DrumManTx

One of my favorite voices in the activity. Will be dearly missed 😔 Going to be more and more common unfortunately. This activity isn't sustainable in its current state.

Tyler judged my group last year, got two amazing tapes from him.

100% agree. Love what Tyler Sammons and crew have been building. If they were 10th or 11th across three nights then maybe I would raise my eyebrows. I think it's worth noting how deep percussion is. 8th in guard in finals was an 18.0 1.8 down from 1st. 8th in brass was an 18.4 1.45 down from 1st. 8th in percussion was an 18.95 1.05 down from first. Percussion actually out scored 6 other judges for them. I think the whole corps and show was in a similar place this year. Started strong, maybe finished hitting its stride around Allentown, but still finished very close to 5th and IMO is still their 2nd best effort placement and quality wise since their last medal in 2012. Agreed that if they do anything it needs to be suplementing, not replacing.

I think PC could use a new brass arranger, but think the rest of the team has had more hits than missed.

If you've never experienced BOA San Antonio, it's a bucket list item for anyone who is involved with marching band. The depth of amazing sounding bands is just absurd.

When BD mixes things up, it creates something magical (thinking 2014/2017). I am hoping for a little refresh creatively and that's all. This year had some segments I adored, hoping for a show full of them next year.

Every show since the new team arrived in 2013 is at least an 8.5/10 for me personally and my all time favorite and other top 5 all time favorites are in there. Even my "least" favorites (probably Jagged Line) are still insanely fun and enjoyable. This team just does everything I love about the activity. 2013 deserves a mention when this design philosophy and team arrived. The City Life segment has the fingerprints of some of their best work in recent years all over it. 2014-2016 is my favorite three year run for any drum corps ever. Tilt made electronics THE moment of the summer (the rest of the show is incredible too!), Kinetic Noise my first viewing is still a high I'm trying to chase, and the paradigm shift of Down Side Up was an INSANE 3 year run. But Kinetic Noise is the one that stays with me The Reich/Adams segment pre ballad still makes me ascend. Socially revolutionary and I remember posting on here after 2015 finals they were gonna win in 2016 because of what they tried with Kinetic Noise. Agreed on Session 44 being underrated, the ballad is still an all time favorite and the rest of the show is a blast. Some insane drill in there and Olivia was phenomenal. The Bluecoats was so pure, fun, and entertaining. Eleanor Rigby and Blackbird are still some of my favorite show segments. I think that's when they started to build the juggernaut in all captions, not just GE that they have today. Brass was close and the guard got so much better in 2018-2019. 2022 and 2023 feel like shows that will only age like fine wine, there's something that feels like drum corps from the future. The Ana Meredith material in those two shows is some of the most genius source material to drum corps interpretations in recent memory. 2024 is on my Mount Rushmore. A pacing and effect masterclass, it's a seamless perfect 12 minutes. Simple and powerful theme and caption strength was at an all time high (this year is close). And 2025 built on that and pushed the boundaries sonically again like 2015 (didn't know it was possible). And #### they were a good drum corps this year. All captions were close to winning strength. All that said, I can't rank them all because it's too hard for me. But, my top 4 is very easy: 1) Kinetic Noise 2) Change is Everything 3) Down Side Up 4) Tilt What I know of 2020 still makes me sad. It would be in my top 5. Won't speak to it (don't try messaging me lol) because you never know what they might pull out that was gonna be in that show but that 2020 corps and show was gonna be a juggernaut and a half.

I'll have an obnoxiously long post on this later lol

Yeah it was breathtaking and creatively bold/fresh. I am so excited creatively by what they're doing as of late. If a show completely lands and they keep improving in performance quality they're looking at a medal in the near future.

Brass percussion and guard all had 10.0s in achievement last night. That's gotta be a first. Pretty awesome.

87 Cadets got a 20.0 in perc.

I'll probably off sign off for the offseason tonight but incredible fun season with two beasts fighting til the end. A show that is the best of what drum corps is and a show that pushed boundaries of what it can be fighting for the win was a special way to this season to go. Congrats to BAC, building a champion indeed. And congrats to Bluecoats as well, best title defense for a corps not named Blue Devils since 2003 Cavaliers IMO. And also an incredible field top to bottom, was a fun year. Definitely not the time to be ugly, just had fun watching finals tonight with some good friends. Might have to find a way to get back out on tour with a corps again next summer.

Well done, absolutely incredible show this year! Thought that finals run was insanely good. Their top 2 streak continues. Thought they pushed some incredible boundaries this year as the reigning champion should and defended their title insanely well with another absolute banger of a show! Can't wait to see what crazy stuff they cook up next year.

Well done, and congratulations. Won through sheer performance tonight I think. Amazing season!

Visual Performance award is determined by the visual proficiency score.