soonerjeff

I was blown away by the Royal Aires when I saw them in Waukesha at Pioneer's home show. Such a loud sound, totally filled the field and kept moving. I knew nothing about the corps but I did notice many similarities to the 'old school style' that I always hear so much about. I was really entertained and loved seeing some of the throw back stuff (honor guard, old-style rifle lines, more straight-line/military drill, etc.) Plus the left-most (from stands) cymbal player looks like he's having the time of his life out there in the opener, crashing away on those plates :). And now that you say the DM's name, I do think he looked familar from seeing pictures/videos of Phantom in the past. Very cool.

Wooo, looks like there's finally some options rising in the southwest! I'll definitely remember these as something to look into once I graduate and get a real job in the next year. Thanks!!

Oh man, thanks for posting this! That was awesome to read. It makes me want to really consider trying to march in a senior corps when I'm older. Anytime you can spend the day marching and then spend the evening "having fun" (^_^) sounds like a good thing to me! (I can imagine that it'd be similar to the way that "have fun" at night on away game pep band trips- we're silly college kids :D) Now if there was just a senior corps closer to Oklahoma.....

Okay, this is a big stretch, but I'll throw it out there anyway: I know that many current members will gradually learn over the summer about the history of their corps, but I don't see that they learn the overall history of the activity. Would that be something that maybe DCI should be involved with? Sort of like how the NBA or other professional organizations have meetings with teams where they teach them the rules and such. I know DCI officials/staff/historians can't meet with every corps, and I know that corps' staffs would never give up rehearsal time for those kinds of meetings, but a nice dream scenario would be that DCI held an hour long informational thing at a couple of the early season "big shows" that every corps will be at at least one of them, and they teach them about this big organization that they're a part of, the structure, how it works, the history, etc. I dunno, its just an 'out there' idea. But I do think that DCI should think about taking a step toward honoring its past or the history of the drum corps activity by trying to display its roots better. There isn't even a "history" section of DCI.org, and I can't afford to buy any of the old legacy DVDs just so that I can see a couple of examples of what "old school" drum corps was like. You can get mad at me, but as a young person who's a newer fan (about 4 years now), I'd buy one of the more current DVDs (late 1980s and up) before I bought an older one that I was unfamiliar with. PS- I couldn't decide if this should be a separate topic or not, but here it is: I was also wondering just what some of you thought about the activity back when you were participating. Did you see it as an "art form", like many current members and fans see it as today, or was it seen as more "pageantry" and "military discipline", considering that the American flag was still so integrated (as an example).

Noooo!! This is rainout #3 for Pioneer I think, and after their 68 at the DCM show last night they really needed to get on the field tonight. Grrrr, this is frustrating (as a long-distance fan at least :P ). Thanks for the early info though! I had wondered if they were going to able to survive the rain that weather.com was showing.

Did you guys think Pioneer is still deserving below 60? I know their brassline still has some growing up to do, but you would have thought they would have made a little progress. I haven't heard them in a week though so I'm not sure how things are going. I was just curious to see what you thought. Thanks!

Just wondering if anyone had gone to the Alton show and had any thoughts. If not, thats cool. I'm not pushing, I just figured I'd ask though. Thanks!!

