Tad_MMA
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Posts posted by Tad_MMA
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I didn't read everything, but did anyone note Bloo's tumble? There was a quick ClusterFack, and somebody went down. She recovered very quickly, though.
DCI had BETTER get their spit together if they want to continue this TOC here. They moved it from Massillon due to the huge crowds. Really? FOUR ticket windows open? This might not be Ohio State, but the place is built to get more than twice as many in and out (welp, it's Akron football, but...). Luckily, somebody had the presence of mind to wander around with cash-only ticket sales -- and another grabbed some WILL CALLS ("I have last name 'J' here!") and helped moved the lines.
I'm not delving into a big review, but a few things stood out: Mando needs a heart. The crowd was way too tepid to that show. Don't put the cart before the horse, Designers.
Phantom's ballad just doesn't work. The arrangement is choppy, cloppy, interrupted with percussion, comes back in, and by that time, the moment is lost.
Four words: Blue. Knights. Can. DRILL! I'm rarely moved by them (*ducks slings/arrows*), but there is a lot of great marching. That huge rectangle that swiftly rotates? Tasty!
Boston tells a simple tale in a rather simple way. Musically speaking, they should finish in 6th. Don't play Bill Conti unless you have the brass horses. Ah, shaddap, Tad, and watch the guard. Holy Facking Moly!
Cavies are wonderfully musical. There's too much soft-and-pretty drill for me (and for the Gorgon theme), but they play exceedingly well!
(*REALLY ducking slings/arrows) SCV gave me a headache. Literally. They play too loudly. Bloo's encore was louder (and closer, as we moved). But the tone quality and intonation were spot-on. This is a 5th place corps. Even drums, though fantastic, are like Stewie Griffin: MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! YES! WE KNOW YOU'RE THERE! (Moments of subtlety are impressive. Hint hint.)
Three words: Crown. Will. Medal. They have a wonderful drill, and they'll most certainly win music this week. I'm not a fan of the ballad, but it's warm velvet on my face, so bring it.
One word: Bloo. Wait. 3 more: Oh. My. GOD. I saw BD last week and wanted a tie. No, Bloo needs to win DCI. I love BD, but this show makes me feel like I'm the only person in the stadium, and they came to perform for me. That's the best way to describe how compelling they are. What would make it better? Lose the "Hold Your Hand" singing, and put that into the hands of a mello player. And did they remove the TILT moment? We all missed it. Question: is there enough substance for the judges to put this over BD? I really think they play better, and they march well and guard well. Can't wait until Thursday!
PS: Did I coin the nickname "Mando?" It probably won't stick, but I dig it. 😁
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1 hour ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:
I was high up and on the 50 in Centerville and yes, Blue Devils won brass fair and square; percussion too. The Bluecoats are terrific this year but their brass book isn’t as hard as the Blue Devils’ brass book.
I was, as well. Opposite Day. Bloo’s tough stuff is better than the Bird & Bella ‘18. BD does have some great licks, too. And I get it now: anything more than an 8th note, and BD stops moving. 🤔🤭
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No encore. Scores were online before announced.
Colts are terrific but probably won't make Saturday night.
Bloo was amazing and engaging. I'm quite surprised they didn't win Brass. New ending? Not too sure.
BD was BALL$! I love the concept and the doors (walls?). They march the heck out of it. I see why Bloo is winning GE. They grab the crowd like nobody else. Both guards are engaging and .. WOW. BD has better-trained "bodies." Boston is beating them both? Yowza!
Will see SCV next week. As of now, I hope the Blues tie.
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4 hours ago, CrownedSantaPhantom said:
Neat factoid - if the season ended tonight, we would have five different caption winners:
GE: Bloo
Visual: BD
Guard: BAC
Brass: Crown
Drums: SCV
Has that ever happened before with five different caption winners? I'm sure it will change by finals, but talk about corps playing to their strengths!
1991, sort of. Ties abounding.
Star - GE/Brass/Drums
Cavies - Visual/Drums
Phantom - GE
SCV - Drums
BD - Brass
Cadets - Guard
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4 hours ago, BWise said:
Yeah .. GE is an issue for Crown.. and really BAC has similar problems elsewhere (non-GE). You can’t win with only brass but you also can’t win with only a guard. I dont think anyone had a fantastic run tonight .. maybe nerves .. maybe the big indoor venue .. maybe working on final changes for next week .. who knows ..
