Guizeppe

Nice recap G. If I could tag on just a bit. I have never been more impressed with both the Troop and Pioneer. I admit that I was led astray by others who had made Pioneer's show out to be just another Irish yawn. Everyone that was with me at quarters were thoroughly entertained and enjoyed their show very much. The "Captain Morgan" pose by the cymbals was brilliant. And then seeing them perform again in the great land of Disney the next day was just an extra treat. Drum Corps + Disneyland = Heaven. And Troop...this is not your grandmother's Troopers. What sound!! What energy!! I can only hope that they can get even bigger and better to return to their prominence from so long ago. Really enjoyable show this year. Let's see...best season ever? I'll vote for that.

I would like to see as many div.III corps increase in membership and move to div.II as possible. The more corps the better.

Before the BD encore, someone way above yelled "I believe in CALIFORNIA!!!" Nice.

Painfully beautiful.

George, and the rest of the board, I want to share with you comments from my Aunt. She is a drum corps mom of the 80s. She has followed the activity since then and is responsible for why I fell in love with this activity. Her comments from an email I received from her after she attended the Stanford show: "...The Cadets won. Their show is hokey in the extreme with this stupid narration. I really didn't like it. (I know which show will be the bathroom break on Thursday!).." Now I know you're smart enough to know that your show design this year was going to rub some of us fans the wrong way, but I'm not sure you knew to what extent. My hopes is that if you/we have this dream of changing the activity through supersized corps, narration and otherwise, please don't lose sight of what's made this activity so great and what separates it from the others as the upper echelon of marching music.

Totally shamefull bump.

West..... ... ... is ... ... BEST!!!

Of the top seven, no corps has ranked in the same place for more than 7 shows: BD: 1st ranked in mid-July (down to 3rd) Cadets: 1st ranked currently (could mean fall is coming) SCV: 7th ranked end of July (up to 6th) Also, every corps of the top 7 has at one time ranked either 4th or 5th this season.

I'm excited I get to see the Yokahama Scouts again! Saw them here in Sacramento and they are very very good.

So I'm bored at work. Getting very excited for this weekend. Thought I'd put this little picture together. Using nothing but screen caps from my favorite graphical DCI rankings page (DCIScores.com), presenting the 2007 DCI Div. 1 season rankings: *the very slightly-shaded section on July 21 is San Antonio, mid-seasonish* *the lines signify finalist and semi-finalist positions* And yes I realize this isn't the ENTIRE season start to finish. I chose to start on the June 29 because that was the first day we had scores for every D1 corps. Here's another plug for DCIScores.com, the BK site is also very good, but I'm a sucker for cute graphical insignias :D .

BD Cavs Cadets

Excellent review. Wish I could have been there.

I don't know what the heell I'm looking at, but whatever it is looks pretty cool.

I found there to be a higher ratio of plate lines in Div. 2/3. In Rocklin I noticed nearly every corps had at least 3....of course Surf had 6 and the Yokohama Scouts marched 7! Always fun to watch.

Nice reviews. Thank you.

Great job div II fan. I don't know how you did it, but you did and it was an entertaining read this morning. I just posted my review over in the review forum. Great job.

Btw, let me know if the pitcure links don't work.

