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"If you are so turned off by the Cadets show this year ( not my favorite Cadet show either) that it has made you want to never attend a show again, then it's best that you leave as you say. Why drive so far and pay such money for just one Corps viewing? If it's just the Cadets that you principally came for, ( which it sounds like ) then if I was you, I wouldn't want to spend so much time and money driving 3 hours to watch 9 minutes of attempted entertainment that failed either. So Best of luck and goodbye to you." Lieut. General Effect: You seem to have no idea of what corps fans actually go through year in and year out. Yeah, we could all be like you and jump on the bandwagon, but most of us prefer to listen and watch with style and intelligence, then we relate it to ourselves. If you don't agree try to be a little more diplomatic. Do you know what that means?

My wife loves this review and feels your deepest sorrow for the downfall of a once elite above all others corps. She and I understand what your talking about, unfortunately, some people refuse to see the light.

I am going to try to be honest and well, honest. Every year I go to a corps show and each year I come away saying that the corps are not judged on talent, presentation, technique and cleanliness. This year was no exception to this conspiracy in the drum corps community. 1. Pioneer-- This corps was fun to watch. The intro was well done. I leaned over to my friend and told him that ten years ago, this would have been a top 10 show. The most memorable moment of the night was when they played for the audience when exiting the field. This was so classy, not just the boring cadences we now hear. 2. Southwind-- This show was decent. They play pretty well and march that way too. The show just does not grab me. The upper sopranos had some major intonation problems tonight. I did like the percussion feature when the basses played with the quints b**bs . 3. Colts-- Nice opener, seemed to miss a little on the style in stacatto sections. The gaurd showed moments of excellence. The drill is not too challenging and the music didn't seem to grab me, but they play it pretty well. Personally, I did not like the dissonance in the last song. Glassmen-- Who in the h*ll said this show was boring. This show is performed well and done cleanly. The opener with the gaurd is sweet. They used the whole field well. They are playing and marching with confidence, because the show is honestly not challenging enough for them. With this confidence, they will break back into the top twelve again, Glassmen are on the rise. Boston Crusader-- Oh God I can't believe I'm going to say this, forgive me Bloooo! Nice show. It was the best opener of the night, they grab you from the start. The ending however leaves me with a feeling of emptiness, I wanted to see the props blow over personally. The Crusaders are performing a quality show right now and doing it well. I don't think they will get much better though because they are doing it so well right now. I would have put them in first tonight, Oh God what is that taste in my mouth. Phantom Regiment-- This show rocks!!! They have a great brass sound and don't push the sound to appease the hearing impared. The drill and music books have much work to do. With that, I predict that they will surpass Boston and maybe more at finals. This corps is underated and deserve to be on the tour of champions because they can march and play more than screaching whole notes (sorry Blue Devils you never could march). I wouldn't be suprised to see them 3rd at finals. Great Job!!! Cadets-- Tonight one would have thought that the gaurd used Crisco instead of hand cream. What a terrible night for the gaurd, they couldn't have caught a cold. The music in this show stinks and the drill doesn't match the music. Which one would think would affect the GE score, but hold on, this is the Cadets were talking about. They could s**t on the 50 and outscore Boston, Phantom and Blooo. They are way overated and overscored. I had them in fourth tonight with an 88.5. I usually enjoy their shows and had to laugh during their performance because my wife (a Cadet fan her whole life) had the shock of her life. She stood their in total disgust with this show. It was, like mastercard says "priceless". Bluecoats-- This show is the best overall package Bloo has ever done. The brass plays so well, even better than Phantom. This is because they don't overplay which in turn helps what we musicians call intonation. The drill in this show was the most demanding of the night. The have much cleaning to do, in my opinion. The are unfortunately lacking desperately in the GE category. The gaurd outperformed Cadets and Phantom. I would have had them behing Boston though (there's that taste again). They have the potential to finish fourth to fifth this year, ahead of Boston and behind Phantom. My placements: 1. Boston 2. Phantom 3. Bluecoats 4. Cadets 5. Glassmen 6. Southwind 7. Colts 8. Pioneer Closing thoughts. Cadets show stinks, sorry but it does. They should finish in the 6-8 placement at finals. Oh my God, that show stinks. Boston will finish anywhere from 6-8. Bluecoats could finish anywhere from 4-7 depending upon how much they want it, and I know they want it bad. Phantom could finish anywhere from 3-5, they have so much room to grow and a great show concept. It would be nice to see corps put into their honest placements at finals. If the judges keep rewarding only the top for BD, Cavies, SCV, Cadets they will slowly kill the drum corps community. People will only take so much oppression before they slowly turn themselves away from this artform. Let's hope the judges can figure this out. This was my first review, but please state your honest opinion, it's yours, not the judges.

I'm glad that I am not the only one who feels this way. At every show I go to, I say to myself that I just don't see and hear such a big point difference. Is this a conspiracy? I say yes, because they are stripping the confidence and self-image of the other corps who's scores don't advance like the top 4. It is a diservice to the drum corps community and it's fans. I guess they want to feel like they have control over something in their lives. Maybe a jock made fun of them one too many times? Who knows?

Ted, The statement of just because you have won a championship in the past doesn't give you special privileges is so true. Unfortunately, it applies to all the top corps. We need a shakeup in the top six to keep things interesting and keep the status quo from the feeling of comfort. Just because you have a name like "Cadets" does not make you a top six corp. I can't wait to see their show and will give my honest unbiased opinion. Who know's, it may be my favorite, but not if they do that stupid chromatic scale trademark.

Thanks for the great review. I can't wait to see them in massillon. For all you Bloooo fans out there, just keep the faith. Fifth place will happen this year.