derbydawg

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! This information is NOT true. Who are you and what are your trying to pull here? Unless you are on staff, there is not way would have this information. Yes, there are some brass players that play woodwind instruments, but they all have extensive brass experience, college band and drum corps, and play extremely well. And, they beat out over 300 brass players for their spots. Vets are not guaranteed spots at SOA. Put on your karma cap buddy and hope for the best.

From Spirit of Atlanta's latest camp update video (on their website) sounds like they are playing some John Mackey, if the music in the background is from their show. There is some other music maybe one or two other pieces I do not recognize. What I can hear sounds very good and exciting. Can't make an educated guess as to what the show is about, though it seems pretty up beat and in your face. Sounds like Spirit to me. Would love them to stay in finals or move up. I loved last year's show.

Better be a very inventive and new version. It is like someone doing West Side Story again.

WooWoo! Good for you Spirit of Atlanta. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU THIS SUMMER! When are you releasing your show concept?

With Spirit of Atlanta announcing their guard staff for 2012, seems they are going to be one of those very stable staffs for this coming season. Loved what they churned out with this staff last year.

WhooHooo! A great modern day drum corps show that is also incredibly entertaining. Soooooo deserved. Best 12th place corps in years. Congratulations Spirit of Atlanta.

A friend suggested I copy this from the show thread. Sorry it is brief. Music City was quite entertaining. Good show and in the full sun and intense heat. Lots to build on for 2012. Crossmen put on a strong show. They are good but possibly appeal to too small a niche to be more competitive, as there isn't really anything new or overly clever about the production. Still entertaining and well instructed. I enjoyed it. Colts seemed really affected by the heat. There some good moments but it just did not connect tonight. Brass and drums not quite up with guard. Show theme is OK, but a bit band-ish in my opinion. I do not like the uniform change. Troopers got a good welcome. The show is nice and has one big moment of brass sustain, though there were obvious stagger breathing issues. I like the unis better now that I see them on the field. The show is good but still visually dirty. Close to finals but not there this year. Academy seemed less affected by the heat, though the sun had gone down by then, possibly working in their favor. I like the unis and the brass book a lot. Good energy. Drill was pretty dirty and guard seems WAY behind.The blend of percussion and brass was odd, a lot had to do with field placement. SOA also seemed less affected by the heat though they performed in full sun. They are extremely entertaining and have a sophisticated show. The front drops are killer and what a great sound. Very musical and lots of variety. Spread to Troopers and Academy was justified in my opinion. A few individual oops tonight. Caves got to perform under the lights and what a show it was. All sections of the corps are strong. If this is looking at third place, we have a really strong year.

After seeing SOA , Troop, Academy, Colts, and Crossed tonight, for that 12-17 placement, I think SOA is a lock for finals. Troop and Academy have their moments, but the shows just don't match the depth and entertainment value for SOA. Didn't see Glassmen tonight,but based on recent placements and spreads seems they are probably too far out.

Music City was quite entertaining. Good show and in the full sun and intense heat. Crossmen put on a strong show. They are good but possibly appeal to too small a niche to be more competitive as their isn't really anything new or overly clever about the production. Colts seemed really effected by the heat. There some good moments but it just did not connect tonight. Brass and drums not quite up with guard Troopers got a good welcome. The show is nice and has one big moment of brass sustain though there were obvious stagger breathing issues. The show is good but still visually dirty. Academy seemed less affected by the heat, though the sun had gone down by then. I like the unis and the brass book. Good energy. Drill was pretty dirty and guard seems way behind. SOA also seemed less affected by the heat though they performed in full sun. They are extremely entertaining and have a sophisticated show. The front drops are killer and what a great sound. Very musical and lots of variety. Spread to Troopers and Academy was justified. Caves got to perform under the lights and what a show it was. All sections of the corps are strong. If this is looking at third place, we have a really strong year. After looking at who judged, especially music, I understand why the numbers or placements were a little odd. Should you have to have experience leading great music groups to judge marching's major league? Though Academy played pretty well, no way were they second in music ensemble. There were toomany blend issued and perc bumps compared to those around them. Crossmen music ensemble clearly better than Colts.

Had to go with Spirit of Atlanta and Scouts.

