BranchHill

... and all along, I have thought it was Pacific Crest who received the short end of the judging stick. *SHRUG*

My absolute favorite in all of this: N.E. Brigand's taking the time to roll out this meticulously researched and articulated list. Thank you! The list, I am sad to admit, underscores my waning knowledge of Open Class offerings over the entirety of the decade. I began to make up for it in the past three years, learning that some of the most precious jewels in the drum corps necklace shine on Monday and Tuesday of championship week. With my admission also comes an apology: if the methodology I have chosen to tackle this task leaves out obvious gems, I'd love to be told of those omissions, so I can catch up! I decided to take the place listings and offer up my favorite, and a second helping of mighty good shows at each competitive finish. As Mr. Crocker says: "In 25th place:" "Off the Grid," Seattle Cascades 2019. When I realized that this production, which the members thread-the-needle performing with such exuberance, would likely be the lowest-scoring of the World Class offerings, all I could do was smile. All is well in the drum corps world. (Spartans, 2018: "DaVinci's Workshop" was the type of show we have all grown to love from the Northeast Open Class powerhouse. What came next ... Whoa!) 24th place: "FantaSea," Jersey Surf, 2019. A lesson, it seems to me, in smart programming. Design what can be achieved, the rest will fall into place. As it did in this very fine, entertaining, voyage. (Genesis, 2018: "RetroVertigo." Another signature show and style that was upended just a year later.) 23rd place: "Corps Prayer," Pioneer, 2010. The last appearance in the Top 25 for a corps and its members, both current and alumni, who always deserved better than the denouement that lurked for years. Pioneer was, at its apex, one of the most vital, competitive, corps in the activity. I will choose to remember it well, especially iterations from late 70s and early 80s. (Mandarins, 2012: "Prophecy." And here they come!) 22nd place: "The Blue Hour," Oregon Crusaders, 2011. Watch it again, as a precursor for Pacific Crest's breakout 2019 show. Good staff, better performers, solid show. (Vanguard Cadets, 2012: "Heroes and Legends." Even with a greatest hits playlist, this show underscored that Open Class only means open to anything ... wonderful!) 21st place" "Song of the Siren," Legends, 2019. An exotic tale as old as the seas themselves. I couldn't take my eyes off this show. (Pacific Crest, 2017. "Golden State of Mind." California was dreamin' and dreamy, in this easy to love coast-to-coast tour.) 20th place: "Sinvitation 7," Teal Sound, 2011. The corps' last championship appearance, before the truncated season to follow. An out-of-the-box musical mashup of "sin." (Mandarins, 2015. "Resurrection." When the Asian culture esthetic was the centerpiece of the corps, it moved us all. The corps' last thematic offering of the sort. To be remembered well.) 19th place: "Experiment X," Spartans, 2019. The winner and cham-PEEN! For all of the wonder of this spectacular production, I was hooked at the first phrases of the opening's "Balkan Dance." The rest was drum corps gravy. (Blue Devils B, 2018. "The Other Side." Devils' magic, in only a slightly different veneer. Just when you thought you knew what was coming ... MAGIC!) 18th place: "Off the Wall," Vanguard Cadets, 2018. Loose. In the groove. Of the moment drum corps. A gold medal moment, at that. (Troopers, 2019. "Beyond Boundaries." This show was not a threat to any competitor, save for the organization's brand, which is, after all, the most precious of all. The rebranding worked; a beautiful score, well-played. But for my enthusiasm here, it will all come down to 2020. Space Troopers likely will not hold up for a second year. Storm Troopers? State Troopers? ; ) 17th place: "Full Circle," Crossmen, 2010. When the X-Men excel, the corps has a vibe. This had a vibe. "First Circle," in its umpteenth iteration, was singularly effective. (Madison Scouts, 2019. "Majestic." The end of a majestic drum corps era. To a monumental new one!) 16th place: "Forging An Icon," Spirit of Atlanta, 2010. Perhaps the most under appreciated Spriit show ever! Not by me, though. ( Colts, 2011. "Deception.". Oftentimes, the Dubuque corps can seem as provincial as its hometown. For me, this show broke through like a jagged edge.) 15th place: The Academy, since the corps owned half a decade's worth of fifteenth-place finishes. "Academic," 2018 was a level grade up, what with the theme from "The Imitation Game" right off the desks. "(RE)," 2011 was the corps' vanity fair brand at the time, but I will admit that I'm a honk for "Mary Poppins." And "Feed the Birds," from 2015's "Step in Time" takes musical flight for me, often. 14th place: I would have loved to have seen both of these shows on Saturday night. "Everglow," Pacific Crest, 2019. No one was prepared for the scrumptious wonderfulness that this show brought to the field. Perhaps even, the judges? (Colts, 2015. "... and a Shot Rings Out," I love this dinner theater-style murder mystery! This was well beyond the usual drum corps realm.) 13th place: Finalists in every way, except final placement: "Inside the Ink," Mandarins, 2017 and "Knock," Spirit of Atlanta, 2018." There are another fifteen or more shows that I could have included on this list. Thanks, again, N.E. Brigand for the memories.

