Dansize

Thank you for the new rabbit hole of performance groups to explore. In return, I will offer one I discovered in the last year or so which is not likely new to others and that is Mummers Parade Groups. https://www.phlvisitorcenter.com/Mummers This video link to the Quaker City String Band popped on one of my feeds and I was fascinated by a parade band made up of saxophones, accordions and banjos. It was a unique sound to me. But of greatest interest at the time was noting that these people could march. The first video I saw was a parade in their band jacket uniforms: But then to find out that they do big field show like competitions on New Years, in costumes that (per unit) cost so much more than any drum corps uniform...A new fan was born. Having fun. Playing well. Entertaining their audiences. (Note below...40 clubs. 10K performers. All in a regional circuit. History of the Mummers Parade For over 120 years, Philadelphia has rang in the new year with a festive celebration, The Mummers Parade. More than 10,000 men, women, and children in lavish, glittering costumes do the "Mummers Strut" down Broad Street, stopping to perform at three performance areas along the way as part of a fierce competition. The Mummers are comprised of 40+ organized clubs, categorized into five divisions that each have their own performance specialty, and compete against each other for bragging rights, the Comics, Wench Brigades, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades.

Spoke to someone in the DCI office (without any help from the Ticketmaster people) and they confirmed that their is a system glitch that the powers-that-be are trying to resolve for semis.

I find it highly unlikely that semis are sold out while there are hundreds of final night seats still available. I'm hoping it's a system error with the Dome or Ticketmaster. Unless it is the Phantom Alumni Corps effect. That's what has me looking for tix this year.

That's what I was going to ask.

It's interesting to me that tickets for the Southwestern Championship event at the Alamodome are going on sale next week. That usually doesn't happen until the late winter/early spring. The paranoid person in my head wonders if that is an attempt to address cash flow issues. I'll buy them when available, but it is a definite change in practice over the last few years.

They perform weekly (for free) at the Marine monument Iwo Jima statue) in Washington DC during the summer. Search Sunset Parade.

Feels weird that there's still 3 corps to perform AFTER the Blue Devils.

Showing my old guy card...I miss Cavalier drill from their championship years and prior. Watching them stand in place doing body movements during battery features just is not that distinctive from what everyone else does. The unique style is gone. I know. The activity evolves...but still.

Yes, and he was one of the first today to understand balance with the acoustic part of the corps.

I like the visual look of Genesis and their show. But they are riding the amplification train a bit too much. Volume from front/middle was a bit much.

To borrow a phrase from the past... Loud is Good

Along with 1987 (the first year of drum corps I saw), when I think of the Cadets, it's more about pieces of shows. 2000 - having fun in the challenge call/response 2002 - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Early 2000s - Malaguena, Moondance The last 3 minutes of the Christmas show in 2012 2007 - for all the crap from that year ("let's try it without the vocals" and for those at quarter finals.. Yard gate)

Oh, and Blue Devils 2004 - Summertrain Blues Mix - An early showing (1st week of the season at Mt. Sac). When they did the horn hits in the end of the first movement, working off the snare fills....It was just amazing to me that any group could be THAT clean that early in the season. A fun show for a number of reasons.

Phantom 2003 - Harmonic Journey (the original) - Saw them in person for my first time when they did a California Tour. Early season show in Azusa, CA. At the time, the original ending did not resolve the building chords that ended the show. Nonetheless, they hit the first chord, and in my mind, I'm yelling, "WOW, that's loud!" Then they hit the next 2 chords in the progression, each getting louder still. Again, they did not resolve the progression. The show just ended. Loud, and tonally angry. I collected all the media I could from that year, based on that show. Became a Phantom Regiment fan that night. A top-10 show (all time) for me.

In the days of physical media (CDs), we would often see them around Thanksgiving or sooner, as a nice wetting of the whistle in anticipation of the video products. Since moving to the audio download model, the timing shifted much later. I recall that the 2022 APDs were not available until February of 2023. Ironic in that you would assume the timing to produce a finished product might be expected to be faster when there are no physical goods to be produced. And all of this is still speculative since no one in any informed position of authority has made any announcement that recordings will be made available for the 2023 season. Count me as one who would continue to buy physical media were it to be produced. I dropped in the Blu-Ray from 2019 last night and immediately felt nostalgic and then sad that it just won't be that easy to watch quality recordings of shows post-COVID years.