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Saw Cadets last night and they definitely will perform at amazingly high levels, BD is playing a book that will draw all fans of the activity in..... I cannot wait! The last year that I could sit and listen to BD was 2011 (what a great program that was) for the musician in me. This could another championship for the west coast team. I have been privy to multiple videos from the Crown camp and they are playing their stones off. After the David Bowie intro it is in your face Crown Brass playing at its best! Every section has a demanding part in the Interstellar Suite opener. The second part is not like anything we have ever seen or heard in the activity, (very similar to the audio/visual treat by the hornline in 2013 ascending/descending 1/16th note feature that made everyone's jaw drop ) ..... They take that effect to a while different level. The ballad is beautiful and lush..... Waiting to see the final production.... It will be close ..... Crown Repeats!

1. Carolina Crown 2. Santa Clara Vanguard 3. Blue Devils 4. Cadets 5. Phantom Regiment 6. Madison Scouts 7. Bluecoats 8. Cavaliers 9. Blue Knights 10. Boston Crusaders 11. Spirit of Atlanta 12. Blue Stars 13. Crossmen 14. Troopers 15. Colts 16. Pacific Crest Have not seen enough of the other corps to make a prediction for the rest.

I know they are a pain, however retreats are great for the fans!! This is especially true at these big weekend regionals. I miss the retreats and corps playing themselves off and trooping the stands in front of the champion for the evening. Give something back to the fan since many of the corps and their show designs seem to grow further apart from the fans in the activity that pay the bills. Without the fans the activity is done! Generally us older folks have more $$ to spend, however IT IS important to draw the younger crowd as well to keep the activity around for many years to come.

The '91 SCV needed another week and they would have been making Star of Indiana sweat it out. In 1996 Phantom was 4th and almost 4 points behind in prelims and each show following moved up each show to tie BD in Finals for a share of the Championship. SCV was less than 2 points behind BD in San Antonio this year . . . . It could easily happen. GO SCV and Madison!!!

This is year 2 for J.D. Shaw I believe?! SCV and Madison are bringing the house down with crowd appeal, engagement and crowd reaction!! The Blue Devils and Crown might as well be performing for crickets because it seems like that's all they are going to get this year. Give me 2009, '10 or '12 Crown any day over this year and Give me the 2011, '97, '96, '88, '82 Blue Devils over Rite of Spring. If they both can clean like demons, I think SCV COULD pull it out by the end and Scouts might make top 5! For SCV the ability of their hornline to march from an ensemble standpoint will be the tell-tale. All sections of the SCV drum corps are wonderful and exciting. There is not a more engaging show by design this year than SCV with Madison a close second. The Cadets are achieving like no other right now. With Cadets in this position SCV will be hard pressed to win, then again look at the 1988 Madison Scouts who were 4th at DCM Championships in '88 four weeks prior to Finals only to win it by the end. All I can say is that you never know. SCV was less than 2 points away from BD in San Antonio. SCV has those kind of memorable moments in a program that make for a great champion and they WILL achieve at a championship caliber by the end. Cadets are playing great music with an intriguing visual program while marching, drumming, spinning and playing their arse off. I think it will wind up being between Cadets and SCV at the very end. Crown has too many "what the heck" moments and from the high-box view not very intriguing IMO. The BD show never settles .. . . . ever . . . plus designed visually more like an indoor show, I like the white poles but that's about it. It's great to have an opinion. :-)

I personally think that show would still have the ability to win today, speaking of the 1993 Star of Indiana. Excellence in performance would hold up in any time period of DCI. As far as Suncoast Sound is concerned I think they would have continued to innovate like no other and push the envelope of this art form we know as Drum Corps. This is especially true considering the numbers of former members of the corps still very influential in today's activity. Star of Indiana can boast the same thing. The problem with Suncoast was financial. The organization had a golden egg given to them by Circle K food & gas stores, but spent frivolously without setting a good chunk of that sponsorship aside for the future. Had that been done right, Suncoast I think would have stayed in the top 6 consistently and may have won once along the way.

