sjankis630

OK I will put in my .02. I never marched in a Drumcorps only marching band way back in the 1980s so flame away. lol I first got to see a live drumcorps show at the 2000 semifinals at the University of Maryland. It was incredible, the sound the pomp the drill really a thrilling experience for my brother and I. I had followed DCI and drumcorps since the mid 80s (bought the VHS tapes and wore them out- they were on sale!) and watched each year thru the only channel available for me at the time which were the Thanksgiving shows (edited to fit all 12 in one broadcast) and I looked forward to them each year. My band director at the time had told us how incredible it was. Then things started changing - I am sure they were changing before but I guess I first noticed it with Carolina Crown's Bohemia (2004?) when you had a person mic'd singing. I enjoyed the show but I remember not really being into focusing on just singing with one person. It seemed too much like Broadway to me. I did enjoy itwhen an entire corps would sing like a chorus but for whatever reason the individual stuff rubbed me the wrong way. I was away from it for a while and then started watching it in the theaters sporadically over the years when they started around 2004. My brother and I went and it was an event with 3 sold out theaters and a lot of people wearing their patches from their days in Drumcorps and it seemed special. Now the theater event seems more like something I occasionally attend and the shows I have seen locally are sparsely attended - usually with band kids from local highschools. Now Drumcorp has evolved and I am happy that so many still enjoy the shows but even though I am still impressed by the horn playing I tend to zone out during the more "live play" portions of shows. (portions with electronics (guitars, cellos etc) As much as I loved watching 2016's Bluecoats performance Downwside up, I kind of didn't enjoy The "Great Gig in the Sky" portion with the macbook pro and keyboard even though I am a huge Pink Floyd fan. I don't know. I am truly a dinosaur as I was introduced to drumcorps when it was horns and drill. Now it is horns, drill, (trombones....) and a lot of electronics and at times up to 1/10 of the members on the field not actually marching but essentially being teamsters moving props around. I guess I am looking at this like this is an old favorite band who evolved from the sound that brought me to them and have now gone down a road that is not part of what made me like them in the first place. Does that sound sensical? Watching DCI shows now is like going to see that old band and waiting and enjoying only the old songs and just tolerating the new stuff in between. Sorry for the long rant but I think the way that Drumcorps is evolving I probably won't be going to shows in 5-10 years but I hope I will still be supporting them in some other fashion.

For whatever reason the sound in my usual theater in Northern VA is pretty decent but it doesn't capture the dynamics of the soft and loud as well as I would like. The issue I have is the picture is almost always too dark. It looks like the lights in the stadium were about 66% on. I don't know what happens or is lost in the broadcast but it can be annoying. It reminds me of the situation where somehow if you have ever watched content intended for HDR TVs/monitors but you didn't have an HDR monitor so the picture looks kind of dull colored. Regarding the performances I was really impressed. I am used to the days of me going to watch the 3 ish Corps performances I will like and then later after I purchase the Bluerays I enjoy parts of the other shows. But now that they claim that they will not be selling DVDS/BluRays of the performances I wanted to make sure I saw each performance. I was impressed. For the first time since maybe way back into the early 2000s I liked several shows. I was particularly impressed by the Troopers, The Colts, and Phantom Regiment. I loved loved the Cavaliers, and really was impressed by the Cadets performance as well. I liked the Bluecoats and Carolina crown - as always - soundwise but for whatever reason the themes of both of those shows just didn't gel with me. Maybe I will come around if I ever get a chance to see the shows again. The Blue Devil show was impressive as always but the music may not have been to my liking as much as past years.

Was the picture dim like in my theater. The combined dimness along with the dark blues of Lucas Oil stadium made some parts hard to see.

I am going tonight in the VA suburbs. I have not seen a show in the theaters since probably 2018. I am just hoping for good weather. I know in the past that there have been issues where I watch whenever there were heavy thunderstorms that would mess up the feed. I have watched only a couple of shows on youtube but I think i want to go in cold and be surprised. What is going on with Denny? I hope he and his family is doing OK. I do miss going live to see regional shows. The last time I did that was 2016 out in Chester PA. As nice as some theater sound is it ain't going to touch a live show.

