ZealJ03

Go to IKEA or those science stores, They've got some pretty cool stuff there. I think it'd be awesome, but it might get nasty if there's a windy day! I agree. There's no requirement for amps or narration. It's an option. If anything, DCI and art has shown that it does not take options away.

Yep, I was referring to company fronts in general with that picture.

I'm at odds. I don't think the Cadets technique is very comfortable. However, it is the best looking one in my book! 2007 Cadets - The final company front at that ridiculous tempo. Their feet blinking in perfect tempos. Absolutely breathtaking. :sad: ^ After this... there is no current drum corps that can do a company front with greater intensity than the Cadets. The only other one I can think of is pre 1990 SCV.

This is where you separate yourself from irrational inferences and pure statements. He did not compare the 2008 Cadets to the end of Apartheid in South Africa, or women voting, or something that is actually significant to the world. No where in that blog did he make such comments. For you to come up with such a conclusion is illogical. I'm sure you know tons of other people who've given up their careers or directed education to teach drum corps. Some do become obsessed and it would seem that Drum Corps is significant, maybe not to your world, but certainly to some. First corps to use Contrabasses on the field, the Peace Sign etc... There are definitely more examples out there.

Precisely! no... comon Who said that? Anything outside of the top 7 wasn't in the review. If they weren't in the review, then they weren't in the review. You make your own judgements

I dunno. I agree with both. To mention As I recall Carolina Crown, Magic, and Crossmen were helped out of debt and other financial troubles because of Hopkins and YEA. Those corps were placed back on the field for his efforts. There is a thing about action and propositions.

Well yes I'll agree that The Cadets were trying to cram as much into the show as possible. Sometimes judges and audience members didn't notice some of the stuff being put out there. 2005 Cadets was a constant flurry of movement and music as well, but they seriously maxed out their GE scores compared with the rest. The constancy of music is Music Effect, and they were highly praised on that according to their tape on the disc. I think you not quite following the categories of judging. All your comments for Blue Devils to be the actual champion are all General Effect material, which they tied with the Cadets in this caption. The Cadets lost by performance captions, and this does not have to do with continuity or staging. These are where the scores and the champion comes from.

I dunno Staging is really Visual GE, and Cadets won that 2 nights, by a hair, but again staging is Visual GE and that's what they were praised on all season. Not all visual GE is staging though.

I had to recheck this on the DVD. I have to put it into perspective that the Cadets had 4 park and play moments, 4 which were all in blue shades, their 2nd tune. These park and blow moments were MUCH shorter too. Blue Devils had 4 in their opener alone, and the ballad well was a lot of standing still, they also included a good amount in their closer as well. Again, check the numbers out, but I really wish to remind you that the Cadets did not have a ballad. It was 3 incredibly fast paced songs. I'll say Blue Devils were cleaner and deserved the championship, but I won't deny the Cadets from what I believe to be a much higher rate of risk.

I would really reevaluate the amount of movement the Cadets drumline did during their feature. In the first half, that is some of the most movement with playing I've ever seen in the last 7 year while playing and marching to that tempo. Listen to the percussion tape with the whole, "You guys are flyin" The Blue Devils program is highly dependent on that colorguard for staging. I didn't feel staging was THAT key this particular year as it was in say 2004. Shows that highly depended on their visual effect on staging were shows like Phantom 2006. Remember staging is just one idea to get the point across visually. It's not the only way. The Cadets didn't have so much staging this year but managed to pull off visual effect with a high, mostly because of speed and continuity with music and visuals.

Blue Devils were sure clean, but there were a LOT of hold and play moments in that show. Compared to the 3 shows before them, they didn't move as much. They would be more convincing as a championship corps if the show didn't die into what seemed like 2 ballads after that amazing opener. I'd say a weaker ending compared to Cadets and Phantom Regiment. The Cadets took a crap load of ensemble and movement risks and these guys were cookin all over the field. They were clean but not as clean as the Blue Devils. Overall, this is the more enjoyable show to watch, without a ballad, ridiculously high tempos, phenomenal drill, in your face brass, the show really doesn't allow you to sit back in your chair, it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. And oh yeah, these certainly closed their show impressively. I'll just throw that out there but I feel like The Cadets are so much more visually exposed with their uniform color and design than the Blue Devils and Cavaliers. The high cam really shows what the differences are of wearing black against light pants.