Well, I guess since I haven't seen where anyone else here reviewed last night's show, then I'll try to make some comments on what I remember. It won't be very good, but at least its something :P Americanos (47.35) Cute little corps. I thought it was awesome and really impressive that those only 20 or so brass members were out there playing. They had a strong couple of baritones, and the corps had a pretty loud sound at the standstills. Very weird how there were almost more pit players than brass players. We didn't understand that. Yeah, drill was dirty, but they did great and its still early so they can keep cleaning. Memphis (57.30) Wow, where did these guys come from? I was surprised at how big they were, for being so young. Nice sound, good marching. Guard was really good and big. I really liked the big hit at the beginning of the opener, when the flags opened it up and brightened the field. Good stuff should come from Memphis as they keep improving through the years! Troopers (55.30) Its always fun to see the Troopers. Very cool seeing the 'sunburst' or 'explosion' form (or whatever that famous move is called ) woven in. The music was okay. I really got interested in it toward the end though, basically the closer I think, where each section hands off its own little solo part. Very cool GE visual stuff and it sounded good and clean. The closer got high energy and I think the kids started to really feed off the crowd which was excited to see them! Colts (64.25) Hehehe, yay!! I was really impressed by Colts this year! Their drill was lots better than last year, great big sound, and the music selection was wonderful. Great music choices, and "Old Man River" turned out to be a lot better than I expected considering that its not a tuba/contra solo like we were hoping for . Very pretty ballad though. And the guard uniforms? ^OO^ ^OO^ - Awesome!! They just fit the show theme very well and the uniforms looked very very good for being a design that isnt really 'fancy' or anything. Looking good :D. Great show though! Definitely going to be one of my favorites to listen to, I'm sure. Blue Knights (69.20) Good stuff from BK. The drum break really jumped out to me- wow! Those guys can play. Its basically just a battle between the tenors and snares, and the technique looked really good last night (from the eyes of a brass player :P ). Drill and marching looked like it is making progress. There were only about 2 or 3 noticable "dance" sections that the brass had, which seems like a low amount for BK. I always remember them for having a ton of visuals and dancing, but it is still early so they may add lots more later. The music was okay and had some good impact parts. Some of the people I was there with thought that BK should have beat Glassmen, which they almost did! That'll be a fun race to watch. Glassmen (69.40) Well, I must say that the solo dancer in the very beginning of the solo is just INCREDIBLE!! I couldn't stop following her the whole show!! (But I can say that because she's a really good friend of mine from OU :D, and I had no idea that she apparently is G-men's feature dancer this year until we saw them line up. Nice surprise!) Anyway, really good guard work throughout the show though, especially nice use of color with the big robes or dresses or whatever that they're wearing. That red that they hold up in the opener just flashes right at you! Now, I don't want people to label me as a "hater", b/c I'm going to keep giving it a chance, but I'll admit that I just didn't "get" the music. (Did I hear "Medea" quotes in there? It might have been someone else and I'm mixing it up...) But as one friend said "It was like there was a solo, then everyone playing loud, then a solo, then everyone playing loud." I'll start to like it, but I just need to see it more to start to hear it better. Phantom Regiment (75.65) What a new direction for PR! I think they pull off the tango style very well though. The visual/dance stuff is really nice and will look great when its all clean. I liked their rich, full sound. Ballad= beautiful! The hit in that is very emotional and you have to sort of remind yourself to go watch the flag work thats covering the rest of the field away from the horn block. The separate section parts that stand alone (I think after the drum break) are really coming along and pretty clean. The strong hornline really helps that. In some of the passages with lots notes (very descriptive, huh? ), I thought I kept hearing small snips of last year's mello and sop runs. That was interesting to notice. Oh, and last night was the second show with the red mirrors about halfway through. That was different, and I'm not sure that I don't quite 'get' why they're using them, but its cool to watch the reflection of the marcher in front of it, and the red of course helps continue the tango theme. Overall, great show that's going to look awesome once its clean. They're on their way and, even though right now I still definitely rank last year's show over this one (they're trying to sell this show as one that will be "historical" for PR, outside of the obvious change in themes), its going to really make an impact in Denver.

Yay, I like hearing great things about Pioneer! Its just such a bummer that everyone couldn't march the show also. Never hurts to be out there moving. Hopefully they can get some scores again soon and keep the big progress going. ^OO^ I agree with JDog's comments about CapReg. I didn't know them as a Div 2, but when I've seen them I've felt that they were kind of stiff and not bending the emotion enough. PS- Thanks for the heads up about the Cavies and their snaps. Totally makes sense now why you could hear it so well in the video

Woohoo! I hope so! My family and I are coming up to see my sister (Pioneer) for the first time this weekend. Friday night in Bloomington/Normal and Saturday in Waukesha. Gonna be fun! :D

1. Scores and recaps are up. http://www.drumcorpsmidwest.com. Its in pdf format. Thanks for posting those scores! Looks like it'll probably be the only way we find out about DCM results since DCI, DCP or From The Pressbox aren't posting them. It looks like CorpsReps did put them up though at least. 2. So is anyone else hesitant to be okay with the "only judging on Saturdays" idea? That doesn't make much sense to me. I understand saving the money and such, but doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of going out and performing that night if you're not going to get any kind of critique or response back on the work you've been doing since the last contest? Too me not having judges just makes it a large run-through rehearsal in uniform and in front of a crowd. Anyone have any extra information on why DCM is doing this?

They look like sickles (sp?) to me.... Remind me of the green "grass" things that they use in Blast.