totaleefree

I think Alliance had not finished their show and needed the extra weekend of practice for their show. They were never listed as a participant so they did not cancel I think they just never planned on doing the show. It may be better in the long run to get an extra weekend of practice than to lose an entire day to present an incomplete show assessed by judges familiar with a different set of rules. In another thread someone from CV explains the positive things from doing the DCI show, exposure, chance to perform in the dome etc and the fact that it was broadcast on fan network. The Scores from the DCI judges while they may be helpful do no fully reflect DCA judging. I saw the Friday night scored show and the Exhibition from Gold on Sat and there was 100% improvement for the non scored show on Sat so maybe not being scored allowed the corps to relax and do a better job. They had come down for the Friday night show so they might as well stick around for the Sat show.

Several years ago I spoke with several aspiring marchers. I asked them why they only wanted to audition for the top few corps. Several of them said that if they were in a champion corps they would get good jobs as band instructors and it would be good on their resume, and marching with a lesser corps would not help that much, wouldn't prove that they were winners. I hope that the corps don't accept marchers with that attitude, but if one joined only with that in mind marching a bad year with a top corps would be devastating. However if they are in it for the leaning and friend making experience I don't think marching a bad year would kill. Back then hearing that surprised me, most of the people I know who did march with top corps are now accountants, lawyers, pastors or in non marching related music jobs.

I was informed by someone from Alliance that they only had 3 of 4 movement prepared last week and as some others have stated want to debut it good and get a wow when they finish the show rather than try something poorly executed. They are pretty sure it will be great when it is ready. From the score recap you can see the judges thought the show had potential.

I saw your show Saturday in Fayetteville and I hope that you will find an answer to your problem. It would be a shame not to tour after all the work that they have put into the show. The bright side though it may be hard to see now is that the bus broke down near home and not in the middle of West Virginia. So I assume that everyone was able to get home safely. I remember several year's ago a Corps had a bus breakdown somewhere in the middle of the Midwest and not only did they have to cancel their tour, but they had to worry about how to get the kids home. If I win the Powerball tomorrow I will help you how I can but I can do nothing but wish and pray for the best .

I seem to have 2 different accounts depending on which computer I log into. Last time I logged in it logged me as Babylon which was an account I hadn't used for years. I think that this is my regular account. I wanted to add some positive things about the Fayetteville Show. Somehow I did state it wrong when I said the Sun Devils had won high percussion, it was Alliance which I saw when I looked at the score recap. What makes this really bad is that I presented the awards. Which by the way were metronomes and electronic tuners, which I think will help the corps much better than a big trophy taking up space somewhere. One good thing was that Alliance was back after taking a year off of competition, I think every time I hear a Corps is taking time off but they will be back you think yeah sure. So many times that year becomes 2 years then 3 then the corps disappears into history. I believe the Carolina Gold took a year off 5 or 6 years ago also and they came back. I believe this shows that the corps have resiliency and good administration hopefully they will not have to take off any more years any time soon. It was also a home show for Gold, their first in a long time. They had an opportunity to perform in front of their friends and families in a competitive setting. I couldn't imagine putting a lot of work into my show every year and always telling my family and neighbors, about what the corps was doing then telling them that if they want to see us and our competitors you need to take an 8 hour drive. They also had the alumni in the Audience stand and be recognized. Though it wasn't a huge number there were many in the crowd and you could see that the corps has laid down some roots, and of course these folks brought friends so they could show them what they used to do. The tickets were reasonably priced, I believe they were $6 or $8 for general Admission, and I met several people who just came to see what Drum corps was about. That helped with the next point, the stands were full, I am sure it was good for the corps to play into full stands and see their work be appreciated. I have been to shows where there were a few fans in the stands and more corps staff in the stands than fans and the corps did shows but you could see they didn't get boost from the crowd. In Fayetteville I think every Corp got a great boost from the crowd and played to it.. I don't know the financials, I have no idea what the costs to the host corps are, but having full stands helps a lot getting word out and recruiting future members. IMO having more people there even if it means slightly less revenue that day pays dividend in the long run. They had Coastal Surge from Myrtle Beach do an Exhibition. The Surge is a 2nd Year DCI open Class Corp, last year they did only exhibitions at a few DCI shows all several states away. Fayetteville is about 2 hours from Myrtle Beach and most of Surges Members came from the area between Myrtle Beach and Fayetteville. Most of the corps members families had never seen the corps compete, Though they were in exhibition and DCA is a different world from DCI open class a lot of their friends and Families got to see drum corps. I met several people who were there to see friends and family members who were with surge and wanted to check out this Drum Corps thing. When I was growing up my view of Corps was different. My father had spent 15 years marching with the Hershey Chocolatiers in the 50's and 60's who sponsored the Hershey show every year So every year my drum corps experience as a kid in the 70's was going to Hershey Stadium sitting with probably 10,000 people and watching the best corps in DCA. I thought when I turn 16 I will join a corps and perform in front of 10,000 every weekend. And I discovered that that was an exception rather than the norm. However Drum corps especially DCA in the south isn't close to that yet, I don't think DCA draws those kinds of crowds anywhere these days. But the good part is that I think DCA South is finding its spot, distance is still a factor, but there are enough corps and enough experience to make DCA south a viable product. Rather than shoot for some lofty goal and have show the way they have been done for decades in the North they seem to have found something that works for the market that they are in. I am really hoping that the Southern classic is not a one and done deal and that maybe in while it will be the 10th annual Southern Classic.

