kickhaltsforlife

Ha!! If you only knew my last two weeks on tour.......

I haven’t seen Crossmen in a while!! When did they put The Lick in!!!!

GO BONES!!!!!!

Difficulty alone doesn’t mean squat these days. There has to be clear intent to the difficulty.

Mandarins have a terrific full sound. Struggling a little bit at in between dynamics. But #### I love this show.

I wrote off Phantom that year when I saw it in San Antonio. It just wasn't working yet. But they worked really ####### hard and got that show to work. The next time I saw it was Allentown. What a difference. When they killed Will Pitts I think I yelled "holy ####!" ( I was in full MM potty mouth mode). I was in The stadium for scores the first two nights in Bloomington. The drama of score announcements was crazy. Then.. unfortunately my corps got booted out of finals. But fortunately I got to experience my first finals live. The whole stadium was electric all night. By the end of Crown I didn't think it could get any crazier. Then Phantom started coming onto to the field. Talk about setting the mood and setting up a story. The crowd was on fire. That corps let the crowd in. The connection between the corps and audience was nuts. I've never been a part of anything like that since. You couldn't even hear the corps on the field for at least the last 30 seconds. Then retreat. Score announcements were brutal to get through. That place went absolutely ape #### when BD was announced in second. I didn't believe it. I thought BD also threw down that night and there was no way. But it was just enough. What an experience. It was almost the perfect end to what was an awesome rookie year (minus not making finals).

Click tracks would cause quite a bit of ensemble issues. Time has to be interpreted differently, constantly. Depending on who is playing, where they are playing, and their distance between others who are playing. It's why how a lot of groups use a Dr. Beat makes no sense... but that is a different subject. The original rules on electronics were very vague. And still are. And many wouldn't know how to enforce or recognize when a corps is breaking the rules. (Especially the case in the early electronic years.) And #### do I wish the judges took into consideration the equipment we are using..... it would at least drive our difficulty and achievement up....

They definitely came out strong. They have "played the game" extremely well the past couple of years. Been keeping a close eye on them. Designing shows that make sense for a growing corps... they turned quite a few heads last year. Very achievable and effective show. They are being smart and giving the members the opportunity to achieve at a high level, gearing up the design each year as they continue to grow. They definitely took it up a big notch this year. Very impressed with their performance in Stanford.

Mainly just because I didn't get over it yet: Crossmen should have beat Madison in '08. We had a terrible quarters performance and Madison was on that night. Couldn't make up the difference in Semis... even with a great show... only thing Madison did that was better was play loud. It wasn't a good loud... but it was an effective loud. Otherwise they were a mess. Both of those shows would not even be close to finals now. I'll move on one day.

You're thinking is correct... unfortunately.

Did you mean Surf? And it makes sense since he is Surf's arranger....How many original pieces based on "water" can you write in one year. Here is a later season West Chester performance though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnTBw9FRLV4

As long as they aren't "forced" into the book it is usually fine. And they can be much more impressive depending on how the brass is staged/what they are doing visually at the time. Honestly they are a great effect and "wow" tool. Are they actually hard to perform and clean? Different for each situation... but there are many other much harder things like the whole ensemble attacking notes together that could be considered harder, or lining up syncopated and separated rhythms front to back.

'95 Phantom underrated IMO... If you are speaking of the in front of the pit brass feature from '15.. would have been much more impressive if they actually played at least a full forte.... cool moment... always left me wanting a lot more though.

Believe Lee Beddis was there from 2007 to 2011.