Metalbinky

After 2 decades of losing touch with drum corps and with 4 young kids, i brought my family to their first dci show (my oldest was about to start high school marching band and I wanted to get him interested in the activity.) The only corps I knew at the show was Blue Devils and I knew they would win. I never even heard of any of the other corps that were competing that night. Then I saw the show that fully brought me back into total DCI geekiness- 2013 Carolina Crown. That was the most incredible sound I’d ever heard. I was instantly hooked again. The show was Riverside, California 2013. Pacific Crest and Mandarins were also competing in World Class along with Gold and impulse from OC. I dreamed of the day one of my kids ended up performing with Crown. The two oldest marched 4 years of high school marching band but didn’t show interest in continuing on to DCI. It wasn’t until the 3rd kid, as a freshman in high school…he and his best band buddy recreated music from SCVs, My Body is a cage, and did it pretty convincingly…as high school freshmen! There was hope for me yet to have a son one day marching with Crown. That pair has since been auditioning and marching various corps, all in the pursuit of excellence. My son auditioned for Mandarins as a 14 year old, but was cut at the first camp. They liked him, but thought he was way too young. He ended up marching Gold for his first DCI year. He then went to The Academy, only to lose the season to Covid. The pair marched Pacific Crest for a year, then set their goals higher. My kid marched another year with PC before becoming a member with Blue Devils last year. His buddy was contracted at SCV, but had to scramble to find another corps to march when they abruptly shut the season down. Poor kid ended up at Carolina Crown! I find it kinda ironic that the friend’s dad wanted his kid to march with BD, while I wanted my son to march Crown. Still, we’re both really happy our kids ended up where they are today. I have one son that just started high school, and has 11 years experience going to every one of his brothers band competitions, and DCI shows. I still dream of one of my kids marching Crown so I can properly wear Crown gear and not get crap from my son for it. lol.

Not a regret, but I was offered a spot in 1992 VK but declined so I could instead bum around with my friends and enjoy my first summer of legal drinking age. It probably would’ve been really cool to be in that show. I never saw it live

I’m excited for the headline!

I’ve been to Indy since 2019 when my son started his DCI career. So I’ve been to Indy 4 years including 2021. Favorite year so far is 2023, the year my kid got a ring with BD.

I proudly listen to mostly drum corps shows in my cars. While on a road trip to a show I once asked the occupants of my car if they wanted to listen to every BD show since 1971. They all laughed like it was a joke, but I was dead serious. lol. Man, some of those shows were ROUGH!!

I was away from the activity until my oldest was in high school. When he started marching band I brought my kids to their first DCI competition at Riverside 2013. I knew nothing of Crown but there was a definite Buzz at their Souvie booth. I’m so happy that my kids got to see them in person and that night lit the spark up again! I’ve been a total Crown fan ever since that night, and for one of my sons Crown 2013 ended up as his favorite show ever. (With Babylon 2018 and Spartacus rounding out the top 3) While I tried to steer the talent of my son to Crown, my buddy steered his own son (one of my son’s best friends) to Blue Devils. As it turned out, my son ended up at BD this past year, while his ended up at Crown and will probably age out there next year. There’s still hope for me though, 2025 is my kids age out. I’m so selfish. LOL We also saw the Cavaliers out west in 2018. Such an awesome show that was. Not sure it’s financially an option for non west coast corps to start out west anymore but I’d love to see it happen more often.

I think it speaks to how difficult it is to make a top 4 corps. There are very few younger members that will make these corps, and even fewer that will march until their ageout. Most will need to go through the vetting process of marching at lower competitive corps.

Your count is correct. Here’s the breakdown of number of ageouts and their no. years with Crown: 26 first year with Crown ageouts 10 second year 5 third year 2 fourth year 3 fifth year ageouts

I was super impressed by how locked in it was and wondered how it must’ve sounded as a performer in one of the sections. How the heck did they do that??? In comparison, Pacific Crest had something similar with different sections spread relatively wide across the field playing in unison. The music wasn’t as difficult and they often had phasing issues (I don’t think during semis). I hope Bluecoats has a musical section that hits as hard next year!

Yup, no dot books for BD. I Can 100% confirm this. For 2023 Bluecoats I was completely in love with Bump. I think that was my favorite music section by any corps to be honest. I can’t wait to see what Bluecoats have in store for 2024.

I believe BD is in the 80-90 range (highest number of ageouts in a single season for the corps). Edit: I think I’m wrong about the number, seems extraordinarily high. I’ll ask

9.9 - 10.0

The quest for the 4-peat begins.

Finally got it. * LOL

You were a year early, Chief 🤣. Here’s to gunning for that top 5 in 2024.

Pretty close on your predictions. I give you a 9.9 and 9.7 in the predictions caption (based on my purely subjective rating)

You got the BD score correct at least

I usually listen to my favorite drum corps on the way to and from work, and that’s enough drum corps for me. This year son #4 is starting high school marching band as a freshman, while son #3 is starting his first positions as a visual tech for 2 high schools so I’ll be watching plenty of marching band stuff until December/January rolls around and I get to tag along with my kid as he begins his preseason stuff at his corps. I’m also preoccupied scoping out the staff changes at each corps…that’s a yearly exercise for me. I’m such a drum corps geek

He told me undefeated and winning all captions

I just learned from my son that the members will get a purple ring.

Thank you BD for taking us on this special season with you! Blackjack Baby!!

BAC. Wonderful show this season and especially tonight. Congrats on a show that will be loved and remembered for years.

And who will make the top twel…. wait, never mind. Congrats to Blue Knights. Have a wonderful finals performance

I think most shows follow the same pattern, BD just has a recognizable identity with theirs. I don’t think this changes unless the regime changes, but BD seems very protective of their identity. If anything, I would expect more show tie ins to the BD roots, where jazz and marching took center stage — very much like this year, don’t you think?

Maybe they were in a total trance of amazement. Seriously though, I didn’t have that sense around me. It was as loud or louder than any other corps at the end of the show with I think most standing