Granite

As I said, I prefer shows with an easy to understand story or theme, but I agree with your highlighed statement. I saw them in Denver last night...it's a winner!

I was at the show with my son who marched with BK last year. The weather was beautiful!! I'm not as drum corps wise as a whole lot of you, but I'll give you my impression as a layman: Thunder and Cascades: Both very small corps. I was not really impressed with their shows. That's not to say I disliked them, though. I will always applaud because I appreciate the work they go through to put their show on the field. I hope they get bigger and better. Troopers: I absolutely LOVED their sound. Their show had some great moments. I especially liked the throw back colorguard uniform of the girl carrying the American flag toward the end. Nice touch. Academy: They sounded okay. Their drill needs a lot of work. I didn't really care for the cheesy parts...the guy with the fake french accent. I didn't like the sing a long at the end, though a lot of people in the crowd around me did sing along. SCV: Good show...good music. They need a LOT of work on their drill. They use a lot of circles in their show and they did them badly. I especially liked the part where the soloist and the guard were on the field...but the rest went out of sight behind the skyline props and kept playing. BD: I liked their show. They've cleaned up their movements with the "trees" a lot. Their show struck me as a combination of Dada and Rite of Spring. On a side note, my son...who will be a Junior Music Major this fall...was extremely upset with BD's rewrite of Rite of Spring...the music, that is. He said that, except for a few snippets from soloists, it didn't sound like Rite of Spring at all. It turned him off of their show altogether. Crown: I watched a video early on of one of the California shows and I must say I wasn't impressed. Seeing it live...I am NOW impressed. Awesome show! I hereby predict they will be Champions. BK: Loved their show! They did their circles MUCH better than SCV. I really like the way they separate, at times, the various voices of their brass line. I'm not sure I understand what the blue ball is for. I thought they should have gotten a higher score. The encore: BK started with a front ensemble feature. It sounded beautiful. Thank you for that, BK. Then they proceeded to play almost all of their show music, starting with This Bitter Earth. If they had played the whole show in their stand still, I would have been extremely happy. They ended it with Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You. The crowd loved it, of course, and the corps really had fun with it. Final thoughts: Last year at DATR was my first drum corps show and it was unfortunate that it got rained out. This year was GREAT!! It seems that starbursts are popular this year. I like BD's and I haven't seen Cadets' show this year, but I don't see any way Crown will be anything other than number one.

I agree with you and, since I've been watching marching band and now drum corps, I have an acronym for these kinds of shows: JABOM/M (Just A Bunch Of Music/Marching) Now, that doesn't mean I think those kinds of shows are bad. But personally, I like shows that try to tell a story or something.

From DatR FB: Housing info for DATR event: Blue Devils at Brighton HS Carolina Crown at Fossil Ridge HS Blue Knights at Littleton HS SCV at Prairie View HS Cascades at Evergreen HS Thunder at Elizabeth HS Troopers (in Cheyenne, Wyoming) Also, The Academy is at Sand Creek HS (Colorado Springs)

Last year, DatR was rained out, so I made a spur-of-the-moment decision and went to San Antonio. That was a good decision because I got to see so many more corps and I got to spend the free day with my son. This year, though, my son isn't marching...the weather looks good for tomorrow in Denver...so that'll be the only live show for me. I might take in a fan network show and likely the theater show for championship week.

No...they missed the alien bird ship. What really happened is they got stuck in a circle and they can't get out.

Do you seriously think BK will drop out of the top 12 by Minn? I'm not disputing your prediction...heck, I won't even attempt to make one myself...but everyone else has them in the top 12, at least. Perhaps you just forgot about them?

Maybe you should start a "BD Sucks" thread and talk about tonight's show in this one, eh?

Great BK pic!! Classic pose!

Does anyone know if BK did their Isomike recording yet? I heard the recording of Avian they did last year...it is awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing this year's music.

Yes. This was recorded in the church. My son had tears, as well, after he performed this.

My son told me something similar last year when he marched: "Dad, forget the scores. We are just trying to do our best."

In their separate shows on June 30th, Spirit and BK received identical scores. dciscores placed Spirit in 9th place and BK in 10th place. Does you know why? Does dciscores have a similar weight system as DCP...who gave them the same placement? In any event, dciscores is pretty cool and I agree...BK's graph is great.

Blue Knights playing Nimrod last year on July 8th at the memorial for Dan Burke...the day after they were the only corps to perform their show at the rained out DatR. http://snd.sc/10sjcaS

And, since that person is probably not on west coast time, they went to bed after they hit the button.

Both Washington and Oregon are great States. I've lived in Oregon, off and on, for 16 years. The only reason I'd rather live in Colorado is because I hate the rain. LOL!!

Thanks for the link, Wes. I always love to hear BK do Nimrod.My favorite performance of that song by them is when they performed at the memorial for Daniel J. Burke last year. It was hauntingly beautiful and I swear the mellos sounded like a choir.

World Class 1 Santa Clara Vanguard 75.100 2 Blue Knights 71.000 3 Oregon Crusaders 63.400 4 Cascades 52.700 Open Class 1 Vanguard Cadets 67.700 2 Thunder 60.900 3 Columbians 0.000 Read more: http://www.dci.org/scores/index.cfm?event=0adccd8d-d60f-4a1f-a9a6-059598e5e78b#ixzz2XZyO5dti

I haven't seen any shows, so I'll just say BK. My answer might change after DatR.

I think these scores will start to stabilize after Minn.

Exactly HOW do they end a show with NoBeginningNoEnd?

I certainly hope there is less slotting all around. I seemed to see quite a bit of it last year.

It's been reported that BK did their full show last night in Medford. I hope someone will describe it to us tonight.

My son ran into that difference last year when he marched with BK. He is a music ed major, but one of his professors wants him to spend more time with his horn. That professor told him he was making a mistake marching drum corps because he should be concentrating on his horn playing...not running around the country playing a mellophone.It seems drum corps didn't ruin his horn playing after all, though. He got accepted as an apprentice horn player with his local symphony orchestra.

Why would anyone complain about music majors in drum corps?