trionbd

My son is marching Music City and I am hoping to stop by and see them today. I found out that they are at Ellis Middle School but apparently its not a school anymore. I don't know how long it's been closed though and can't find any information about it online. You know how it is when you're on tour it's usually impossible to know exactly where you are.

Does anyone know where to find out where the open class corps are rehearsing the next couple of days for championships in Michigan City?

I was about to write a response to this topic...until I read this. I couldn't have said it better.

Dude...seriously, as a Madison Alum, please stop posting things like this on behalf of our corps. You are undercutting whatever thin point you're trying to make by being so beligerent with people. So you have an opinion. No one else was tearing you down about your opinion. They were simply stating that you are in the incredibly small minority that might think Empire was the best closer of all time. In the process people were giving you examples of closers they thought were clearly better. Those who have been around the activity for years can state with certainty that it's not the best closer of all time. It's called perspective. When you have been around the activity for a long time you will also have perspective. I dare say that your opinion will change about this. But even if it doesn't change, you may be the only one who would feel that this is the pinacle of DCI closers. Me? I liked the song. But I saw Madison live in '88, '92, '94, '95, '97, and '99 and my opinion is that they were all more enjoyable closers than Empire. Does that under cut the 2011 corps? NO! The men have worked their tails off to resurrect our corps. So to all of the guys that proudly wear the Madison uniform and read these posts, know that the alumni couldn't be prouder of you. I stood tall when I saw you live this year! But dude, stop posting crap like this.

How about Madison '84? That was pretty darn loud!!

good point!

How about some early to mid '80s Spirit of Atlanta? Hunter Moss was a beast!!

"Ladies and gentlemen...the momemt you've all been waiting for...The MARCHING SOUTHERNERS!!"

If I remember correctly, wasn't SCV made to wait to take the field during a lightning storm that year? I think that possibly helped to add to the energy they let loose that night. They weren't the cleanest or most complex, but they were the most entertaining show of the night IMO!

Was Chris still wearing his 1990 "Lemon Squeeze" tshirt???

This may be my favorite post ever on DCP!

I was thinking the same thing! I'm usually not one to blindly give DCI props, but they don't have a ton of options when it comes to ticket prices. Life is expensive these days. I'm sure that reserving these modern venues makes for a very large overhead. Why would you expect to pay $100 for a good seat at a professional sporting event or a concert and not expect to pay the same for watching the most hard working and professional marching circuit. Doesn't make sense. And DCI does offer discounted tickets...on the 15 yard line. Just like pro sports teams sell cheaper/affordable tickets for seats in the upper deck outfield/end zone. Another similar point...If you go to a regular season baseball game, you expect to pay X amount. If you go to the same venue to see a division series playoff game, you expect to pay twice as much. If you go to see a championship series game, you can expect to pay 3 times as much. And the World Series??? Probably 5 times as much. But people are constatly complaining about the ticket prices at shows/regionals/world championships. I know that some will say that the high ticket prices at sporting events are to pay for the rediculous salaries that atheletes make these days. But people must not mind paying it, because they still buy the tickets. It's not too much. It's just how much things cost these days.

I agree with you about what to keep and what not to keep to an extent. The drill of today is, for the most part, way more interesting than the drill of the 80's! But with that said, here is what I have been thinking for some time now. For me the drill of the 70's is kind of boring to watch. The evolution hadn't reached the drill yet. The 80's drill evolved to a point where asymetry went away and the demand on the marcher was much more difficult from a technical aspect. (Love it, hate it, or bored with it...the 80's is where the biggest and most infuential evolution happened). The 90's was my favorite decade for drill. The movement kept progressing, but drill designers became very conscious of how the drill represented the music. I find that in the last few years, the drill and visual aspect of most shows have become distracting in some cases. There's no doubt that the level of design and dificulty level has gone up significantly. But is there a point where it's too much? One of the things that I do miss about the mid 80's through early 00's drill is that sometimes the joy of an awesome drill move was that you could see it coming from a mile away. Some might think that is all together boring. But today it seems like so many cool drill moves are masked to develop in a surprise fashion...and that does have merit too. But I do miss the when there were drill moves where you could pick apart a form. It was like there was a tension that was released for fans when it was done perfectly. I think fans that followed drum corps in the 80's know what I'm talking about on this one. Not that there isn't an occassional example of that today, but people used to refer to shows by mentioning a signature drill move that everyone knew...the Z Pull, a rotating company front, etc. I think incorporating a little old school drill into current shows would be something that most every fan would appreciate.

We played at a mental institution in '93... :spitting:

It really is apples to oranges if you're comparing 2010 to '70s sound. The equipment alone would have never allowed hornlines to achieve the blend they do today. I would say that by the mid to late 80s the horns and drums had evolved enough to allow the player to get quality sounds. So I would disagree with you about it being performed atrociously. It really was, in most cases, the equipment and not the player. Not that you said this, but it would be dismissive for anyone to think that there wasn't talent in 1970's corsps that would allow them to play at a high level.

My first exposure to drum corps was in 1984. I went to my 6th grade orientation and went home to tell my older brother, who was marching tuba in his high school band, that I saw a band practicing and they had 10 tubas!! Turned out it was Phantom Regiment there practicing for the 1984 Championships....oh so naive! I first marched when in 1991.

When you look back at what '84 Garfield was doing with drill, it was absolutely a mold-breaker. But when you stack it up against shows from the following years they might not have seemed so earth shattering. To me it's like when people say that they don't understand what the big deal is about the Beatles. Well when you listen to the pop music that was out there when the Beatles started, they were truly ground breaking. When you fast forward 10 years, you can tell what an influence they had on the music scene. When you fast forward a few years from 1984 you can totally tell what Garfield did was similarly important to the visual aspect of drum corps. You might be bored by them in 2010, but look at the crowd reaction on the video from '84. People were throwing babies for a reason...they had never seen anything like that before. I imagine that there will be some that will want to stone me to death for making a Garfield to Beatles comparison, but I'm just using that as an expample. Sorry you were bored, but their influece was HUGE on the activity.

It's obvious that DCI hates tall people!!!!

Totally agree!!! That would be a hard blow to take.

Me and the person sitting next to me were talking after the theater stopped lauging that the guy would be feeling a bit small if he knew how many people got a chuckle at his expense. I thank him for that highlight!!

I attended the showing in Chattanooga. I was generally pleased with the sound at our theater. I went a couple of years ago and was disappointed in the audio. Not this year though. Not sure why one would be good and another wouldn't, but I heard no complaints from others in the audience where I was.

I was at the Atlanta show and again last night at the theater. Here's my take on the crowds reaction to the Blue Devils... UNCOMFORTABLE! Anybody else feeling really uncomfortable when you hear crickets at the end of a BLUE DEVILS show??? Love it or hate the show itself, just sad that's the feeling I'm left with at the end of the Blue Devils performance. I know they are better than everyone else...heck they know they are too, but I think lots of people have tried to enjoy the show and just don't. It's out there for sure, but there have been out there shows that people have gotten behind in the past. I hate that BD has become so polarizing with this production.

1. Madison Scouts 2. Phantom Regiment 3. Carolina Crown 4. Cadets 5. Blue Stars 6. Boston Crusaders 7. Blue Knights 8. Blue Devils 9. SCV 10. Cavaliers 11. Bluecoats 12. Glassmen

Best one yet!!!

Even as a Madison alumnus, i would have to agree with this statement. Their show this year is something that a fairly large portion of the DCI fan community have been waiting for. Really for years. That doesn't mean that it's everyone's favorite...the poll results speak to this point, but it's hard to not like what Madison is doing for themselves and the crowd this year.