Rod was an instructor for a Drum line I played in when I was 13. I remember one night during the Iran Hostage Crisis we had to end practice early because President Carter was going to make an address on TV that night. Most of us were young had long hair and kinda hung out. Rod spent that whole practice telling us you'd better straighten up because the President is gonna reinstate the draft and your all gonna get drafted an have to straighten up. Turned out it was the Malaise speech that the president gave, however every time I saw Rod judging on the field or talking with a drum line I imagined him telling then your gonna get drafted. I think most of us there did wind up in the military at some point, but as volunteers. It wasn't till years later that I appreciated the time he spent working with a bunch of 13 and 14 year olds and realized that he could have been working on more high profile projects.

I was in Section 5 also for all but one corp yesterday. I haven't read all 80 pages so some of this may have been said before. I thought Heartliner had a really well put together show I hope that somehow they get an opportunity for another performance while they are here. I thought the Minnesota Brass show was really great, I loved how the music broke down becoming atonal and less organized as the show diverged and I thought that was the best Performance of the night. I will admit to having biases against the Buccaneers but they had a good show their guard thought seemed slightly out of sync for the first 2 or 3 minutes of the show last night. I thought Cadets 2 from a DCA perspective had a much better show than last year It seemed they slowed it down and the sound was really solid. I was surprised when I read the scores that they had not done better, however their Guard work did not really tell the story I agree with some previous posters that that was their weak spot. I am glad Empire came to play also, my sister liked their show and they were her favorite. I have been a life long Caballaros fan, they were good but here 10 hours later I can't really remember a whole lot of their show so I can't give them rave reviews. I also enjoyed the Kilties performance which had some great comedic spots especially the large and small horn player doing galieo My biggest disappoint of the night was the Govies, I had seen them in the past and enjoyed them and last night their performance seemed a little off especially after seeing strong performances from the other class A corps. I also need to agree with other previous posters that the crowd was outstanding, in my section everyone enjoyed every show. I spoke with several parents of marching members who were impressed with the corps staffs, schedules and the arrangements for their trip to Annapolis. While there are different thought on DCA seeming to get younger every year positive impressions like that are great for the future of the activity.

Spealking of bids who is the sponsor who put in the bid for Annapolis and is hosting the show ?

Wasn't expecting Purple rain.

Fan network is showing C2 now

We are 3 minutes behind on the fan network, so if they post something on here we don't see it till 3 minutes later. However if they start and we don't see anything for 4 minutes then we need get someones attention.

There was a lot of energy in their Cymbals. Corp sounded good to me

Had a thunderclap here in North Carolina just as Gold ended, I guess someone up there is cheering them on.

I just wonder how they would have dressed a guy in the guard

I was actually encouraged by the Northeast, while i think it is good for DCA to have a champ from outside he traditional Northeast region, several corps from the NorthEast in Class A look to be upping their game and in a couple years Fusion Core, Sunrisers, White sabers and Excellsior may be into the chase and Bush may come back again too. The corps from outside the NorthEast though will push these corps to step up their game. I really was impressed with the Class A lineup. I remeber years ago sitting through the small corps respecting them for the time they put in and effort they made but not really enjoying the shows. I think all the class A shows were well put together this year and enjoyable. So I am really looking forward to next year to see how much better tehy have gotten.

