kckempf

I think it's brilliant because it's terrific music played well with fun drill. I don't really need to catch the theme to enjoy the show.

I still suspect that DCI had a similar choice to ours: take the FloMarching deal or none at all. If Tresona says these are the people you can stream through, there really isn't any way to say no.

If they show me evidence that they're investing my money into improving the product, I can put up with growing pains. It's not an ideal situation that a company with no background in broadcasting marching arts is the only choice we get, but if they're committed to a good product that's fine. I have a sneaking suspicion that they're more interested in finding markets without competition and then maximizing profit -- what's been described as "rent seeking" in some more recent economics papers. Since they're the only ones with the product and they've essentially spent all that they're going to spend on it (budgeting the season from the start), there's no impetus to improve. If we collectively don't subscribe next year, they can just cancel the service, cut the staff, and be happy they got their money while they could.

Given the quality of the camera work, I hope you mean "stable" as a relative term. These camera operators deserve better equipment and better training than they have apparently received.

It's a nice luxury for those who can spare the time to drive 6+ hours a few times a summer. Not realistic for some of us.

I'm not sure Vanderbilt would like it, either. Visitor allotment is 8500 seats, so they'd give up nearly a third of their seats before they were even sold.

We all should have instead bought the competing product, which is superior.

More like 25k in many instances, which is too small for the SEC. If Vandy wants a new stadium I can see the SEC demanding that it hold at least 40k.

Just a guess, but if we remember that DCI doesn't hold the sync rights and Tresona does, it's reasonable to assume that it was their decision.

I'm certain that DCI was told that they could either sign the contract with Flo or get no streaming at all. I doubt they got to choose between competing options.

He actually didn't have a seat. I had ordered those tickets because of the empty row in front of me, since I'm tall enough to cause problems with knees in backs and my wife is pregnant and needed the opportunity to stretch her legs. He came up for the Crossmen show, stayed through the Crown show, and left in the middle of the Cadets show, taking a ton of videos of the two and posting them on Instagram. I don't think it was because of the content of the show; my impression is that he was a drum corps veteran who was part of a current support team. That's why it bugged me: he seemed to know that it was rude but did it anyway, and disturbed 25 rows of fans on the 50 yard line in the process.

I was there, but I wasn't posting, since I was taking photos. Not sure how they turned out, but I can post some later. 300 miles of driving in one day for the show, but it was worth it. I know some of the corps themselves drive further than that, so no complaints! I wasn't focused much on the judging since most of the corps still have work left to do before the show is done. On the ear test, Crown is way ahead of Cadets for me, but I may simply like the music more. They definitely had the best big, full sound of the bunch, the least phasing (some really bad phasing for Colts, BTW), and technical articulation demanded of each section (the contras getting separation on every note of their run was super impressive). I'm not as knowledgeable about percussion scoring (I play mallets but I never got to march it) but it's not as much of a liability for Crown as it was in the past, from my perspective. It was a bit too much vocal performance for my liking, but their singer is amazing and they rose up to the challenge of live performance with a singer, which I can tell you from college band experience is harder than it should be. Cadets style isn't usually up my alley, but they have a very strong show this year and I would have been disappointed to miss it. It's going to hit me harder as I see it more times and get more acquainted with the source material. Their brass did not hit as hard for me as Crown, but there weren't any deficiencies. The costume changes are pretty wild, and I appreciate the difficulty of dancing so cleanly in those robes. I appreciated the crowd's reaction to "In His Holy Name". I did not appreciate the jerk who stood up and walked out of our section (right on the 50!) during the performance. Crossmen blew me away. The props were distracting from my angle but they communicated some sections very well ("caging" in the brass at one point). The Exit Music ballad reminds me why I love Radiohead music in drum corps. I know they're not going to be competing for a title but they sure sound like the finalist corps they are, and I look forward to hearing them again this year.

Seeing some of the complaints about DCI's deal with FloMarching, I wonder if it was the only deal that was on the table. If Tresona says "We've partnered with FloMarching and this is the only way you're going to get a streaming deal", there's little bargaining room. There's not enough money in streaming DCI to put pressure on Tresona and FloMarching, and Tresona stands to gain more from controlling the market on streaming marching music than they stand to lose in DCI leaving the table. I'll probably end up buying a monthly subscription this weekend, since I won't be hanging around for the winter marching season and $100 for 2 months is more sensible than $150. Not really any other choices if I'm going to catch all of the shows.

I guess you saw the sidesaddle ATV rider as well. I liked all of the shows, some more than others. I'm probably in the minority for liking Le Reve but it's quite the show, especially when it's right in front of you. Troopers always leave me with a warm feeling, and I had been anticipating their opener since realizing I'd get to see them live this year. I always want to see Vanguard though I wish I had gotten to see some of their shows from the previous years. I'm not sure how many people caught it when they faded that circle into the shield, since we were all too low to see some of the forms.

I got to go to this show. It's one of the northeastern shows where everybody sits relatively close the field, so you get the music straight to the face. Scouts were received very well, despite not scoring well, and it's their show that will linger in my mind though I know it was fairly scored. I feel like they must play for the reaction of the crowd, and when the crowd reacts like this it's all the reward you need.