Really late on this. My brother, girlfriend and I traveled to Chester for the show from Fairfax County Va. We had a slight detour to visit relatives in NJ and as such didn't get to the stadium until around 7. I didn't realize that there was free parking and since inexplicably not one of us had any cash, I turned around to go find a cash machine in Chester proper. OMG! That is the first and last time I take a tour through the town of Chester - apologies to Chester residents-but it was amazing the difference between the stadium and one block past the stadium. It goes from pleasant to quickly unpleasant pretty fast. Thanks to the forum to setting me straight on the availability of free parking. Anyhow, my favorites were the Bluecoats and Carolina Crown. I was surprised by how good SCV was and the overall quality of the acoustics in the stadium for all the corps. There were the only occasional electronic feedback glitches but the sound at the stadium was the best of my limited live performances. I had only seen performances @ Herndon high, George Mason and the University of Maryland back in 2000. The percussion was particularly crisp and loud. I am very glad I spent the extra $$ to get good seats within the 40 yard line. (section 106 row R)as it was worth every penny. After seeing this live I have no desire to see the quarter finals in the theater and here the great sounds muted and compressed as I have in past years. I am skipping the finals in theaters and saving my money for the Blurays - whenever they end up coming out.

Northern VA here i got mine today too. I had only placed my order about a week ago and never got an email saying they had shipped or anything. I came here and saw that some were seeing them ship and had to log back into the site and put in my order number and only then did I see that my disc was on the truck today. I don't see why they don't send out the information when it is shipping directly to the email addresses.

Regal Fairfax Towne Center for me in Fairfax VA. This year the larger Tysons Corner 16 is not carrying the broadcast so I had to go with Regal. The bad news - they don't sell twizzlers only Red Vines - yuck. The good news - the seats are all assigned and they have updated the entire theater to include reclining seats and fewer in each theater to boot! Going to get there at least 20 min early with the girlfriend to scope it out. It was either this theater or the Cobb over in Loudoun near Leesburg. The Cobb is nicer but further away. It seems to be fewer theaters showing it this year.

Well another wrinkle in my saga. I got my Bluray today but the disc is not recognized in my PS3 player - the only Bluray player I use in the house. Has anyone else gotten their Bluray discs yet and have you had any problem playing them?

No company should bill you for anything they do not have on hand. I have been billed two other times this way and stopped doing business with the firms when they did not fix the problem. One was a now defunct speaker company who had a great sale on a center channel speaker which I ordered and which they promptly charged me for. Then they didn't ship for almost a month. Good riddance. Now I am going to say that at the moment I am assuming that they "thought" the product was going to be there when they did the charge - I will give them the benefit of the doubt. But I have e-mailed them asking two questions. 1) If the product is not in, when will it be in and shipped? 2) Do you have a policy which allows you to charge for items you do not have in stock? We will see if they reply to my polite, but firm e-mail. Online purchases are quickly taking over as the norm and as such I feel should at least strive to be as satisfying as an in store purchase. Can you imagine if you picked something out in a store and then gave the guy the money and he said, "Thanks for the money, we will be giving you your item sometime in the future... have a nice day." Let's face it this ain't no $5 novelty, we are talking about Drumcorps! (and I am out $129 bucks!)

Hmm. this is interesting. I ordered early and I had my credit card charged on November 21st and as of yet - here in Northern VA - I have not received anything. I thought it was curious that I did not receive any tracking info. So I just went online and checked out my order and see the following. My order status - for my order sent back on October 10th is "Back Ordered, No Shipment Set." I am hoping this is an error. I ordered the Bluray, but I don't understand why they would charge without the actual shipment.