I'm a fifth-place kind of guy: a solid performer, gets the job done, can inspire. Probably why I love fifth place drum corps shows so much. I have for almost 50 years; including this past decade's competitive ascendent/descendent productions and shows. The best thing about fifth place -- fifteenth, twenty-fifth -- somebody loves them. The best part of being a fan: it's our prerogative to love what we do and wonder in fury or amazement how our personal favorites landed where they did. Here are some of my fifth-place favorites; each one landed right where it should have: my heart. The Kilties 1973 outing was my first time to steam at a corps' fifth-place ranking. What's not to love when you hear "Roundabout," the legendary "Eli's Comin'," and the corps' trademark "Auld Lang Syne"? I only saw the Troopers' championship runner-up show on film, so The Long Blue Line's '74 recanting of much of it would have to suffice. Fifth place. Long-form musical arrangements got a mighty good early airing with the Blue Star's wonderful 1975 show that included the symphonic "Canzona," music by "Chicago," and Billy Joel's namesake, "The Legend of Billy the Kid." "Spartacus," the first, 1981 Phantom Regiment. And not only in retrospect. Madison had quite a fifth-place run in the 80s with some of the corps' most adventurous choices: "Strawberry Soup," the "Colas Breugnon Overture," and music from the Broadway smash "Cats." (Hold that thought.) The fifth-place eighties sported such signature shows as the original "Planets" by the Cavaliers in 1985 and its seminal "Firebird" in 1988. (Not that other, strange, gasping-for-air "Firebird" from 1997.) The signature sound of Suncoast Sound was on spectacular field-wide display with its highest placement for Stan Kenton's "Adventures in Time." (And that, just a year after its sixth-place original symphonic travelogue "Florida Suite.") I have always thought that the Cadet's 1989 "Les Miz" was under-rated, but that was a tough year to stand out from the top two. The Scouts again, 1993, with the exuberant "City of Angels," an approach that I thought the corps might take for a while: musical theater (See "Cats," above). Santa Clara's undulating "La Mer" should be on everyone's best list. Vanguard's "Ballet for Martha" was a fifth-place phenomenon in 2009, as was Boston's 2000 "RED." Before I weigh in on this decade just past, I have to go ahead and put it out there: my personal favorite fifth-place show in DCI history. I watched it just a few minutes ago, as I pondered this post: "Imago" by the 2001 Glassmen. The extended solo that was woven throughout the show is pure brass hypnotism. Ahhh ... ________________________________________ So to the 2010's, and the stellar top-to-bottom fifth-place finishers. I'll top my list with: Third/Fifth: The Cavaliers' "Wrong Side of the Tracks" 2019 Second/Fifth: Santa Clara Vanguard's "Music of the Starry Night" 2012 First/Fifth: Phantom Regiment's stunningly-dramatic "Juliet" 2011 See now, don't we all love us some fifth place drum corps?

I voted for "Le Reve," one of the Blue Stars' best outings to date, at least for me it was. But I am writing today to additionally sing the praises of "Phantasm." When I saw the show in early season, it looked like a runaway train, too often leaving the performers behind. Man, did that show move! But I thought: well, if they get their feet under this one, and perform the show instead of chasing it, this might break out. Danged it: the old "two more weeks rule" applied: the show was just-about-almost a breakout, that just might have stuck for future development. As it was, the show seemed destined to play to folks too much like Oklahoma's Broken Arrow High School Band from whence "Phantasm's" designers hailed. Thing was: with fewer folks on the field, those designers had much more leeway than the crowd control that the mega-bands require (too often). Still, I wish that show had worked. The Regiment might already be on an upward track.

I'd like to see the Cavaliers' original three-peat, 1961-1963, since I have seen the three-peats during the DCI years. I'd probably like for today's Cavaliers to plumb deeper into some of the music from those three championship shows: "Gypsy," "Oliver," "The Desert Song," and "Porgy and Bess," again. I would also like to see the three-peat that may be in the making. For all of its competitive dominance, the Blue Devils do not -- yet -- have a three-year championship run. One down ... again.

The Scouts.