Drums Along the Sierras Whitney High School Rocklin, CA VENUE: First off, boy am I glad the weather decided to cooperate. Had been 100 the last few days, tonight was 95 at step off but cooled way down. Typical high school stadium. Special note to the show coordinators, WE NEED SIGNS!!! It’s like this. You pull up to the school. You can see the stadium off to the right, parking to the left. Should be easy to find the gate…right? NO signs telling corps fans which way to the entrance. Many of us who thought we were going the right way actually ended up above and behind the press box, which consequently is where I stood and watched Gold perform. If you’re going to put all of the corps buses and the school pool in front of the entrance, post a friggin sign!!! Moving on. In order of appearance *note: Upon arrival, I realized I had no pen or paper in the car. So the first few corps were/are from memory. GOLD: 68.700 I like the gold horns, distinguishes them from the other corps out there, not to mention it is their namesake. Pretty good show with original(?) Latin music. Brass was good while standing still but petered off when moving. Many low brass members, but not much in the way of sound. Drums were very good. The guard really shined. I really noticed them when they bordered the corps with rifle tosses, very very nice. Good group that has all the potential to move up in a big way in the next few years. Gold Gold CITATIONS: 71.300 Holy drill moves, Batman. Corps moves around a lot. Brass was actually very strong even while moving. Good power coming from the drums, though they lack size. The guard was very well staged and had probably one of the more memorable moments of the night: A male and female guard member stand facing one another, toss sabres way up in the air, dance around each other, then catch each other’s sabre with their backs together. Very cool. Another corps I was impressed with. Citations SPOKANE THUNDER 72.100 Definitely work their theme of 24 hours. The corps starts “asleep”, then wakes up through the warm-up period, then blasts your face off with their opening hit. Big pop. Strong in just about every area. Brass was not too overpowering, drums were strong especially the basses. The only thing that really stuck out was some missed step offs and early entries and exits. Really got a good reaction from the crowd. I had them ahead of Impulse and OC. Spokane Thunder Spokane Thunder *note: At this point, I stuck my quickly filling head into the judging press box to see if I could find something to put my thoughts to paper. Success! A pencil and a piece of cardboard. Now I can at least scribble down fragments. OREGON CRUSADERS 77.400 Big white door frames. Many of them. All over the field. They are however used effectively, lots of movements through them. At one point it looks like the corps is worshiping the middle one. Whatever. The little green machine looks and sounds great. Big sound from a div. 2 size corps. Why aren’t they div.2? Anyway, they have two memorable moments. The first is the corps member in the wheelchair that plays the baritone solo, very nice. The second is another guard toss: This time the guard member tosses/spins a rifle about 20 feet into the air, up and over the center door frame, only to catch it on the other side. Really cool. Very good, just didn’t excite me as much as Thunder. Oregon Crusaders Oregon Crusaders Oregon Crusaders IMPULSE 75.750 Okay. I railed on this corps for losing their image as a “fun” corps. I still am not a big fan of the music, and the dialogue is pretty much pointless…but. Tonight they put out there a very well performed show. That drum feature is A-class quality, clearly they are carrying this group. The guard was okay, mostly unnoticeable to me, except for those weird male guard unis. I guess I would get them more if I was a fan of the Final Fantasy series, but I’m not so I don’t. The brass is not very big but can put out a good sound when they need to. 2008 show suggestion: Music from the Simpson’s movie. Just a suggestion. Impulse Impulse FEVER 82.600 I’m going to go ahead and label them the new Mandarins of old, make sense? Their not very big, but they can really let loose with high quality shows. There really is nothing bad to say about them, except that maybe they should have their uniforms fitted. Too many baggy grey pants out there. The brass is in tune and perfectly balanced high to low. The drums have lots of notes and play them well. The guard work and flags are simply beautiful. The high GE moment is at the end of the ballad, played exquisitely, the guard is encircled by the brass and use these pale peach/orange colored flags that they whip around very quickly. Nicely done. I hope they can sustain their membership for they truly have a shot at becoming the next big thing in div. 2/3. Fever Fever Fever INTERMISSION At this point I found Mr. Disney sitting in the expensive seats, so I moved down with him for the rest of the show. Plus he had a program. BLUE DEVILS “C” 52.300 Cute, cudly, Grease. Lots of fun to watch. Nice to see them headlining in Stanford. Fun show. Just about everyone wants to take the little color guard “Danny” home with them. And big props to the one tuba player that gets no rest. Blue Devils C Blue Devils C Blue Devils C YOKOHAMA SCOUTS 83.350 Holy goosebumps! Forget div.3, this is a div.1 corps. First I should point out that the uniforms have the back of the Troopers and the front design of BD circa 2003. They take the field as if they’ve been there a hundred times before. Fast, loud, a little top heavy in the brass. The guard flags and uniforms are stunning. The drums also look like BD rehashes from the denim colored years. Oh, and did I mention they have 7 outstanding cymbals? Awesome. If you have a chance to see this group, do so. If DCI was truly an international competition, these guys would medal hands down. Standing O. Yokohama Scouts Yokohama Scouts Yokohama Scouts JERSEY SURF 89.550 So having never seen any div.2 corps from East of the sierras, I was a bit worried about any group that had to follow the kids from Japan. Surf’s response…no problem! Their show is fast, loud and fun, everything I want in a corps show. And they play the theme from Shaft, how can you not like that? The brass is in your face fantastic, sometimes a little too overblown during stand stills. Guard is huge…in number, not appearance…and very very good. The drums were good when they could be heard, far too much back field staging for my taste, but a good line nonetheless. Oh, and not to be out done, they marched 6 cymbals. I think they might get higher marks if they had white pants, but that’s just me. Kids of Jersey Surf, you have made a fan in this Northern Californian. Well done. And let me point out, they got their show theme across without narration. I had them over Spartans. Jersey Surf Jersey Surf Jersey Surf SCV CADETS 83.750 I came away from this show with a revelation. Us corps fans here on the left coast don’t typically get to see late season drum corps, especially div. 2. It’s really nice to see how these shows have progressed from June to now. I was pleasantly surprised by their show tonight. I don’t know the music, but it was still enjoyable. The brass is small but well balanced. The guard too is small but have very nice flags and uniforms. The drum line is D1 caliber. Could those bottom basses get any lower/louder…me likey. Show finishes quietly with a soloist being the center of a quickly departing tornado of corps members to the back right. Good effect. Nice show. SCV Cadets SCV Cadets SPARTANS 90.100 Big corps with a big sound. Not quite as big as Surf’s in my opinion, but definitely more controlled. Spartans also tell a story of sorts using big cloths that are revealed at the appropriate times during the show. No narration. I give high marks to the brass for all of their Blue Knight-esque body movement, and there’s a ton of it. To me the corps as a whole got better near the end of the show. Drums were a little dirty early on but cleaned things up by the end. Very strong bass line (can you tell I was a bass drummer). Guard had a great effect near the end when along the front sideline they quickly waved flags from left to right, with the flags changing in color from sunny yellow to black, signaling “Sun” and “Death” (beginning and end).. Neat effect. Overall a strong corps that is very technically proficient. Spartans Spartans BLUE DEVILS “B” 86.600 Like I said for the Cadets, nice to see how they have improved from the early weeks. This has got to be the largest BDB corps ever, and probably one of the best ever. The guard is typical BD out of this world. I really like the zigzag black and white flags that look like checkered flags when waved. Likewise, the drums are stellar, and the brass, though sometime lacking in overall volume, really sounds nice. This year their show is just not up to snuff with those other big boys. But hold your heads up high B corps, you have a very enjoyable show. Blue Devils B Blue Devils B Blue Devils B Well there you go. I had never been to a strictly div. 2/3 contest, but these performances tonight leave me no doubt that drum corps beyond the big boys is just as fun and exciting. Really impressed by every singe group. I hope some of you Eastern corps make the trek once or twice in the next 10 years, it would be great to see you again.