Like I'm preaching, just look at the high cams between BD and Cadets.

i've never laughed that hard... for America The Beautiful that was so bad it was funny.

Rough draft! Comments are more than welcome. Bluecoats Personally, I thought these guys sounded great. It’s not a surprise to see how well they were doing in brass. Spotlessly clean performance at times, wow just an ethereal approach to their horns I thought the music was pretty good, but not truly memorable except for a few parts. One of my favorite sections included the silent drill in the middle of the show. Freeze! Drop your Weapons! Another great part. I thought the low brass was superb, excellent job displayed by the tubas in their features. I loved the guard’s incorporation into the theme of the entire idea of the show was done quite well. The segment with the lasers, the thief kissing the soloist, and the uniform transformation really did add to the overall feel of the “Criminal” theme. The battery did an excellent job, they sounded incredibly clean and really did show off their moves, but the drum and percussion features weren’t that memorable. However, I would have liked the guard to improve their consistency from person to person. The execution could be better on their part to add to their performance. Visually, I thought the drill was pretty cool in certain parts but nothing really to write home about when looking in retrospect besides the silent drill part. I feel as though their straight-leg technique could also improve a little. I feel that there is so much bounce with not so great upper-body control. They’re good but I feel as though they could look a little stronger when on the move. In addition, the corps can certainly clean up some of the phasing in the feet. I thought the ending could have been enhanced, it seemed a little too sudden and didn’t build up to a great “ah” moment. Overall, the show was really fun to watch and it came across as certainly Bluecoats’ “coolest” show. Definitely worth a watch on the multicam. Great design top to bottom, certainly was clear in its theme and message. Carolina Crown Whew brassline in your face! They come in with such volume and energy that it’s not surprising to see the audience begin on their feet. These guys have a gorgeous open sound, and are finally getting recognized for it in the last few years. It’s great to see these guys make the top 6 DVD. Though the brass sounded great, their consistency of ensemble entrances aren’t very good. They do really stick out as mini discrepancies especially high velocity and high volume moments. These guys had quite a challenging book to play from top to bottom, a lot of notes and a lot of articulation. I really like the kaleidoscopic drill in the middle. Great stuff! Design wise, I would have definitely kept one of the two ballads in the show. Not to say I didn’t like them, rather, I found those two ballads quite tasteful and well played. However, with the corps behind and in front of them, it really does take away from the show’s continuity. It started well and ended well but it didn’t keep up the energy from top to bottom. It’s good that the closer with William Tell ended with a good ole drum corps finish. On other thoughts, this color guard probably enhanced the show more than any other corps in the top 7. Excellent performance and execution! Wow phenomenal! Everything from the race at the end to the slow motion to Crown coming in first, the guard was essential to this total package. In addition, I’d like to say that this show had the best incorporation of voice into any program, it really did accentuate the tension building up to the end. Great job crown for a really entertaining show. Santa Clara Vanguard Needless to say, great drill by Weber again! I’m really happy to see these guys scoring well again. Hopefully SCV will make a come back again like they did in the 90s. However, I felt the show at a lot of times were a little flat. It’s much better to watch the High Camera for this show than the multi-cam. I absolutely love the haunting beginning to this show and the massive first entrance Absolutely loved the matrix little gig in the beginning with the cymbals. I’ll say again, this show is good eye candy. It’s more sophisticated than classically entertaining like Carolina Crowns. The color guard is much improved fro last year and certainly shows a lot of performance skill. I absolutely love some of the arranging in this show. I felt the writing was incredibly tasteful, except for the ballads which were a little too slow for me. I really did find them playing more as they were standing still and marching with their horns down, which took away some instances where they could have taken some risks of doing both simultaneously. Again, great visual program, but I strongly feel they could clean up the drill and the technique more. Overall, great show, but it certainly does die in the middle and to the end. It was a really great fun show, I really recommend watching this on the high cam to see how Pete Weber is making a name for himself. Phantom Regiment Probably my second favorite corps. I felt that these guys were absolutely great in terms of brass. The scores didn’t reflect it as much as I would have liked. The pit in the opening in the beginning was phenomenal. Wow, what a great effect. The design of the corps certainly took it upon themselves to explore the acoustics of the place with sound effects with their Doppler effect. The brass and percussion arranging were absolutely phenomenal. For phantom regiment so far, this is probably the best their visual program has been in my opinion. Not that it was anything really to write home about drill wise, but it certainly was a change from phantom in the past. Again, they had an amazing color guard who really performed their part quite well. Their costumes reminded me more of native American dresses than birds though. I felt the colors used in the show could have been better. The sky blue on the marching members uniforms really clashed with the brown, earth looking, colors of the guard. I was a huge fan of this ballad, I thought it fit them really nicely and didn’t know that the flower duet could make it on the field like that. These guys were definitely expressing excellent style, control of the instrument, and poise in this piece. They certainly did bring everything they had to the table, I felt it was Phantom’s best effort of brass performance in a while. Their ensemble timing was excellent considering all the risks they were taking with isolated attacks and surprise entrances. I was a huge fan of the turn-around pickup run when the corps turned around. Hardly noticeable, but very well performed The brass seriously gets to shine from top to bottom especially with their athleticism in the final bird flock. One pet peeve, is the quality of the mellophones. They sound very nasally for my tastes unlike the rest of the hornline. Other than that I loved the ending and how it incorporated the bird them with the flocking hornline. Having mentioned that, I commend the design team for their incorporation of all these subtle visuals to accentuate the Bird/On Air theme throughout the entire show. I absolutely loved the end of their third piece and the rise of the soloist with the wings behind him. Brilliant staging there And Again from Phantom regiment: A Great classical ending! Cavaliers I’m seriously surprised by this program. The opener was absolutely phenomenal. There’s