perc2100

Yeah I think for me it's "is this a well designed show that resonates with me" is all that matters to me: abstract, themed, subtle, bold. Well designed + well executed show = all I really care about

With a drum book that certainly seems like it would've been fun as heck to play too

I mean, Blue Devils from mid-90's through fairly recently have been pretty amazing cleaning going into Finals week, especially when they're a little behind the top. If your contention is "we were winning the week before Finals week" that was by .3 Aug 4, then by .025 Aug 5; then Quarterfinals Blue Devils pulled ahead by a bit, Cadets closed the gap at Semis to .05, and then winning it all by nearly a point. I don't recall which night the boo stuff was, but in Semis I was in the stadium and Cadets got a pretty warm crowd reaction for the most part, and Finals wasn't any different. I know it's not an uncommon strategy for Director/staff/whomever to pull the "us against the world" card to fire up their team; Dave Roberts did it vs Padres in the playoffs last year, and Ohio State did it after losing to Michigan to go on to win the National Championship in January. But surely you know that most judges are stubborn AF, and while they can be susceptible to peer pressure from their colleagues, I think most judges would not let something as dopey as "crowd boo'ing a corps because of repainting hash marks" to sway their sheet from winner-to-2nd.

Yeah that's why I kinda feel like I haven't missed much not going to Finals in decades vs seeing shows on DVD then Blu-ray or streaming them from home. I'd rather have the 'professional' mix than risk paying a lot to travel/Finals tix and then realize I don't have the "right" seats to properly hear the show. I attended A TON of DCI shows in the 1990's and had viewing points from just about all angles possible: from the track, backside, right below the box, nosebleeds, down low, far sides, etc. There were better vantage points than others, but I don't think I would have ever said I had a _bad_ viewing experience. I'm not sure that would be the case with modern drum corps: at least at symphonies or movie theaters or whatever professional audio/video settings sound is engineered so EVERYONE has a good listening vantage point, whether they shelled out for the primo seats near the stage or are in the far back general lawn seating. Drum corps doesn't feel that way: it's more "everything we do is for the advantage of the judges in the box getting the best vantage point, and if your seats are up significantly higher/lower, or off to the sides that's your problem." DCI seems to be the only entertainment genre that kind of disregards its fanbase in that aspect, though obviously they do their best to make the sound acceptable to the broadest seating. I'm not naive, and I understand all the reasoning for DCI doing what it's doing (and has been doing for decades); it is what it is and I'm not complaining about DCI indoors in a dome. As a percussionist we've been living with "drums in a gym' for 30+ years now so mic'ing & mixing for indoor pageantry isn't some new-fangled thing. And I've worked as a teacher & judge for marching band, winter percussion, etc. for decades to I 100% get the logistics and the 'whys' of needing to mic horn lines (it's also really common in even HS marching band as design have put visual body movement/choreography over sound production and the need for at least field mics to be able to properly balance a band's sound has become necessary for many marching bands in my neck of the woods, at least)

It does seem wildly illogical that DCI moved to an indoors-every-year Championship location only to figure out ways of amplifying...incredibly loud brass instruments: both with field mics that get the full spectrum AND with individual mics placed with presumably the best players in their section/part that are then mixed for a semi-professional sound mix for the audience. I'll tell you when I aged-out in 1998, I _NEVER_ would've guess DCI would come to that: mic'ing front ensemble instruments or soloists? I could see that on the horizon. But mic'ing the full brass line in various different ways? I wouldn't have believed that would be a "necessity" to scoring high.

I agree that a show that lost by slightly more than half a point is likely not the most controversial second place finish in the activity's history. I'd think 1987 would be a MAJOR controversial finish, where the Championship was seemingly decided by a perfect percussion score that put Cadets on top by only .1 overall. Or maybe something like 1988 with the "random dry" shenanigans that gave Madison a very fortuitous performance slot in Finals with Scouts ending .2 over SCV. 1993 was an interesting .1 Champ-winning spread too, though I felt the crowd in Jackson was going for Cadets to beat Star, so it might've been 'controversial' if the two flip-flopped; though I also think the majority of the crowd respected the quality of design and execution of both corps, even if they didn't personally like one (Star) or the other (if I'm being honest, likely also Star).

