How would you rate this season?

[kyushujet]

I'd give it 4 stars or two enthusiatic thumbs up

But I've noticed a lot of people here have mention 1980 as one of their favorite years and I wholeheartedly agree. But why is that?

For me, it was my introduction to DCI via VHS tapes by my high school band directors. It seemed like every show that year had something that was musically compelling or visually stunning. But did that have a lot to do with the direction of the PBS broadcast? (complete and unedited showings of each corps' performances and intelligent commentary?) I long for those days...

[ShortAndFast]

It's definitely pretty far up the list of the finals that I've attended in person. 1992 was also a very good one, maybe also 2004.

I think PR's show is destined to be remembered as one of those legendary moments. There have been plenty of great drum corps shows, but I can't think of any that pushed drama and story-telling as far and as successfully as Phantom did this year.

[I play the baritone good]

2004 still my favorite because I absolutely LOVE all of the top 3's shows. This year I love the top 2's... #3 never really did anything for me.

[Phantombari1]

If not for Phantom, Crown and Bluestars I wouldn't rate this as a good year. Phantom and Crown carried the year (IMO) and Bluestars making finals are the only note worthy stories.

Other shows were clean but lacked the music umph needed to make this one of the best years.

The bluedevils dominance wasn't as note worthy because Phantoms show was like a locomotive approaching in the distance. While many of my bluedevils friends embraced their show (Like they should), many more people could see it stalling. In my mind and many others it wasn't a question if Phantoms show was of a better quality than Bluedevils or even if it was performed better. Would the Judges recognize the same things we were seeing?

The best show won. In this case Phantom may not have won the battles but they certainly won the war.

[Matt_S]

i also think we need at least 3-4 years before we can put this year in perspective. i think that for a lot of us, people who remember drum corps of the 70's, 80's and 90's, and remember when finals drew at least 30k people, and shows were uniformly musical and memorable, and finals night was packed with huge wow moments that inspired huge ovations during performances.

Funny. Except for the 30K thing, you just described this year for me.

[PR_ducky]

In my opinion, the last really legendary season before this one was 1989

That year all the top had great, fun, enjoyable, well executed shows.

I think in time that 2008 will be viewed as one of the best ever

[Lancerlady]

enough to make me want to come back to DCI more often.

I agree. This year has given me hope for the future. This is the first time in a while I have enjoyed more then 3 shows and I enjoyed alot that weren't in the top 12. Troopers for example.

I still think 1989 is one of the best years for drum corps ever..with 2008 a close second. Great job everyone.

Congratulations Phantom! Thank you for always restoring my faith in the activity I love.

[Stellathediningdiva]

After being able to finally watch all of the shows this year I must say I was rally impressed by the designs of this years shows. Personally i believe that this year may go down as one of the greatest drum seasons ever.

Obviously we have to start with Phantom Regiment and I believe DCIHasBeen did a great job in summing up the power of their show.

http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...howtopic=116977

But beyond phantom there were so many great designs this summer and corps that did a fabulous job with their performances. I thought Blue devils and the cavaliers had wonderful shows.

Crown Bluecoats, and Blue Stars were great and enjoyable.

In my opinion it seemed as though corps decided to come up with different ideas and designs this year. I believe that 2008 will go down as one of the greatest years in Drum corps history. :smile: :smile: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

What does everyone else think?

Shannon

I concur!

Edited August 12, 2008 by Stellathediningdiva

[Harmonious Cacophony]

I give this season a 98.575.

[jwillis35]

I really enjoyed this summer! One of the best, for sure.

I would say 2008 was the best Finals I have attended since 1992. However, I loved 1995, 1997, and 1999, and 2000 was a blast in Maryland.

1985 in Madison was fun, as was 1987, and I would have loved being at Finals in 1977, 78, and 79.

I still think, for pure drum corps power and top-to-bottom great shows, that 1992 was my personal favorite. But I like what I am seeing from the activity, even with all the narration, electronics soon to come, and amps, etc. I think the designers really want to entertain, and that was clear in the shows this year. And although there are fewer corps today, for lots of reasons, I find that top-to-bottom in both Open Class and World Class that we have some excellent performance levels out there.