I once saw a musical in previews in New York; a musical that never opened, and that was never at the mercy of reviewers. In fact, watching it play out was fascinating. My seat was on the back row of the section of seats closest to the stage. There was an aisle right behind the seats. Two of the shows' producers stood right behind me for the entire production, talking (yeah, just like sitting too close to drum corps judges) about its merits (or lack thereof), and its potential to make money and become a success. It closed three nights later. But that's not the story behind "Nick and Nora," a musical adaptation of the noir detective series. This was a show with every known pedigree: both lead stars were award-winners, as were the writers, composer ... down the line ... to the producers. It was a lousy show; poorly staged, forgettable songs, bad pacing. But there was this one little written wrinkle that was genuinely funny: a single actor, in this case a woman, played every murder victim in the show. She was shot, stabbed, and strangled, to increasingly hysterical effect as the play wore on. Everyone associated with "Nick and Nora" went looking for new gigs, but it was the luck of the "dead woman" that will always stand out. I saw her, one year later, in her Tony Award-winning performance as Miss Adelaide in the revival of "Guys and Dolls." Faith Prince. Thank goodness for her that "Nick and Nora" -- I have forever called the production "Dick and Dora" -- turned into "Guys and Dolls" Something had to change. __________ Crossmen's finalist run origins and Spirit's three-peat notwithstanding, this is perhaps as relevant a question to pose right now as any other placement. This decade is a perfect example of what can, and does, happen to Saturday night's opening act. And the aftermath; when something has to change. Boston Crusaders' 2016 "Quixotic" was an abject mess of breezeless, inert windmills and a show that aimed for little, no unreachable star, it seemed at the season opening contest. Wholesale rewrites, a nod to "Conquest", an Audible book full of narration, and the chameleon nature of the malleable performers kept the show, and Boston, in finals. By a mere breeze. Its aftermath is the current model for sudden success and relevance in the upper echelons: an infusion of money, which leadership had been growing and stockpiling, made it possible for the organization to lure the just-crowned visual and color guard caption winner designers to a new Massachusetts home. In a single season, the Crusade reached the top six star, instantly becoming a drum corps Goliath. The following year, Madison's Scouts embraced every current design model with "The Last Man Standing," shaved heads and all. It was no Scout outing that anyone had ever seen, much less its apparently angst-ridden alumni and rabid supporters. But the corps was in finals, and was competing with the same metrics as every other corps. Whew ... it will be great to see a modern day Madison model, lots of us thought -- and hoped. Its aftermath became a confounding conundrum, too much current competitive bad cholesterol that caused cardiac arrest in the very masculine chest of the corps. "Too much" ... name the idiom other than drum corps that was leveled. Something must be done to get the venerable Scouts back in the Top 6! Maybe if the corps had played Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" this year, that "something" might have worked. Heaven knows the performers gave it their all! So, as show titles would have it, "The Last Man Standing" was Madison's last Saturday night performance as its six decades-long brand. May the full infusion of women into its DNA, help propel this all-time drum corps favorite back to its majestic perch. And finally, this year's Phantom Regiment. "I Am Joan" was an abject mess of inert, homemade looking props and a show that aimed for costume changes and a crowd call-and-chant. Even a fantasy of finals was dashed, it seemed at the season opening contest. Wholesale rewrites and edits, along with the chameleon nature of the malleable performers not only kept the show, and Phantom, in finals, but endeared fans for "what they overcame." (A tacit "I Am Joan".) So here we all are again, wondering what the organization has the ability (resources), will (staff changes), and desire (upward competitive movement) to make happen for 2020. Don't claim recruiting woes: the same type and caliber of performers were in both 2018 and 2019's Pacific Crest. In a comment that has probably outlived its usability, "If there had only been one more week in the season," the crest of momentum just might have been from the west coast, just might have sent "Joan" home before Saturday night. Performers rise. They want to excel. They want immediate adulation from the crowd and judges adulation from the sheets. Seems to me, in the case of our fine founding DCI corps Scouts and Regiment, the question for 2020 competitive relevance is: Will the adult leadership rise to the level of their performers? I always hope so.