What a great show last night, and yes, the crowd was great and Martin needs to have this show every year. Cavies were very strong for this time of year. Even though they stood still the last minute or so, doesn't matter, thye still deserved to win by the margin they did in my opinion. Not sure theme is evident, but the GE and coordination is there. Solid tasty drum writing and execution. Pretty big brass sound. Would love to see then against BD tonight. Already much prefer this over BD at finals last year. Maybe the tide is turning and DCI is actually trying to reward mass appeal along with creativity and execution. I am sooo ready to see this one again. Coats were Ok, but I was underwhelmed. I probably expected the strong out of the gate corps I saw last year at this time. They are good and have a big sound. I just was never drawn into it. Lots of marching errors and bumping into each other which was a surprise. The visual did not seem to match the music for me. Maybe I just missed it and never got locked in. Pretty good drum line but not as strong as last year. Blue Stars were exciting and like other posters said, this show seems a step up in a lot of ways. I like most of the drum writing and the line was very clean in spots. Big sound, impact, variety. Like Cavies, the theme does not seem evident so that level of GE seemed missing. It seems though that upper corps do not have to stick with or make their theme evident but lower corps do. Oh well. I enjoyed this an really want to see it again. The stage in the middle of the field took some getting used to. We will see how the use of that prop develops. Though the corps was much more convincing than Coats and had stronger marching ad music ensemble. Seeing the recap was a bit of a surprise. Spirit of Atlanta. I wish I had my own words, but will totally agree with an earlier poster and state that this corps was the shocker of the night by far! I loved it and so did the crowd. BRAVO for figuring out how to be competitive for a finalist spot but how to also how to be new and improved Spirit of Atlanta. The theme is soooo easy to get and the impacts and coordination with flag designs and characters is spot on. Brass sound great and huge. Percussion writing is much improved and they have some great percussion GE moments. There was only one moment of ensemble tear that I noticed. Got three standing Os, as much as Cavies. They need to keep up the energy and clean the drill, clean the drill, clean the drill. Like with Cavies, this is mass appeal with creativity and already some great execution. If the members keep selling the Spirit attitude and they clean up, no doubt a solid shot at a Saturday night performance. A show I want to see again asap. Teal Sound has found an identity which is a great thing. The pseudo rock thing is unique to drum corps and the sounds from the rock guys in the pit are distinctive. With that said, they are performing a little better than last year at this time in my opinion, but not a lot. Fairly solid in all captions but not great. I guess the theme will develop overt time and the sins thing will be more evident. I wish them the best and respect that they are sticking to their brand of drum corps. Music City has done a lot over the past three years to get the corps up and running. The sound and size improvements were evident tonight. The drill with music of the closer was good. Of course they need time to get the whole show on the field.

I love this thread. SOOOOO easy! BD 2010 Crown 2010 Cavies 2009 BD 2009 BD 2007 Did I mention BD 2010 and BD 2009?

I am eager to see Spirit of Atlanta. The return to the original corps name is even exciting. Thats worth a ticket to me. Don't want a 1981 show but i do want some of the old attitude. Madison has almost always had an old school style so it worked for them, plus they performed well. From the Spirit camp videos, seems they are working to up their organization, and doing Harlem Nocturne fits their old kind of style and fits their 2011 show theme, I can totally see it. looking forward to SCV and Blue Stars as well.

Heard from some friends who were at their kick off party say that it is not Casablanca, but some how possibly related. Not sure what that means.

I was at the Gadsden show and was shocked by the score as were many people I spoke to, most of whom are not necessarily Spirit fans nor connected to the corps. Like a lot of people, we see a show live and form an opinion as to who should be beating whom. You step away after a few days or after the season and decide maybe you weren't quite right. This is not one of those times. It was not even close. Crossmen kept me scared the whole time like the wheels could come off at any second. Spirit was bold and confident, really clean in almost the entire show, and getting some energy into the crowd, something which only Blue Stars, Bluecoats, and Cavies were able to do. It makes no sense. I feel like once we get past corps 7 or 8 it is a crap shoot and there just isn't that much regard for getting things right beyond that. Those top corps are on the board and drive the ship. If enough don't like a judge, they are gone. Judges talk too much to each other and have a chain of big dawgs that steer opinion too much. It is a small niche of people that judge for a variety of reasons and that is part of the problem. In my career I have to be around some of these guys and I hear and see too many things that are troubling. Judging should be about the members and the activity. The more fair and the more each corps counts, the better for drum corps. The G7 have been working diligently the past five or so years to change things and maybe this is reflected in the current judging environment. Makes me sad for Spirit and others affected by it all.