I give this thread/idea 5 gold stars. And bawker gets the "bumper of the year" award. Seriously though, I think it is an interesting idea. I would consider putting my name in the panalist hat, but I tend to lurk in just the DCI forums...not very diversified. So, mr. bawker, is there anything from preventing panalists from making every thread star worthy? I'm just thinking that 1 and 2 star threads would be passed over by many of the readers, threads that are worth a look at the orginal post, but not too much after that. Also, is there a minimum number of replies a thread must have? You obviously need discussion to "label" it good, bad or otherwise. Seems to me a great topic is only great if it stirs relevent/positive dialogue, and without such dialogue you don't really have a "thread". oh yeah....BUMP

I liked it the first time I heard it...in 2004. (I know it's not the same, but it sure does sound similar to me anyway)

I will be there too, obviously. However my show review will be posted late late Thursday or early Friday. Can't wait to see some great D2/3 action! My Stanford attendence stands at about a 10% chance.....and shrinking.

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure if BD"B" has their own corps song or if they share with big bro. Guess we'll find out.

Me 27....my daughter turns 1 tomorrow. She's in the 12 and younger fan category.

Being as I live in Northern CA, we don't see many strictly div. 2/3 shows. However, tomorrow I will be attending the div. 2/3 show in lovely tree-less Rocklin, CA. My question is do they have an encore performance from the winner (or designated corps) or is it forgotten for time reasons?

Academy and Blue Stars....HONK!