What was the most legendary show of all time?

[Tommeee]

A legendary PERFORMANCE, perhaps...but the show itself? Not for me.

OK, I can respect your point of view there. I do think 88 Madison is one of the top 5 legendary PERFORMANCES, for sure.

However, if I had to replace it with something else, I would choose 1976 Blue Devils! What do you think of that?

[tommytimp]

Shows I saw live:

1.Garfield 1985. Seems like everyone else on DCP thinks the 84 is the be-all and end-all; I have my theory as to why that is, but I personally think the 85 show is the absolute best I ever saw from their staggering run of success in the 80s. No show had EVER sounded like Jeremiah did, and the drill was seriously next-level (and, to be frank, just plain more attractive than the 84 drill, I know, non-telegraphed front, boxes, blah blah). This show tops my list of shows I want to watch and listen to over and over.

2.Troopers 1984. Don't get me wrong-I hate this show. And I often bust it for its lack of content, but I put it on this list because it has to be the most zeitgeist-hot show I ever saw. I swear they got a hold of the Reagan 1984 campaign literature before they put this one together, because the show just screams "Morning In America." That, plus the fact that as crap-easy as it was, they really performed the hell out of it, and audiences screamed like Trooper audiences always do, but they were close enough to the Top 12 for it to matter.

3. Sky Ryders 1986. The best linear storytelling show ever done, and maybe the greatest GE show of its era. Everything but the kitchen sink, and brilliantly staged and scored. I like it a little better than The West Side Story of 87, mainly because, believe it or not, the 86 ending, with the shuffle-ballad "Over the Rainbow" bringing the right amount of non-schmaltzy sentiment to the show.

4. Phantom Regiment 1981- The 82 corps was much cleaner, and their performance at the runoff in DeKalb is the greatest single performance I ever witnessed, but this version should get the accolades. Again, no show had ever done what this one did in terms of look, sound, and feel. A completely unified show based on a single source, with the symphonic approach to the musdic and theatrical approach to the guard, gave credence to the idea of a show based on one source succeeding in the modern era. Plkus, they showed the classicist's ego-Here, have a program. You'll need it.

5. Madison 1988.Not their best show, but the most hyped Finals performance I ever saw, and the culmination of a wacky year for them, what with the anniversary, and the Europe trip, and the Malaguena. The noise in Arrowhead as they slowed into that Db controlled chaos at the end was unbelievable.

Shows I never saw live that I'd rank-

1. Phantom 78-the greatest show of all time.

2. SCV 1980-Probably the most influential show of all time. And even though it isn't a "truly" asymmetrical drill, the wedding of visuals to music is stunning. Plus they completely changed their concert number for second tour. Plus, Stone Ground Seven, y'all!

3. 27th Lancers 1981-The drum corps world was watching, waiting to see what Big East would do for a follow-up to the Great Holdover Experiment Of 1979-1980. And 27 came out in rare form, holding over only the (great) drum solo, delivering a show in true Lancer style, with traditional Brit opener (Crown Imperial) and closer (Spitfire or Danny Boy-take your pick, though doing Spitfire at all was BALLZY) and the jazz twist in concert. And what a twist-the epic "Niner-Two," which, again, a concert/production/drum break/shout chorus on a scale that had never been seen before.

4. Madison 75-I like the SCV 75 show better on balance, but everything everyone says about this show seems true-People having to pick their faces up from behind them after being blown off, the many babies that went through life with dented heads after their parents threw them aside in the "Slaughter" company front, the astonishingly virtuostic performance by Todd Weich on the xylophone. What a night that must have been.

And...My own shameless plug

1. Tie-83 Boston and 85 Knights-Still the two best small-corps shows ever.

[jjeffeory]

My five:

1984 Garfield Cadets - Barbara Maroney with the greatest ( IMHO ) soloist performance of all time

1988 Santa Clara Vanguard

I agree about the solos. One of the best solos every.

SCV '88 was the best version of Phantom of the Opera put on the field. It was so emotional and so artistic.

[HockeyDad]

I have a different list of performances that profoundly affected the activity:

1974 Madison Scouts - power, in your face, melody line

1975 Blue Devils - a radical departure from 1974, and set the stage for 1976 and beyond - a new sound

1980 SCV - asymmetric drill - have you listened to that show lately? 8th place? Are you kidding me?

1987 Garfield Cadets - THE performance of Appalacian Spring

2002 Cavaliers - excellence

[Tupac]

Interesting to see how many favorites are g-7 bands.

[tommytimp]

1980 SCV - asymmetric drill - have you listened to that show lately? 8th place? Are you kidding me?

Yes. I'm kidding. Because the Xmen finished in 8th. SCV finished 7th.

[84BDsop]

OK, I can respect your point of view there. I do think 88 Madison is one of the top 5 legendary PERFORMANCES, for sure.