Yeah, I think if someone put a gun to my head and 'forced' me to pick a favorite Cadets show, I'd have to go with this one: In the Spring, At the Time When Kings Go Off to War really takes all of the strengths of Cadets and expertly puts them all together to make one of my all-time favorite Championship shows

I think for me anything from 1983-1998 could be my favorite, depending on the moment. Even their lower-placing corps from that era were interesting, if not entertaining; '89 and '91, their lowest placing corps from that era, had such fun percussion books, I can't not like 'em!

🙋‍♂️ Me; I'm some (though after attending OSU and growing up from K-20's in Columbus, OH I now live in SoCA). I can irrefutably say the vast majority of Buckeye fans think winning a Championship after losing to a crappy Michigan team REALLY makes up for the loss to TTUP. Obviously this is the first time either team lost The Game and went on to win the National Championship, and I think it could be argued that OSU's slack playing and poor offensive play calling in The Game might've awoken the 'sleeping giant' that was last year's powerhouse team: perhaps that loss jolted the guys awake, reminded them "oh yeah: we have to actually play tough to win games" and that led them to their crazy run that hasn't seemed to stop yet! Now that there aren't any division w/in the B1G, it's plausible OSU could play Michigan _three times_ in one season: the regular season The Game, the B1G Champ, and potentially National Championship playoffs! So one could argue the impact and meaning of The Game is substantially lessoned now anyway, not the least of which that a team lost The Game and bulldozed the rest of the (actual good) competition on their way to a Championship.

Also, really, any professional music idiom. The thought of young adults who would theoretically just be starting their pro career paying thousands of dollars to go "on tour" for a summer to play the same 15 minutes of music, practicing for hours and hours a day on said 15 mins of music, to then perform for the benefit of a subjective judging system, is looked upon as fairly ludicrous by many pro musicians who are using their summers as late teens/early 20's to actually get experience getting paid to play musically. I think it's fair to say that drum corps has always been an odd niche of a niche of a niche activity that most wouldn't really get, and many wouldn't be interested in trying to understand.

Exactly; kids want to try-out and march with a finalist corps, but in my experience have been quick to 'retreat' if said finalist corps was employing questionable staffers. Of course, as others have said 'times have changed' and folks are now less blase about going to an org that feeds members crappy, 'beats them' in rehearsal (metaphorically speaking), etc. And of course, there are a plethora of stories from plenty of great staffers/designers/directors who had unprofessional, unmoral, sometimes illegal, relations with members that never stopped talent from marching

Fans are gonna fan for their team, huh 🤷‍♂️ I didn't come to know drum corps until 1991, but I would think by 1987, when Garfield was winning #4/5 seasons there was likely a lot of 'meh' as far as Blue Devils were concerned. Blue Devils were being beat consistently and pretty handily by SCV in '87 throughout early tour, and by early 90's like me I suspect a lot of fans were of the mindset of "Blue Devils: really good-not-great nowadays" and that was that. In the early 90's I always thought Cadets, Star, and Cavaliers were typically the corps to beat, with a lot of years those corps were jockeying for 1-2-3, with Phantom in the mix some of that time as well. When Star went away and Blue Devils got Ryan, their vis program changed over night & became as formidable as their brass; at Scott Johnson going back home to be Caption Head, and BD finally had the design team & staff to contend again. Once BD figured out how to 'change the game,' so to speak, to their advantage from a design/adjudication standpoint, they were back as perennial contenders. It does seem kinda wild that for the first 11 years of DCI only one non-CA corps had ever won! Of course once Garfield figured out how to successfully 'change the game' to their advantage that all changed. Nothing lasts forever, so we'll see what the future holds for current perennial contenders Bluecoats, BAC, Crown, and Blue Devils

is there actually some sort of explicit 'rule?' Or is it more of a 'gentlemen's agreement?' Or is it like baseball, and this is an "unwritten rule" that every follows/expects others to also follow?