1981: SCV won DCI by winning only Visual and that by .05 over BD. (They won CG, but it wasn’t part of the 100.) BD won Brass and GE. Granted, finishing 1.6 behind SCV in drums killed them.
2000: Cadets won only Brass and were lucky to have tied for 1st.
2016: Crown won Visual, Guard, Brass and still came in 3rd.
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39 minutes ago, cadet93 said:
Was anyone at Ada? Surprisingly quiet...
Two friends were there. They don’t know each other. Both kept me informed all night.
Some good stuff; some very bad stuff. Apparently, the weather in Northwest Ohio has not help them be prepared at all. Both friends said they were extremely dirty and struggled to march the show. They’re just learning the end. The colorguard is very young and very inexperienced. The horn book is extremely hard, and if they want to get anywhere this year, they are going to require an absolute ton of cleaning — more so than in the past. I got that impression from both people. One called the show a high school version of Carolina Crown. He said this corps has absolutely no hint of past Cadet on-field tradition. I’ll see on Thursday.
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On 6/6/2019 at 3:25 PM, Jeff Ream said:
look at SCV guard in 17
SCV won guard in prelims over BD by .15 and by .2 in semis. Worst BD guard I've seen in a LONG time (for them, "worst" was scored 2nd 😂 )---until that amazing finals performance. Close but not enought. Ditto '16 w/ Crown. Again: 1st/4th/1st in '18 is a bit odd without many saying, "Wow, they were totally off in Semis."
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23 hours ago, Ghost said:
The BD guard finished fourth at the semifinals. Maybe the BD ensemble hair rotation was more out of synch than most nights.
I smell (over)success syndrome again. Had this happened to SCV or whichever Flavor of the Month, hell would break loose. Seriously? 1st -- 4th -- 1st. That's a little sketchy.
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On 5/30/2019 at 12:26 AM, kalad's_phantoms_regiment said:
They also haven't won the Zingali in the last three years after winning it every year from 2006-2014.
Cavies won it in '07, so you mean 2008-2015. In 2016-18, they did get the top number in Finals but lost the averages. I wonder...had any other corps won the caption in QUARTERS and FINALS but got a bad number in SEMIS, would anyone object? BAC got a semifinal gift and won last year.
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50 is a lucky number: Garfield Cadets, Madison Scouts, Blue Devils. I guess SCV's is 51. 😀
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When my group saw Bloo in 2016, we said CHAMPION! We felt the same last year. It's a great show but stagnated as the season went on.
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10 hours ago, BrassFan17 said:
Cavaliers 2011 comes to mind, they were undefeated for quite some time....
Not undefeated---they did go on an early run (CC won the 1st show in that horrible "breeze")...then BD took over...then the Cadets prevailed.
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16 hours ago, 2000Cadet said:
As much as I love 1997 Cadets, the brass line was terrible.
I wouldn't say terrible. It's one of the HARDEST books ever written, front to back. Their 4th place Brass score (remember: FIRST place in GE Music) was akin to the early Cavalier wins. Low brass performance, high GE, etc. Now, 1989 Cadets? Terrible. And the book wasn't nearly as rough.
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16 hours ago, tesmusic said:
Quite simple, and tagging off the current Jim Ott thread. I'm curious who everyone thinks SHOULD have won the award. Include who did win the award, if they won it that year, but change to who you would have picked if it's different.
1988-SCV
Dude, do you even Brass? SCV's 1988 hornline is THE reason they didn't win. Intonation issues and poor tone quality at times sank them. That year, there were 6 judges: Performance Brass, Percussion, Visual and the same in GE. SCV's combined Percussion was 0.5 ahead of Madison, who was 0.1 ahead of SCV in overall Visual. That leaves Brass, where Madison -- warts, splats and all -- beat SCV by 0.6. Vanguard lost to Madison by 0.2. Yikes. Really?
