Matt_S
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Posts posted by Matt_S
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I was surprised and a touch disappointed when I got to Finals and couldn't get a program. I would always flip to the next performing corps and read about the upcoming show. I confess, though, I rarely if ever went back to the program after that night. In that regard it's probably a smart cost-cutting measure. But when combined with what I've read on here that there will not be any video from this year's championships, it does prompt some questions about the financial health of the organization.
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Apologies as I haven't read all the pages, but how much was the corps affected by their hit with COVID early on? I imagine that could limit not just how much they were able to practice, but also how much change you can make to a show during the season.
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6 hours ago, George Dixon said:
I had the same issue at the Annapolis, MD show. And the guy w/ a lanyard was very pushy trying to sit in my friends seat (you know, the expensive ones which I PAID FOR) he was trying to push past me to take the seat after I said no, it's taken - I literally had to stand up face to face with the dude and say "it's not available, go steal someone else's seat, because you're not stealing this one" in a very firm manner.
I had no issues getting in the building, but I definitely relate to this complaint. All night long we had young people in lanyards - ostensibly marching members and staff - who would pop in to the section looking for an available seat. And because those would be hard to find, they'd stay standing right up until the start of the show and until someone had to ask them forcefully to leave.
My section is a popular one, and tickets go for $150 each. Any empty seat is going to belong to someone, and is only open because they're late arriving, or at concessions or the restroom. Which ensures a confrontation when they get there and someone is in their seat. This is poor policy, and something for which I directly blame DCI. I get why staff and performers should be allowed in without having to purchase a ticket. But there needs to be a section set aside for that purpose, or some other plan in place that doesn't promote scavenging.
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2 hours ago, ediblewaffles said:
Inferno and Kinetic Noise would have tied with a 96.875
Given that, I'm surprised Inferno finished in second because Kinetic Noise was the better show. Yes I will die on this hill.
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2 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:
Even though there are aspects of competition that I don’t like, I do believe that without scoring a lot of the interest around the activity would disappear.
One of my great memories as a fan is being in the stands when Phantom won in 2008. That moment when Brandt announced Blue Devils in second was pure chaos. Fans were thrilled that Phantom won, proving that competition absolutely matters. But someone wins every year and we don't see a reaction like that. It also mattered that fans had an emotional connection to the art Phantom had created on the field.
Competition has been a part of this activity from the start. Certainly I watch scores each day during the season, to see who's up and who's down. But when the season is done, those placements only matter in determining which track I need to skip to on the CD when I want to listen to my favorite shows in the car. So yeah, I completely agree with your post. But I strongly push back on that silly gatekeeping idea that art cannot be created in setting where competition is present.
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9 hours ago, wolfgang said:
After reading about the long lines, here's a two question survey:
1) What time did you get in line?
2) What time did you get into the stadium?
We got in line about 5:30, on the east of the stadium. Took about ten minutes to get in. I was surprised to get on here and read about it taking an hour for some. It did seem fewer gates were open than in the past, especially when leaving at the end of the night.
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5 hours ago, MarimbaManiac said:
There is a difference between secondary or ancillary motives for expression being for utility, and primary motives being utility. I clearly made that distinction in my previous reply, which you seem to be trying to distort into an argument I didn't make to make it easier for you to attack. Most musical expression has some sort of utility (screen scoring being a clear example), however when the primary motive is something other than expression (competition, money, advertisement), it ceases being art, and becomes something else (be it commerce, or competition, or whatever). You stating that this has never been true, does not make it this way.
...and yes, I am an artist thank you. Not for my comments here, but by virtue of being a professional composer with a PhD in music composition and theory. Motivation, venue, and medium matter. It's silly to pretend they don't, and nothing that happens on the field at DCI, or BOA, or WGI, or any other venue where the primary driver is competition, is art. Sorry bout it.