so much fun stuff going on it really does add to the program. It’s constantly coming at you both visually and musically. Just great, I can’t even tell you how fun it is just to watch and listen to this opener. I’m loving the fact that the Cavaliers are finally trying something new. The transitions from song to song are absolutely seemless and I felt that these guys weren’t given enough credit design wise for them. Again, great great style shown by the Cavies. I don’t have enough to say the small look cool things that were out there. However, I felt that there weren’t a lot of memorable moments to talk about, the show had more cool smaller segments of eye candy more than singular wow moments. I was a big fan of the rolling around on the floor and playing section, I thought it was greatly timed. I also loved the fugue part of the show, it really did add to an overall showmanship and skill display of their hornline. It was also great to see the batterie show such attitude when they were playing. Again, great color guard put out by the corps. They really did add to the program. Unfortunately, I really think the ending to show was incredibly anticlimactic. It really makes you feel like a “That’s it?” kind of moment. Overall, I think in term of design, Cavaliers haven’t really been good wow endings in the recent years. Eitherway, this is a seriously underrated show, it’s absolutely fun to watch from up top and on the multicam. Cadets I’m not going to talk much on the narration. All I’ll just say is it could be toned down a bit ...ANYWAY The amount of demand and risk placed on this program and on the kids that performed it is absolutely astounding. 3 incredibly fast song with crazy drill and no ballad. It’s absolutely phenomenal, you don’t get the sense at all that they were tired. Holy cow where did this hornline from hell come from? All you really need to do is watch the high camera. This corps, as an ensemble moves and plays, a LOT, you really don’t see a lot of stand still playing. It’s pretty awesome how this hornline can put out so much volume at the rate they move. Want to see what scary good marching is? Look at the fastest company front ever as their feet blink perfectly in time. Whether you liked it or not because of the narration, you cannot deny what these kids were doing down there. And certainly, you can pick out some amazing moments such as the trumpet double tonguing to the creepy Doppler effect with the body motions, from the “no voice!” to the soloist, and the entire closers drill. About the other sections, I seriously have never seen a drumline move that much during a solo (a long one at that), these folks were swishing through their entire feature at the 210+ tempo. In addition, I have never seen a guard’s feet move that fast either. The shear demand placed on this visual program scares me at times, and wow did they bring the execution to the table. Just watching the high cam is like watching fireworks, forms after forms after forms. Some of the most amazing moment are the two rotating blocks that spit out the color guard and the crazy fast pin wheels and morphing blocks in the opener to make that ridiculously straight X on the field. Needless to say the crazy fast company front to the end was just kaleidoscopic. Such great showmanship of pure adrenaline. The arranging is probably some of the best from the Cadets, they really took the book and the writing to the extreme. What a great amount of ensemble risk, playing without a drumline at high tempos, marching at fast paces without phasing from corner to cornet wow! Having said that, I feel that some of the material placed in the show really became too much to clean. The corps overall was amazing, but there are some annoying little clarity issues. I felt that that the color guard was certainly weaker for the Corps in general, but they seemed to an amazing job in the closer. The hornline, while really amazing, had several instances of sticking out of the ensemble and not playing together with the percussion. The color guard didn’t always perform the heck out of their show. It was just the little stick outs here and there that definitely cost them their championship. In sum, this is certainly a show that does not leave your attention once it starts from that big hit. Whether you liked it or not, this show will be the most memorable one in the top 7. It’s safe to say that the Cadets stole the attention of the drum corps community for a reason. Blue Devils Blue Devils are an absolute beast at performance. They’re incredibly good at what they do and they certainly took the definition of the word clean to win their championship. While I disagree with their effect scores, I do certainly give them credit for what they were achieving down there. These kids can sure march from top to bottom and they really understand their marching technique well. The music was really good and engaging, especially on part of their percussion line. The opener was my favorite part of their show, and wow I was really getting into it. I felt that there was a huge demand on energy from the attitude of the opener. They come across as very confident in their playing, marching and spinning Again, they performed the heck out of the show. I thought the wings in the beginning really added to the effect, but it didn’t look like you could do that much with the equipment. I felt that their guard was undermined by the continuous presence of the wings. Once these people pulled out the white wings, it really stuck out to be a little cluttered and unclean. I’ll say some of their rifle features were very impressive, and these kids spin and dance pretty darn well. In any case, certainly a weaker year for the Blue Devils color guard. The visual program at the Blue Devils is really lack luster. This is really not a show to put the hicam on, there’s really not much anything to say in terms of really cool drill moves. I’m sure it was difficult to perform it but in terms of design, I was really left with almost a bore at times. This is especially accentuated because the Cadets went on before them with their program. Though, I do give them a lot of credit for taking up a vast expanse of the field most of the time. The hornline was really clean, it was great to hear something that solid come out to the field. But again, it was not anything really special to mention, no really earth shattering features or solos. Note, that I did find the mello feature in the opener to be awesome. The unfortunate thing is, after the opener, the show’s really not much to watch or listen to. It really goes down hill with an eh ballad and a really eh closer. The ending again wasn’t anything to talk about either in terms of audience appeal. During the closer, I just began to notice a lot of playing together while standing still with a lot of half time. I seriously think it took away from the momentum of the show and led to an “okay ending”. Again, the drive of this show was off shear performance and musicianship. Excellent and solid from beginning to end but I feel that the demand might not have been there with a really interesting design compared to the corps that performed before them. Otherwise, I felt that these guys did deserve their championship for their excellence, spot on performance and execution. It was great. How I would have had it... 1) Cadets 2) Blue Devils 3) Phantom Regiment and Cavaliers 5) Bluecoats 6) Carolina Crown 7) Santa Clara Vanguard

