Cadevilina Crown

I was just about to write that Carmel's show is what Phantom would look like if they actually designed good shows in the modern era.

Fun fact: The head program designer for this show is also the head program designer for The Academy. Perhaps that fantastic vocalist/violinist will be a featured performer with them in the summer?

So does this mean the guard will be going back to being the Phantomettes?

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I feel like I would have appreciated that show more (outside of the Finals week ending, of course) had it not been for that stupid stage behind the pit. It made for some really terrible sightlines if you weren't sitting very high.

Perhaps the most classic examples of shows that don’t live up to expectations are the ones coming off a major championship year. Namely Phantom ‘09, Crown ‘14, Bluecoats ‘17, among others. Other recent shows that I feel got way too much hype, either before or during the season, are Crown ‘15 (yeah, the show did well competitively, but the theme and presentation were a bit trite for my tastes), Blue Knights ‘16 (what a disappointing, messy end to the trilogy) and Phantom ‘17 (the year Wes Cartwright tried to put his BOA-style signature on a drum corps show and it failed miserably).

Cadets or Crown, I dare you to pull off this piece, up to tempo, while marching for most of it. And yes, that includes the tempo change at 3:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8VnWlSspiM

They just announced their design team for 2019. http://oregoncrusaders.org/2019-design-and-education-team

All of you are acting as if what Tarpon Springs is doing is brand-new. It isn’t. I’ve seen TV screens used several times before in the marching arts, starting with Ayala HS’s indoor percussion, then spreading to that same school’s band, Blue Springs HS’s Grand National Finals debut show in 2015... The list goes on. It’s actually pretty surprising that no DCI corps have touched it yet. By the way, a couple of the masterminds behind this band’s designs over the years are Kevin Ford and Michael Shapiro, which is why I like to nickname the TSOPE “Blue Stars South.”

The last two shows have been on complete opposite sides of the spectrum. "It Is" was too deep and left me very confused, while "Beast" I felt was too one-dimensional and I got tired of the concept quickly. I hope the design team strikes a good balance between the two sides next year.

Michael Klesch will not be arranging for The Academy in 2019. Instead, Lindsey Vento's husband Steve will take over that position. https://www.arizonaacademy.org/staff/2019-design-team/

Since 2007, the year the Championships were in Pasadena.

Their new brass arranger has me very intrigued. No arranging or even marching experience mentioned (in terms of drum corps), yet already an accomplished jazz composer/arranger. EDIT: Upon further research, he did write for a SoundSport group (Rogues Hollow Regiment) this past summer.

When falling out of the Top 12 also means breaking the third-longest Finals streak in DCI (and the longest by a corps not from California), I’d say that’s a bit of a problem. I have a feeling we’ll be welcoming a certain corps that likes the color baby blue back into Finals over Phantom in 2019.

The company front in the closer, where the two guard members separated at the beginning of the show are reunited, always reminds me of a similar move from their 2004 Scheherazade show.