Wow interesting post. I never marched drumcorps (ducks head..) but I have been a fan for at least 2 decades. Regarding the posts about DCI "going down hill" back in the fabulous 80s or any other decade, there is definitely an ebb and flow for this activity much like life. I remember also in the (90s?) when DCI was having huge sales on their merchandise - videotapes - because they seemed to be down and out. I bought a bunch of vhs tapes which are now all gone (along with my vcr) at rock bottom prices get them while they last! Look out below... I digress.... My point is I too loudly complained when they started to allow the amplification - thinking that it would be the death of Drumcorps. After all, this is Drumcorps and not Broadway! Does everyone remember 2004 Carolina Crown's Bohemia? When they broke out the microphone I cried foul. And I am a huge Queen fan to boot. I saw the death of DCI right there. It seemed to catch on with other Corps with some scary - to me - results. Does everyone remember "Dance Derby of the Century" by the Blue Devils? Yowza Yowza! But of course Drumcorps didn't die and they seem to have gone away from outright singing (not miked at least) and are now on an amplification kick. I still shake my head when I see how much gear they trot out on the field for the prerecorded pieces. Some corps support crews look like they are setting up more for 38 Special or Van Halen than drumcorps. But i have come over it seems. I really liked Cabaret Voltaire. There I said it. When they first started (stumbling?)ambling across the field in the opener I groaned in the theater... here we go again. But the show really grabbed me and was one of my favorites of the year.(I had neither seen nor heard any shows that year until then) You mentioned 2007- forward as the high point for you, well my golden year was 1996. 1-2-3 knockout people 1 - Blue Devils Gangster Chronicles - fantastic show - one of my favorites until 2000's all Bernard Herrmann show. 1 - Phantom Regiment - Defiant Heart - all black uniforms with Shastakovich? Chills people, chills 3 - Cadets - The American West - Copeland one of my favorites with a fun show? Are you kidding me? Who can forget "BEEF!" ... drunk guy gets a mention as well. 6 - Madison Scouts - Drumcorps Fans Dream Part Dos had everyone on their feet. One of the biggest crowd reactions I had ever seen. That John Schipper (sp) guy - fantastic and Malaguena again? How refreshing ..... ;) Also we had a tie for first place for the first time ever. That won't happen again anytime soon.... oops. So of course I ask myself how could I like these old shows so much - and others from the 90s and 80s but yet still say I like all of this "new stuff" they keep coming up with too? I cannot say why, but I know I do. Some of it is the anticipation of seeing it come about every summer, some of it is what is old is new again. (Did everyone hear the opening and closing riff from Gangster Chronicles(96) brought back out again in Cabaret Voltaire(12) in a new way?)I don't like everything (Cadets I love you but Jethro Tull may be best left on the stereo), but I am always entertained. In today's age of quick thrills and forget it soon, how many other activities give you this much pleasure year in and year out? I think I will still complain, but each new year will have me awaiting what new show/invention they can come up with to entertain me. I will say this - I miss the annual Thanksgiving shows - with all 12 corps, which got me hooked in the first place and I will always be in debt from my old middle school/jr high school band director who turned me onto Drumcorps in the first place. Thanks Mr Parquette! Oh yeah, thank God for DVD/Bluray!

I tend to agree with this. It is almost like they are all copying each other (wouldn't be the first time) and feel the need to include some synth sounds whether they make sense or sound well during the portion of the show or not. "xxxxx has synths," (enter corps name here) " Go out and get us some of them." It seemed weirder to me but the shows this year really seemed to have more variety, but yet they all seemed to manage to include non-natural synthetic sounds in their shows. maybe this will be another passing fad like singing Broadway style over a mike. (I will not even mention the horrendous "scatting" human drum sounds from a couple of years ago.)

Fairfax County VA - picture went right out while the guy played "America the Beautiful." Teh manager came out after the natives started getting restless after about 20 min. gave us all free passes to any movie we wanted in future and the pic came back up right before he finished! Someone must have complained as the corps got noticebly louder by around the mid point. nice crowd though and everyone clapped after every solo and the end of each performance. Yeah that guy from SCV was pretty bad/funny but was he as truly creepy as Geoffrey from the CADETS? he almost turned into the Jar Jar Binks of DCI.

I was at a theater in Northern Va and I would say the crowd was about 60/40 young to old. I was surprised. Just as the got started into America the Beautiful the satellite cut out for about 20 min. People were just starting to get restless when the theater manager handed out free movie passes. Just she had gotten to the last town, the picture came back in. Our theater sounded like it got louder at the end. Macbeth turnedcup the sound? I actually liked theCavaliers, SCI and the Madison Scouts the best. I also thought that the judging was tougher which I personally like.

in Fairfax VA show satellite is out. we are hit with nothing here. This truly sucks .