Just last year we had a DCI season without any scoring. Corps still designed and rehearsed shows, and performed them for appreciative fans, who in turn felt an emotional response. Competition is a motive in this activity, to be sure. But the flaw in your position is the premise that competition is the primary motive, or even a necessary one.
My favorite Bluecoats show is 2015, not the show next year when they won a championship.
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Checking in, excited to see some live drum corps for the first time since 2019 Finals. Got seats in Section 238, row 8. Let's do this!
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2 hours ago, ThePlanets said:
The Blue DEVILs. The quintessential bad guys of DCI. The originization that fans love to hate. I am somewhat of a BD hater myself But let's take a deeper look at why.
Exhibit A. Its annoying that they win all the time.
1976 (yes before I was born) BD wins their first championship. Watching this show- I personally love it and it's one of my favorite classic early DCI championship shows.
Fast forward to 1980. BD has won 3 of the past 4 years. The organization now has experience with being champions and performs with that swagger. They know how to handle competition. The problem with BD winning in 1980 is there were 4 fantastic shows that could have won a championship and BD still won. So now out of 8 championship finals- BD has won 4 of them. Then by 1982 they had won 5 out of 10. In 1983 a corps from the east emerges and wins a championship BD hangs in there and earns a medal every year until 1987.
From 1987-1995 the field of elite corps is deep and while BD never drops below 5th it seems like there is definitely a new top dog around. Then BD brings home gold 3 times in 1996-1999. They fade again but only slightly in the early 00s as the Cavaliers take over.
So from roughly 1995-2011 you have 3 very elite corps always competing for gold and Phantom Regiment too. DCI fans and potential members gravitate towards their own favorite based on personal style and region. I personally viewed the Cadets and Cavaliers as the gold standard of drum corps with the little I knew about the activity at the time.
How I have matured and come around to the Blue Devils
In 2012 I was in shock and awe that Crown didn't win. It took a lot of research for me to see and understand why. Yes they won brass and they 100% deserved to win brass but as someone who used to play trumpet myself the hornline was all I was listening to and watching.
The above was posted an hour ago and there are already several more pages to the thread, so apologies if the discussion has moved on. I left this site back in 2010, because I thought BD had a pretty neat show and didn't want to come back to all the inevitable complaints. But 2012 I say close to the field for Finals, and that really drove home the difference between BD and everyone else.
Obviously their talent is always through the roof. What I really noticed that year, though, was the total lack of filler. Every moment of the show was filled with an idea, and the design consistently drew your eyes to the next thing. There's no wasted movement, every action contributes to the flow of the show. It's a cohesion of design that no other corps ever consistently achieves. When they do, you notice it, like Vanguard in 18 or Bloo in 16.
I've been a fan for almost 25 years, and I used to be among those who were happy when anyone other than BD won. But man, sometimes it's okay just to enjoy excellence. I'm going to my first live show since 2019 tonight, and one of the highlights is going to be hearing that great wall of brass sound from BD. No one layers a chord quite like they do, and it's a treat.
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Wow, I can't wait to see the battle unfold in the 6-8 spots tomorrow.
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92.05 Blue Stars
Wow, great score. They opened up the gap on Boston, and beat SCV's score from last night.
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I've been saying it for weeks: if you can't get up for the way the Blue Stars bring home their opener and their closer, you just don't like drum corps
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Here is a second story, a multimedia piece, on the top five most influential performances of all time. Star 1993 is #1. Agree or disagree?
I would have to say agree.
Merged this with the original thread on the Halftime article
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In before close.
I agree. Once your rant is ready, you can post it in the G7 sub-forum then.
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Depends on the time of year. the eastern part of the state doesn't observe DST. so half the year they are ET and the other half the are CT.
As far as I know, the entire state observes Daylight Savings Time. Almost all the state should be on Eastern time. The only exceptions are the counties in the extreme northwest (Gary, Michigan City, etc.) and the extreme southwest (Evansville), which are on Central time.