I will suggest a different order for the suggestions here: START. STOP. CHANGE. START dreaming of your version of a championship, a finalist, a semi-finalist, or a break-out show today! (You already are, I know.) Dream it. Discuss it. Storyboard it. Then set it aside and go on vacation. Upon your return, and after you revisit the storyboards ... STOP. Hard stop. Consider and reconsider every single second of that storyboard. Can we accomplish this; actually? (Think Jersey Surf's pitch-perfect show for judges, fans, and its performers.) What makes this production our corps' version of its best self? (Keep all of that.The Cavaliers.) What will become over the course of the season groaningly weary for judges, fans, and your performers? (Readers: find your best/worst example of this.) CHANGE it. Now! Don't think that the very first judge in the very first competition won't suss it out, causing you to have to change it on the fly. CHANGE, part 2. Have changes built into the fabric of the production. If it doesn't work changes, but more importantly, changes (layers) to add that will plus the show for all three audiences over time. (The Blue Devils have mastered this. COPY IT! Hell's bells: you copy everything else, often.) Be 2020's Pacific Crest! __________ Since I wrote this, I have read an interesting -- and pertinent -- idea on creativity from choreographer Twyla Tharp. In her book, "The Creative Habit," she emphasized how important it is to have a "spine" for any piece. “The spine is the statement you make to yourself outlining your intention for the work. You intend to tell this story. You intend to explore this theme. You intend to employ this structure… Once you accept the power of spine in the creative act, you will become much more efficient in your creativity. You will still get lost on occasion, but having a spine will anchor you. When you lose your way, it will show you the way home. It will remind you that this is what you have set out to do, this is the story you’re trying to tell, this is the effect you’re trying to achieve. Having a spine will snap you back to attention quickly and, as a result, will inject speed and economy into your work habits. “Having a spine lets me know where I am starting from and where I want to go…It lets me know when I am dawdling or digressing or wasting time. It reminds me that everything I add is either on message or off. Most of all, it lets me know when I’m done.”

I have been considered Forrest Gump~ish (and worse), but: "My momma always said, 'Drum Corps is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.' ” (And ain't that the best part of all?) I hope that every corps brings its championship face in 2020!

I am fascinated by this topic, because in my puppy love years of following drum corps, I COULD NOT STAND the coming innovation. World Championships were coming to Birmingham, AL; I had secured a volunteer role with DCI's Public Relations Office. It was a dream come true! I was going to be a part of something that had become oxygen for my young professional self. Drum corps was wonderful; I wanted the world to know! And now I had a bit of a soapbox from which to proclaim it. The Blue Devils notched the highest score ever recorded in its championship show. Phantom Regiment seized hearts with "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral," and Santa Clara's guard dropped into the bottle dance at show's end, to round out the medalists. Atlanta's Spirit was the hometown favorite with its wall of sound, and the 27th Lancers previewed what would become its just-about-almost 1980 championship show for fourth and fifth. No matter. It was the sixth place corps that rocked the stadium and that became the viral sensation (of the times): The Bridgemen. The Bayonne "bananas" played into the never-ending clapping hands of the rousing Southern audience with its off-the-wall, off-the-drum-corps-grid show. I. Was. Mortified. What was to be made of this mess, I sulked. There was not the precision of the Anaheim Kingsmen, who I revered. There was not the innovative color guard of the Troopers, that thrilled me. There was neither Spirit's nor the Madison Scouts' soaring hornlines. I know not a whit of the intricacies of percussion, but I KNEW that this drum line was not the razor-sharp sort of the Blue Devils. And isn't all of that what drum corps is all about, I whined, almost apologetic to the very people who I had urged to come experience drum corps. "They were great!" was the retort. And the next year the Bridgemen offered a rejoinder to my question of drum corps appropriateness by just-about-almost passing the Lancers for second place in front of one of the most raucous, rabid crowds of fans I had ever seen. What was my conflicted drum corps heart to do? __________ When I least expected it, grow to love it in the same way that Birmingham's crowds did, as drum corps crowds everywhere did, and as we all did for Bayonne's first cousin from California, the Velvet Knights. Good drum corps, it turns out, is good drum corps. No matter the style, the approach, the innovation, the current times: drum corps was bound to change over time, as it has for all time. Aren't we glad that "Autumn Leaves" is the corps song, not a performance requirement for The Bluecoats? Take this year's splendid Open Class Bronze Medalist, Gold; structurally it was a color guard show. The themes, "acts," and narration could be manipulated, and shortened, to make a life-affirming Dayton-bound production. As for guards not performing "the drum corps way," the mind-boggling, breath-taking, all-rifle backfield unison feature during the Boston Crusaders' "My Shot," begs to differ. (My heart rate jumped just writing about the moment.) All three choices are good ones, with no conspiratorial coup nor organizational take-over in mind/intended. At least in my view. I am going on 50 drum corps seasons. I love that the Bridgemen of my stiff-minded youth made Legion Field's upper deck sway just as a touchdown in the Alabama/Auburn football rivalry played there used to. I love that the Blue Devils turn choreography into kaleidoscopic drill. I love that the Blue Knights mesmerized with music and drill. I love the adeptness of Santa Clara's cast. I love my drum corps more than ever. Please don't stop. Any of it.

Blue Knights I have not swooned over a show in too long. Sumptuous. The Cavaliers So on-brand. The Blue Devils/Coats The Champions! Pacific Crest I love an out-of-nowhere hit. Theme from "Chinatown" was cinematic magic. Spartans Thrilling. But that opening ... WOW! Troopers The rebrand/reboot and music to back it up bodes nicely. Jersey Surf Lovely. Design and execution.