FuriousSoundbyte

I mean, BD was founded in 1957. Unless that's a joke and it whooshed over me, or if people don't actually consider 1957 the founding year for the corps.

I reckon that's because it would mostly be a wildly demeaning show about attention-starved college girls during spring break stripping over tone deaf ###### music created by Waka Flocka Flame. As far as retreat goes, I can understand why the Cadets still follow the old traditions. But retreats have changed drastically over the past few decades, and every corps but the Cadets have adapted to new traditions over all of that time. If the Cadets still want to hold a militarily rigid demeanor during retreat in 2016 and beyond, then the staff, members, and supporters had better be prepared for criticism that follows.

Yeah, I feel like the conversation about the future of Phantom's design has become totally derailed by people who are just angry with each other. If you loved Phantom this year, and if you've loved them for the past five years, that's awesome. Personally, I've had mixed feelings about their shows over the past several years. They appeal to my tastes as someone who fell in love with DCI in the early-mid 2000s, but I feel like corps all around them are leaving them in the dust in terms of innovation. Objectively, that is not an approach that's working for them competitively. If you have been totally unhappy or underwhelmed by Phantom since 2010 or so, I get it. Their approach clearly isn't working for everyone. All that said, if you love Phantom, or if you just flat-out hate what Phantom has become, being elitist about production design isn't going to help anything. Posting about sources you have inside the corps is hilariously pointless. As this is all anonymous, I could say right now that I have a source with the Blue Devils that is undeniable, and he just told me that at some point next season, BD will have a pikachu running around the field for the entire 15 minutes. It's absolutely pointless. If you aren't prepared to tell us either who you are, or who your source is, don't expect people to take you seriously. Phantom has work to do right now. No one can deny that after this past season. Arguing over who was right since 2010 is just petty.

Yeah, I kind of think that's asking quite a lot. I hope next season will be the year Phantom finally realizes that they have all of the talent in the world and shows that are stuck in last decade. It's not a slam on them, I just don't think they're going to get out of the middle unless they really start putting together legitimately competitive shows for this age of DCI.

Heathen.

People have been saying "within five years" for the past decade.

I hate to bump this after a month away, but it looks like the general atmosphere is that they basically have no way to distribute the performances legally? That's a #### shame. There have been some legendary DCA performances over the past decade+, and I would love to be able to watch them again.

That's fair. A lot of people thought BD 08 was dreadfully boring, but I couldn't get enough of it. Hell, people think BD is boring every year. That's a matter of opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own. That's the nature of the game when you're involved in an activity that is literally being scored based on judgement. That said, I don't think Phantom is being judged based on that. I obviously have no idea what's going on in the minds of the judges, but I think a lot of this is about landscape. Phantom is clearly not scoring as highly as they'd want this year. Opinions on a show's entertainment factor can vary wildly, but at the end of the day, it's a show that just seems out of the loop.

Oh, I know you weren't. I was just making an observation about how much the landscape has changed. I'm glad the judges are only taking the present into account. BK has a very modern show. I think it's more in-tune with what this era of DCI is expecting. Phantom still has something very enjoyable, but it's definitely something you'd expect to hear in 2010, instead of 2016. That's not a slam on Phantom at all, for anyone who might get angry at that statement. I first fell in love with DCI in 2004, so Phantom is actually playing something more along the lines of what I was used to. While I certainly appreciate that personally, I just don't know how much longer the kind of approach they're going for is going to stick with the meta of DCI. I hope it stays, but I don't know.

Guess it depends on how you're looking at it. Both corps have sounded pretty good this year. BK has a pretty killer drumline with one of the best books in DCI this year, and a nice hornline. Historically, yeah. Pretty shocking. I have always loved the sound of BK's brass, even when they were at the bottom of the pile in finals. They're executing really well right now.

One of the better shows over the past decade. Great music in terms of listenability and how theme appropriate it was, very good drill, and just so exciting to watch. Especially live. That was also a pretty remarkable drumline. I still desperately miss those FMA fold uniforms, too.

I think I hate the gauntlets, but I won't be able to tell until the corps is in uniform proper and/or on the field. A red or (preferably in this case) black plume would go a long way to completing the uniform from top to bottom, but I understand the need to accent the top of the uniform. Pretty good uniform overall. Nice traditional flavor mixed in with the modern era. These are still my favorite, though.

