drumholio

The 2000 Blue Devils drumline finished 6th in drums. The line you mentioned (2003) faired better than that. I know it is almost impossible to compare year to year but in my opinion the 00 and 01 wouldn't measure up to the "standard" of the late 90's line either, but they still played 13th Hour. I am still of the opinion that the main reason they returned to Ditty was the departure of Roger Carter....HOWEVER, I think you are right in saying that the BD lines of recent years are not up to the level of say 94-99.

I would imagine that Roger Carter leaving Blue Devils would have more to do with them not playing 13th hour anymore than them not having the hands. They also don't play contrasting differences and hemiola anymore....both written by Roger Carter.

Actually, Casella recently dropped his Vic Firth endorsement and went completely with Innovative Percussion. His signature VF stick will still be available but has been renamed the MS3. Look for a Casella signature snare stick from IP in the near future (PASIC maybe?) Gusseck is still with VF and SCV still uses VF sticks and mallets for the drumline.

DPL only posts videos and audio from the lot. It is perfectly legal to record things in the lot and post them on the internet. I don't see any reason why threads with DPL links would be closed. That doesn't make any sense.

The person I found out from told me about the hardware and mentioned they got a new color but that was it. He wouldn't volunteer the new color information so I don't know. I guess we will just have to wait for some pics or a review to find out.

Not only are they still using Pearls but they have new drums with CHROME hardware and a new color (no more natural wood finish) ....bluecoats are going to have chrome hardware too.

Pearl is keeping up with Yamaha because they also have a 14" bass drum on the market now.

a further explanation would be that Mark Wessels decided to shut down DCF because it was no longer living up to his expectations of educational discussion but was becoming more of a gripe fest between members. Percussion community was established with Mark's permission as mentioned and he redirected the traffic from DCF to that site. A couple other forums of possible interest would be www.drumhard.com www.drumlines.org

i agree...I have a tape of 99 Blue Devils and it is alot of the same thing as what I heard on the DVD's. Also, as mentioned earlier, a few words were edited out...so he wasn't a complete boyscout on the tape.

I just found out that Blue Devils will be marching 8,4, and 5 this year. I am not sure about how many vets are in the snare line, but I know that the 4 tenor players are the same 4 that they marched in 2003.

also, I remember seeing on dci.org a pic of crown's snareline from 2003. The caption at the bottom mentioned that all of them would be back for 2004 except for 2. So they have a vet heavy snareline.

I am not really trying to step on your toes here, but did you hear "some small details" that he might have missed...cause that line/pit was pretty much nailing absolutely everything that night. There is even one part where he says he is trying to find something to nail the pit on, but can't. When a judge says that, you know you are having a good night. Bottom line: he only said a few negative things because that's all there was to find (that he was in position to hear...could have been things he missed, who knows).

what exactly was hilarious about it? and I left out one thing....Phantom's bass line was equal to or possibly better than BD's basses.

I got my DVD's today and after only one run through of the top 6 I realized a few things. 1) BD's bassline was nuts....the whole show was amazing from a bass drum standpoint. 2) Cavaliers had a very good tenor line. They had some really nice stuff going on. 3) I am now a believer that Cadets should have won drums. When I saw them head to head with SCV at Murfreesboro, SCV had them beat...but not by years end. Their pit was amazing. The snare line was playing alot more notes than I gave them credit for. Oh, and there is one snare roll that is so clean I about dropped my coke. I was very impressed. 4) It was nice to actually hear Phantom's percussion. When I saw this show live I can honestly say I didnt notice the line for the most part because of the absolutely stunning horn parts. I definitely enjoyed PR's new sound. 5) SCV was great. They had an amazingly well integrated book (as always) but what got me was the tenor line. They were playing some notes...more than recent years I think. Absolutley incredible cymbal line as always. 6) Boston's battery impressed the heck out of me. I saw them live and thought they were good...but I came away thinking more of them after watching the video. The judge was in perfect position for the 15 person snare line....great stuff there. I personally think they would have placed higher with a little bit more from the pit and more consistent heights toward the end of the show....still, wow, watch out for them in 2004.

I am extremely impressed with DCI right now. I ordered my DVD's Monday morning January 5th and received them via regular UPS service this morning (January 7th) at about 9:30. WOW!!

it is based off a Steve Reich song called "drumming." You can find it on the album "Reich Remixed."