Wow the top 6 this year... phenomenal absolutely phenomenal.

All I said was.. Hoooooooly crap Cadets, what in the world was that... The music such volume, the drill such movement. Still not a fan of the narration much, but hooooly crap that demand with that drill was phenomenal. Everyone pull out Cadets 07 hi-cam, if you want to see what fireworks look like as marching music.

I mean while I agree that they've probably have my 2nd favorite book lately, they have edge (which a lot of people say about Gino hornlines). It's great that they kinda have that dynamic in sound, but there blatantly not together at times. In addition with that sort of edge, it really sticks out when they did some of their runs in firebird. It seems like one or two people always fall out of time with the run by like 1/64th of a note.

The Cadet for both on this one. Cadets Trumpets - Holy Double Tonguing, every single one of them! Jesus! Cadets Mellophones: Given. Phantom Regiment - I like their mello writing, but they just kinda sound incredibly edgy in the finals recording, especially towards the end of firebird.

The Cadets - End of their opener, HOOOOLY CRAP, baritones!!!!!!!!! Bluecoats Tubas were rockin!!!

But the 3 hardest shows I've ever seen were all Cadets 1993, 1997, 1999 Cadets These 3 aren't even on my top favorite shows. Interesting... I've heard people say other corps have had "less difficult shows" out there, but I've never heard anyone say that about the Cadets. Seems like they put out, or at least what seems to a lot of people, very challenging shows, regardless of what they do or how well they place. I think the biggest reason is that there's probably no other corps that touches them in terms of consistency of fast shows. That doesn't always mean they're enjoyable or good shows, but its like their common formula. But I have to hand it to them, it's not like they're not playing while moving like that either, probably the most note crazy group at that tempo, holy, makes you wonder why they rehearse so much.

