Cadets98

LMAO.......thanks, needed that.

Thank you. And I wonder if Kamarag has ever been to a rehearsal where the majority of the staffs from all sections are running around the field to evaluate and fix errors. If percussion staffs can do that a mile away than why do we have techs. Hollow argument.

Crown has the MAJORITY of votes. love it love it love it.

The judge/performer collision is rare enough to not warrant any changes. Of the (geez!?) hundreds or possibly a 1000 shows I've either been apart of or taught, I can count on my hands the amount of times there has been a collision. And serious collisions? maybe 1 or 2.

Thanks for responding without flaming. And I've thought about my post about since its been commented on. I will give you that they were extremely exciting and went for it every night. I just happen to hear them warm up many a night in the lot. When I did, I heard a lot of cracks and things not together. My general impression was exciting but dirty. Now, in total disclosure, my opinion is based on warming up next to them. I was a member of the Cadets soprano line that year, and so I might be a bit biased. And I personally don't think they should have beat us Quarters night. BD I think were as good or better than us but not Madison. And I don't think they beat us or BD all year in brass. I could be wrong. Another good excuse to geek out on "from the press box." Could I possible still be bitter? Well, I didn't think so until I saw them getting voted 1st in this little poll! I guess I'm still passionate about the competition. But I do enjoy having these frank conversations. Its all in fun.

Ditto a million times.

I figured I would get flamed and negged. Its kind of disheartening that DCP realists are often asked to put on the kid gloves when talking about who's better and why. Imagine this for a second. A panel of college football experts are talking about the Heisman trophy race. One expert singles out a leading candidate for having problems with being sloppy with the ball and being prone to fumble and for this reason states that he should NOT be the frontrunner. Can you imagine any of the other panelists not disagreeing with him but simply calling him rude and his comments un called for? Of course not. And of course this type of discussion and more heated ones that the example are par for the course in all college sports. Now, college football players and world class drum corps members are roughly the same age. Why do we treat drum corps kids differently? Cause they are musicians? Well, that would imply that musicians are weaker and more sensitive to criticism than athletes. This is not a stereotype that I want to encourage. Or is it because drum corps is not as popular as football and therefore we should protect it more by always being nice? Well, trying to protect drum corps by hyping all groups equally and not ever being critical makes us look ingenuine and makes us look like we are trying too hard to be accepted. All in all, its not a big deal that someone gets critical on here. We're all adults. All the folks that marched 95 madison are in there 30's by now. They can take it. And for myself I can dish it and take it. When people make fun of how we (The mid-90 Cadets) bounced on the back up technique, I smile and laugh. (Partly because its so true. ) I know I just hijacked the post. Does anyone think I should start a thread on this subject?

This is correct. They averaged the three nights starting in 94 (which was 2 nights due to rain just to make this subject more confusing) when they went from 2 brass judges to one. In 95 quarters, Madison won brass while the Cadets and BD tied for second by a tenth. Semis, Cadets won brass with BD and Madison tied for second by a tenth. And Finals, BD won brass with Cadets and Madison tied for second by a tenth. Talk about a copout to me by the Finals judge to make that happen. (From someone who was a member of that 95 Cadets hornline)

OMG, I cannot believe there is a debate and that the best hornline is not winning. Talk about a mediocre show clouding the judgment of DCP'ers. Its 92 Star hands down. My friend Wayne Dillon who was on the field that night said that the performance was perfect. One of the few 9.9 in field brass. So much shaping and technique all done flawlessly. Also, if any of you that voted for Madison 95 ever heard them up close and personal and without the percussion and pit cymbals covering stuff up, you would probably change your vote. Their warm ups in the lot was always crack and slop central. Sorry for my bluntness but, its the truth.

@ 3rd and 10.....I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how well the Bluecoats move this year.

I love 92 but not just cause of Thurston's drum writing which gets plenty of love. But that hornline was also super bad###. Good ole Shorty hornline. Super aggressive while maintaining great tone quality and no holes in the sound with the drill being no joke city. The most pass throughs in a drum corps show ever. Surprised to see 95 get no love! (sarcasm off). Where you at Bentley? Everyone loved the only hornline with more mellophones than sopranos. Interesting experiment that just didn't work.

Is it safe to assume that it is going to be 4 tunes not otherwise normally tied together? Kind of like Cadets' "Our Favorite Things"? If so, I'll take a stab.... something old--Great Gate of Kiev (haha...I could hope) I'll give a second guess. Candide something new--something totally not heard of like some Mongolian overtone singing or something. Or maybe something similar to that Eastern European techno music from 08 something borrowed--Goin Home from New World (sans the rock beat snares/ride cymbals) something blue--either Blue Rondo a la Turk or something from Miles' Kind of Blue (I think a So What/Impressions transcription would be really sweet in drum corps.)

If I were a charity, I would gladly take Chase's money. And I did vote for YEA last year. But I don't think that Chase folks are "stand up guys." Case in point. http://www.chase-sucks.com/jpmorgan-chase-terrorism.pdf

Guys. What about LUPO'S? That's the hot spot in Allentown. I'm shocked it wasn't mentioned in the article and shocked it hasn't been mentioned yet. And by the way: J. Birney Crum, SHE DON'T LIE!!

The best part of this is the absence of the "wooing" that happens in the crowd at Winter Guard shows. Please stop screaming "woooooo" on every catch. Annoying. Just clap. Use this vid as an example.

