Guizeppe

Well said Glenn. I know we had talked earlier when you first encountered the problem and was really hoping things would turn out (or on) for the best. Had the lights come on I think many of the little problems like the locked restrooms and single-open gate would have been overlooked and considered things to work on for next year. In this instance I blame the Sac State facilities crew and the pretentious Sac State hierarchy who seem to think they are running UC Sacramento. As an alumn, I was embarrassed not just for Sac State, but also Sacramento as a city. The opportunity to showcase this niche activity we all love comes along once a year in corps world, and frankly we blew it. Glenn, I hope you send your thoughts or a copy of your post to DCI and SOME. I think they need to know that you and everyone there last night were trying every avenue to keep the show going. I believe Hornet Field can and will be a great venue for drum corps in the future, as evident by the huge fan turnout. Back in the 80s and 90s many a corps show was scene there with no issue. Sac State just needs to learn that a paying customer should get all the help they require and then some.

Added some pictures and edited the original post. Didn't want to start t new topic. Mini-show was great!

Thanks. I'll see what I can find.

Just got back from the Palladio mall performance by the Boston Crusaders. The was wicked awesome! Got there with my dad and two little girls just in time to sit right in front and ruin there hearing. They played a brass warm-up, a few drum line warm-ups, the corps song and then the majority of their show minus pit and guard (space reasons). Just a tremendous quick drum corps fix. Got the juices flowing for this weekend. Major thanks to the Boston Crusaders. Can't wait to see you on Sunday. Original Post: I've read in many local articles that the Boston Crusaders, who have been "camping" at Folsom High School, are having a dress rehearsal tomorrow. Does anybody know about what time? I want to take my two little girls to see some drum corps before we see the big show on Sunday here in Sac town, but if it's too early the temperature will be a big deterrent (100F). So, anyone know the BAC schedule for tomorrows rehearsal?

You mean those are BD uniforms? "A" corps?

Um...what is that?

BAC looks/sounds great! May just have to check them out in Folsom before they leave.

Expecting the birth of my son earlier that day, so unless I can get a cinematic feed piped into me wife's delivery room, I'll be missing it this year.

Coming West has certainly worked out in the past (see Phantom '08 and Cadets '11). I'll echo POSITIVenrgy above: Us California corps fans are supremely grateful for any and every corps East of Tahoe to make the trip. Troopers/BK/Phantom/Cadets/Bloo/Crusaders...the more the merrier! If we could get Phantom, Madison and Crown to come all in the same year, there may be some mild tremors at Stanford stadium. 3 weeks away!!!

What a great opportunity for the few remaining high school marching programs left in the area, I hope they take advantage. Perhaps the Mandarins should attend . So glad the Moonlight Classic gets to continue here in Sacramento, hopefully for a long long time.

Can't wait to see them (and everyone else) here in Sacramento. Bummed about UOP losing it's show and stadium, but hard to complain about the resulting show just 15 minutes away. Might have to buzz on over to Folsom to check out BAC when they're their. Anyone know where Phantom might be housing during they're West-coast swing?

Well color this West-Coaster excited! The more top world class drum corps we can get out here the better! It wasn't too long ago that the only Div.1 corps we had to look forward to at every California show was BD and Vanguard. Now with a few Eastern corps visiting every year and the rise of the Western groups (BK, Mandarins, Troop, Pac Crest, Academy), we are being treated to shows with 7 to 8 world class corps with multiple headliners. Can't wait till Stockton!!!