Boy, take half a year off from drum corps and you find out you missed a lot. The stadium is pretty good for corps but only holds the sound just so so. I didn't feel like the space allowed for each groups full energy to get into the stands. I am sure the corps are also tired of at least a week in the Texas/deep south heat. Jersey Surf has a interesting new look. This group was pretty good. The show is audience friendly and seems to work for a group that does not tour much. Not too much was very clean tonight but I still enjoyed them. Pioneer were very Pioneer to me but maybe with a few more shots of steroids. There are some easy to get GE moments that work well for them. The guard works hard at projecting to the crowd, they just don't spin very well right now. First and last minute were the best. Spirit was a big surprise for me. I had heard rumors of a "new" Spirit this year, and boy did we get that. I totally dig the new uni. They performed very well and have a kick a$# brass line and drum line. Drill is really clean compared to many others tonight. The guard was also excellent and is the corps most improved section. The show is easy to follow and all the impacts and pacing seemed well thought out and fit the show theme to a tee. The use of electronics is cool and not overdone. They finished and I was thinking "Well, they are pulling it together in just one year of a turn around and are clearly a potential finalist." Great show Spirit! Crossmen had the challenge of following Spirit. And it was not good for them. I don't think the crowd clapped more than once and that was at the end. A show that just seems to go on and on. Very dirty all around and lots of phasing moments through out the show. Feet and drill were a mess. Seemed like there were six or so holes. I thought Surf might beat them tonight. Sorry Crossmen, keep working, you obviously have some talent. Boston was loud tonight compared to the previous groups but just a little above Spirit. The show has some very exciting moments and some that I guess I just missed what was going on. I liked the guard and thought the corps moved well. The drums were not as good as Spirit tonight, but have some cool parts. They are better than last year for me in some ways and in some ways not. Interesting to see them in Atlanta compared to others in their scoring range. Blue Stars were great tonight and was the second surprise of the evening. They do everything well. The guard stuff with the straight jackets is very cool. A lot of impact and I felt the theme was evident enough through out the show. Their drums were also not as good as Spirit but they were good and improved over last year. I am also curious to see where they end up. Politics being what they are and the fact that they are not G7 will be an issue if the judges stick to their typical grouping/slotting agenda that I get so tired of. Great show Blue Stars. One of the shows I am most excited to see again. SCV was interesting but just fell flat to me. Try new stuff but make it exciting and more interesting please. They do everything fine, but not great. Would much prefer to see Spirit and Blue Stars several times before seeing this show again. Like me some SCV, but not in 2010. Bluecoats were the cleanest corps tonight in all areas. Shows what a show about just marching, spinning, drumming, and playing can get you. There is a show title that may have inspired something for the design team, but it is not out there for us to see or hear. Didn't matter tonight. Well paced and high energy throughout, Great color guard. Cavies were also very good tonight. I had them over Bluecoats because of the combination of good ole drum corps moments mixed with some new ideas and some pretty creative ideas. They got the best crowd reaction tonight. The horns are very powerful and the visual show is great as always. The guard was good but not as good as I have seen them in the past. I suspect they will be top three pretty easily. Also eager to see them again this Saturday. I wish this show would move back to Oxford HS on I20. The stadium holds sound much better. I usually don't stay for scores but had a few friends to see. I could not believe how close Crossmen were to Spirit, and Spirit only with a 77 something? That is crazy wrong. We all stopped as we descended the stands and looked around at other people standing with their mouths open and eyes wide. I don't remember a more surprising score maybe ever after nine years of marching and watching corps. As I said with Blue Stars, the judging thing has been suspect for a while, especially the last five or so years. Hear they are totally revamping the system for 2011 and getting new judge leadership. If this is right and they are reacting as most humans do in these situations, maybe they don't give a rats butt about anything other than getting the top few right and calling it a day.

It is clearly evident that we are in a judging/design cycle where pushing the envelope with new music ideas is a big no, no. This is very true for corps below sixth place. Though I liked and appreciated the musical risks Spirit took, I knew that the community would turn their backs on them and the weak directionless judging system would not even recognize the effort to be different. By the way, I am curious why people think Spirit over used electronics? What does over used mean? My memory says I heard electronic sounds less than 5% of teh show if that. I think people just like to have someone to beat up and are lemmings in regards to facts, they rarely back them up by looking into the truth themselves.

I did see holes but not 12, maybe 6. I was told there were still high schoolers out and I saw four or five brass on the side lines filling out dot books. Some of those were in and out of drill as if they had only been there a few days and were playing catch up. If they do have holes on the road, I would think that with this show, they would get bunch of interest. The corps seems to be having a blast with the show.

