MartinO

I loved the Blue Devil's show last year. This year the theme doesn't come across nearly as well. It's scattered, not layered and blended as perfectly as last year. Sure, it's clean now, but when everyone else cleans up with them, will the GE scores still hold up? To me SCV and Bluecoats have them beat in spades on GE.

Yeah... The first time I noticed the coils had moved I was like... "When did they do that? Totally missed it!" That is brilliant design!

Phantom has a nice, crowd pleasing show. The drill and horn books are better than past years. But this corps pioneered body movement years ago. Since then the Blue Devil's have mastered it. Most of the other corps are catching on now. But Phantom had almost none if it in this show. Lacking that extra level is going to kill them in the scores.

However, refreshing the page got the audio/video back in sync.

I find it interesting that while the feed lags, gets out of sync and such, the advertisements stream flawlessly.

I actually had to sit down with this show and clock it for its elements, it disappointed me so much. What a great concept - Pink Floyd and Oz. But they've destroyed it. In the first six minutes of this show, this is what you will hear: 59 seconds of drum solo 57 seconds of horns and drums playing together (no distractions) 2 minutes and 16 seconds of narration By the end of the show, narration and music balances out, but by six minutes in I'm so disgusted I don't care anymore. (anyone following and checking me, if San Antonio comes up slightly different, know that I clocked an earlier show this year, not this one)

First place, and for the last two years I've been accused of being a hater. I have to hand it to the Blue Devils this year. It's as if every complaint I've lodged against them for the last two years has been addressed. Drill-wise, this is a far more demanding show than they've done in the last two years. They are playing fast horn runs on the move instead of standing still, which puts them on level with Crown, they aren't using props to guide off of in the drill, they aren't talking to distraction (love getting the chance to really enjoy that horn line again!), and they are entertaining once again. Crown's horn line is clearly playing a more difficult horn book, and that is reflected in the brass score. But they are not executing the visual even on a level with Santa Clara. I don't care how difficult your show design is, if you have multiple captions that can't place higher than fourth because you can't pull them off clean, you don't deserve first place. If there is a corps ranking higher than their difficulty should allow, I think that corps is the Cadets more than anyone else. They are clean as can be though by doing something less challenging. If there's anything that really jumps out at me as off in the captions, it's the judge giving Cadets a 1st place across the board in GE. Blue Devils and Blue Coats both have far more impact overall than Cadets will ever hope to, no matter how clean they get.

You'll have to wait for the woodwinds rule before we get Jethro Tull. That will probably come in 2016.

Totally blown away by Bluecoats this year. Fantastic show in concept and execution. But the Blue Devils being entertaining with a really great show was a nice surprise as well. They are about halfway back to the corps I loved as my number one for decades. Biggest disappointment for me is the Colts. Was so looking forward to them when I heard that concept of blending Pink Floyd with The Wizard of Oz. But I get to enjoy very little of it due to that narrator constantly droning on over the music. The most talking in a show I think since the Cadets did the interview mid-field in 2008. I see a lot of complaints about Phantom, but at least there if you don't like the visuals you can close your eyes and enjoy the music. Not so the Colts. Worst show design I think I've ever seen from them.

Thank you... Thought I was going to have to scold folks... No talk about soloists should ever take place without remembering Greg "Harpo" Blum. Got to see him live back in the day and he was just incredible. Kind of like Barry Sanders and the Detroit Lions. One of the best players ever playing for a lesser team. He was the first one of the DCI era to start drawing people into the stadiums early just to hear him play.

I can see the cleaning coming in the drill already. It's looking a lot better. My real concern at this point is the guard. Are they going to be able to clean up all those drops. If they do, this show is a colorguard fan's dream. They are challenging themselves in the guard the same way Crown is with brass.

So far, I've found their show a bit of a disappointment, not because it's bad, but because last year's was so good. Trying to avoid a let down the year following such a great show can be a bit of an occupational hazard. But I have no doubt it is still evolving and will get progressively better as the season wears on. As for the trombones, I can see two possible reasons for Santa Clara using them. Politically, to rub the rule in the face of DCI... "You voted for it, this is what you've welcomed to the field," <or> and I think the more likely reason; volume. There is far less distance for the air to travel through a trombone than a baritone before it reaches the audience. Therefore, it can produce a louder sound. I think they chose the trombones simply to make a louder opening statement with the lower range brass.

It's a reference to the music that's being played at that moment: "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship."

Yes please... Was hoping for more than just the pit...

Trying to figure out what all those panels on the left side of the field added to the show, other than cluttering up the field.

It opens with the finale to that Overture, not the beginning of it, so it still fits the theme perfectly.

Yes, it's most definately coming!

How much rain? How wet is the field?

This drills down to the core of what the BD have figured out. Keep the judgeable drill simpler so you can execute the visible portions. Don't play the more difficult passages of your brass or percussion books while on the move (like Crown and Cadets do). Yes, there are a variety of different elements going on all the time, but these are the smoke and mirrors of the Blue Devils program. Because all the elements are different, they may look really cool, they may act and emote very well, but how on earth is a judge supposed to score the execution on it? How are they supposed to look at ten people doing ten different things and determine if they are doing any of them right? In this manner they are hiding their mistakes. Do they have a few difficult drill moments here and there? Sure. But look closer. They aren't playing music when they execute them. They've been doing this sort of thing now for the last four years at least. I'm still trying to figure out how they get awarded the points they do for the difficulty of their program on an equal level to Crown and Cadets when they are doing this. The fans can see what they are doing, why can't the judges? And in the end it still wouldn't matter as much to the bulk of the crowd if they still did alll this and won, IF they would just make an effort to entertain the way they used to instead of morphing into the obscure modern art form they have become.

