steeldrum

Tyler Sammons was amazing to watch on the timps during the jazzy feature of the 2009 Phantom show. The broadcasters highlighted that performance during the quarter finals theatre show and did an "instant replay" on it. BTW, I didn't notice that Bluecoats didn't have timpani last year, surprised I missed that. I guess I was watching all those tuba players throwing down....

These looks great!! Interesting though that there are 6 sets of tenors but SCV is only marching 5 based on what I saw at their Denton camp and in FB pictures. Maybe a spare set?

Here is a short teaser video from the drumline camp.

I stopped by the drumline camp at UNT yesterday and watched several run throughs. These guys are playing incredibly clean for this early and are very fun to watch. The battery is laying down lots of notes typical of Rennick writing, and the front ensemble is smoking with one of the toughest books I've seen in a long time. The show music is extremely exciting and will definitely be fan accessible. If the guard and hornline are on the same level, which I think they will be, SCV will be a serious contender for the title. The drumline is flying out to California today to join the rest of the corps in cool Weed, CA. Just in time because its getting HOT here in Texas. Can't wait to see the whole show on June 18 in Ft. Worth.

OK, I just bought my tickets within 10 minutes of them going on sale. Talked to the Ticketmaster agent direct so I could select my seats. Best I could do in Section 112 (center) was row 20. That section goes up to Row 35, so either there was a HUGE rush on tickets this year or DCI blocked those seats for some reason. Anybody else have any better luck?

I think the real question here is not what college band is closest to being good enough to compete with DCI (which is none because no college band has the practice hours or intent to compete on that level). But rather the question should be which college has the most talent to field a competitive summer corps if it pulled all of its members from within the college and practiced the number of hours that top corps require. A few examples would be colleges with strong music programs that have a large number of current active corps members. These would include North Texas (which has an average marching band by the way as its more of a football support band IMO) Indiana Jacksonville State TCU UMass RCC I'm sure there are many others. It would be cool to know how many current corps members come from each college.

Does anybody know how the performance order of the TOC shows will be determined? Will it be on last year's finals placement? If so then you'd expect some slotting from the judges, rewarding the later corps with higher scores just because of how they finished last year. Oh wait, that never happens does it?

Excellent point. And it should be noted that many of Rennick's students at UNT don't actually make his drum corps line or UNT A line. There were UNT drummers last year at Cadets, Bluecoats, Cavies, Blue Knights, Crossmen and other corps. Not all auditioned for Phantom, but some did and went elsewhere when they were cut. Why has this thread turned to a discussion of Rennick stacking his line with UNT students? I thought it was about how Shane will do at Phantom, which again I believe he will do very well.

I'll repost this again since apparently you missed it before. There are 7 kids from UNT going to SCV, and a total of 14 vets from PR. Where is this "year-round ensemble" you're talking about?

I think you may have mis-understood my post. There are about 14 or 15 total Phantom vets who went to SCV, of which only 7 also go to UNT. My point was that Rennick does not get to train the entire drum corps line year round as students at UNT. As other have stated, no Phantom percussion vets returned to Phantom this year. They either aged out, went to SCV or took early retirement. I do agree with you that neither line will suck and Shane will build a competitive line over the next few years. I've been very impressed with his lines at Spirit.

Just to clarify a key debated point, there are only about 7 UNT/PR vets going to SCV. There are 30+ percussionist in the battery and pit, so Rennick does not "train" his entire line year round at UNT. He has to teach a full drumline consisting of students from many different colleges (and high schools), just like any other drum corps instructor. Give the man some credit for his teaching and writing skills, that's what wins championships.

Most of the Phantom vets who went to SCV are/were UNT students of Rennick's first. So they are definitely loyal to him and no surprise that they followed him to SCV. And the non-UNT PR vets would logically follow Paul and their friends as well in hopes of repeating. Lets be realistic, you're coming off a year where your line just won high drums, now the staff and most of the vets are going to another corps. Are you going to be the one that stays behind for a "rebuilding" year?? BTW, vets following staff to another corps is nothing new. I remember back when Tom Float moved from Spirit to Blue Devils in the early 80's, many of that great Spirit line went west with him. And that was before it was common to march for a corps far away from home.

