Scadesfan

To the earlier question as to why OC is using the 45 instead of the 50 yard line. I'm believing it is because the 45th parallel north runs thru almost the middle of Oregon

Small brass ensembles and soloists are really hurt by the mic placement. Volume is really weak.

Agreed, multi much better

Last year OC had a score of 66.0 to start the season.

I'm surprised no comments yet on the OC preview show tonight. I counted 130 members...4 drum majors, 15 front ensemble, 25 guard. 22 drum line, 64 brass. Don't know if there were any members sitting out. I was told there are 7 open brass spots. Hornline sounded very good, as did percussion. I liked the music selections that have been chosen. Weaknesses right now are visual which needs cleaning...normal for this time of the season. Guard is going to need lots of work which someone alluded to in an earlier post. If there isn't dramatic improvement I could see 3 or 4 open class guards scoring higher in that caption. The guard also hasn't gotten their show costumes so that will impact their score until those arrive. I'm going to need more views of the show to get a good feel for the show design. I was sitting too low in the stands but there is a lot of movement in the drill.

The preseason cd does have a version of the show without narration. I have a copy. 2007 was my sons age out year. He was a mello in that fantastic horn line.

just an FYI....per a chat with DCI Live. They are having problems with feeds to tablets.

just signed up for dci live. Should I be able to watch on an iPad? if yes, can it be directed to an Apple TV?

Our family has been on both ends of the placement spectrum. My son began his Drum Corps experience in 2002 when Cascades made finals...a first from a NW Corps. In 2005 he joined Cadets when they won the Championship and then the next 2 years before aging out. In 2008 he joined the staff of OC to help in the rebuilding process and the transition from Open Class to World Class. Just know OC has many members now from TX as they expand their membership.

DrumManTX I appreciate all your analysis, but more than that how through the full season you were embracing the performances of these Corps. We need more fans like yourself. There are too many that can't or won't take the time to pay much attention to the Corps that fall into the 14 and below placement range. And worse are those who only pay attention to the top 8 or so. Looking forward to your posts next year.

BD's design and skill sets are being passed down to BDB and same at maybe a lesser extent at SCV and SCVC. The reality is that BDB and SCVC are world class corps competing in Open Class. I expect that BDB will, if not next year, the following year, by semifinals push whomever was sitting at number 12 out of finals.

Does anybody know the percentage of BDB members who move up to BD? I would think that the BD organization would use the same design philosophies for both Corps to shorten the learning curve for BDB members moving up.

Tomorrow (quarter finals) will be the most important show of the season for OC. As like Atlanta they will have to deal with a very bad show time right before the massive 56 minute intermission before the Theater portion begins. OC will need to be better than great...they will need to be spectacular to stay in the judges mind when the show restarts after the break. I know that OC has it in them to do what it takes to keep moving their score forward. Will OC stay ahead of Spirit tomorrow?...hope so but it could be a challenge with their draw time. The last show finally saw a score that was indicative of this years show which should be scoring 2-4 points above last years show. Let's keep our fingers crossed that OC has passed through all the erratic scoring during the middle of the season and quarters and semis put a big exclamation point on the 2014 season.

Just a side note for tonight's OC performance. I texted my sone (OC Brass staff) and told him I thought they looked better visually tonight. He said he had to help fill in with the visual staff this week. Got a chuckle out of that...but he has done visual before. His first year on staff with OC in 2008 he did both brass and visual. I think they had a staff of about a dozen that year.

The member is from Dartmouth. Evidently another is coming to fill a Euph hole

There is just one from MA who was recruited by one of the visual staff (don't know which one).

OC is already starting to get kids from outside the NW ...HI, Oh, MA, TX, and FL... And probabably other states I'm missing. But they are still young. It does give them some ability to move all days earlier but then they have the issue with facilities since schools are in session. The have an issue with this just for monthly camps and end up at schools far outside the PDX area. The could really use their own facility....wishful thinking on that one. It's an up hill battle but the Corps mgmt has been doing it the correct way so far.

I'm hoping that OC will have a great week of practice to clean. Their brass caption head is back with the corps now so that should help on the brass side of the program (although brass has typically been the strong section of the corps). Hopefully the guard will be able to bring more consistency to the show by Atlanta. At the beginning of the season I liked the caplet but now I'm have some second thoughts. It might be adding to visual issues as it flares out and reduces spacing between members. I much prefer OC's, and even Academy's shows to those of Colts and Spirit and would like to continue to see scores get closer...but is there enough time left in the season to accomplish this.

Just an FYI...after the Columbians short tour ended a few of their horn line was picked up for open slots with Oregon Crusaders.

The only camera their not using is a drone. More camera angles than I've ever seen from a broadcast.

Well a lot of the answers will come in the next 2 weeks when they go head to head with the corps most people have been slotting them around. Come Thursday we will see where they fall with their first show with Crossmen and Blue Knights. By Denver add in Troopers, Mandarins, Academy, and Pacific Crest. With the exception of Sprit and Colts those are the current 11 thru 19 Corps. They have a lot of time to make improvements once they start the shows and I expect to see their scores increase more incrementally show to show than those who have been performing for a few weeks. By San Antonio I think there are going to be a lot of surprised drum corps fans seeing where they are placing and a lot of buzz to see their show.

Just a weather update...a roasting 94 degrees right now. Warmer than expected!!

Lets start tonight's show topic out with the basic info. Show starts at 7:30 PDT. This year is a new venue. We have a new A division baseball team...the Hillsboro Hops (named after the beer ingredient not a kangaroo since we have so many microbreweries in the area). They have a game in the new stadium adjacent to the football stadium so the drum corps show has been relocated to Tualatin HS about 15 miles south of Portland. The stadium holds about 2000 per Oregon Crusaders director Mike Quillen. As of last week all the reserved seats had been sold which I estimate to be about 2/5's of the stadium. Given that the majority of attendees will go for general admission I think this could be a sellout. With OC's success last year and having SCV back in the show after a long hiatus I am really confident of the sellout. We are having a beautiful hot NW day today after the last week or so being cool. At 11:15am it is currently 83 degrees so I would expect mid 80's at the start of the show with about 50% humidity. Just about perfect. I will be taking pictures tonight....just need to figure out how to get them on. OC has announced on Facebook that they are unveiling a surprise tonight (really did it last night but no one has let the cat out of the bag yet). OC should be about the same size as last year. Horn line is designed for 64 although I believe there are still a couple of open holes. Drum line should be improved from last year. I don't know about the guard. Not as many horn line vets returned as I was expecting from last year but the quality is still at least at that level. As I understand it is the drill that is being cranked up this year getting up to around 200 bpm which should challenge the kids. New visual staff that worked with Cadets in mid 2000's are on board. I know that they will not march the closer until San Antonio so it will be standstill I assume tonight. I'm really excited to see SCV after watching Stanford on demand. This should be a fan favorite show this year. They always get a great reception here with lots of corps vets in the area. I need to watch BK's show this afternoon on demand to get prepared for them. They are always well received as well. I have not heard anything about the other Nw corps to provide any info on them. That should get us started for tonight.

My son had told me 8 age outs of the 130+ members. The members to date have pretty consistent in returning which is a great sign. It will be interesting to see if they stay in the 130 range or push up to 150. They have been very diligent the past few years to grow at a rate to not stress their infrastructure. With 64 horns last year and additional interest they might be able to get to 72 next year if that is their desire. I'm really looking forward to auditions later this year.

1 Oregon Crusaders 88.500 2 Vanguard Cadets 85.000 3 7th Regiment 81.300 4 Music City 76.900 5 Raiders 75.450 6 Blue Saints 60.600