Has DCP ever changed your mind on something?

[Mello Dude]

Yea, I would say the same thing. Most of the people who post here at best have friends on the inside, but more commonly are nearly 100% on the outside as far as the how/why things happen in the activity, how/why shows are designed the way they are, etc. Posters frequently post with nothing but raw emotions, often with little/no understanding on the current state of the activity from the inside. Many posters write ridiculous things like, "that's not how real drum corps is" or other nonsense, and at this point it's just laughably dumb.

Agree 100%. I would also add there are people that have never marched a day of corps, that have friends that run do things for an organization (corps) then use that as first hand knowledge/experience of what its all about. These same people discount others that have marched 8-10 years of junior corps as "irrelevant" and their opinions (based on a rather lengthy time in junior corps) the same. While at the same time elevating their opinions to equal to or greater than those that have actually done it. That is what I consider laughingly stupid and arrogant.

[HappyDad]

You folks make me chuckle. And for Mello Dude...I have often wondered who on here marched and who has not.

I never marched in drum and bugle corps but I went to American Legion and VFW shows in the 1950s and 1960s. I saw my first DCI show in 1974 or 75, I can't remember exactly which year. I try to go to at least one or two shows a year ever since. I used to take my son and my wife was glad, I think, to get us both out of the house for awhile. Now I got grand kids and I keep wondering when he'll take them to a show. I might have to sneak them away myself. Ha.

I don't have all the strong opinions about what this corps does or doesn't do. I like some shows, others not as much. Someone said something yesterday about not blaming the kids because they don't pick the shows and the music. There's truth in that.

I got to wondering today whether I would be as happy if they put a big screen up and showed some older shows again. I never go to watch drum corps at the movies. I would miss seeing the kids live. For me, that's a big part of this.

Well, I said enough for today. You folks have a good weekend. Do they have a schedule for next year out yet? It's not to early to start planning. I can't go to Indianapolis again this year, but I want to go to one show at least.

[garfield]

After reading the replies to the "Go Aaron" thread I just went back to listen for the fan yelling "Karen" at the end of the 2000 SCV ballad, and OMG! That MUSIC!

Since I last listened to that show I've purchased my life's desire for a two-channel stereo system (I can imagine all the young-ins snickering). It's a pair of Magnepan 3.6s, driven by two Bryston 4B amps. The amps drive 400 watts into each of the tweeter and woofer/midrange ribbons, and the speakers will handle 1200 watts. If you've never seen these speakers they are 6 feet tall, 2 feet wide, and about 2 inches deep and they produce sound using ribbons, not cones, for their drivers (hence the two inches thick). They are extremely fast, and produce a soundfield that moves a LOT of air. As a result they are widely renowned as one of the best, most true speakers for producing live, and particularly, acoustic music. I chose them specifically to listen to drum corps. My audio engineer brother in San Jose guided me in choosing the preamp and CD platter.

I've listened to a LOT of drum corps on this system and it's really something to marvel at how well it produces the football field. Particularly the front-to-back soundfield. You can actually hear that the drums are backfield and the horns down front, or the corps fading off to the back corner doesn't sound like it's only moving left or right, but also back as well. I can hear inner voices, the numbers 2 and 3 bass drums, and the triangle in the pit like few other systems, and certainly much better than the high-end 5.1 system most people use on a computer. It's an eerie system.

I don't remember 2000 SCV in the stands, although I was there. Tonight, trying to find "Karen!" on my Legacy DVD I got to hear the music again. And OMG! When I was in the stands I must have been distracted by their opener and was simply bored by the time the ballad came around, but that Bartok is gorgeous!

I fired up the Maggies and found my 2000 CD. I listened to the opener again, on the Maggies this time, and I could get to like it. When the Bartok ballad came I cranked up the volume and closed my eyes. That arrangement is simply stunning! The tension and release are just breath-taking. They build from p to ffff over more than 40 bars, in a tempo of about 100, building the chord structure to carry you up, higher and stronger, more deliberately, louder, slower, and even louder! to only hold you there, sucking the air out of the stadium and every lung in the stands, then holding the tension for eight counts and THEN holding the resolve, at full volume for a full eight, slow counts... FINALLY the cutoff comes, and I found myself exhaling at last, relaxing my shoulders from down around my ears, and the applause started.

Right at that moment the tweeter fuses on both of the speakers blew. I was actually looking for smoke coming from the amps. Thankfully none, but crap.

I've listened to a lot of drum corps on my Maggies, almost all of it at the same volume level. 2000 Cadets is one of my favorites, but the 2000 SCV has the distinction of being the very first show to blow my fuses.

I will now officially never believe that G horns can't be tuned.

I don't often listen to show snippets, preferring the whole show instead. But 2000 SCV balled is my new purely musical high watermark for arrangement, emotion, and pure volume.

No, most of the opinions on DCP haven't changed my mind. But I've surely changed my mind about my opinion of shows by reading others' opinions here.

Even one as silly as "KAREN!"