MikeN

Purely off the top of my head, I don't know of any other corps whose membership / Board requirements were quite so free and open as Madison's. Sure wasn't for us at Guardians. Mike

Nope. It's still open to anyone in the world to participate. Mike

I'm on the extreme against GE - I think it's a word salad made up to reward a judge's favorite show. So much of it is nebulous and undefined, simply because it cannot be quantified. Yet we try to assign achievement to what is essentially artistic merit. I'd be perfectly fine if we removed it as a variable altogether - we already have content and achievement for the musicians and visual - let's expand their impact. And get off my lawn, you hooligans. Mike

True and fair, but I think they kind of go hand in hand. The current programming seems to resonate with potential members, and there's a lot of ground they can still explore and remain in a pretty broad "western" wheelhouse. I actually am one of those that felt their Patriotic Western wrapper was a... well... tired product, and I'm glad they are reaching further afield. Mike

Not trying to be snarky, but they have the largest corps in their history this year after leaning hard into a gritter aesthetic the last two years. The Western is doing ok, I think. Mike

1991 was sooooo good. (1990 was too!) Mike

I haven't been with Guardians since 2020, but I'd be surprised if they can meet the financial structure requirements that DCI World Class has imposed. That said, it's certainly possible they have reorganized and grown the pie since then; they've they've got a talented brain trust behind the scenes. But I thought DCI has since required a certain percentage of revenue be kept in reserve or something like that? Mike

Watched their preview show online. I was very much prepared to dislike the show; last year was very hit or miss for me. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, which in retrospect I probably should have had more faith. Once again, they bring spectacle to the field, and it feels like it's built for the biggest of venues. They move so well you stop focusing on individual technique and just take in the art. They've dialed back the voice over quite a bit from last year, and it's much more effective at just setting the mood and getting out of the way. If anything, they could cut back even further, as it's the same 8 lines over and over throughout. The ballad is gorgeous, and I love that they're unafraid to just hang the brass out there and have them own the moment. The closer (well, closers) are the highlight of the whole show to me - that's where they finally just let loose and fly. With nothing else but my own opinions (which were that they should have won in 19 and 22), I am afraid they're going to end up with the same issues as last year - they do what they do so well, and it's a musical and visual feast, but they may end up second again behind a BD show that might be less complicated but more visually clean. Just my initial opinion though, there's lots of race to be run. Mike

Got to see the show for the first time this weekend. Musically, it's a slow burn for me. The front half is... good. It just feels like Drum Corps, not Phantom Regiment. The back half, however, is glorious. Honestly, I felt the same about last year's show. Visually, they look fantastic from above, and their drill is way ahead of the cleaning curve compared to some of the other corps. Only gripe is the half skirts in practice are way too big and muddy things up a bit. I was afraid of the hats, but they look just fine. Overall, very clean, and the show grabs you closer and closer as it goes. I have them in the 5-8 group, but that's just my own guess. I'm looking forward to see how they grow the show in the next month. Mike

Got to watch them online this weekend for the first time this season. Short version - fun, good and athletic show with lots of growth potential. Wonderful use of legacy music by the Cavs, and there are a lot of easter eggs for astute listeners. The show is very high energy throughout, which is great as there's a lot of source material to pack in there. Drums are aggressive and hot! Brass doesn't feel like it's taking a back seat, but does seem a bit like a work in progress. Best part of the show - the drill! It's a little bit of a throwback when you compare them to the top end of the Finals pyramid in that they're doing a very aggressive set of drill, across pretty much all of the field. The whole thing just comes off as insanely athletic, and that's good! Only a few corps so far feel like they're going that route (Cavies, Troopers, Cadets? Still watching others to catch up). Overall, I don't see this group breaking the top 5, but I think 6th isn't out of the question if their execution clicks. They've been given a racecar of a show, now go drive it. 🙂 Mike

I still haven't seen last year's show, but I finally got to watch TLTS over the weekend. Holy smokes, Troopers got good. Intense brass from start to finish that felt like they were always on the forward edge of momentum, and it looked like they never got tired - the end was just as aggressive as the start. Drumline was on fire, and the overall drill felt logical and kind of old school - not a lot of dancing from form to form. I didn't really detect any story in the show, though watching hi-cam that's sometimes hard to see. The prop was hypnotic. Overall, just a wonderful program and performance - and they look fantastic! I can't believe its taken them this long for someone to figure out how to unlock the "look" while still keeping the look. As long as they keep on the upward curve, this feels more like an 8th place corps than a 12th place group. I think they may surprise some of the established Finals names before this is done. Mike

