Quad Aces
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Everything posted by Quad Aces
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Carolina Crown 2024
Quad Aces replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
What happened to Poppycock? Honest question - I always enjoyed the witty posts. -
It was, and it was š.
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Any luck with this one? This is the exact one that I was going to recommend, but you beat me to it š. Iāve stayed there a couple of times, and itās a good hotel. Very convenient - to downtown Canton (nice set of restaurants/bars), Akron, NFL Hall of Fame, and especially the airport if you need it. I can provide some good restaurant recommendations in downtown Canton, if needed!
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Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
That is AWESOME (and makes complete sense)!! -
Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Totally different than a band who wheels 32 ten foot towers around the field as a part of the performance. IMHO, YMMV. -
Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Unless it stands upright, is at least a few feet tall, needs to be assembled/disassembled for each show, and takes up an excessive amount of space during transportation, it doesnāt get my vote as a prop - lol! One could also argue that William Masonās uniform capes were a prop. Certainly an integral part of the show (and used to great effect), but doesnāt fit my definition above - lol! Legal Disclaimer: all said tongue-in-cheek of course š I really enjoyed William Masonās show - they were fantastic as always! Their off-field woodwind ensemble (gasp!) was amazing, and really added a tremendous amount to the show (and now I will duck for cover on here - lol)! -
Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
As Jeff pointed out - Carmel (2nd) had no props, and William Mason from OH (6th) also had no props. And, the reps from Carmel and The Woodlands were not only the same as 1985 Cadets and 1994 Blue Devils, they were also arranged in the same manner - long stretches of melody, no chop n bop, no snippets of source material only, etc. Arranged very similarly to their DCI show counterparts. Yes, plenty of what you mentioned on display over the weekend too (of course), but these two shows - Carmel, The Woodlands - were pretty incredible in their own right. -
Vintage DCI at 2023 BOA Grand Nationals
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Matt in a suit - lol! Was very happy to see him become the head director at Avon (after all of the years as an assistant director). If they won BOA Grand Nationals with him taking the job at the beginning of the Summer when he was knee deep in Crown stuff, canāt wait to see what happens next with a full year of planning. If you caught Matt in a suit, you may have also seen the interview Dan Potter did with him and his daughter (one of the Avon drum majors, I think) after their performance - nice moment for the two of them. -
As seen/heard over the weekend in Indy at BOA Grand Nationals: Carmel H.S., IN (2nd place), show title āProphecyā. They did Bernsteinās Jeremiah Symphony, as was used in Cadets 1985. Carmelās entire show came from this symphony. As an interesting side note, Carmel had no props in their show. The Woodlands H.S., TX (5th place), show title āDay Danseā. They had Chick Coreaās āSpanish Fantasyā, āDay Danseā, and āMy Spanish Heartā as their rep, as was used in Blue Devils 1994. They were easily one of the crowd favorites and brought the house down every time with each of their three performances over the weekend. Both of these bands were truly amazing, and were very faithful to the source material. As soon as I saw that Carmel was doing the Jeremiah Symphony, I knew it was going to be incredible, and once I saw that āDay Danseā was The Woodlandsā show title, it immediately became the show that I was most looking forward to seeing. It was great reminiscing about these old DCI shows while watching two of the best bands in the country this weekend.
