Blue Devils took the number one spot tonight. Congratulations. They have a fun show that the audience (and judges) seems to enjoy. It's your standard Blue crew show: jazzy, lots of incredible brass, and attitude.
But in my humble opinion, I have three words to say about tonights show to explain how I feel: Santa Clara Vanguard.
SCV...yes sir. This is the type of show that brought me to drum corps over 10 years ago. Music in motion. Santa Clara tells a story, and a beautiful one at that. Amazing design, beautiful melodies, and the best drumline in DCI, hands down. Blue Devils just did not do it for me. Too much screaming high brass for my tastes, and not a show I could really get into emotionally.
SCV personified class tonight, and I was totally blown away by what I saw on that football field. As far as percussion, I could not understand the tie between BD and SCV. SCV's percussion (both drumline AND Pit) was on fire. Their drum book is incredibly intiricate and musical. Tenor line...WOW!!! I'm not a judge or an expert by any means, so hopefully someone else with more knowledge of these things can shed some light on the scores, and why BD placed so much higher tonight overall. Yes, BD has "attitude" and lots of jazzy, screaming high brass moments. But SCV seemed so much more musical overall, and their visual program seemed to flow so much better tonight. SCV was intense, musical, emotional, and simply breathtaking.
In any case, thank you Santa Clara for reminding me what drum corps is all about: passion, emotion, intensity, musicianship, tradition, innovation, and excellence. Great music, great story, great show. I wish you the best in Denver!!!