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Question - on the list of performances times for Semis, they have them as starting at 4:30 Eastern time...Indiana is in Central, so does that mean Semis are starting at 3:30 Central time? I just want to be certain - last year, I was in the first corps to go on at Semis, and we went on at around 5:00 Central.
No, most of Indiana is in Eastern time, so all times posted are in Eastern.
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The tick system has been dead for as long as I've been alive.
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The scoring system is just fine, it's your understand of the system that is lacking. A 'perfect' score is not meant to indicate a perfect performance. A better term might be 'maximum' score. A 20 simply means that the corps fully met the judging standards.
A perfect example is Magic in 2002. They broke a 99 in Division II, but scored in the 80's when they competed in Division I. The 99 they received in Div II didn't mean that the corps was less than a point from perfection, only that the corps was less than a point off of the standards of the judging. There's a ceiling of sorts, and a 99 only means that Magic was bumping their head on that ceiling.
The same can be applied to Division I. There's a ceiling, and the Blue Devils are bumping their heads against it. Just because World Class is the highest class we have doesn't mean that the standards are infinite. We aren't comparing the Blue Devils to some unreachable ideal of perfection. Just like with the Open Class corps, we are only comparing the Blue Devils to the standards of those sheets, and a maximum score indicates only that they maxed out those sheets.
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I had to read through twice to make sure. You're saying that you haven't seen any of the shows this year, but decided based on DCP that 12-13 would ruin the activity for you? Trust me, this place is not that important. Had you posted this before the show, I would have encouraged you to go out, experience the shows for yourself, get around some fellow drum corps fans, many of whom probably could relate to how you feel and what era you felt was best.
Letting DCP make decisions for you never got nobody nowhere </sly stallone>
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Interesting. After a couple years there where it seemed every caption lined up pretty close to the overall placements, these ordinals are all over the place.
A second place colorguard aside, Bluecoats' visual scores are killing 'em - visual GE included. They actually tied BD for first in Music GE, and just lost the overall Music caption by .15.
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Ok, well then that begs the question....why?! Why choose abstract jazz?
Why not??
It's great that the Madison Scouts are playing a straight-forward, classic drum corps repertoire, something designed to bring fans up out of their seats. It's also great that the Blue Devils are playing a show for fans who want something a little more complicated. Diversity is a good thing, and between the twelve shows I'll see on Saturday night I'm bound to find some that I like, even if there are some that I don't. As long as you find enough shows that entertain you, why waste time being hostile toward the shows that don't?
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2010 is light years beyond 2009. I'm glad Spartacus won. Music should get a higher ranking than it does and PR brought it in 2008.
Y'know, everyone says that, but whenever I hear people discussing what they loved about Spartacus it's almost always something visual that gets mentioned first.
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I expected a bit higher.
Me too. Recaps will be interesting. I'm guessing, though, that we're in for a year like 2007. Cavs will probably close the gap some tomorrow, but see it bounce back out on Saturday. Just my guess.
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But other than that, it's a shame. It's a shame to have a hornline like that and basically tie their hands. C'mon BD...you're better than that.
Some might argue that it takes a hornline like before you could even attempt the show they perform. Even Pioneer's hornline can entertain with a straightforward, vanilla gospel show, but it takes a lot of excellence to effectively communicate abstract jazz. I haven't seen the Blue Devils yet, but from everything I've read it sounds like something that would require a #### fine horn section to ever pull it off.
2022 BluRay/DVD/Audio Cd
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
This just makes me so sad, even purely from a preservation standpoint. Drum corps performances exist for a summer only. When that season is done, all the shows go away too, never to be experienced live again. The DVDs/Blu-rays are the only (official) visual record, for an art form designed to be viewed by spectators. Think of all the great visual moments captured over the years: the death of Spartacus, the Z pull, Star's crosses, the diamond cutter, all of Babylon. Now those moments will be lost to time, wholly dependent on whatever bootleg economy can spring up and evade copyright claims.
Enjoy every moment of every show you get to see live. There's no guarantee you'll ever get to see that performance again.