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Carolina Crown 2024
Quad Aces replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Greg Bimm - nice! -
Sounding Off: Echoing Brass Instructor Memories
Quad Aces replied to Liahona's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
I have been great friends with an old brass instructor of mine for almost 40 years now. He also was a private instructor for me (trumpet). Phenomenal musician, and an even better friend. He asked me to stand up in his wedding, and to this day, was the only DCI Finals that I have missed since 1989 (if that tells you anything). -
Iāve been to Finals every year since 1989, except for one - 2001. So 34 total for me. Missed 2001 because I was standing up in a good friendās (an old trumpet teacher of mine) wedding. Being a band director himself, you would have thought that he would have avoided that weekend for the wedding, since not only was the wedding on the same day as Finals that year, but periodically, future anniversaries would be too, but anywayā¦ š. There were a number of musicians besides me, including a Cavalier alum, that were all following the scores during the reception that year. However, it was before the scores were readily available via the Internet, and we were relying on phone calls from a friend of the Cavalier alum who was in attendance to keep us updated. For the record, my friend that got married is now divorced, but is very happily remarried since - and their anniversary is NOT in August at all. As far as my favorite Finals - there are a lot of great memories from the trips we had with our group of family and friends (some that we marched with together) that would go with when Finals were at a different location every year. We would piggyback a vacation onto the competition back then. If I absolutely had to pick my favorite Finals, I would say my first one in 1989. After seeing it on PBS for the prior four years, it was really exciting to finally see it in person. Either that one or 1997, when I was still in graduate school, and my Masterās Exam (culminating exam that I needed to pass at the end of my course work to officially receive my Masterās degree) fell during the Finals trip. At this time, the exam was only offered twice a year, and you had to take it with pencil and paper in-person at the school, no online possibilities existed. I didnāt want to miss the test, nor the Finals trip. I am fortunate that one of my really good friends in our group that would go every year was an airline employee that would accrue free flight passes as work benefits. He told me that if I bought my original plane ticket, he could give me one of the free passes to fly back home after Finals to take the exam and then fly back after taking it to rejoin our group in Orlando/Disney for the rest of our vacation. Good times š.
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Donāt have a lot of insight in how it works, but I did hear that too. Also was mentioned that it was done the same way that the cello in Troppers 2022 was done.
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Phantom Regiment 2023
Quad Aces replied to college-phan's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Pretty much nailed itā¦sadly. -
Nice - this looks like it will be really cool!
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Carolina Crown 2023
Quad Aces replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
That is some fantastic rep (and a great theme) - canāt wait to see this show! -
2023 Tour Premiere (Movie Theater Event)?
Quad Aces replied to Quad Aces's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
I would think that DCIās planning for the season schedule and this event in the past would have included shows after in the area (or along the way to get back home) so a corps like BAC could have a more efficient trip. When a corps from the Midwest or the East would go out to California every year (who knows if that will ever happen again), DCI didnāt plan their route in such a way where they would go to California for a couple of shows and then head back to the Midwest or East with no shows along the way. Sounds like this wasnāt the case for BAC. Not sure why. -
They havenāt revealed the rep yet. They were vague in the show announcement - intentionally, Iām sure.
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I agree on the black uniforms. And 2014 was my runner up in this category (show additions that went in the opposite direction).
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How about the opposite? Shows where adding later in the season worked against a particular corps/show? 2015 Cadets (āThe Power of 10ā) comes to mind. Things seemed to take a turn for Cadets that year after switching to the black uniforms. Iām sure there were other design issues with the show, but as was mentioned above, Cadets seemed to be in the conversation that year, up until the switch. That uniform switch was hyped so much, and then just seemed to fall flat with the judges.
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I was pretty surprised (and sad) to see that DCI decided not to sell printed souvenir programs any more, especially for the 50th anniversary season. The one that Iām talking about is the full-color, yearbook type of program, thatās about 100 or so pages. Although I have no insight into what it takes to get that program out, perhaps they could have waited on that decision until next year? Been going to finals for 35 or so years straight, and I probably have every single one of those programs still - somewhere. The DCI Info booth in LOS said that starting this year they would be doing digital programs from now on. They pointed me to DCIās website for the digital program, but I couldnāt find anything. I really hope they werenāt talking about āinfo on each corps can be found on DCIās websiteā. Does anyone know where the digital program that they were referring to might be found?
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Brief survey if you attended DCI Finals Saturday
Quad Aces replied to wolfgang's topic in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Got in line at 3:15 p.m. (gate(s) opened at 3:30 p.m.). About 1000 people already in line. Entered stadium at about 4:15 p.m. -
Do they play more in tune than the non-electronic variety? Asking for a friendā¦