If my memory serves me correct the drum major just turned around and encouraged the audience to sing along with Li'l Liz Jane.

total score i think you're right -- it's been around 2pts. but wasn't madison sweeping all the captions in the early meetings and now they're splitting captions? anyway my earlier point stands. if madison can keep winning the guard caption they have a great chance at holding off the cavies. I agree!.... I think the color guard score is crucial to Madison's success visually this year. This is the best guard they have had in years. Adam Sage has done a wonderful job with the entire guard package. Everywhere he goes in the activity the guard programs become instantly better. Maybe if he was still with Crown, they might have already won! Anyway, glad he is a Madison Scout! On a side note .. . . . Checking the recaps from earlier in the year. Scouts have been scoring higher in all music captions with this group of corps from the start. The brass score by Paul McGarr is not what everyone else heard all season and not by the other two music judges last night (Nola Jones & Randy Isoda). McGarr's seems to be about .5 to .7 off in the opposite direction. While I was not in Whtewater last night, I have heard all of these teams several times and would never have considered Cavies or Spirits brasslines to play better than Madison. I think the numbers in the brass score will flip back tonight in Michigan City.

Hit the "-" button by accident. Loved show days.... Rehearsal days not so much. The morning visual block was always a killer. Yesterday Scouts did not rehearse or do a marching run of their program. I hope they get back into it today! The two parades and concert in the park packed their schedule on the 4th! Looking forward to getting a read by a full panel tonight.

I think that scouts show is very accessible and is visually very demanding!! I would agree with you that musically it is not as demanding as the groups scoring ahead of them. From what I understand there are efforts being made to "Beef" up the musical book for the hornline. The mellophone section for scouts might be the strongest out there this season and I see them being used extensively to increase the musical demand. I think the talent level, in the hornline especially, this year is better than the design team expected. Percussively speaking I think the book stands up well for the long haul. The one thing Madison has this year that not many corps have is an emotional tie to the show. No matter what happens with the green team from Wisconsin competitively, they will get a crowd reaction like no other corps this year.

Some of my early season thoughts with placement and scores. 1) Cadets - 85.3 Amazing visual to music program this year. Not a fan of the Cadets however they are achieving levels unlike anyone else so far. Visually they are more clean now than most groups 6-12 will be at the end. 2) Blue Devils - 84.9 Such a complex show visually and musically, amazing drum corps, love the solo trumpet reverb effect . . . . just not sure how to feel . . . If anything I feel unsettled and bothered at the end. 3) Carolina Crown - 84.8 Such and amazing hornline . . . . the show drives me crazy . . . . visually does nothing for me. The last show I watched was from CA and they were dirty at best visually. Holes hurting them. 4) Santa Clara - 82.5 SCV . . . . Drum Corps as it should be!!!! Thank you to this from No. Cal. I love them musically, however visually is their biggest area of Opportunity. 5) Phantom Regiment - 82.1 . . . . . Beautiful show visually and musically . . . sometimes body mvts. and visuals are distracting and too much . . . . Another great Drum Corps show! 6) Madison Scouts - 81.9. . . . Scouts have a program that could take them as high as their imaginations will take them. It's up to staff and members to clean program and detail musically. Holes hurting right now. 7) Bluecoats - 81.5 . . . Love the use of bleachers as vignettes. Drumline is playing some for sure and the brass line from the ballad on plays great. The show does not come alive until half way through the program. 8) Cavaliers - 80.1 . . . . This show and corps could be the "sleeper" of the year. Rough start but making great strides. It'll be interesting to see how they progress. 9) Boston Crusaders - 79.0 . . . . The gray unis are to drab. No color in the program until the red flag that I noticed. They march and play very well. Colorguard is sloppy at best. 10) Blue Knights - 78.1 . . . . Nothing really wows me about this corps. 11) Blue Stars - 77.5 - Some cool things visually. Love the music throughout. Baritone solo is wonderful. 12) Spirit of Atlanta - 76..5 . . . I'm a little disappointed in the corps this year. After last years success I felt they were going to soar this year. Just not sold on the program this year. 13) Crossmen - 75.1 14) Troopers - 74.0 15) The Academy 16) Colts (Pacific Crest if they were going) but they're not 17) Cascades

Colorguard score simply out of line from other judges the entire year. Bluestars colorguard scored a full point behind Madison's guard a couple of days ago, only to beat Madison tonight by 1.7. Not taking away anything from the Bluestars however, you don't make that kind of a point swing in one caption over the span of several days. Plus, the GE Visual and Ensemble Visual scores don't warrant that kind of jump or point spread in colorguard. That's called bad judging! It IS just one show.

I have been a fan, member, instructional staff member and now Drum Corps dad. My first show was a home show for the Spirit of Atlanta in 1977 in the old Fulton County Stadium. I marched in Suncoast Sound 84,85, 87 & 89. Taught several corps in the early 90's and 2000's including Magic of Orlando, Blue Knights, Limited Edition, Florida Wave and most recently the Boston Crusaders. My son now marches with the 2013 Madison Scouts. I look forward to participating in the Forums.