jasgre2000

I'm not sure it is supposed to be that way, but when Dave Glyde explained the WWII section in BD's show right before the started, a light went on and I appreciated it so much more this time. So many layers of richness in that section. Makes me feel like reading up on the concepts behind all of these shows would enrich the experience of watching them even more.

Haven't been to the theater show in several years, but I'm glad I went tonight. So nice to hear the amazing sound and the multi-camera work, while not perfect, was so much better than the typical fare you get from Flo. So many shows made so much more sense with the proper camera work. So many great performances tonight. Really excited to see these corps continue to throw down the next two nights.

Way to go Colts! That felt like a special run for them, and its great to see it reflected in the scores.

I feel like I’m repeating myself, but Boston was insane tonight (minus the flub on the trumpet solo). Must be something in the water at Lucas Oil because everyone is bringing their A+ game tonight.

Bloo! Wow! Incredible!

I’ve been a bit meh on Crown this year, but after watching it in the theater, I finally get it. Absolutely a brilliant show, and I’m sorry that it took me so long to recognize this. Basically a ballet on the field. Incredible show.

Seemed like that may have been a bit of a rough run for the Mandies, but I love this show so much. Take Me To Church is probably the moment of the season for me.

Cadets! That was spectacular. Gonna be a hard act to follow. Covering the ankles made such a massive difference visually.

Cavies we’re amazing. Don’t think they’ll pass anyone up in the next group, but they’re very close. So happy to see them get this show this clean.

I got to disagree. If anything, I think they were way too ambitious this year. And it never really came together.

I absolutely adore this Colts show. So fun. The type of show that I imagine would attract a lot of auditions.

It pains me to say this, given how much I love BK, but they probably have my least favorite show of the season. Hope they take a different approach to design next season. The entire middle of the show is so muddled conceptually and sonically. It’s frustrating.

Haven't thought this through completely, so my reasoning may be flawed, but it occurred to me that part of the reason an organization like BD can maintain such a strong dynasty for so long in this activity is that there is little incentive for any of their staff to move to other corps. Maybe I'm wrong, but that seems kind of unique to drum corps. In other competitive activities, like football for example, you often see lower level staffers, like assistant coaches, get hired away to other programs and have great success. Take Kirby Smart, for example--assistant coach to Nick Saban at Alabama for 8 years until he is hired away and builds a dominant program at Georgia. Talking about a successful coaches' "coaching tree" is common in most team sports. Again, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't really see similar opportunities in DCI for successful corps directors to spread their "coaching tree" to other drum corps. Usually, when there is a staff change at a corps, it is a group of people moving together. Are there "assistant" positions in corps staffs where people can learn from a strong leader and then go somewhere else and implement or improve on what they've learned? I 100% agree that BDs strength comes from its consistent and stable staff who have been together a long time and aren't going anywhere. But there's really no reason for them to go anywhere else, right? Any move would be lateral at best. And I imagine no one really has the resources to lure anyone away from BD with money. I do think it would be beneficial for DCI as a whole if there were opportunities for younger, less experienced staffers to join a top tier corps' staff, learn their system, and then spread that knowledge around to other corps. Not sure that is practical though, given budget restraints.

I'm sure there are plenty of better stadium options than where Allentown is currently held in the North East corridor. I mean, 17% of the U.S. population lives there (more than 50 million people). There has to be better options. The Allentown competition is there because of tradition, not because its the best location. That's fine. I don't think anyone is saying there shouldn't be a competition in Allentown. What I don't get is why it is so important for it to be a "Major Regional," especially where it isn't capable of hosting all the corps on the same day. DCI has abandoned other traditional locations in the past.

Look at the scores from Houston (7/21) and San Antonio (7/22). Every corps that performed at Houston had their score go up in San Antonio. Is that just because there were different judges? Is there something magic about Allentown that keeps the Saturday corps from progressing at all on Friday? Call it whatever you want, but you are never going to get a fair comparison when you are judging corps on two different nights. It doesn't matter that much, but this idea that it should be treated as one show where everyone is judged alike is just fiction. Why? Because DCI says so? Facts are facts.

IDK. You're the one that said they all got the same rehearsal time. My point was only that scores from a later date are usually higher than scores on a prior date. That seems almost always to be the case. I don't know why Allentown would be any different.

Why is it that so many corps skipped Atlanta anyways. Has anyone figured that out?

But that's not true for everyone, is it? What did Crown do on Thursday and Friday when they weren't performing? Some corps (BD and BAC) got 1 day of rehearsal between Thursday and when they performed at Allentown. Some (Crown) got 2. And one (Bloo) got zero.

Oh ... that's right. Forgot about that.

Interesting that Crown is ahead of BAC. Didn't BAC beat them in 3 of the 4 shows?

Well, Bloo was getting ready to perform at Lawrence. Haha. Most of them were probably rehearsing like all the other Saturday night corps that didn't play at Lawrence. 🙂

You sold me! I'll order it right now.

I get your point. Still don't think it's useful to compare the two nights, but it doesn't really matter all that much in the end.

Only BAC, Bloo, Mandarins, and Phantom performed at Lawrence anyways.

Do corps not improve their shows on performance days? If they perform 5 days in a row, is it not typical for them to improve their score every night?