Part of the closer resembles Madison in that it has a latin feel. I only heard it when they arced it up. Other than that, the show has a hard edge to hit that I guess you could say resembles Madison in its hey day cause it is very exciting, but with more diverse musical drum stuff. The ballad is really effective, musically and visually. It is pretty but also has some attitude. The variety from it and the opener works great and the drill fits "Dust" really well. They will definately be an encore concert favorite corps. Drum set player is wicked.

After seeing Spirit's run last night, I voted for Spirit. They didn't do the whole show, but what they had was very exciting. Wish I was 21 again. Like they said they wanted to do, the show reminds me of old Spirit in that it is exciting and not the old Glassmen kind of stuff they were doing the past few years. The early winter anti Kansas people will be shocked. Look for an all brass moment in the Ballad. I almost pooped myself. All I could think was "this is Spirit?" The drums are smokin crazy good and the horns have not sounded like this since their last mid 90s successes. You can tell new staff members are there in that almost everything said from the box was like super efficient and professional. Recent Spirit ensemble rehearsals I have seen drug ### and seemed to be unfocused. Don't know what the rest of the competition will be like, but this is great stuff from the "new" old Baby Blue.

The Dawg thinks this all sounds good to him. Bust some great music, have some GE (please Spirit), and be clean. Who doesnt like concerts? A friend who heard the brass at last camp said it was great music and not what any of the people are saying it would be like. He said there were melodies all over the place that you recognized, but it came across kind of like an overture kinda thing, though the ballad was more straight forward. Said the horns were making some volume happen to and that his vet buddies were digging the new brass dudes and the show alot. They said the vibe and organization stuff was very different from last year and was really good. Rock on.

1. Do you know the music of Kansas? I mean beyond your general recall. Have you gone and listened since this announcement went up, you know, just to educate yourself? 2. Would love for you to give examples from the past few years of what music is high brow and what is low brow. Are you saying corps must only play classical art music or weird avant garde stuff? If that happens we take all the variety away from DCI, this is almost happening anyway. Thank God they are doing some great music that most of us know. 3. Didn't you say some of this staff were your college directors and you would run through fire with gasoline under your arms for them? That seems like a lot of respect and trust, to then turn around and say their decision makes you want to get hot dogs during Spirit's show, that their music is low brow, and that this music does not belong on a football field? 4. If I were to use your terms of high brow and low brow, I would say that of the thousands of rock groups that have ever existed, Kansas is surely from the high brow category. We can all have our opinions, but you just seem extremely close minded to what could be a really welcomed change for Spirit and DCI. Life's more fun when you are open minded, certainly with something as great as music.

I really wasn't trying to blast him. Sorry if it comes across that way. As I read his post again, it seems my take on the events may be prettyaccurate.

My 2 cents. I am excited! I spend too much time thinking about what I would program for corps shows. It is fun and once in a while someone plays something I was thinking of. As far as Spirit goes, recently, I could not think of what they could play, mostly because I thought they needed a big change. As far as what that change was, I couldn't figure that one out, seemed like a really tough one. Well, as soon as I read the announcement I thought...Perfect! One season at a time. All the announcemnets for them have looked very smart, addressing what needs to get better and what needs to stay. This one has tons of potential.

Sorry ajawon, I cannot resist. So you were in your school's music lab...you saw that a private correspondence from a Spirit staff member was still active on a computer (a correspondence sent by or to a staff member)...you looked at the private correspondence...you copied the correspondence...you posted it to a public forum without the correspondence owner's permission. I understand the info is exciting and all, but this action is not good for your reputation or good for someone trusting you. Your high school band director probably won't say anything or even know, but just not a good idea. One more thing. A lot of people outside, and inside the activity for that matter, have negative views of what drum corps does to members. It is unfortunate that a few do things, as mild as some of the actions may be, that prove that drum corps isn't producing better, upstanding young people. Your note above is a self admitted warning that if tempted "drum corps kids" can't be trusted. If you are marching already or plan to march, these kinds of things tend to really bother staffs and again, don't help people trust you. Just had a thought. I really hope you are not a member of Spirit. That would not be good. I am sure you are not a bad person and all and did not mean ill will. Just tryin to give a perspective. If you are going to or are already marching, be one that leaves the activity and helps convince non-drum corps folks that it is a good place for young people to be and to develop as better young people.