jbenburton

That is great news, Jeff came out and worked our snare line a few times at Pioneer while I was there. He is a class act and will be a great asset to the Scout organization. He was always super nice and treated everyone fairly.

I thought it was a great year for Drum Corps entertainment wise, corps I usually don't like were the corps I found myself telling others how entertaining their show was. I guess it is opinions, but all of the people that I went to shows with and talked to that went to shows this year (from around where I live) were talking about how entertaining the corps they saw were, even down to the lower placement corps they saw (and yes, some of those people were at Madison for Finals).

Totally agree, you could tell from the stands that those kids wanted to keep going. I do not know what it was like in other sections, but the crowd around me was getting into the show and even gave them a standing ovation when the drum major cut them off. I can only imagine what it would have been like if they had actually finished out the show, cause they had turned it on for Cookeville.

I agree, Vanderbilt has a good stadium and Murray State is one sided, but seats around 16,000 with elevators and two levels of bathrooms and concession stands. Plus it has the Regional Special Events Center right behind the stadium (uses the same parking lots) that if there was rain, could have possibly been moved into for Stand Stills (atleast we could have heard the music). However I am sure this was all a last minute thing and DCI did the best they could. I am not knocking TTU's stadium at all, it just doesn't have some of the extra features that these other stadiums have.

Yeah, actually we drove through Murfreesboro to get home and it wasn't raining there, however it had been raining there (the roads were mostly dry though). So if it was at Murf, it would have been delayed I am sure and still gone on.

Just got home from watching Cavies rehearse and watching their final run-through for the night. I had not seen them before today and am not too sure what all is new, but I just want to say without giving anything away, DRILL DESIGN IS AMAZING. I have seen BD, but have not seen their new ending, so I cannot really say who is on top now in my opinion. Regardless the new ending from Cavies will be a big crowd pleaser at Cookeville or Atlanta (where-ever they unveil it). Sorry that is kind of general, but again I am not sure what all is new, however I do know they did the run-through with the new ending.

Thank you Marsha for this post. I love the Cadets show this year, just like I loved last years show. I wish more people would do this for other corps shows, I may have a better appreciation for them cause I did miss alot of the things you mentioned in your post. Again Thank you.

Same for Pioneer in Division II in 1996, undefeated until finals week and fell to Les Etoiles, who jumped around 10 points the last two weeks of tour. If memory serves Nite Express had beaten every corps in Div II except Pio that year until finals week and came in third (I could be wrong on that though). So Les Etioles jumped a couple of spots.

Thus why I mentioned that they could have two sizes of amps, it was later on in my post.

I would think it would just be a standard mixing (Sound) board and standard amp and a snake. The corps would simply plug into the snake with whatever they have. Most snakes also have outputs for speakers, so the speakers would also plug into the snake. I do not know all of the logistics of this, but it seems to be a simple way to fix some problems. Cause then you could have the board in the stands, so that the sound man would be able to judge the best sound he or she can for that stadium's audience. And the corps would also have to use identical boards in rehearsal so they would know the specs of these boards and the sound guy, while the corps is setting up, would simply tweak the board to their own settings. I also do not know how this would stifle creativity, cause they could purchase boards with as many channels as needed, I would not think any corps would use over 25 channels, but if they do, then purchase 50, 75, whatever channel boards. And with the amp, maybe two sizes of amps, one for bigger stadiums and one for smaller stadiums, although you can turn down powerful amps, so that wouldn't be much of an issue either. Either all of that, or have a way for a staff member who is up in the stands to communicate with the staff member running the sound and tell them what needs to be turned up, down, or whatever. Cause to me the problem is that the sound people are setting it up to what sounds good to them, yet they are on the sideline and it is a far cry from what it should sound like in the stands.

Well from where I was setting, when Bluecoats were announced as second place, I did not hear any boos or blooos, I did hear a few of the "I told you Cadets would win" and "oh man, Bluecoats should have won" but not any booing, then when Cadets were announced, I heard some people talking about how close the score was. I honestly do not remember hearing any booing or blooing. It may have happened on the other end of the stadium and I also did start leaving to go to the lot as soon as Cadets score was announced, but it took a minute to get out of the stadium after their score, so you would think that any booing would have already happened. And Bluecoats were scheduled to play the encore that night, that could be where the blooing came from and someone thought they were booing. I had already left the stadium by that point, so I am not sure if they were blooed (I would assume so).

Interesting, I was also at the show last night and do not remember anyone booing. If there was it was one or two people, but not the whole crowd. Sorry to bust the bubble, but it wasn't like that at all. Oh and the announcer did call them teams.

I have never viewed an incomplete show as being a problem. I mean no show is technically complete until Finals week, I cannot think of any corps from the past 15 years (the time I have been going to shows) that hasn't changed their show throughout the season (some drastic changes, some not). I would bet there are a lot of staff out there that would tell you that their show was never trully finished. I just cannot believe someone wants to boo or basically boycot a corps for this.

That is funny. You know, I watched the clip and didn't see any front ensemble, guard or hornline, I thought they had been cut and you guys were just marching a drumline (sarcasm included). Have a great season.

Revolution has almost the exact same uniform, but I do not believe their baldrict hangs off the back.

Isn't that Tarheel Sun or am I way off?

