WestCoaster

Found an even better corpsgasm just a few clips down on that page, the one with the highlights from the New York show. BD is at the end, only about 15 seconds or so but DAYUM! I don't get how people can hate that show, talk about in yer face awesomeness!

It's not for your personal benefit, it's a warm-up. Should they stop playing eight-on-a-hand too? Pretty sure that one is about 40 years old or so.

Why limit it to only marching? I have always wanted to see some rudimental "compulsories" for percussion (even if it's something like a judged 2 minute warm-up, and heck you could even do it outside the stadium if you wanted), and you could include mallets and brass in there as well! And make it worth more than 10%. More like 30%. That should also shut up the folks who complain that this show or that is "far easier" than everyone elses. If that were true, we'd see it reflected in the compulsaries scoring.

"Sarcasm is a far better teacher than physical abuse" I would say that both suck. Either one might occur in rare circumstances in an otherwise excellent program, which is fine, but by and large it's better to actually SHARE INFORMATION (aka teaching), and work together to improve. I've been subjected to both over the decades, and I can say with all honesty that a bit of witty sarcasm when called for is fine, and a bit of "hey, go do some pushups cause you blew it" works okay too. As long as either are rare, it's no problem at all. But for some idiot to think by any stretch of the imagination that "sarcasm is a far better" anything, is a poor teacher to say the least!

Jeez, it was 21 years ago for pete's sake! When I marched, I never remember ANYONE discussing any corps performance from 1968! Good lord, give it a rest already. At least talk about something IMPORTANT, like the fall of the Berlin Wall (yes, that happened the same year too!).

Just for fun, rank em up from let's say 75 (the first year BD became lethal) to 99, so a good span and anyone who wants to rank just one decade or so can go for it, too (but this isn't really a "pick your favorites" though, so please choose an era if you want to "rank and rate" how you liked the BD shows and how awesome you thought they were (or not lol). I hope to read lots of commentary, but I'll start the ball rolling with just dates and nothing more (cause I'm tired ) I'll be the first to throw out a caveat and admit that I'm NOT all that familiar with the shows pre 1980 (But anyone else is free to rank em up from that era of course!), I know 76 was a classic but that's about all I know so I'll be ranking just 20 years. 86 88 94 82 84 85 90 96 80 83 87 99 95 92 98 97 89 81 93 91 I'll probably elaborate on these pics later, but they WERE well considered (not just spitting out random years, and I'm sure a few of them might shock some people but I have my reasons).

In a way, that's even worse! Here's my rankings... 1) Blue Devils 2) Santa Clara Vanguard 3) Cadets 4) Blue Stars 5) Boston Crusaders 6) Phantom Regiment 7) Bluecoats 8) Blue Knights 9) Carolina Crown 10) Glassmen 11) Cavaliers 12) Madison Scouts

HEY! From my understanding the Door scored very well! Leave the Door alone!

Actually, it WASN'T all that brilliant since the announcer announced them way too early (long before the salute in fact, probably in a panic). The whole "pre-show" thing is just awkward. They should simply add 90 seconds of unjudged music to the show if they really want to (they're all doing it anyway), and let the announcer announce the corps before that instead of creating these awkward situations (LIKE Cadets did in 89, and they actually DID pull it off in shows before finals and it was kind of neat as an offbeat thing but it sucked at finals and since then it has been more often awkward than it has been cool!). Yuck.

They should, though (even if they don't "have to"). Doesn't the announcer ask for the DM by name? Why be rude!? Maybe that's something they should work out with the announcer or something. Seems pretty off-putting if you ask me.

I thought we were talking about drums. As I wrote, I *like* the modern day drill and the modern day hornline (turn up the volume a bit more though, please lol). Crown has an amazing hornline. Now, let's get back to drums.

There are all kinds of levels of hate. What you wrote is probably on the extreme end, but it's not so far away from some stuff I've read on DCP this year. What I wrote back to was just regular, mid-level hate.

Yes, I would love to see that too! Is anyone attempting such a thing? (once again, I am frustrated by the fact that the music has taken a backseat to the velocity requirements in every way!)

Yeah, once. And that, just barely.

I'm not a brass guy, but I know drums. IMHO the actual books of the TOP groups back in the 80's and early 90's were the toughest to pull off. Rudimentally complex, had to have some sort of a groove to it (at least for the jazz guys), and tons of exposure. BUT, as the velocities increased, the actual playing demands decreased (but of course the drill demands increased bigtime). TO me, all I hear these days is variations on 16th note paradiddle patterns and nothing much more than that (with a few notable exceptions). It's a bit too phrenetic for my taste, but it goes hand in hand with the velocity demands so I'm not sure I could write it any better than any of the other drum writers these days (I arrange and produce shows at "normal" tempos, myself lol).

Okay, let's talk about that. As colorguards have become more "integrated", and have to do more drop-spins or whatever (frankly I miss the old school Phantom/27th/SVC uniformity thing, but I can always watch a vid!), things have changed. As velocities have increased, drumlines have been relegated to playing less groovy, less rudimental sorts of patterns that don't frankly show off their chops as much as they used to (at this point it's ONLY who's the very cleanest, because all of the books sound relatively the same...not so back in the day when you could really define "hard" from "so-so"). Again, you are right that it's all apples and oranges. But whether one is BETTER than the other, that's a matter of opinion (I prefer old school guards, medium-school drumlines, and new-school brass and drill...can I order that off the menu!? ).

Sure! And that's true for colorguards, too!

Go back and watch the drumlines from the 80's, in particular the BD winners and their nearest competitors. They did about 20 rudiments for every 1 that are done now. As unsophisticated as those shows seemed, they would look quite impressive compated to what we watch now. Things change.

Hate much? It's pretty funny that you would throw in 93 Devs (and all appropriate props and kudos to their stellar hornline included), you couldn't even have included one of the more COMPETETIVE BD years? In 93, the drumline was still in relative chaos and the program was in transitional mode bigtime. They were simply fighting to stay out of FIFTH. And you think they could've beat BD musically in 2010? Ridiculous. Some of your other picks are weak, too, so I'd love to see your "longer list" dude. Bring it on. 91 Star was great, but their drumline couldn't hold a candle to BD 2010 (yes, even FOURTH place BD 2010), and Cavies 92 had a weak hornline AND drumline and were lucky to win at all (Star was the best, but fell apart on finals night because the staff demanded "more emotion" out of them, which resulted in many mistakes for whatever reason). No offense? Yeah, what you wrote wasn't offensive at all. Just having re-watched the incredible and undefeated 2010 show, I can say with complete honestly that the phrasing was fine. The performers were on fire. And I would be hard-pressed to suggest ANY year where they could've been challenged. Maybe the "all time greatest" list, like BD last year, Cadets and Cavies with their super-scores, possibly a few others but likely NONE of the ones you mention...I really can't figure where you're getting your ideas from if not from your "these ones are my favorites" list somewhere in your own head.

If I was to base the scores on the crowds reactions that were sitting around me, Vanguard would've pulled ahead of Garfield in 87, Phantom would've won in 89, and Madison would have a lot more than 2 titles.

Ah.

Pretty sure SCV and Garfield tied for high brass in 87.

Absolutely! Also, who is the moron who voted BD "out"? Are they really serious, or just enjoying being a hater or something. I mean, what sort of a dumb reply is that anyway.

Wayne Downey shared two of them. But certainly the Star hornline was awesome in those days...no doubt. In the early 90's, there really were only two hornlines battling it out for first place, and both were amazing...legendary stuff!

No, that's not disrespectful at all.