Crown's move-in site is about an hour from where I live, so I've been heading over that way after work to catch ensemble rehearsals. I've been there four or five times since move-ins started. The show, from what I've seen and heard, has a western theme with a large array of music to incorporate into the theme of a wagon that won't be stopped. It's pretty cool. Seems like the hardest design aspect of the show (in terms of coordination) is working drill around the various props they have at certain points in the show, as well as making sure the wagon is where it's supposed to be. Brass sounds very good. The alto-tenor heavy line we've all grown accustomed to. Still some aspects of the book that they don't quite seem to have under control yet with drill, but that's to be expected for anyone. It sounds like a very complicated score, and by and large, they are doing a fantastic job. Drumline has some work to do. The book is pretty nuts, so I reckon there will be changes. Considering the difficulty of the book and where they're at in terms of time right now, I think they're on the right track. Everyone is able to get their hands going the right way, there are just so many different tempo changes during very tough parts in the book that it sheerly becomes a matter of timing. As with anyone, there will be areas that are watered down, but even after that, this is still going to be one of the densest books in DCI this year. Have only seen glimpses of the guard, and even if I had seen them for extended periods, I'm no guard dude. Most of what they've been doing on the nights I go there is working on where they're going to be, and how to work with the props. Timing and performance stuff. Drill looks good. They've added in a TON of body early on to the point where it almost seems like they're going to be focussing on the body as much as the drill. The drill I've seen is manageable but difficult. I'm sure they're going to be preaching cover points all season. The body they've put in is pretty fantastic and is going to add to the show a great deal. It's extremely well-choreographed, and once everyone gets it down pat, it's going to be pretty special. Overall, pretty promising start for them. I'm not TOTALLY sold on the show concept yet, but I've only seen segments, so that's an evolving opinion. The music is exciting, and the drill/body is fascinating. Brass should be a contender, and percussion is getting there.

Are there any options at all for watching DCA online? It kills me that the FN was killed across DCI/WGI/DCA. At least WGI has implemented WGIZone on youtube. Has DCA done anything to allow people to legally watch online?

Because I, unlike their design team, was not present. Had I been, I certainly would have raised my hand and said, "you know what, guys..."

Hopkins can say "I really liked the movie The Godfather" and people will turn it into some kind of insult towards BD 06. It's hilariously silly.

Sure. And some get an idea in their heads and run with it, even if it's a bad idea. Phantom's design team had a bad idea. Maybe they tried their best to make it work, but I'm sure at some point in the planning process they probably thought of several ideas that would have worked way better. And by sticking to their guns for a bad concept, either they're flat out bad at what they do, or they didn't care to try anything else. Either way, this is a net failure of a design for a corps that would be pretty good with a show that worked.

#homerstill Phantom is not some "see no evil, do no evil" corps. None of them are. They can sell as many shirts as they want, at the end of the day, this show is a mess, and it's like the staff had absolutely no desire to put together something that would put them in the top five.

They're like the ######## child* of Spirit and Crossmen. *Note: ######## children have been made cool by Jon Snow in Game of Thrones/A Song of Fire and Ice. This was not an insult. I quite like them as well. Edit - Apparently the b word for a child born out of wedlock is censored here. That's silly.

#homer

Yes. This is, unfortunately, likely very true. Comparing my experience as a member of a World Class indoor unit in WGI to what experienced in DCI was shockingly different. I don't know if there's as big of a social stigma on percussionists who wear cool uniforms and just drum by themselves. I know indoor events were always much more enjoyable than any event I did for outside band. It was pretty strange.

No, not really "'nuff said." You're not wrong about their success as a corps in historical terms, but the simple fact of the matter is that DCI is changing extremely quickly. A corps stuck trying to do things a specific way is going to start getting left behind, like Madison in the late 00s/early 10s. They changed (albeit, nostalgically, which worked for them), and they started getting back into finals consistently. If Phantom keeps doing what they've been doing, expecting them to flow back out of this low period isn't entirely rational. And despite the results of a corps, that doesn't change the fact that directors, design staff, and performance staff frequently change. For the last few years, Phantom has put together mediocre shows. That's a trend. Trends don't have to lend themselves to the history from which they stem. Just because Phantom has, historically, bounced around the top-nine or so, doesn't mean that a trend can't exist for them to be average or even mediocre. History doesn't buy the corps a free pass for putting together rather forgettable shows for five of the last seven years.

I've only seen one show this year (Atlanta), so I have a very limited scope from which to draw an opinion, but I agree on SCV. They were fantastic last night. Would've put them ahead of Coats and The Cadets last night.

... it has something to do with some kind of inferno...

My car was broken into and my iphone and GPS were both stolen in 09. Idiot tried to hotwire the car and the killswitch came on, so we were stuck in a parking lot in the middle of Atlanta until 2 AM because all of us were under 21 and none of the hotels would give us a room. Finally got one at the Omni (one room for seven ####### people) after a friend's dad called and threatened holy hell.