MikeN

It'd be hard to make a case that ticket / merch / streaming sales support that. (Though, to be fair to your argument, without a whole lot more data than DCI gives, it's probably unlikely to *disprove* that as well.) From a macro level, it seems like the fanbase is chugging along at a pretty steady clip over the past decade. Mike

Respectfully, not *that* many corps get corporate sponsorship dollars from within music, especially once you get down the ranks. Where top corps get freebies, lower corps merely get discounts, and sometimes not even great ones at that. Mike

Unrelated, but Varsity just lost round 1 of it's class action antitrust lawsuit against the cheerleading division in Tennessee. The judge agreed that 90% market share does in fact qualify as a monopoly, and the suit can move forward. Not sure if it will impact marching band operations, as currently it's a massively crowded marketplace, but it might impact how they structure their events down the road. Mike

There are other reasons. sometimes it's simply to set the color palette being used. Sometimes it's for ease of movement. Sometimes it's just to make the MM's feel and look cool. Mike

Springboarding off of this, I think what has changed is that kids in DCI are so better trained, musically and athletically these days, that it's really become "sure you can march and play, but what *else* can you do?" Brass and drums have to sell the story on the move now as well, not just guard. Mike

Not trying to nitpick, but Phantom changed uniforms constantly from 1988 on. And Vanguard did it off and on for decades. Waiting for the new Regiment look was one of the fun parts of only being able to see the PBS broadcast every year. Mike

Overall, now that my time in DCI is done, the risk management involved makes my brain twitch. With my OC group, we had a handful of severe injuries. My kiddo had two of them. Our corps' one actual omg life-dangerous injury was due to... a guard member getting hit in the head by a rifle toss during spring training. Quick reaction by the mayor of the town (certified EMT) there to watch practice got her an airlift and saved her from worse. I have feelings now when I see guards throw things. 😪 Mike

I polled my kids last week regarding this question - my oldest (recent FMM and DCI drum major) said that they'd have been thrilled to march without scores, as their entire corps developed a mental complex about them during the summer. They said the corps likely would have been able to exhale and perform looser, and probably better. My youngest (offered spot with WC DCI but turned down due to focusing on athletics) said they didn't care one whit about how the corps would score, that the chance to play with other elite musicians and put on electric shows was the draw. Anecdotal evidence, sure, but it's all I got... Mike

Much like regular bands, the biggest sponsorships would go to the acts with the largest audience followings. ... Actually, I kind of like the idea of corps competing with each other to develop larger fanbases... Mike

I got the reasoning that was stated at the time, and it did create a fair amount of buzz when they first came out (worst kept secret on tour that season), but... in practice and retrospect it totally killed the "look" of the show. That said, my God, I still have trouble figuring out what happened to the scores late season (and I reserve some blame for the judges, as Cadets were absolutely murdering all comers in performance captions). Mike

I'd be fine with no scores. The idea that the kids need motivation to help them clean the show is pretty far from what I've ever seen of them. It would definitely take some of the pressure off the season, and at the org level we're already now trying to detach performance score from "world class quality" a bit. Individual shows could also get a little bit of flexibility as to scheduling their "headline" acts; well, more than they do now. Mike

Great sized corps, uniforms look fantastic. Interestingly retro show - way more conservative of a design than I thought it would be. Guitar player in the pit is a brilliant idea though, and he's very good too. Drumline never really made it to the front of the field - this is DCI, not UIL grrrrr. Seriously though, they're gonna be fine, and this is a great chance to get a young corps some poppin' crowd response and a ton of experience headed back into competition in '22. Thumbs up. Mike

Oh good grief. Mike

Holy cow did they push the tempo in the closer. Yikes. Overall, I love it! The brass book is very faithful to the original - I hope they embellish a little bit as they get ready to tour. New drum book is fine, though I wish they'd kept the one bar of rim shots right before the big reprise. I'm a huge fan for the 2003 show, and this made my day brighter. Mike

I'm a DCI child of the 90's, and I have to agree. Yikes those recordings do not hold up so well. Some of it, of course, is recording technology, some of it's the instruments. I have to say, once DCI moved into LOS, the recordings had a massive jump in quality and have been outstanding since. But yeah - I agree with pretty much everything you said there. 🙂 Mike

Purely as a fan, that thing was bada$$ - that whole show was awesome. I'd put that squarely in the category of "good use of props." Mike

Having worked for a Have Not, I have to say DCI's always been pretty accommodating with scheduling. We told them how many shows we wanted to do and which direction we wanted to travel, and they usually were able to make it work, for the most part. Mike

-Sounds like Madison? Check. -Looks like Madison? Check. I'm in. Mike

I've told this story before, but will happily revisit it. 2000 was the only San Antonio show I ever attended from the upper deck. On the bright side, you could see the drill very clearly, but the music wasn't as face-peeling. Anyways, Cadets win, and set up for their encore, which in this case consisted of ... just the drum breaks/closer. As soon as it became clear what they were doing, there was a massive rush from the crowd up top down to the railing so everyone could get a better view of the battery. I've never seen that before or since. And, apologies to Cavaliers, I have no idea how there was a tie. Cadets were by far superior across the board that year. (Cavs more than made up for it later though.) Mike

They won't take outside nominations. I know this because I completed a nomination package, with DCP users' help, for Steve Vickers, and had it rejected out of hand. Funny enough, he got nominated by "approved" internal channels and elected within a couple of years after. Mike

Schedule wise, OC gets the best of both worlds. The OC championship venue is *really* nice, and much smaller, so it doesn't feel like peas rattling around in a pod. (2k fans in a 4k home stand has a much bigger feel than 2k in a 25k home venue.) Two shows there, then to Indy anyways for Prelims - that's either a two-show or three-show guarantee that week, depending on if you make OC finals. For the top 3-4 each year, they generally advance to Semis as well, so that's 4 shows that week - honestly, more than the WC corps get. There are lots of complaints that OC groups could raise if they felt strongly enough, but I'm not sure this is a powerful one. Mike

So now BD has used Yamaha, Premier (well, technically - unbranded in '89) Dynasty, Pearl, System Blue and Ludwig drums. What's left on the battery Bingo card? Mike

Funny part is, back when I created the DCP FB page, the thought was that if you had your real name attached to posts, it might require less moderation and might have civil discussions. Boy was I mistaken... o_O I'm sure there's a sociology paper in there somewhere. Mike

I don't mean this as a personal referendum, but I vehemently disagree with literally everything you say in this statement. Mike

I don't mean to put words in JohnD's mouth, but I can pretty much assure you DCP is solely a labor of love for him - I can't imagine he's actually making money off of this. 🙂 Mike