Exactly, I was thinking the exact same thing. I mean corps get trampled on on this board for not sticking to tradition and then when a corps does stick to tradition like Pioneer, then they still get bashed. It's a danged if you do and danged if you don't board. (cleaned up for the family show)

I believe they are working on a new show that will be heading over to Japan. I know they are practicing for it in Owensboro KY and the following link is a press release for it. http://kyband.com/rpc_blast2.html Not sure about the original blast show, not sure if it is still touring or if it is stopping and this new one is taking over.

I really like the "Brayden Cadets" too or how about keeping the Bandettes and adding something to it, course I can not think of anything creative right now to go with it, I am sure others could though. That way you keep the heritage of the name, yet establish that it is not the same. Course "Bandettes" is fine as it is, I mean "Dutch Boy" is a co-ed corps, if girls do not have a problem with that, why should guys have a problem with "Bandettes." Regardless, I am extremely happy to hear you guys are coming back out.

Awesome, well said.

You are right about the uni's I was going on memory when I wrote that, sorry about that and here is a link to a picture of the Thing for you: http://groups.msn.com/PioneerAlumni/thethi...oto&PhotoID=136 I am not sure that Pioneer ever officially had the s on the end of their name, they did go by "The Pioneer" and then later dropped the from their name. I think people called them Pioneers, but they do not have it in their history that they actually used the s, maybe that was started from them having two corps at one time (Pioneer and Pioneer II) and people started calling them the Pioneers. Regardless it is not in the history of Pio: http://www.pioneer-corps.org/about/history.htm Here is a site that has some of the history of Pioneer on it for all of you to read about and it is written from the viewpoint of the Thunderbolts: http://my.execpc.com/~thbolt/thunderboltpage.html

Just to clear up something, I never mentioned Glassmen and have not edited that post to remove Glassmen from it and I am not saying I was talking about Glassmen. Kind of makes me wonder why you all assumed that was who I was talking about. In my opinions Glassmen have some great things going on in their organization. Anyway, to give you all a little history of Pioneer, Thunderbolts joined the Imperials of St. Patrick, so Imperials were more or less taking Thunderbolts under their wings. Then the corps became "The Thing" (with huge yellow jackets and all) and after a couple of years (maybe only one year) the name Pioneer was selected, thus their emblem being a shamrock with a lightning bolt through it. And with the new name they mostly went with the traditions of the Imperials of St. Patrick, thus the Irish music. Actually I believe that while they were "the Thing" they didn't even play Irish music, someone that knows more may be able to clear that up for me, so that may be the exception of the irish of Pioneer. So Pioneer isn't an "irish" kind of name, but the heritage, traditions and history of the corps is irish. Very few corps still stick to traditions like Pioneer has (I am not saying they are the only sticking to traditions, Scouts and Cavies stick to their all male traditions (for the most part) to name a few). You may not like Pioneer's traditions and that is ok, they are not the corps for you, move on. I will make the assumption that if Pioneer did a none Irish show next year, they would get just as many people bashing them for not sticking to tradition, probably more.

Pioneer, be proud that people are getting on here and bashing you, that means you are doing something right. If you were not doing something right, no-one would ever notice you and would not ever get on here and bash you. Now, I think this could have ended earlier if the original poster had just said that he didn't like Irish music and wished Pioneer would move away from it. Where the poster messed up was saying that it is killing the organization. A theme does not kill a corps, if that was the case I can think of one corps that would never have anyone show up cause their show is boring EVERY YEAR and I cannot think of a single person that I know that would disagree, even ones who marched that corps. But they marched there because of what that staff had to offer them and what the corps had to offer them. No I am not going to mention the name of that corps, cause even though their show bores me, I will still support them in anyway I can, just like I will support any other corps out there and I will not bash them. Maybe it is arguable that Pioneer has had some rough years lately, that doesn't mean that next year they will be rough. I personally thought their performance level this past year was really good and up a higher level then years past, but that is only my personal opinion. Well, I typed all of this out to just say my piece and really it means nothing, just like the original post on here.

If you look at the scoring history of Pioneer, you really cannot blame Roman for choosing irish music. The highest the corps has placed was with irish music, the years they decide to start moving away from the irish theme, there scores went down (IE: 2000 (very Irish) to 2001 (not quite as Irish, even a jazz section)). And really they are not limiting themselves, you can take nearly any piece and put an irish twist on it and make it a whole new monster, for instance "West Side Story" which has been played a whole lot on the drum corps feild, well take that and add in some triplets here and there and give it an irish feel and you have a whole new show. That may be off the wall, but so is the Cadets and Cavies most of the time with their show ideas.

I gathered this from reading the website from end to end so I am only speaking on what it looks like the plans are, I have no idea what they plan to do. But it looks like they are using VK to get things rolling and to start bringing in funds and it looks like they plan on paying off everything that was owed to the IRS so that they can go back to the Velvet Knights name. They cannot use Velvet Knights to raise any funds until that name is paid off to the IRS. Again, that is just what I gather from reading the forums and the website, I could be way off, so someone from VK Youth Organization please correct me if I am wrong. Give these guys credit, they are trying to get things going. I personally cannot wait to see them back on the field. Oh and I believe the DCI rules still state that you have to start out in Div II/III, even if you were an existing Div I corps, example - Magic. Not sure about what Troopers will have to do though, I do not know if there is a time frame for how many years you take off or not.