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11 hours ago, George Dixon said:
star 93 is literally the Mona Lisa of our idiom - but like that painting, some don't get it - "it's small" is a frequent criticism when people see it in person the first time
star was quiet - and way ahead of it's time... the movement, the well-thought unity/simplicity of the design, all the triangles and the wheat field and the broom sticks - just brilliant
Cadets 93 guard was the difference maker IMO - so much added - the 4 tenths in visual offset the 3 tenths Star gained in brass
----- Corps General Effect Brass Percussion Visual Total Brass Perc Vis Tot Fld Ens Tot Fld Ens Tot Fld Ens Tot Score ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cadets 14.8 10.0 14.5 39.3 9.6 9.7 19.3 9.5 9.7 19.2 9.7 9.9 19.6 97.4 Star 14.9 9.8 14.4 39.1 9.7 9.9 19.6 9.6 9.8 19.4 9.4 9.8 19.2 97.3"LITERALLY" the Mona Lisa? Um, ok. Cadets were 0.3 ahead of Star in drums on Thurs & Friday. On Saturday, Thom Hannum was quoted, "They judged the music tonight!" Aren't they supposed to all week? Anyway, Star deserved their Finals visual numbers. Dirty or uninspired or something. It would suck, going from a 9.9 on Friday to a 9.4 on Saturday and finishing 0.1 behind. But at least it wasn't a pandering, faux-patriotic show again.
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12 hours ago, oldbandguy said:
The football games don't have 2 large parking areas closed for drum corps trailers, they don't have access to the stadium closed on each end to allow the corps and equipment to have easy flow in and out, they don't have a market place for souvies and they do have full access to the visitor side and end zone seating.
The Massillon August show was something very special, but it has simply been outgrown. At least there is still a June show.
Didn't they move that to Dee-troit?
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On 11/26/2018 at 8:24 AM, Ghost said:
It would be impressive if they had a double column of brass. A first one would think 🤔.
Bloo did that at the end of "Tilt."
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400 horns whipping through a Z-pull. Gotdamit, DO IT!
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21 hours ago, gak27 said:
Oh DCI, how we love your schedule release revisions...
As of now (Monday morning, 9:30 ET), this show is called BOTH Tour of Champions - Akron (webpage link and in body of page) AND Tour of Champions - Northeast Ohio (page header) AND the location is now "TBD, Northeast Ohio" and the Google map show Indianapolis...
I hope they move it. Last August's Massillon show was a major clusterf*ck. Traffic getting into the place; parking; standing in a LONG line (w/ tix in hand); crowding just inside stadium trying to navigate lines to seats (so much body heat). We got there with time to spare and still missed the opening, due to the usherettes blocking the way up. It's a great tradition, but the people flow is deplorable. As football is even more popular, how do fans do it every other Friday night?
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To be fair, in 1982, Smith judged GE Visual and gave Garfield (5th in prelims) a top score of 9.9 -- with 4 corps to go. The next year, he judged Visual Analysis and gave them a "perfect" 8.0 with 2 to go. But 14.0? C'mon.
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Conjecture? That was the last major DCI show he ever judged. Gee, I wonder why. Garfield received a 14.9 (out of 15) in GE Visual at semis. There is no question that they were better and more focused at Finals. I personally know two of the (other) judges on that finals panel, and I rarely question numbers, given a clearer understanding of their process and reputation. But that was utter bullplop. Cavies 14.1; SCV 14.6; Garfield 14.0? Ridiculous.
On a lighter note, I had a discussion many years later with some staff members of another 1987 finalist (not top 6). They knew "for a fact" that the reason DCI Midwest (MO.) prelim recaps were never released (I can't find them... and Finals were rained out) was because Smith was on GE Visual and underscored Garfield by a bunch (SCV won by 1.2). Soooo, He Who Must Not Be Named or Given Due Process went to the eventual DCI Finals Percussion judges and begged them to overscore Garfield to make up for what Smith would do. He underscored; all 3 drum judges threw down 10s for Garfield. It's a rather logical tale to tell -- if DCI had a history of malfeasance -- though I believe none of it. I mean the 2nd paragraph; I stand by the 1st with confident aplomb.
On a completely related note, has (find her name) judged color guard Finals week since the infamous **2003 PRELIMS** shiztshow?
And any Garfield people who witnessed George Zingali's reaction to that number, PLEASE comment!
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*ahem* Color Guard? *ahem*
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btw, after 1992's inexplicable color guard trophy (not yet part of the 100 pts) going to the Blue Devils over the Cadets, they began having multiple judges over the three days and averaging the scores. I think it started in '91 when some were peeohed that the Cadets won over Cavies (welp, I thought it was obviously a Cadet win).
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14 hours ago, Fran Haring said:
Topic for another thread, I suppose.... but would it be worthwhile to have separate perc. judges for battery and front ensemble?
They used to! There was double percussion until last year, when they decided to have 2 Music Analysis judges at big shows -- one brass heavy and the other perc heavy.
Finals Weekend Judges
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
No idea who you mean, but it’s been fixed. Nola Jones on GE2.