michaelwriting

I would give this one to Crown. They seemed to have the most put together performance. We'll see what the judges say.

I've just gotten back into this stuff this year (after being away for 30 years). Me and my dad had a hard time adjusting to all the field props, the use of electronics, all the 'interpretive dancing', the voiceovers and narration, some of the weird themes, and all the other stuff. It took me some time and mental adjustment, but I'm finally at peace with most of it. I figure that I've gone to rock concerts over the years where they use all kinds of electronics in their shows, so maybe I shouldn't get so bent out of shape when corps use it tastefully to enhance the show. But while I am okay with some of the stuff, some of it is undeniably a bit dumb and dorky. My dad did make one little observation though. When I was in the corps, we used to march everywhere...as we entered/exited the field, and everywhere we went. We stayed in formation and held our composure. We never wandered around casually until we were out of sight of the public. Not a big deal, just an observation. Beyond that, I am still bewildered how they judge and score these things (esp. with all these new weird factors involved).

I bought some good center-field tickets to a show earlier this year, and that big dumb ramp was a huge obstruction during the entire performance. I probably would have had a better view from the 10 yard line.

Same here. Thankfully we got some increased volume after about half-hour into it (wonder if someone complained or something).

Cavaliers got the best reaction at the theater. I agree that it was the most exciting show of the night for me too. Bluecoats and SCV were some of my other top picks. I really came to like the Blue Stars show earlier in the year. Tonight, I'm glad to see they updated the flat black props into a colorful 'blueprint' theme (it helps the show make more sense now). But it seems like they didn't hit the emotional notes quite as well as I heard in their live shows. Seems like the soloist mics were cranked up too high, while the field mics were not picking up enough of the hornline. Sort of a bummer, because I was looking forward to getting some chills and goosebumps. After being away from the drum corps experience for 30 years, this turned out to be a very nice event. Five hours just flew by. I might consider investing in some DVDs or the fan network to start catching up on what I've missed.