Really classy... Watching the corps from the tunnel cam on youtube as the leave the field. Blue Devils member flipping the finger at the camera...

Santa Clara. Their drill is an amazing work of art. They flow from form to form with no use of scatter drill, yet you can never guess what form is coming until it hits. They are always a surprise. They have become masters at this technique. I hate scatter drill. It very much says to me, I couldn't figure out a way to get from one form to another, so I'll just have everyone run around from one form to another form from which I can then go where I want to go. It's lazy. Those flags across the backdrops were a brilliant touch as well. Santa Clara shows how you can still do great shows without all the props or voiceovers. Traditional can still be as good as the rest.

By my experience, this could not be more untrue. Out of the large group of people I attended the Atlanta show with, at least ten of us once loved the Blue Devils and would give anything to love them again if they would put on shows that were entertaining and grabbed the crowd. They could play to the sheets in every technical way they wanted to and still entertain the vast majority of the crowd like they used to do, but they are choosing not to. Am I saying they have to revert to the seventies? Absolutely not. However, the Blue Devils that set the bar for excellence and brought the house down at every show never needed voiceovers or eighteen wheelers full of props to do so. They never needed to become the equivalent of obscure avant garde modern art to do so. I'm not particularly fond of Crown's show this year with the narration in it (I'd much rather hear their horn line playing the music from the Abyss than hear some awfully written love story that makes me cringe the same way I cringed when Anakin professed his love for Amidala). I understand the drum score bringing them down and putting them behind BD. But don't think for a minute that it is purely because the Blue Devils are winning that they are booed. It has everything to do with their choice of show design in recent years. People are tired of not being entertained. If BD would just continue to dance with the lady that brought them, the crowds would love them as they once did. Don't believe it? Look at the Cadets and their trip to the land of esoteric/talking/prop shows and look at what happened when they reverted back to their old selves. The crowds love them again.

It's not bullcrap when I can sit in the stands on the fifty yard line, look right and left, and see the crowd responses to the shows for myself. It is very easy to see how the majority of the people in the stands are responding to the shows and tell how the majority feel about them by that response. If almost the entire crowd sits on their hands for the duration of one show, then rises to their feet on multiple occasions on the next, is this delusion? This is what I saw in Atlanta from Blue Devils to Crown. I'm not saying Crown deserved the win. Anyone watching closely knows their drum score is what is pulling them down. But as for what the majority of the crowd in Atlanta felt about the Blue Devil's show, it was extremely evident. You could see it as plain as you could see the field. To deny this is to be dishonest with yourself. I think rather than arguing with the Atlanta crowd, BD supporters should take a closer look at why the Stanford crowd booed when the Blue Devils won. After all, that is home territory for them. When your own crowd dislikes your show, you might take a clue that it is not going to be supported elsewhere either. Blue Devil's used to be exciting, entertaining, and excellent. Of late, most of the crowd finds them to be only excellent. We yearn for exciting and entertaining to return. When this happens, they can win all they want and the boos will go away. I know this from speaking not to haters (for in actuallity I have never met one) but from speaking to people who loved what they used to be. I myself loved them from 1976 on, but these shows of late are not the Blue Devils I know.

It's not because they continue to win that they have become so controversial. That's clear by looking at other corps who have enjoyed similar runs. During their dynasty eras, who talked about the Cadets or Cavaliers the same way they talk about BD? I don't remember any conversations similar to what we have now with BD. However, I do remember similar conversations with the Cadets, not when they were winning, but when they were cluttering up the field with props and talking through most of their show. When they stopped, people loved them again. It's not the corps, it's the show design. I've talked to too many people in the stands watching who remember what the BD used to be, and who want them to come back the way the Cadets did. These are not the voices of haters who are jealous of them winning. They are the voices of people who used to love them who want to be able to love them again, myself included. I just wish the staff could see how much more rewarding it would be not only for the fans, but for their members as well who are discouraged to learn they have won because they can hear the boos from the crowd when the scores are announced.

There are questions missing in this poll, and it's a very telling one. 1.) Do you think more than 33% of fans like the Blue Devils show? 2.) Do you think more than 33% of fans would like the Blue Devils show if they chose to design one that was more entertaining to the majority of the fans who come to see them? 3.) Based on your responses to questions 1 and 2; Do you believe people hate the Blue Devils? <or> Do you believe people hate the Blue Devil's recent choices in extremely esoteric show design? Honest answers to these questions would quickly put to rest the idea of some vast amount of Blue Devil haters in the crowd. I loved them from the first time I saw them in 1976. But they are no longer the Blue Devils I knew. Last year was the last straw. I had to let them go. Would love to see them pivot like the Cadets did. Hated them for the talking era but this year's show from them is incredible. I would welcome BD back with open arms if they would just decide to entertain us once again.