself a copy of the last performance. I figured there would be some digital record of it somewhere, seeing as it was the first time Casper had been in Semis in 13 years, but I haven't been able to find any singular DVD I can buy or even some online source to stream. I know that asking about illicit media sharing would be against the rules here, and all told, I wouldn't mind being able to give some money to the Troopers organization in exchange for a DVD or whatnot anyway-- they deserve the support. But I figured this would be the best place to ask if there is any way that I can find this recording. Thanks in advance for any help. Edit: whoops, looks like the title got cut off. Sorry about that.

Plenty of Haterade goin' on disguised as sweet tea.

Agreed, I just think it's the bees knees when BD cooks the jazz.

Oh thank God. I thought they were talking about what the real nowadays fan listens to, which would be awful on the field. Okay, you got me. I didn't really think that, but I think I got my point across.

J Biebz, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry?

While I loved the show this year, I wait every year for BD to return to straightforward and all out tunes. Rock the house and leave nothing to the imagination, one more time (if you get my drift). But, I will continue to love their shows if they continue to put them out at the caliber they have for the last quarter decade or so.

Space Chords is one of the best things left in Drum Corps. However, I do prefer the resolution into the Jesus chord progression to the pure dissonance then resolution.

Totally agree with this, but add in On Air.

Pretty simple premise, right? I've been doing a lot of listening to this decade's Blue Devils shows, and it made me wonder how similar to me other people would rank them, what it is that people look for in a show when their options are constrained to one corps. I know this has probably been done before, but it's another year, with another show, and in the least, it will add a lining of positivity on this board for an organization that is very much ingrained in the heart of the drum and bugle corps activity. So, here's the criteria and format: 1: The ranking is based on your personal enjoyment of the show, not how well executed you believe the show to have been. 2: Ordinal rankings, no need to add distance between 1 and 2, 3, and 4, etc. Just plain ol' 1-11. 3: Keep it friendly. We're all lovers of drum corps here, right? Things I value the most in a Blue Devils performance: Music, first and foremost. Can I listen to this show in my car and relive the experience? Bonus points for hot, steamy, swinging jazz, because I love me some Blue Devils playing jazz. Depth of the program; how often can I find new goings on in the show upon repeat viewings? Energy; does the product coming off the field do its best to make my heart rate match that of the performers? And lastly, the visual package. What neat shapes and movements do they make? Anywho, here's how I would rank them. There were some seriously hard decisions outside of the first three, BTW. As a sidenote, I love all these shows dearly. 1. 2003, The Phenomenon of Cool This may be getting a bonus for being a show at the first DCI contest I ever went to, but really, can you go wrong with the Devils, Scott Dean, and Dave Brubeck? I was absolutely floored by how hard this show swung at points, the crispness of everything, of course Scott Dean's chops, the cymbal rack shenanigans, and of course, the (not trying to be corny here, but) absolutely cool attitude the corps put out during the show. This show is the best example of a swagger I think I've ever seen. One of my favorite BD shows ever, one of my favorite drum corps shows ever. 2. 2004, SummerTrain Blues Mix I was at finals for this one, and again, it's that raw, powerful jazz and screaming solos that get to me. I can listen to this show over and over. (I'd be tempted to rant about how I think they should've won this year, but 2004 Cavies is another of my favorite shows). The train right out of the stadium was a great ending for finals, but really, this show is all about the music for me. 3. 2008, Constantly Risking Absurdity I saw this one live more than any Devils show since I was marching with The Troopers at the time. This show matched its title to a T, it was ridiculous. So much going on on the field, so many new things to see each viewing. While somewhat schizophrenic, I loved the music of this one, too (I will Wait for You is heart wrenching, and the swing section was hot). I will unashamedly say that, no matter how much I loved PR '08, how into their show and their atmosphere I was (truly, I can't say enough good things about the vibe PR had going on Finals night), this show should've won IMO. And that's the last time I will compare one of these shows to a competitor, because I don't want people to think I think BD should win every year. 4. 2002, Jazz, Music Made in America I'm not as familiar with this show since I never saw it live, but again, Devils and Jazz. Can't go wrong. Also, the Channel One reprise was a tasty tease from days of yore. 5. 2010, Through a Glass, Darkly So much going on, so perfectly clean, so different, so difficult, such an outrageous horn book (and drum book after watching that snare cam!), and of course, the only thing the Devils do nearly as well as Jazz is Dark, so a dark jazz show was a hit in making. While I prefer selections more akin to '03 and '04 when it comes to swing, this show rocked, and it rocked hard. 6. 2001, Awayday Blue Again, never got to see it live, but I dig the music of this one. Great solos as well. 7. 2009, 1930 Again, impeccably clean, a more consonant, fun and lighthearted show than recent years have brought on, and some great harkening to old school tunes. I wish I'd gotten to see more of this show than the Quarters broadcast, but I was in basic training this summer, so boo on that. Loved loved loved the music while they were lounging on the chairs, though. 8. 2006, The Godfather: Part Blue Great tunes, the first turn towards a bit darker and more dramatic than the early 2000's (ignoring 2000, I suppose). Also the introduction of a new soloist, whom I believe popped out a few double E's in the show. 9. 2007, Winged Victory They teased me with Pegasus, which is one of my favorite BD tunes. Broken record, again they were clean, brought down the house with the book. I thought the transition from the dark maelstrom like beginning to a veritable catharsis at the end was fantastic. 10. 2000, Methods of Madness This was a crazy complex show in terms of the music, where a lot of erratic parts came together to make some sense. Aptly titled, I suppose. 11. 2005, Dance Derby of the Century 2005 probably would've been much, much higher, but the "announcer" made it into all the recordings, Silly. I loved the music here, but it's just hard to listen and not cringe at those few narrated moments. Still, gotta love Scott Dean, and the book really does swing. I almost feel bad putting it at the bottom of a list, but I just can't put it over the rest because of my aversion to narration.