Especially when it could be easy for band directors to be in-the-know about drum corps inner-workings; I mean, there's no WAY we would encourage students to audition for a drum corps, and if a corps knowingly hired someone with known red-flags, at the very least we'd tell students/parents "this corps is hiring questionable staffers that may be a detriment to your child's wellbeing" and for an up-and-coming corps that could be an organization-killer. Things often move glacial in these types of matters (I remember when YEA hired a brass guy for Crossmen that had known 'slept with an underage student' issues that caused them to lose their teaching credential, and when brought to YEA attention it took awhile for YEA to let them go), and I can get a corps' administration wanting to do due diligence before firing someone they initially felt would perfect for job. So props to MC for doing the right thing here

Yeah DCI is often all about the 'trends' set by the corps consistently winning/contending. And the 'trend' changes when the next amazing formula hits/wins, until another corps builds up their own formula. Cadets hit upon it from, like 1982-mid/late-90's until BD found their thing from 94-00 until Cavaliers found their thing from 00-07 until BD found their next thing from 07-23ish etc. The great designers figure out how to break the mold juuuust enough in order to be unique design-wise but also execute amazingly well. Does BD need to find a 'new' thing to get back to dominance? IDK, but I don't think BAC or Bluecoats will go idyl, and Crown is making strides to up their design game for next year so it's crowded at the top and who knows who will come out on top next

I love these stories of folks whose first experience with live drum corps was a Finals; I can't imagine that! For me growing up in the mid-west, there were so many early season shows to see. I remember 1992 was the first year I 'travelled' to see drum corps, going to Madison for an early season show because SCV was making a rare mid-west/DCM mini-tour. I remember seeing their show and digging their old school vibe, and then seeing it again around a month later and it felt like a very different show! Even seeing corps early is a 'treat' in and of itself, with shows being radically retooled, some corps looking really small early (I remember Cadets struggling to fill the ranks early in 1992; maybe having only two tenors early on?), etc. And even the scores would be all over the place, with the 2nd place Finals corps coming in, like, 6th at a mid-July show. But first experiencing live drum corps at Finals, with the awesome crowd vibe and all of the corps at their absolute pique?! That would be incredible!

No thanks; I've spent _FAR_ to much of my life trying to adjust for the perfect 'tracking' setting

Chapman Sticks rule!! Bass player Tony Levin play Chapman Stick with Peter Gabriel & King Crimson to pretty awesome effect; I saw him give a masterclass once on the Chapman Stick when I was in college, and it's a really cool, versatile instrument when in the right hands, so to speak

Wow: born & raised in OH and I had to look up where this is!

I'm on my district's education union leadership/negotiations team and mediation is not uncommon there either: it's like the "if you're an an impasse, do mediation w/an independent 3rd party to exhaust all possibility of a settlement before having to go to the courts/trial" mentality (we did go through mediation once, were still at an impasse, and the district 'blinked' and we reached an agreement during an all day/late night session). I imagine for civil cases like this mediation is likely pretty common, as you say

Seriously; I aged-out in 1998, and we had plenty of staffer who had to come-and-go throughout the summer tour (which was longer back then) because of real life jobs. I think it's great corps are thinking of this to make sure sections get instruction (presumably) every day throughout tour, rather than "the tenor tech we'll see again in 10 days so the snare tech is going to bounce around the sections until then" or whatnot.

I have no idea what you're talking about here, but if there is some good rumor or whatnot, I'd love to hear it! As for Geneseo Knights, I've heard of them but they were long gone by my introduction to drum corps in 1990, my first year of HS, and definitely by 1991, my first introduction to live drum corps (I think they were Quad City Knight when I 'discovered' drum corps, though I wasn't very familiar with them)

So...Netflix or HBO Max or Disney+ then? 🤪

Or this year: 5th place percussion that netted them 9th place overall (9th place GE & 8th place visual). Dunno if one could even argue their 5th place percussion 'saved' the corps from a spot lower: but not a significant leap for sure. Heck, as you mention, he year they won percussion, 2023, the corps finished 8th (where, not shockingly, they had 8th place GE & 8th place Visual)!

For as much as these stories are known about what Bill Cook & Star did to help other corps as well as DCI itself, I suspect there are also a ton of other similar stories of Star/Bill Cook helping corps, individuals, etc. I was mostly 'too young' when Star was around to have any real beef with them, other then "liking other corps any particular year moreso than Star." I know they got a lot of audience flack at some shows, and a lot of people were bitter/jealous of their financial security (which I think Bill Cook regretfully played into, jokingly, early in their existence in the 1980's when he joked about it being the 'best corps money can buy,' playing with stuff he almost certainly heard from fans and he meant tongue in cheek), and quick success while other corps were folding around them. But they obviously did a lot to for the activity in their brief time