Stockton Moonlight Classic June 26 2011 Venue: University of the Pacific's Stagg Stadium is still the second greatest venue to see a corps show (Stanford is really the best). Weather was great, mid-80s. A beautiful night for drum corps. RENEGADES: I missed these guys and gals for the first time ever. 6:30 start time really means 6:30. We were still parking and walking so I apologize to the Evil 7s. Sounded good from the parking lot. BLUE DEVILS C: Fun as always. Music this year is a little more mature, as does seem the corps in general. Bigger kids, full drumline, definitely a sign of more great talent coming up for the world champs. Drums and low brass are their strenghts. Good show. SANTA CLARA VANGUARD CADETS: One of their most accessible shows musically. They play out the "Balance" theme of their show quite nicely. Drumline feature was top notch though a bit dirty, and I always love to hear a bottom base solo. Brass was confident and powerful through the first half of the show but seemed to get a little fatigued in the second half. Nice show to listen to. Gaurd did a nice job as well. BLUE DEVILS "B": Holy "A" corps drumline Batman! These guys can throw down with the best of them. Big brassy sound coming from this big corps with a couple of classic BD-jams thrown in for good measure. Guard is world class quality as always. Pit was turned upa little too much on the amps, drowned out the corps during some soft moments. Overall a very enjoyable show, well done. REVOLUTION: Great to see a new corps come out West: Welcome. Shows theme is "Ride" which is portrayed well with the sound effects of a plane taking off and the tires being tossed around in the guard. Corps about half the size of the groups before them, though they could really blow at a standstill. I thought the grey and black unis actually helped accentuate the vibrant colors of the guard flags. First sign of "GOO" tonight and I wasn't terribly excited with the synth sounds being played overthe drum feature. They end with some world class drill done pretty well for this early in the season. Thanks for coming out Revo, your welcome back anytime. PACIFIC CREST: BIG full sound from the Cresters this year. Beautiful balance in the horns with a finalist quality low brass section. Can't recall the music but I remember it being very nice to listen to. Drums had agoodfeature but overall got lost inthe volume of the brass. Lots of movement which left some forms looking a little chaotic, but overall one of the best PC shows in recent memory. Very enjoyable. MANDARINS: Ah, my little home corps that could. Corps size is about 2/3s that of other World class groups, but when they need to they can let loose with some serious power. The mellos and baris are clearly the strong points in the brass. Drums were good, bit of dirt here and there, and thepit had an excellent feature, well done. Show ends with the drum feature, which I'm not sure means the show is finished. Kind of leaves the audience wanting more. Good show Mandies. BLUE KNIGHTS: First corps to just come out and blast you away, major goosebumps! Love the music, don't know it, but love it. Huge hits from the brass and the drum feature with the tradition English drums isreally cool. First group that I thought really staged the color guard well with effective integration. The only weakness they have is in their feet, which seemed to affect the higher brass when they would move, and the mic on the top tympani was WAY too loud. But overall, Blue Knights are quickly becoming a big fan favorite. Excellent show. And THANK YOU FOR THE LACK OF GOO!!! CADETS: Angels, Demons, and thunderous Goo. Who will win? Anyway, this show istremendous. Great staging of the corps throughout. Brass is insane with the drill their pulling off this early in the season. Many oohs and aahs were heard from those sitting higher up, a testament to the great drill design. Drum feature is legendary, colorguard is good as well, their best moment obviously being the shiny silver and gold rods. Great effect. The big Amazing grace hit brought the house down. Unfortunatly, the goo is ever present, and that kind of cheapens it for me. Why have tubas? That being said, this is probably my favorite Cadets show in 10 years. World Champ quality. My 5-year old likd this one the best. BLUE DEVILS: If you can't jive with this show musically they should take away your ears. What fantastic music, and played just how I like it, LOUD! Really sharp tonight, thought they might pull out a victory tonight. Guard was unbelievably good and should win their caption every night. And nobody stages a production better, nobody. I guess I'm in the minority but I don't find the cubes that distracting. The long white posts are way more distracting to me. Drums are on fire, brass is to die for, really a show for the BD fan in all of us. Threepeat? Perhaps. SANTA CLARA VAN"GOO": This show should be called "tough". I'm a big SCV fan, but this was a little rough for me to watch. Brass has good power and hits you when they want, but really needs more practice. Lots of movement, second only to the Cadets in that respect. The running doesn't work for me. Now the drums, best since 2004, and all they did that year was win the drum title. By far the best section. Music may be a roughly played but is enjoyable and the ending sequence was very nice. Now for this SCV fan, they WAY overused the goo, to the point where I couldn't even hear any low brass. This could be a great top 6 show, but it needs work. PHANTOM REGIMENT: Goo haters rejoice! What a wonderful performance to end the night. Easily the best complete brass sound projecting off the field of the evening. Guard looks beautiful in their elegant gowns, and when they use the double flags with the full corps behind them during the ballad, pure gold! Low brass is get-out-of-my-way good. And isn't it amazing how full and lush a hornline can sound without the help of three fingers being mashed on a keyboard!?! Gorgeous music as well. Drill is mostly forgetable, and the drums could use some better staging as they get lost big time in the brass. But I tell you, this show was the classiest of the night. Everyone in my group of family and friends liked this one the best. Well done Phantom. There you go. Now it's off to work. Guess I'll go put a shirt on now.

Refreshing non-technical review. I know when I see a show (like tonight's in Stockton!) I sometimes lose myself in the critique and forget to just sit back and enjoy. Nice work.

Excellent review! So much descriptive content makes me wonder if you even had time to sit back and enjoy the shows. Nice job.

"Ooohhh. Hoppy likey. How might I amplify it? To the Laboratory!!"

It's a thoughtful review, and a nice one to read. Really makes me wish I could see them live, guess I'll have to wait for Quarters in the theaters. You should consider sending these/your thoughts on to the corps itself. They certainly should never tire of hearing how great a show has made someone feel and it will give the corps kids that much more reason to kick arse.

Tremendous review! Thanks.

Very nice review. Wish we could see Madison this year out West, sounds like they're fantastic.

I was at the Roseville, CA theatre, around 50 people, high school band kids and adults mixed. Good crowd. Things that stood out to this village idiot... 1. I was pleased with DCI's production of the show (minus the 5 minutes muted section). Good cut-aways and camera work. Did a good job promoting the season with the "commercials" between corps. 2. Cadets were my favorite, can't wait to them in Stockton this weekend. 3. BD and Crown had the best music. 4. Audience was pin-drop silent during Clowns. 5. Blue Synths Stars were loud for the wrong reason. 6. Heat be darned, it's DRUM CORPS SEASON!!! Props to Mr. Acheson, what a great way to start the season.

Nice review. Good read.

Sure. Here are the winning predictions, copy and pasted directly from the PM's sent to me: Rik My Prediction: 1. Blue Devils 99.30 2. Cavaliers 3. Bluecoats 4. Carolina Crown 5. Cadets 6. Phantom Regiment 7. Santa Clara Vanguard 8. Blue Stars 9. Boston Crusaders 10. Madison Scouts 11. Blue Knights 12. Glassmen 87.45 ContraFart 1. Blue Devils 98.9 2. Cavaliers 3. Bluecoats 4. Carolina Crown 5. Cadets 6. Phantom Regiment 7. Blue Stars 8. Santa Clara Vanguard 9. Boston Crusaders 10. Madison Scouts 11. Glassmen 12. Blue Knights 88.9

bump for those who are tuning in late

Thanks to everyone who played this year. For the first time we had someone get all 12 corps correct in the correct order. The DCP mug winners and 2010 Prediction Contest Champions are: 1st Place: Rik (correctly predicted all 12 finalists correctly and in the right order) 2nd Place: ContraFart (correctly predicted the top 6 in order and the exact winning score of the Blue Devils) Congratulations to you both and thanks again to everyone who played. Look forward to yet another exciting year of drum corps predictions next year.

Polls are closed. Thanks to everyone for playing. Now it's off to the theaters to see how things stack up. Stay tuned.