DCISuperfan

^ I just have a hard time believing that the staff of the upper echelon corps are that much superior... The staff at blue knights have the same music degree's, previous DCI experience, talent pool, and a healthy budget that Carolina crown has... And yet blue knights have never cracked the top 6. They just arent up to snuff and put in so much time and dedication with an extremely talented staff and yet their programs just arent as innovative and as clean as the corps above them. It just doesnt make much sense to me that the staff is THAT much better in the top 6 than in the less successful corps.

Yes, money is a factor, but these two schools where both from very similar areas and circumstances financially. Money was very similar between the two. I appreciate the feedback from the marching band perspective, but what about from the drum corps perspective? You mentioned that instruction is absolutely critical and inferred it is the most important thing, do you think that BD's staff is THAT much better than Madisons???

Does Jack Meehan have any relation to the famous marching band music arranger/composer John Meehan?

And I dont want this to include just Drum Corps either, as marching band season is underway and having many siblings and family members in marching bands, I would like to include both of these forms of competitive marching music. As the title suggests, why are some corps/bands just mind blowingly better than other groups? There are a LOT of (relatively) constants in marching music. I would argue (even moreso in marching band than DCI) that time spent working on a show, the talent pool of the marching members, the staff teaching the ensemble, and the support given from outside sources are all VERY similar (unless im just blind...) in the top 12 drum corps. And yet we see a rather substantial disparity in performance from a 12th place corps on a given year and a 1st place corps. Why do groups suffer and others succeed so much? Do you truly believe that the best corps and marching bands just have so much more talent in their members? Do they spend more time on the field practicing? Is the staff just THAT much better? I just have a hard time believing that Blue Devils spend more time on their show than say Madison did this year. And yet BD beat Madison by roughly 10 points. Now im not going off and crying foul saying that madison was as good as BD, because they obviously werent, but with so many constants, why are some groups so much better than others? I was sitting down at a marching band competition this last Saturday and a band entered the field with 150 members. Roughly the size of a drum corps, and they just tanked... Their performance was just almost painful to watch it was so dirty and the performance level was just lightyears behind the groups in front of them. I was shocked to see just how little they were achieving on the field. So I went to their band internet page when I got home and looked up their Calendar and compared it with the group that took first place. The two calendars were almost identical. Four, four hour rehearsals a week with individual 2 hour sectionals once a week and one, twelve hour cleaning Saturday once a month... I was awestruck. The 150 member band scored 250 points (for some reason Marching band is judged on a 1000 point scale out here...) lower than the first place group, and yet they had almost the same amount of staff, only 30 kids less, and they practice the same amount of time... Whats the deal here??

Im glad they didnt. 007 was one of the best shows of this decade IMHO.

Yes I do understand that, but dancing is not harder than running around a field at 200 BPM while playing unless you are doing some SERIOUS dancing at a professional level. I was refering to the dancing more as a u-turn from where the corps has been in the past more than it wasnt difficult.

Actually the lack of visual demand in Crown's show this year was probably one of the largest reasons I didnt enjoy their show that much. The music was alright, I dunno.. Crown seemed off this year. Maybe it was the arrangements? Maybe the heavy emphasis on dance/pit involvement? I dunno it just didnt feel like drum corps to me. It felt like a completely different corps from last year or 2009. I just didnt like the direction Crown took this year. Not to say that they werent good, or didnt perform at a high level, I just didnt enjoy the direction that the corps headed in. I really hope they can go back to what they were in 2008, excellent drill with even more excellent brass sound. Finis was SUCH an amazing program... I get chills to this day every time I watch it on FN. Here's to hoping they take a few steps back and do what crown does best next year!

Kinda wish Fan Network had shows of corps from the 60's on it. It only goes to when DCI was founded (obviously) and so I cant watch any of your favorites..

Glad to see a lot of crown 2008, that show is seriously kick butt. Loved the music and that drill... Best drill crown has ever done imo.

What are your favorite shows of certain corps? Of all time? Here is my list - Cadets - 2005 Cavaliers - 2004 Crown - 2008 Phantom - 2008 Blue Devils - 2000 Santa Clara - 1999 Bluecoats - 2010 Blue stars - 2010 Madison - 2011 (really tough... but bias comes into play here because its been a few years since they were in top 8ish) Blue Knights- 2011 Boston - 2011 Spirit - 2002 Whats yours??

Would love to see cavaliers pay some homage their 2004 program and have 2012 be music from the "Incredibles" by Michael Giacchino. That would be EPIC. Crown playing music from LotR would be pretty sweet as well.