In Djibouti my server is not very great, the sound was good but it froze a lot, I think that it was mostly my connection though. Unfortunatly I have been very busy at work and fell asleep right before the Kilties 2 Am my time. I woke up to catch the end of MBI. I think it was worth th $20 to keep track of the activity from 7,000 miles away. Next year I will probasbly be at Annapolis. If I do that it will be two years in a row watching it from a Navy base.

I will be watching the fan network streaming of the DCA prlims from Djibouti Africa, with the 7 hour time difference It will end at 0400 or 0500 for me. I was wondering if amnyone else would be watching from a unique place. I may be the first person to watch it live from Africa. So where are you watching it. (Best place to be is on the field)

If a thousand older people who want DCA to stay teh way it is really wanted to make sure it continued to work we would all have to hit eh gym and practice every weekend, form 8 new corps, Go to Annapolis next year and crowd out the field to make sure C2 doesn't get into the top ten and get a vote. then all of these new corps can vote in things that they like. If each of those thousand people would invite 20 friends to shows throughout the summer the stands will be full with people watching shows and supporting corps. If we just sit here and take cheapshots through the internet then whoever can find the people willing to practice, march and invite their friends to the shows will decide what kind of a product will be presented.

If I did not get the concept of the show I would ask them if they could explain the show to me. It makes them happy that I was interested enough to ask about his or her thoughts on the show, and maybe if I know the concept and some of the other things that they are doing I may gain a greater appreciation of the show. If it was a slppoy performance I tell tehm it was good but there are areas that need improvement, They probably already know that, but if everyone says it was a great show than they may not think that they have to improve it and that someone (one of those "old Corps" guys is just out to get them.

I will make myself a dino with this post, but here goes. My dad was old scholl drum corps, he marched in teh 50's and sixties. When I was a kid in the late 70's we went to a 'Competition" (in his book they were all competitions not shows) and saw the Bridgemen. My dad hated them, they kinda strolled intead of marching they didn't have straight lines and gig lines on teh uniforms and the uniforms weren't what he considered uniforms, he thought they were a bunch of kids trying to be pimps. So of course they became my favorite corp. A few years ago i went to a show with my dad and the Bridgemen Alumni were there and he loved them he finally got teh attitude and putting on a show part. they did what was new and inovative 30 years ago but that made them dinos now, apparently my dad liked the same thing now that they are dinos, but didn't like it when they were new. So some who talk about the new things now in a bad manner will probably talkk about teh good old days of 2011 20 years from know when all of todays corp members are dinos trying to relive their glory days.

I think that this site started out as the Seatle Sound machine message board. I don't know what ever became of that corp, I believe that they went to CA once to compete with Rengades in the early 2000's but I haven't heard about them since.

My understanding was that in teh 80's mr Cook of Star of indiana underwrote teh PBS broadcast and paid the production costs. Basically he gave the show to PBS for free. When he moved to other things they went with him and showed Brass Theater and Blast. The PBS stations aired it individually at differnet times so only parts of the country got teh broadcasts, I don't think it was ever a national PBS show. DCI needs to get another billaionaire philanthipist hooked then they can do that again.

My opion is that all the growth has been geographic. I remember going to DCA in 2001 and seeing West shoremen (in class A), Skyliner's, Brigader's ( Who won it) and Crusaders all fielding corps 10 years ago. So not trying to be negative but the northeast is still losing corps. I think that a corp having all of its shows within a few hours drive becomes more dificult as the corps spread further apart. This also effects attendance. If you are only going an hour away for a show you may have family members and friends make the trek to support you and that as well as alumni from yours and other past corps fill the stands.

I am currently with the military deployed in DJibouti Africa. We have a joint base so each service has its own Sergeant Major or Senior Enlist Person. When we have a color guard it is joint all services are represented. The military regs are written and clear but every time these senior enlisted guys spend hours arguing about eh color guard. Should the Army be able to wear Combat patches, can marines wear army medals etc. not to mention the proper commands. Everone one their wants to honr the USA but just like this forum they fight over the right thing to do. I have worked with small student groups where one person alone has carried the flag with pride in front of the procession and been proud of America without an armed escort. Several year ago I was at an American lLegion COnvention teh parade had several colors guards using wooden Mock guns. Did they disrespect eh flag , no they were proud of being Americans even with toy guns. In my neighborhood over half of the houses fly a US flag on holidays I think that going to my neighbors and telling them that they are wrong to be flying a flag without an eagle would be icredibly stupid, they are proud to be Americans does it matter if they Flag has an eagle or not.