They're coming back? (again?) Mike

Best day of the year! Mike

Honestly, I'd rather the judges just award straight up ordinals, and rigidly enforce the captions to avoid Caption Bleed. Right now, everything is driven by visual design and visual performance, including music captions. And (echoing others) trying to tell us that X corps is 0.02 better than Y corps in percussion performance is stupid beyond belief. Mike

Oh good grief. Mike

That's fair too - adult corps have issues to think about that youth groups don't. Mike

I'll beat the same drum I do for OC - a prelims gives an extra performance opportunity, and makes the trip more attractive to corps. Especially if you're asking the NE corps to make a longer commute to Indy, you need to put *some* sort of carrot out there. Personally as a whole, I think this is a brilliant idea. From a consumer standpoint, it makes the Indy week the focus of the summer marching world, and this will expose many, many more eyeballs to DCA than they've had. (Yes, even on a Saturday morning.) They also become part of the DCI promotions and advertising to younger fans, raising awareness. It will require some (overdue) restructuring from senior corps, starting of course with the calendar, then backtracking on everything from there. I can already foresee a much of the increased travel costs coming down on the members, too, until the corps find an equilibrium in the season where the more regional contests help fund the "big trip." And that may swirl up the competition schedule a bit. Or not - I could also see this having a WGI-like effect where some groups perform in only a handful of contests before going out to Nationals. I applaud DCA for coming in on this, even if they're a little late to the party. Mike

Allow me to piggyback off of this for a moment to address a valid point. One good thing DCI has done for Open Class is keep the prelims and finals. That actually gives OC a leg up on WC as we get three guaranteed performances out of a single home base, OC Prelims, OC Finals and WC Prelims. That's incredibly important on the low end of the ladder. I'd honestly like to see a similar show guarantee for WC corps. Thinking specifically of the Jersey Surfs of the world, it's a lot of travel for potentially one show. Opening up Semis maybe to top 25 plus all WC corps would give a two-show guarantee, which is better. In a perfect world, we'd expand the Finals field (especially since there are no broadcasts, CDs or DVDs to "make it on to) and give as many corps as possible an additional show as well. It sure helps make the trip more feasable for the corps. MIke

My only complaint, and it's a very small one, is that I am so over that Ahiko album. It somehow remains the DCI/band flavor of the decade, and I do not get it. 😞 Other than that, let's see how this pans out. If nothing else, this beats "safe" Regiment. Mike

BOA, to their credit, has created what I think is probably the NASCAR model. They've offloaded the infrastructure costs onto public schools, which more or less had music programs built for that anyways, and have a drop in / drop out model that keeps programs from spending beyond their means (if they choose to). On one hand, you get instances where the San Antonio Regional can be a de facto championship. On the other, you open up access to so many bands that your reach increases exponentially. Mike

I have some experience with this in my time in Open Class. Short answer, no, DCI has no liability. It's a membership / participation requirement to demonstrate compliance, not a legal one. It's really a corps issue, not a DCI one. I'm guessing that if they've kept DCI in the loop during all of this, DCI will be accommodating to them. They were with us when we were sorting out our past financials, and we were small potatoes. Mike

Yes yes yes yes yes. Limit on field rehearsal time at the circuit level. Corps will *not* do this on their own. Mike

My wife got to see a good friend of hers this weekend for the first time since COVID. My kid and their kiddo marched at the same time, and theirs won a title with VC. After hearing the story of this young person's time there, I'm ok if the whole org maybe takes more than a year to return. They've got a lot to work on. Mike

Depends on what you mean by bail out. I can recount a fair number of examples of corps banding together to keep a peer on the road during the tour so they didn't have to fold early. The lack of a strong central support organization hurts all but the strongest corps, and funny enough, they're the ones that structured it that way. Mike

Glassmen in '96 was the last time I think anyone tried Sousa on the field? They played Stars and Stripes as their warmup then hit the end right after the opening announcement. Played the piccolo part on bass drums too. Mike