Really wish I could have seen cavaliers, madison and crown in person. Wish I would have gone to finals. Then again, airfare and hotel's plus food and ticket prices is a tough sell for a few nights of drum corps. Especially when seeing quarters live in the theatre is only like 15 bucks a person.

I cant even view the semi's though either... I didnt want the DVD's or the Blu rays and paid 80 bucks to get subscription and live events. It clearly says "world class semi's" with a checkmark next to it and I dont even have access to that. I cant view anything past the allentown performances. Why isnt there an option to buy a subscription to view all content but not get any dvd's?? I thought thats what I was buying... Pretty lame that I cant view ANY finals material.

It seems pretty ridiculous that I dont get to watch finals after I already paid 80 bucks for the subscription and the live events. Pretty freaking lame. I went to both theatre events this summer, went to the only live event within 800 miles of my house, and paid 80 bucks for the subscription and I dont get to watch finals because its "disc only". Well I bought the DVD's last year and the quality was pretty poor IMO. The visual quality was sub par, and im not paying 100 bucks for a blu ray player and another 20 bucks just for the blu ray discs. I probably spent over 300 dollars this summer for DCI with my family and they dont even let me watch the finals... Disappointed with DCI right now.

Yeah I messed up, I flamboyantly threw out "won the visual caption" and I meant to say that they just won Visual total. I meant to say that I dont agree with BD winning the entire visual package over Cadets or Cavaliers. Winning the visual caption I can agree with because on the field level they were extremely precise.

But BD won visual.. The TOTAL visual package was won by BD on Friday and Saturday night.

Oops

... No they didnt.. BD won visual and took first in visual both friday and saturday night.. What recaps are YOU looking at?

This has truly been an exciting year in drum corps. I can say that at least 9 of the top 12 corps had better shows this year than they have had since 2008. Pretty cool stuff. I loved having Cadets win, it was truly an amazing show. That being said, I have some issues that I just cant shake from my head. The issue I am having is that Cadets or Cavaliers didnt win visual. Blue Devils did. If there was ANY caption that I felt BD was weak and overall just not great at all in it was visual. BD had an amazing brassline, percussion section, guard and everything, but they had a very flat visual program. At least IMO. Cavaliers had the best visual program on the field IMHO and cadets had a fantastic one as well. How did BD's objectively boring and relatively easy drill that was clean beat a very very slightly less clean but much much more difficult drill book from Cavaliers and or Cadets? How does this make any sense? It seems to me like the visual Judges thought like this "oh wow, look at cavaliers and cadets, they have such fantastic drill books, and they are pretty freaking clean too... so good.. but wait... BD is even MORE clean, screw difficulty, BD is more clean, GIVE THEM THE CAPTION!!!". Am I way off base here? I just have no idea how BD won the visual caption... They were so much stronger musically than they were visually. It literally just blows my MIND how they beat cadets and cavaliers in visual.

Cant agree with that spread between cavaliers and BD. Cadets should have won hands down, but a whole POINT between BD and cavaliers? really? I think its kinda lame that they didnt break 97 with that show... I felt it was better than Mad World by a substantial bit. But whatever.

What timezone is this in though? Indi is in the eastern time zone which is 3 hours ahead from california, 2 hours ahead from Colorado and an hour ahead from Texas right? I live in Utah, so the broadcast starts at 6:40 in Indi, but here it starts at 4:40 right?

^ I really hope your wrong. I couldnt bear to have BD three peat to the amazingness cavaliers and cadets are doing. I see something like this: Cadets Cavaliers (I really dont know which one will take it) BD (some space) Crown Phantom Vanguard Bluecoats Blue Stars Boston Madison BK Glassmen/Spirit/Academy (Im wishing for academy)

I see cavaliers passing BD lightyears before I see them beating cadets. I dont quite think they will take the title either, but I am pretty confident they will edge out BD. BD just doesnt have enough show elements to keep a clean cavaliers off their back. You can only get so far with a relatively easier super clean show vs a very difficult but relatively just as clean show.

I for one will respectfully disagree. Wait till Thursday, I DEFINITELY think cavaliers are still in this by a ways. They have the most powerful and demanding visual program on the field, and they have an incredible brass and percussion section. The top three are in a league of their own, as I dont see Crown in that league at all, but Cavaliers are still up there with them. They have the most cleaning to do out of the top 3, but if they get that show as clean musically as it is visually it will be tough for BD to stay ahead.

Agree 100%. Completely.