Paul Rennick will definitely benefit from having many of his returning vets from Phantom join him at SCV. Did any return to Phantom? With those that went to SCV plus the returning vets from SCV 2010, that line will be very very good. Although Shane will probably have an all new line, I'm sure several of his better players from Spirit will join him at Phantom. He produced some very talented lines at Spirit and given time he can make Phantom a top 6 line again.

OK, the power of DCP may actually be working. Dynasty has added a quick press release on their website about Phantom winning drums. BUT, the picture at the top of that page is of a Blue Devils snare drummer......fail! http://www.dynastyband.com/news/news.php?news_id=858 Unfortunately I guess they can't use the picture of the Phantom Regiment drumline in the lot holding the Fred Samford award, which is mounted on a Yamaha snare drum..... http://www.facebook.com/regiment#!/pho...id=424291428667 Regarding the other discussion in this thread, Phantom Regiment sounded great, crisp and clean using Dynasty drums. I think much of the debate about Dynasty sound versus Pearl versus Yamaha is 25% product and 75% tuning and technique. Its like NASCAR, is Ford or Chevy better, or is it really the mechanics and drivers that make the cars perform better?

Hey Dynasty, I'm really surprised there is no mention on your website or even a news release about Phantom Regiment winning high drums using your percussion. Not even a picture of PR on the home page, instead there is a picture of a horn player from a certain blue organization that no longer uses your equipment. You're missing a great opportunity to highlight success with your equipment....

Did anyone else think that the "other" drumline should have won the drum off at the end of the movie versus Nick's drumline? I thought they were waaay better, seriously. I think their judging may be as biased as DCI's!

It was great watching the faces of the PR Pit members at the end of the show. They knew they nailed it last night and were all just beaming at the end. And the percussion judge was visibly moved by the performance as well. Congratulations Phantom Regiment Drumline.

From my improved vantage point over last year I thought the sound was much better. Last year I sat in section 435, last night in section 139. There is still an echo but the volume impact was very good there. I saw prelims from section 240 and it was great there. I did catch a couple of shows from the the 10 yard lines when I'd duck in to catch a quick show. I was actually surprised that the sound even there was pretty good. There were more drapes and curtains than last year, particularly over the north end zone glass. Perhaps that had an impact.

I am also from the "old world" where late 70's early 80's style corps got me hooked on the activity. Over the years I have gone to a dozen or so finals through the 80's, 90's and 2000's. But I gotta say that last nights finals were perhaps the best exhibition of musical excellence and best overall top 12 that I have ever seen. Sure I wish we could eliminate the low end synth for volume purposes, but sometimes it is used very effectively. I'm not a fan of LOS but think it was improved this year over last (though that may be because my seat was much better!). I'm sorry the OP elected to not give these shows a chance, they were truly spectacular....

Wow great second half. My favorites in order PR (bias alert) Cavs Crown (poor kid!) Blue Devils Cadets Prediction BD BC Cavs Crown Phantom Cadets BS SCV MS Boston BK GM Great show!!!

Halftime here at LOS bring out the football team. Favorites from first half in order Madison Blue Stars Blue Knights Vanguard Boston Glassman Loved them all.

just heard that the drummer for 311 is watching Phantom drumming warm-up.

Does anyone on this board have connections that could get this guy a seat at or near the press box and let him repeat the test tonight??? That would be great!

Thank you for doing this! I've often wondered why no one with the know-how has done this before (at least that I've seen). Interesting that most of the corps are pretty much in the same range, but I'm sure there will be plenty of debate about "this corps is louder than that corps". I believe that has more to do with one's personal connection with the music, the corps and even the key/pitch of the music being played which may be perceived louder by some. One potential problem with your study is the relatively low seat location from which you took the sound levels. Most corps are aining at the press box, shooting the sound over your head. My guess of the loudest corps would have been Crown which just seems to wrap you up in their full sound. Probably a reflection of their end zone to end zone ensemble and arrangements. But all of the corps have those hits and power chords that can fill up Lucas Oil. So, I wonder how high the 1975 Scouts and 1980 Spirit shows would have hit???

It amazes me that the championship 2008 Regiment show, often characterized as one of the greatest shows of all time, is questioned by some people as to how it could have won. Phantom has and always will be music first. Every single year their music is pure and amazing, and not just a supporting cast for the visual impacts. Even the 2009 show, which obviously had lots of visual faults beat to death on these boards, the music was one of the most entertaining and well played that year. I'll take a great music book over a great visual design every time.