However, if I had to replace it with something else, I would choose 1976 Blue Devils! What do you think of that?

Try again....'76 BD was the first one I listed.

[GMichael1230]

Watch Suncoast Sound 1988....you'll see that while Star took that kind of performance to the heights, it started with Suncoast (as did the placed foot direction changes common in marching of today, rather than the more common hard pivots of the day. Suncoast was ahead of the curve in a lot of areas, but rarely gets credit for it.)

agreed. 1988 Suncoast Sound, was without a doubt the birth of modern colorguard as we know it.

G

[GMichael1230]

Shows I saw live:

1.Garfield 1985. Seems like everyone else on DCP thinks the 84 is the be-all and end-all; I have my theory as to why that is, but I personally think the 85 show is the absolute best I ever saw from their staggering run of success in the 80s. No show had EVER sounded like Jeremiah did, and the drill was seriously next-level (and, to be frank, just plain more attractive than the 84 drill, I know, non-telegraphed front, boxes, blah blah). This show tops my list of shows I want to watch and listen to over and over.

2.Troopers 1984. Don't get me wrong-I hate this show. And I often bust it for its lack of content, but I put it on this list because it has to be the most zeitgeist-hot show I ever saw. I swear they got a hold of the Reagan 1984 campaign literature before they put this one together, because the show just screams "Morning In America." That, plus the fact that as crap-easy as it was, they really performed the hell out of it, and audiences screamed like Trooper audiences always do, but they were close enough to the Top 12 for it to matter.

3. Sky Ryders 1986. The best linear storytelling show ever done, and maybe the greatest GE show of its era. Everything but the kitchen sink, and brilliantly staged and scored. I like it a little better than The West Side Story of 87, mainly because, believe it or not, the 86 ending, with the shuffle-ballad "Over the Rainbow" bringing the right amount of non-schmaltzy sentiment to the show.

4. Phantom Regiment 1981- The 82 corps was much cleaner, and their performance at the runoff in DeKalb is the greatest single performance I ever witnessed, but this version should get the accolades. Again, no show had ever done what this one did in terms of look, sound, and feel. A completely unified show based on a single source, with the symphonic approach to the musdic and theatrical approach to the guard, gave credence to the idea of a show based on one source succeeding in the modern era. Plkus, they showed the classicist's ego-Here, have a program. You'll need it.

5. Madison 1988.Not their best show, but the most hyped Finals performance I ever saw, and the culmination of a wacky year for them, what with the anniversary, and the Europe trip, and the Malaguena. The noise in Arrowhead as they slowed into that Db controlled chaos at the end was unbelievable.

Shows I never saw live that I'd rank-

1. Phantom 78-the greatest show of all time.

2. SCV 1980-Probably the most influential show of all time. And even though it isn't a "truly" asymmetrical drill, the wedding of visuals to music is stunning. Plus they completely changed their concert number for second tour. Plus, Stone Ground Seven, y'all!

3. 27th Lancers 1981-The drum corps world was watching, waiting to see what Big East would do for a follow-up to the Great Holdover Experiment Of 1979-1980. And 27 came out in rare form, holding over only the (great) drum solo, delivering a show in true Lancer style, with traditional Brit opener (Crown Imperial) and closer (Spitfire or Danny Boy-take your pick, though doing Spitfire at all was BALLZY) and the jazz twist in concert. And what a twist-the epic "Niner-Two," which, again, a concert/production/drum break/shout chorus on a scale that had never been seen before.

4. Madison 75-I like the SCV 75 show better on balance, but everything everyone says about this show seems true-People having to pick their faces up from behind them after being blown off, the many babies that went through life with dented heads after their parents threw them aside in the "Slaughter" company front, the astonishingly virtuostic performance by Todd Weich on the xylophone. What a night that must have been.

And...My own shameless plug

1. Tie-83 Boston and 85 Knights-Still the two best small-corps shows ever.

oh pleeeeze, I wanna smack you and hug you at the same time !! LOL

have to bring up a point regarding 1984 Garfield drill. Luckyenough to see that at least ten times that year and also own the high camera vid, as far as sets and seamless transitions go and marrying movement to the music, 84 trumps 85 by miles, MILES !!.....85 is no slacker and is one of my most watched shows, but I take 84 anytime.

G

[ShortAndFast]

What makes a legend? A show that changed the activity? A show that defined its era? A show that set new heights of excellence? A show that reached and still reaches the audience?

I'd say if you were to watch

1975 Madison

1984 Garfield

1993 Star

2002 Cavaliers

2008 Phantom Regiment

You would have a pretty good picture of the milestones in DCI's history. All of these are shows that today's designers are still drawing upon for inspiration. All of these provoked a strong audience response - not necessarily a positive one. All are shows that are still rewarding to watch and discuss.

There are plenty of others great shows that could make a list like this, but if I wanted to tell somebody all about DCI in one hour of video, those are the ones I'd pick.