2007 - The Cadets 2006 - Blue Devils 2005 - The Cadets 2004 - Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard 2003 - Santa Clara Vanguard 2002 - Santa Clara Vanguard 2001 - The Cadets 2000 - Santa Clara Vanguard then the Cadets 1999 - The Cadets 1998 - The Cadets and Santa Clara Vanguard 1997 - The Cadets 1996 - The Cadets and Santa Clara Vanguard 1995 - Blue Devils and then The Cavaliers 1994 - The Cavaliers 1993 - The Cadets 1992 - The Cadets, Star of Indiana 1991 - Star of Indiana and the Cavaliers 1990 - Star of Indiana I honestly tried not to be biased in it, I just see a crap load of Cadets in here.

I felt that they were much better last year.

It's just opinions anyway... Blue Devils - Weak parts include their horn book lately and especially their drill. These guys are amazing marchers but their visual design is seriously lacking wow factors compared to their top competitors. Throughout the years, these guys seem to have the least amount of "memorable" drill moves. On the field these guys look like their moving a lot, but from up top, they really don't use enough contrary motion to show this. Excellent performers, but you don't get much of that watching the high cam. The Cadets - They've been good all around, but , these guys lack a consistency in captions from year to year. Color Guard does some amazing and difficult spinning but they lack dance movements used in other corps. It'd be nice to get the guard as part of the hornline more frequently. Seems like sacktig has 2 groups marching out there than an entire ensemble (though he did a much better job this year). Seems that this corps has a lot more "off" years that drop them out of the medalist zone more than others. At times, it seems this corps tries maybe too hard, and get less merit for what they do. But if it's anything, it's consistency for this corps. The Cavaliers - Excellent performers, but I feel that some of the programs make these guys a little too bland. No need to say that these guys are great eye candy from up top, but from the APD standpoint, they leave much to be desired. Definitely lacking in memorable moments from a musical standpoint. Excellent sound and execution, but the audio doesn't have very performance varied "wow" or "that's cool" factors. The volume of this group isn't mentioned much, which could have something to do with it. In sum, their visual design overshadows their books from year to year. (However I feel that 07's book is underrated). One extra small peeve is that these guys, as serious top 3 competitors, do not march and play simultaneously enough compared to their rivals. Phantom Regiment - Great performers year to year, definitely has the crowd's attention with some serious consistency. Great horn books and lately great percussion and guard books. Again, I feel that these guys have the same weak points as the Blue Devils. They march and play a lot, but their drill design is lacking compared to the top competitors. They have small things here and there but from top to bottom, seems like there something missing in terms of just memorable or "wow" drill features. I feel like their feet are very exposed in those white legs and aren't that clean compared to their top competitiors Santa Clara Vanguard - Great corps, great perfomers. However, I'm not really feeling their guard so much. Ever since 2005, that department has been a little down in terms of performance. In the last few years their drill design has skyrocketed to some amazing material, however, it seems to cost their brassline a good amount of endurance, especially in 2006. I feel that if the Cadets weren't hogging the attention the last 3 years, these guys would be the talk of the town. Again, great performers, but when it comes to clean feet and clean drill, Santa Clara seems to lack in this area for a while now. Lot of exposed moments. Carolina Crown - Excellent, crowd pleasing programs from year to year. Absolutely a joy to watch, but again like Santa Clara, these guys aren't as clean as they can be at times. It's certainly a risk to have such bright uniforms and pants out there and it certainly exposes a lot of inconsistencies in visuals. I love this brass line, amazing and distinctive sounds but I feel that they aren't together in some of their attacks and their releases. Maybe it's just me but i hear very small flams each time these guys blast out a chord. Bluecoats/ - Wow what a corps lately, coming out of no where to be such a great competitor. Lately some amazing brass playing, their strong in their design from top to bottom, but they lack some "oomphs" and attitude moments that Phantom, Cadets, Blue Devils, and Crown get with the audience. These guys are getting cleaner and cleaner every year, however I wish they would change their marching style. There seems to be a lot caterpillar moments in their feet. Great drill, great brass and percussion books, however the guard could use some improvements like their other two sections. ... ahh got tired. All opinions of course, tried the constructive criticisms method. Positive with something to improve upon.

i mean u really dont see any cadets in here

there are sooo many bd posters...