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Troopers - it's the only show that brings the crowd to it's feet - more than once. The sunburst is the best that it's ever been! No one sells a show better this season than Troop!

Never cared much for a BK show, and this one doesn't do anything for me either. Michael Boo seemed to like the tambourine feature, I didn't think it added anything to the show, and you couldn't hear them (I was in Denver last week, sitting close, and couldn't hear the tams live either)

Check out this forum: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/153432-the-night-after-the-day-before/

Jim, I cried as I read this! Thank you for sharing. You said what I am sure we all feel and don't quite have the words; And you're right,no one else would begin to understand who hasn't been a part of it in some way.

Clock parts and gears; juggling balls; lessons on balancing and other amazing feats - C.O.D. from Wyoming

Thanks Kevin, you were awesome tonight!

:worthy: :worthy: Finally!

Seriously???

That's BD taking advantage of judges no longer using the tick judging system.

Make that 8 out of 22 - Troopers are from Wyoming. This year Troopers members all had to meet in Indianapolis for their move-in all days. By July they also traveled back west to host their own show in Casper, and then went to the Denver show (even though it essentially was rained out) and then headed back east. I guess if Troopers can do an east to west and back east again tour, other corps could do something similar, even if it's just going as far as Denver or Salt Lake City.

Did Brandt Crocker just sound somewhat underwhelmed (less enthusiastic) when announcing Blue Devils just now?

Ahem...but the Troopers DO NOT wear cowboy hats!

The Troopers DM "Death Walk" is my favorite part of the retreat! And this year's DM does it better than most I have seen. a few years ago DCI staff told the Trooper staff to tell the DM to speed it up going on for retreat. The response given was that it was up to the DM to decide he wanted to do. In other words - no one on the staff was going to agree to a break in tradition and the DM kept with the tradition. And really, with a sidearm and a saber - who is going to mess with the Troopers DM?

Many people have said that Troop needs to bring back the show elements that work, such as the sunburst. For years they were told be be innovative. So this year, they started out trying to do both. For anyone who saw the show before Minneapolis, Troop started the show with a 2-minute drum/pit number and during that number horn line and color guard did a modified sunburst, no one noticed it because they were watching the drum line and the judges hated it! (and the scores showed it) so Troop staff redesigned the show to please the judges and the scores started going up. But they lost the sunburst (tradition) and the opening drum number (innovation) hopefully by San Antonio they will have a new closer. As they do more cleaning there is optimism from all the kids in the corps. The sunburst should make a reappearance. The one thing no one seems to be saying (or noticing) is that those marching with Troop want to be there. If they didn't, they would go somewhere else. It's not like they are all with Troop because no one else would take them. Members in this year's Troop are passionate about the show, the music and being Troopers. As long as kids want to be a Trooper, the corps will live on, no matter where they place in competitions - and it has all this time. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

...Because...?

Lindsay Vest, a member of the Blue Knights, and chosen for the 2010 All-DCI Color Guard is part of the American Fork High School Band. My boys were at the Pocatello competition with another high school. We're grateful they arrived home safely, but our hearts go out to the AFHS students who have suffered a terrible loss. Everyone from every high school in Utah has been touched by this story.

'08 Blue Knights - I, and those I was with, couldn't focus on the overall show because the guard uniforms (or lack there of) was so distracting, and not in a good way. Either they should have all had the same shirt, or at least told some of the girls that the short shirt didn't work for them. Too many of them were constantly tugging at their tops to keep it down. It was laughable, embarrassing and downright dreadful.

And there really were some amazing rifle work and tosses that were caught perfectly high impact moments. (only complaint most people had was that they didn't like the guard costumes)

How many times, (years) do you want the Troopers to play the same songs again? How many times have they already done "Ghost Riders"? The challenge and fun is to do new shows every year. There is a lot of "western" themed music out there and Troop has done a good job finding it and putting it in a western-styled theme show keeping with its tradition, as well as putting in their traditional sunburst. What you're asking is for Phantom to do Spartacus each year, SVC to always do their Russian dance number and BD now to always use the chairs. It's not so much as "playing the game" as it is keeping things interesting for the fans and challenging for the kids doing all the work. There really is nothing wrong with mixing it up and keeping things current. How much criticism would there be if they all played the same songs every year - a lot. It would be cheap. Things would be so clean, everyone would have to get 100 scores, and the kids would be bored. Who wants to march in a corps that goes out and does the same thing, year after year after year. If you go back and watch this year's Troopers show, there was a lot of "tradition" in it.

There are parts of Troopers music performance that I still remember and have stuck in my head, and finals was more than a month ago. So, while this may be your point of view, it's not the only one. I think you must be one of the many that cheer against the Blue Devils because they have taken the top spot so often and you're reaching for anything you can to justify your position because whatever corps you wanted in the finals didn't get there. I don't think Troop are sell-outs because they may have joined the current wave of what drum corps is all about these days. They had plenty of the typical Troop formula and tradition that way overshadowed anything "new" that they threw into the mix. Add to that, they had an incredible group of musicians that surprised even the staff and design teams. So, maybe no one "noticed" what you did because it wasn't as clear cut and blatant as you want to make it out to be.

Corey Moore - Troopers. He holds the audience captive with his presence when he is on the field, be it during the show, or during scores. He has carried on the tradition of the Trooper DM in classic fashion. He makes the "death walk" an art form. He is a class act! He is never out of character. He is totally into the performance from the time he walks on to the field through to the end of the show.