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Vdad76

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Everything posted by Vdad76

  1. Nope, it would be Madison in 88. From the triangles that backed in to the the end of Malagueña, no one was in their seats in semis or finals.
  2. I don’t think the current Bluecoats members feet will touch the ground tonight! The staff will have a job to do tomorrow trying to get their minds on business.
  3. There are a lot of tears on that field. I really don’t care about the scores right now. We have a brotherhood in the marching activity and remembering the hours with mates, forever friends is something to be honored tonight. Who knows, with the pandemic and economy we could have lost the activity that we love so very much. Let’s celebrate this tonight. There is time to compete, but this is not it tonight, it’s time to remember the wonderful things we have all been through as competitors and friends.
  4. They never won. They were considered the favorite in 75, but were DQ’d after prelims and no score was announced. I have the prelims recording and I think they would have won. The horn line was better than anyone else and very clean!
  5. That’s why it was so important for Scouts to have had such an incredible run in Semis ( and that scores weren’t announced after prelims or semis that year).
  6. Madison’s best run in 88 was at Semis. Finals was great (good thing because SCV had a fantastic run in finals) but it was near perfect at Semis.
  7. It’s not necessarily the formula works, but the system works. 2 feeder corps and they all help each other out. The kids that “graduate” to the next corps are inbred with what it takes to be a champion. These kids know what they need to do and fix in this last week. Then you take that experience and run over the competition with it. I coached track and field for 20 years and the teams that were the scariest were the ones who were in the pressure situations of having a bullseye on your back, because stress did not get to them. If you are going to beat the champs, you have walk over them and not let them up.
  8. The corps that’s had the best performance so far is the corps with the most experience for the top 3 in that last few years - Bluecoats. I’ve felt like everyone has been pressing, maybe over-hyped and don’t know how to control and funnel that energy like Bloo and BD do.
  9. I think Boston has too much for Bloo to overtake them. Bloo has a great ending to go with the rest of the show now, but Boston’s show has been so consistently great and has not really dipped at anytime, Devils have tightened up the show, made some great changes and are responding as they always do, with veteran poise.
  10. My first experience was seeing (on 8mm) in my 8th grade year, our band director showing our band class the Troopers, playing Battle Hymn of the Republic and during their starburst drill in a competition. I was blown away. I had considered being a music teacher (my Father was a choral for 8 years, then became an elementary principal) and after seeing that film, I was all in on being a band director and someday marching in a corps. We changed to a corps style marching band, and I had a blast along with becoming a huge DCI fan (after my Senior year my Dad drove 5 friends and myself to DCI North in the summer of 76 at the Pontiac Silverdome and we watched as the Blue Devils laid everyone out with “Channel One Suite”. Went to Central Michigan University and had a wonderful time in the marching chips. Had two chances to march in a corps (Kilties in 78 and 27th Lancers in 80), but I was paying my way for the most part and I would have had to work for a year to pay for a year of school. I gave up my marching dreams, but CMU marched corps style and we played a lot of Paul Lavendar charts (before he joined Jensen music) and Jack Saunders was a great drill writer, it was close to marching in corps as I got and it was great fun. I became a band director, and in my 4th year we won a state championship in Michigan in Flight 3, after finishing last, 4th and 3rd in flight 3 the three years before. I was so proud of those kids we had increased in size from 21 kids in my first year, 48 my second, 56, my third year to 69, my fourth year. I was offered a job as a choir director in Missouri (Blue Springs JH) in 85 and we decided to move. With starting a family I knew more time at home was going to be important, but hoped I could enter back into the band realm after a couple of years. I loved the time at home but kept my band dreams as I wrote drill as a part of Orefice Visual Enterprize. I wrote for 6 to 12 bands every year, in varying sized bands, competitive groups and groups that wanted to do one show a year. I still write but do a couple of shows for the one show (District Festivals) a year, after 39 years of writing, it should be fun. I stayed in Choral Music for 27 years (20 years as the Blue Springs HS Choral Director with 4 years as the Assistant Activities Director for Performing Arts). My fandom for DCI has never waned and I still love this activity.
  11. Phantom - they are back with the sound that makes me stand up and cheer! Crown - Incredible cleanliness and tonguing. Nobody else can play and march like they do. Bluecoats - They may be the most entertaining of anyone. Give them a theme and find a way of making the music work for it. Blue Devils - There is NO ONE that is consistently as good as they are and they brought their incredible jazz chops out this year. Moon River never sounded this good! Blue Stars - Aggressive and beautiful music that matches a show that is easy to understand. Wow what a concept! Colts - year in and year out this group does more with less, every year and are being rewarded for what they do this year with a wonderful show. Boston - Moving show, that breaks some barriers. Who would have thought “Can’t take my eyes off of you”, could be done in a tango! It is the single best arrangement in anyones show (with “What a wonderful world” that was incredibly wonderful).