Hell, I didn't want that atmosphere to end, and I think to this day that BD should've won. Fantastic night of drum corps that was.

First off, I didn't say it was more difficult than everyone's (though to say that it's the easiest in the top 6 is ludicrous), I said nobody else had a harder show, with Cavies and segments of others being on par. There is a general consensus amongst those who saw the corps up close and on ground level that it was a ridiculously difficult show. I'll go to the recap for evidence. BD scored a perfect 10 in Visual Vocabulary (content, often referred to as individual demand). So, according to the visual judges, BD maxed out the level of difficulty one would expect in a marcher in a junior corps show. Here are the rest of the top 7 for comparison: Cavies: 9.9 Bluecoats: 9.8 Crown: 9.6 Cadets: 9.5 Phantom: 9.3 SCV: 9.3 Secondly, obviously the talent of the individuals (on average) across the corps is not equal. For this we'll look at the visual excellence scores. Remember, this score ranks the individual's execution of marching fundamentals, so the higher scores indicated better marchers overall. BD: 9.9 Cavies: 9.8 Bluecoats: 9.6 Crown: 9.5 Cadets: 9.7 Phantom: 9.4 SCV: 9.1 When we go to visual ensemble, the same trend applies. BD scored a perfect 20 (again, maxing what is expected of a junior corps), while Cavies came in second with a 19.6, a pretty significant gap for Finals. This means that the Blue Devils had a more demanding show visually (perfect 10 vs. everything from a 9.8 down to Phantom's 8.9), and executed it better than everyone else (perfect 10 vs. 9.8 down to Phantom's 8.9). This pretty clearly details how you couldn't just give someone BD's show and expect them to win. Conversely, if you gave BD Phantom's show, they would only score an 8.9 in ensemble demand, and a 9.3 in individual demand, a 1.8 point difference, which would allow Cavies to pass them, despite being cleaner with an easier show. This pretty clearly illustrates that yes, BD's kids are more talented (or better instructed), and yes, BD's staff provided them with a vehicle to take that to a championship. You can't do it without one or the other.