Boogie down in D-Town!

[Tez]

HOLY DRUM SCORES BATMAN.....BD with an 18.4!! ScoJo is on a mission from God! Take no prisoners Scott!

and their guard got an 18.5

[watersling]

Just can't wait for SA and see how BD would dominate all captions!!

On the other notes, it is troubling to see SCV placing fourth in Music, which is quite ironic. I think BC would close in even more in the next two nights.

[oldbandguy]

Does anyone know if 'Coats put in their new ending tonight?

[octavia9299]

Does anyone know if 'Coats put in their new ending tonight?

Yep. They did.

[mellomomma]

Let's give Colts some love here for holding in the top twelve and Troopers for being soooo close! San Antonio here we come. Can't wait.

1 Blue Devils 90.700

1 Holy Name Cadets 88.600

2 The Cavaliers 88.950

2 Carolina Crown 88.050

3 Santa Clara Vanguard 86.350

4 Bluecoats 85.450

3 Blue Stars 83.250

4 Phantom Regiment 83.050

5 Boston Crusaders 82.750

5 Blue Knights 81.200

6 Glassmen 81.200

6 Colts 77.700

7 Troopers 77.450

8 Madison Scouts 75.200

9 The Academy 75.150

10 Pioneer 70.150

11 Cascades 67.850

7 Spirit 75.050

8 Crossmen 74.250

9 Pacific Crest 71.750

10 Mandarins 70.100

[BRASSO]

HOLY DRUM SCORES BATMAN.....BD with an 18.4!! ScoJo is on a mission from God! Take no prisoners Scott!

Congrats to the Blue Devils tonite for being the first Corps this year to break 90.

[UNTdrummer11]

the show was great tonight! i love cavies show this year. its for sure a contender for the title. didnt like blue devils show as much even tho they won but hey, what can you do? day 2! bring on crown n phantom!

[nero14]

I, for one, am uber-pumped about that 0.9 between SCV and Bluecoats!

I'd love to see a tight race for 5th come finals week :)

[JayM]

Just got back from the Dallas show. In the interest of time, I'm only going to write about corps for which I feel like I actually have something to say. It's nothing against any of the corps I don't mention, but I'm trying to write this quickly.

Pioneer: True to their motto, they're better this year. Their uniforms still make me think they're the Capital Cavaliers, and I wish they would get some guard uniforms in a different style. I don't remember much about the show, but they're playing pretty well for their standard. As always seems to be the case with Pioneer, the drumline steals the show. I was fairly impressed with their snareline, especially. Maybe they should just play Gary Owen (I think that's what it's called) for a show one year. It always seems like they play that with much more energy than anything they do in their actual show.

Academy: They play loud. Somewhat harsh, similar to how the Cadets can get at times. It's pretty clean, though. I wish I remembered more. Solid performance, but I didn't get into the show.

Madison: Better than I expected. The beginning is stock Madison (in a good way), but I lost interest not long after. They still have some Madison moments, and I enjoyed the Malaga quote, but I didn't feel like the show really knew what it was supposed to be about. The guard is better than they have been, and they don't seem too small, either. I found myself wishing the corps was wearing white pants. Something about the black pants seems anti-Madison to me, and I still don't like the color of the jackets. I know they've changed uniforms enough already, but I don't feel like this is the right look for them. They just need an updated 90s-era uniform.

Troopers: They're better than I've ever seen them, and they can really play their horns. I liked hearing some of the WSS music here and there, but I'm not sure I got the show other than that. This is a huge step for them, and I really hope to see them build off this year and just run with it. They can perform, now they just have to learn how to design (this goes for many corps in this tier, really).

Colts: I could tell they were better than the Troopers, but not by much. It could be close all summer.

Blue Knights: The most I've liked them in a while. They're pretty good all around, and the show's not really boring and/or cerebral. I really didn't like the speakers backfield, though. The wind sounded too treble-y.

Bluecoats: Better than I was expecting them to be, based on what I've read around here. They still sound like the Bluecoats, and that's obviously a good thing. I don't feel like the show really goes anywhere, and I feel like it's abstract but without a point to get across. What are they trying to tell the audience? No, not all shows have to have a distinct purpose, but it helps. And if it's not purposeful, it should make up for it somehow, and that's what I'm missing here. But whatever it is, they perform it well, and the audience seemed to enjoy it enough. I don't think the new (I assume it's new) ending is very effective. They sing a line from Imagine ("And the world will live as one", IIRC) and that's the end of the show. It reminds me somewhat of the weird tag they put on the end of the 2006 show.

Vanguard: This is the best I've ever seen SCV live (2000 being the first year I saw them). It's the best they've sounded, best they've marched, etc. Even aside from their marching style, you can tell they are taught by Cavaliers. I just haven't seen that level of detail in their feet before. Is the drill that difficult? No, and that helps of course, but that level of cleanliness leaves an impression on you. I love App Spring, so I liked this show quite a bit. To me it seems like they planned this show to be very achievable, but yet very entertaining, so as to set a really solid performance precedent to build upon.

Cavaliers: Probably their best hornline since 2006. I've never been thrilled by the show concept, but I think what they're doing is great. The final build-up in the ballad is probably my favorite moment of the season so far. It's just beautiful. I feel BD and Cavs are really quite even in the brass department, contrary to what my favorite brass judge thinks. I don't see them winning, but I think they'll still be phenomenal by the end.

Blue Devils: This is the first BD show I've liked since 2000. As others have said, it comes across better in person than it does on VOD. That said, I'm not sure why they bothered to give this show a name. The show itself is not very cohesive, though it's very entertaining. It's (mostly) good music interspersed with clever design tricks, and really nothing more. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. The crowd loves it and they're performing at a high level. This is the best I've heard BD's hornline play since probably 2004 or so. What I don't like about the show: what I call "Wayne Downey Incidental Music". You know, the random chords they tend to play during transitions or as performance effects. It seems like that stuff has really picked up since 2006 and I wish they didn't rely on it so much. That said, they're top 2 easily. I don't know enough about HNC or CC to predict more than that.

Overall, the quality is really up this year. Many of the lower-tier corps have really learned how to play over the last decade, and it obviously shows in the standings. However, now I think those corps need to learn how to design. I feel like many of the corps start out with a bang, but by the midpoint of the show I'm not really sure what I'm watching anymore. That's not directed at any one corps in particular, but I just noticed myself drifting in and out of some of the shows in the first half of the evening. That's probably just my problem, but I figure it's worth a mention.

Anyway, as always, I didn't intend to write this much. I'm probably too honest, but it's a fault I'm willing to deal with. Good night.

[PioSop06]

Thanks for the review man, even though I was there, it was nice to get someone else's opinions. Can't wait for the Friday show!