  12. I have just not been able to connect with this show, this year. I know the songs, but I just find myself thinking ho hum with this show. They are clean, they march well. I don’t like the props that rise nowhere, they are pointless to me. Since their Babylon show, SCV just hasn’t clicked with me
  13. Everyone had holes. No one was marching with their full compliment and it affected everybody. The highest number is the the Cavies. By my count they are still down 9. I counted 6 with Blue coats.
  14. Was at show. Weather was bearable and the stadium chosen was great as it was a North/South end zone stadium with the highest stands (home side) shaded the field completely. Madison had a good show, gut it lacks sophistication on the visual side. Guard just doesn’t rise to the macho scout brand, especially the rifles. However, sound wise, they reminded us of the Madison sound a couple of times. Ok show the staff needs to be better in working the audience in music and visuals. Had 4 missing. Phantom was after the break and they laid the gauntlet down. THANK YOU JD SHAW, this is the first “PR” sound I’ve heard in a decade. The countra bass line was fantastic and the pyramid of sound was there. The ending is fast and furious as they end at the front sideline. Guard does well but needs work, same with Percussion. The guard looked like they paid dues to the “Spartacus” show with the use of the purple cloth in the show. Props are interesting and the tables they use made sense and they finally got the tables on the 50 matching up for what they wanted. I personally think they will nail 8th or 9th place this year. Audience was very responsive to them. They got the first “jump up out of your seats screaming standing ovation of the night. Again 5-6 holes in the drill. Blue Stars have an aggressive show this year and they look like they want the top 6 this year. Lots of props, but it helps carry the show of War and Peace. They were cleaner than everyone else, the guard helps carry what is happening, the music easily understood. Lots of pushing and pulling or pairing of one section vs. another of brass and percussion. They have a big sound, but are very tasteful in the lower end dynamics. The horn has to triple and double tongue in may places and it’s wonderful to hear it done in a nice mp dynamic. Probably made more use of dynamics than everyone else. Percussion is hot, hot, hot! Seems like they are really trying to step up everything ala Boston Crusaders. Have one of really fine drill moves at the end when 4 blocks rotate into one large block and it’s really clean all the way through. 4 clean holes, but a very well deserved win! Cavies came on next, and it was so good to see the clock face wheeled out along with the other props, because it meant they were marching tonight. They grabbed the audience from the get go and did not let go at all (still trying to understand the wild swings in the captions, but I have an idea on why). They performed and the sound rumbled the stands as did PR and Blue Stars. A lot of difficulty in the drill, although most it in the front half and middle third of the field. They move quickly through a lot of great close quarter drill. Playing was good. Had places where things were good, but no what you come to expect from the Cavies, but when you’ve not had a chance to work with a full corps in any capacity for what had to feel like an eternity. More polish, work and patience and I think they will knocking on the top 6 door by finals. Love the concept of this show. Still had 6 missing tonight. Colts (sponsoring corps of the show) have a lot of Missouri and Kansas kids marching with them. So they could do nothing wrong tonight. I like the “The Silk Road” concept and the do it well. They are cleaning what I saw at the beginning of the year, very well. Not as big a guard, but they added nicely to the show. Props were all about the journey of the Silk Road long ago, considered the greatest trading route in all of Asia and Europe. Nice job done with the brass, they are a bit smaller than the other World class groups, so the sound wasn’t overwhelming, but it was a wonderfully balanced sound that plays very well. Had 5 gone (all of the numbers are my count of holes in the big visuals where you could see there was someone missing. The Colts will be fighting it out for a finish in the top 12. As I said before, recaps were wild to look at, especially between Blue Stars, Cavies and Phantom. I think the few reads that adjudicators had on this show had to be difficult, and with holes in every show, it’s even more difficult (especially big wide open sets that are curvilinear). So with reactions on the first or second read by judges or if you are reading the 4th or 5th or 6th time. I think things will iron out as the season lengthens and most judges see everyone multiple times. The fun really begins tonight when we start getting West, South, Midwest and East all together. The fun gets going and I’m sure we’ll have a lot to discuss tomorrow after the Broken Arrow show!
  15. A lot of people don’t like the Patriots, including me. But consistent teaching over time gives an edge to someone.
  16. Yep, I would have had BD at a 77. Everyone else was about right.
  17. I agree, but I will say that BD has the understanding of what to add/subtract during the season and especially heading into and in finals week. The staff and kids have been able to find the extra notch to to turn up. I am not a huge BD fan, I am a very big Midwest and East Coast Corps fan because that is where I grew up (Michigan) went to clinics to see their staffs, etc, and taught with people who were groomed in those cultures. I love Madison, Bloo, Cavies, Crown, Blue Stars and Crossmen, but the factory that BD has put together (who else has three competing levels of corps), alumni that closely connect with the corp after aging out and a system that seems to bring them to brink of winning year after year. They have become the “New England Patriots” of Drum Corps. Putting a show on tonight like the one they performed, after two years of absence, could only be done by an organization like this. I look forward to see the Detroit show on Tuesday, and you may be very right by the end of the year that several corps will be right with them, but for now, despite the score tonight (adjudication is cruel mistress sometimes), this is a hot show.
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