Vuitton

All valid points, and all big big big problems. There's a lot I love about modern drum corps (electronics, props, uniforms, body movement, and trombones) but to me it's not very entertaining from a musical and visual perspective. I think that is the biggest problem. The shows aren't written for the paying audience, they are written purely for the judges and the sheets. It's all a big technical exericse, and that's quite boring. I've probably liked 5 shows in the last 10 years and loved much fewer.

I think it's valid regardless.

it doesn't matter. If I had to sit behind the stage to see U2 or Bob Dylan, I would do it. People fill the cheaper seats behind the symphony at the San Francisco Symphony just to see the concert. The point is there should be enough fans that people are willing to get cheap tickets in the end zones and at the back stands just to be there. In the 80s and 90s as a poor college student I would have paid to sit in the back stands at finals rather than not be there. Now, that I have money, I won't even both to go to a drum corps show today. It's not worth it to see 1-2 shows that are actually good and entertaining. Much of the front sideline is full of the corps that performed earlier in the week and family members of all those corps. Joe Blow off the street just isn't walking into Lucas Oil to see the show.

Yes, I agree with you. Things are so much in the favor of the corps at the very very top that I just don't see them falling down, or those below them rising up.

I would bet this number is extremely low.

Someday, one who says that will be correct. If they say it every year they are bound to be right at some point, maybe in 2040 or 2050, but at some point. What goes up must come down and even the greatest dynasties fall.

I agree. It was a great hornline. Man would they do classical justice. I'd love an all Tchaikovsky show from them.

That was a hideous video that scared my cat, LOL. Yes, not flag feature after flag feature, but simple unison work throughout the show is stunning, like the old guards of the Cadets and Cavaliers.

Yes and Jim Steinman turned his movie The Fearless Vampire Killers into Dance of the Vampires (Tanz der Vampire in German), one hell of a great musical in Vienna. When they were bringing it to Broadway, they wanted Polanski to direct it, but all efforts to have him come to the US proved fruitless, thankfully. While I appreciate and love Steinman's work (the reworked terrible Broadway version was a flop) I was always appauled by Polanski's involvement. There has always been a lot of abuse in drum corps and I am not exception. For me, it was by other members at times, usually when I made a mistake due to being unfocused (verbally, emotionally and physically) but I never thought of it as abuse back then, and I look back at my time in drum corps with undiluted pleasure. When the staff was tough on me, it only made me better.

Yeah that flag feature was glorious. But, I disagree with you to an extent here. One of the most impressive things to me in colorguard is when the entire guard is on flags doing unision flagwork. It's extremely difficult and very impressive. I think the lack of cohesion has more to do with getting marks than having an impact. It's easier to get better marks without unison than with it. The guard is the main visual element and when we are not seeing the guard in unison it is far less effective IMO. There's nothing more beautiful than 36-40+ guard members all doing unison flag (or rifle, sabre, other) work.

Yep and that's part of the problem. Everything costs money and having 15 guard instructors is just unnecessary. Spend that money on getting a better product.

I would LOVE it if BD did an all classical show. I still love the '98 show - wasn't that the one with Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet mixed with West Side Story. Old man memory lapse here, perhaps. Yeah, that was the year. Thought it was too West Side Story heavy and didn't like mixing those two pieces, but when they played the Tchaikovsky it was simply glorious.

Yep, I said 20-25k. You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but...

I want someone to do a Vanderpump Rules theemed show.

I just have to tell you what a huge fan I am of your '85 show. I marched Jr. Scouts in '85 and you guys were a complete bag of crap in June. But, by God, at finals you were just spectacular. To this day, that show is not only one of my favorite Regiment shows, it's one of my all time favorite shows, and THE show I consider to be the most underrated. You should be so proud of that show and what you all accomplished over that summer. It was so incredibly demanding and just marvelous. SUTA (even though I have no F'ing idea what that means)!