Great topic! I started in Expressions from Hammond, LA in 89. I was pretty much content with being there until I aged out. Marched 90. Skipped 91 to do Mississippi All-State Lions Band. (We went to Australia so...) Then in 92, the corps director was let go by the board and as result a lot of the staff left. My friend went to a camp as said it was terrible. No one came back and the corps ended up folding because of a lack of recruitment. I was heartbroken, but decided to move on with Southwind in 1992. I was content with staying with Southwind until I aged out. Marched 93 as well. The 92 Southwind show is a cult classic and I'm honored to have marched there. In 93, the show wasn't as good but the staff and the talent took a big upgrade. We added a brass staff guy from Cadets, Gregg Gausline, who became one of my mentors. I also dated a girl from Cadets the next fall. Gregg wanted to play Stormworks by Steve Mellilo for SOUTHWIND in 1994. The staff and the kids were pumped. The corps director decided that Stormworks would be beyond what the crowd would like and wanted to do something more crowd "accessible." (This was a common concern throughout DCI in a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the then unpopular Star 93 show. Oh how time and hindsight change perception). The corps director said "We're doing 'League of Their Own.'" Gregg didn't want to do that and decided to not come back on staff. Many of the other new staff also declined to come back. Another brass guy, one of the guys that had been around Southwind for a while, who we all loved dearly and worked great with Gregg, was the arranger Dave Enloe. Dave asked the corps director for at least some 3 valves so it can be easier to arrange. The corps director said no and Dave Enloe said he wasn't coming back. Current DCI percussion judge, Dave Starnes left Southwind with him. Oh what could have been. :(. Especially when our then rival CAROLINA CROWN, busted into finals with STORMWORKS two years later. Hard to believe at one time Southwind and Carolina Crown duked it out night to night. So, as was foreshadowed earlier, I and 5 other Southwind folks, upset with all the staff departures, bolted to Cadets in 1994. I aged out a Cadet in 1998 with no regrets. Could I have marched somewhere else? Maybe? My first live open (now World) class show was Santa Clara Vanguard 1989. Yeah! You heard right. Talk about an impression. I was a Vanguard fan from then on. I also have always been attracted to the more militaristic, tradition filled corps. I was a lead soprano and all but would have never even considered being a Blue Devil. I love Devils now, but I loved to hate em back in the day. So, I might have ended up with the Vanguard had it not been for Gregg and the GF who told me all about the tradition there at the Cadets. And SCV was in a major slump in 1993 and Cadets had just won so that had something to do with it. It might have been something cool to march SCV since the Vanguard totally came out of the doldrums during the years I was at Cadets (94-98). So, that would have been a privilege to be apart of that surge.. I also would have enjoyed being under the instruction of Dean Westman and Gordon Henderson who I admire immensely. But alas, For Holy Name Shall Always Be.

Good call Michael. I forgot about that one. Here's to the Troopers winning a championship before the Cowboys do. lol

OK, so a friend of mine is going to be teaching Crossmen this upcoming year. And he was telling me he wants to create a certain vibe there or a certain image of renegades who don't really care what others think, old school, bad###, whatever. I said back, "So, the Oakland Raiders of drum corps?" He was like "YES!!!" So....... We started playing a game of which NFL team best represents which drum corps. I have a list in mind but I want to hear some of yours first. Here are a couple of guidelines that I have used. Good hornlines equate to good offenses and good percussion equals good defense. This is an oversimplification of course, but it seems that brass is a little bit more about finesse and attention to detail and drums is a little bit more um.....testosterone. so here are like my top 4 Cadets = Dallas. The corps/team that everyone loves to hate. And Cadets fans wouldn't mind the corps being called America's corps and everyone else would completely roll their eyes just like as people respon to the Cowboys. Its ironic cause I marched Cadets and I HATE the Cowboys. Blue Devils = New England. Just cause both are the most consistent and balanced at what they do. And many are jealous for it Cavaliers = Chicago. some of it is the location. other is the old tradition. consistent concept overall from year to year. Crown = New Orleans. both are recent crowd favorites. Awesome brass and awesome offense. Both got good at right about the same time. I know I said 4 but 1 more Bluecoats = Indianapolis. the brass/offense thing again and it just seems to fit. Anyways, I thought it would be fun and would lead to some lively discussion. Probably lead to some crazy unforeseen off topic. All is good.

Especially if i was an outkast. Oh my God its Andre Benjamin!!!

I wasted all my negative votes on Yogi....

Ha...I taught Tanner at Cap Reg. As far as your point, I don't know, I can see Cavies visual book being a tad harder. I'm not really sure that proves that marching and playing is harder than dancing and playing when both do still march and dance. I understand that to you it seems that Crown dances more but its just not like its a real strong scientifically provable comparison when both have both elements.

Maybe its harder to get the feet out of the sound when marching but I don't know about overall. Willing to argue this from personal experience. Not to name drop or whatever but I did Blast! I had a hell of a time with the Bolero feet stuff and the chair stuff in Everybody Loves the Blues while playing and had no problems playing and moving Medea. Then again I may be more uncoordinated than most. I also marched 94 Cadets and we had this little feet thing in the middle of Mambo that I sucked at. The first couple of shows I just stood there so I could play. Most everyone else was having difficulty around me too. It took a couple of shows for me and the rest to get it. Ironically that was also some Jim Moore stuff. And no one was doing that stuff as much back then (some Phantom) and so no one really knew how to do it. But still it was HARD to play and do the choreography, at least for me. Easier for this old school guy to just march and play than dance and play.

Ummm....I'm not a Star alum and I agree. That just might be the best hornline in DCI history.

Not too shabby. Here's a couple. Calgary Cavaliers (can't forget them, a girl from that corps was my first kiss at the 89 A/A-60 social, hahaha). And I seem to remember a Mouseqeuteers, an all girl corps from Quebec.

Hmm...You are right. I just looked it up. I thought I remember seeing them in tan when I was still marching. Oh well. Whenever it was, I seriously thought they were Pioneer at first.