MisterA Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 First off, what an amazing weekend, and congrats to all the participating corps. This was such an amazing year from all the corps, and possibly one of the best from top to bottom. First some of the positives. So awesome to have a quarterfinals/prelims where all the Open Class/DII/III corps all competed in same day, with the same judges. Reminds me of the late 70's and early 80s when we had full days of competitions. And great job to some of the Open Class corps for beating out some of the World Class corps. For being the 3rd time in the new dome, overall I thought the DCI and stadium staff did a pretty good job of organization this year, and I thought things really ran smoothly. The corps were simply amazing this year. If anyone saw every show and didn't love at least 4 or 5 shows, they are definitely missing out. There was so much variety on the field this year, I think more than any other year I can remember. I don't think there was a single show that my wife and I didn't like. Yes, there were shows we enjoyed less than others, but we found something in every single show that we enjoyed. Open Class corps, even though there have been many extremely good corps that have moved to World Class, there are still some awesome corps in Open class. The competition at the top was extremely great this year. I think we saw probably the best top 4 group ever. I think this may have topped 2000, which I thought was the best top 4 previously. Being inside the dome, at least the weather than hit Indy on finals night didn't affect the show, or cause major delays. Great to see 2 international corps in competition, and in exhibition on semi-finals night. Great job Jubal and Yokahama Scouts. The parade, while my wife and I were unable to attend the parade, it was nice to hear about it. Not sure the members were all that excited, as we heard a couple of grumblings here and there, but a nice touch to end the week. The negatives Since it is still in the dome, there are still acoustical issues that will not be able to be resolved. It is better than the first year there, but still has issues. People on Thursday and Friday were very unresponsive. The only corps that really brought thunderous ovation were Madison Scouts, Crown, Cavies and Cadets. Otherwise the crowd was silent, which was a shame since there were so many amazing shows on the field this year. Crowds seemed very small on Thursday and Friday. Saturday seemed about normal, but the attendance overall semmed down for the week. Such a shame on the rainout of Open Class Prelims. What a disappoinment for all the young performers who lost one of their 2 most exciting shows of the year. The parade(from a few members standpoint). From what we heard from a bunch of corps kids throughout the weekend, was how disappointing that they wouldn't be able to just leave after learning they would not make finals. Even though we thought the parade was great, I can see how this could be disappointing to members of some corps, especailly the ones who knew going in they wouldn't be making the show on Saturday night. It does still make for a long week when you start prelims for Open Class on Monday, I would much prefer for them to make it Tuesday and Wednesday, and save most people an extra night if they want to see all the events over the course of the week. One other negative, for the people who actually attend the show, it would be nice if they would put the commentary from the theatre events online, even if they don't show the entire production. I would love to what Delucia, Rondinaro, and Cesario have to say. I have seen comments on the board, and heard about the interviews with people that they show, and wish that as a paying ticketholder for those events, could rewatch the broadcast online of the commentary. One big disappointment was that quite a few people left before Jubal's performance, which is such a shame considering they were celebrating their 100 year anniversary by being in United States. I really enjoyed their show, especially with the throwback audio at the beginning of their pre-show. But overall this was one of my favorite seasons ever. It's a shame more people didn't make it for the best quarterfinals in over 2 decades, but what a spectacular treat for those that did. I have to admit my wife and I are a little exhausted after watching close to 100 performances in 5 days, but it is well worth it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tez Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Honestly, I thought the attendance on Friday (Semis) was way up over last year. I saw very few open seats in between the 20s in the lower sections. Also, I thought the crowd was very responsive.... almost too much so in some cases. To me, the worst thing about experiencing drum corps live is that I feel like I miss so much of each show because of forced/over exuberant fan reactions around me at the most random points in shows....... Cheering/applause in between pieces and at then end of the show is fine... but for every single successful rifle/sabre catch..... a bit much. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbandguy Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Attendance WAS up for Thursday, Friday and Saturday by a significant amounts...several THOUSANDS...and that's a fact. Don't know where Mr. A was sitting, but the crowd was into ALL of the corps ALL 3 NIGHTS on the 100 level. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCImonkey Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Quick Fix DCI Move the Parade to Wednesday (like it used to be!) Move Open Class I&E to Saturday Morning since no open class corps will really have a chance of competing on that day anyway. Those that choose to stay and compete do so on their own and the corps isn't stuck. This will also open up Wednesday for Open class corps to rehearse since they'll be competing on Thursday Prelims. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE... If you make these changes, I get free tickets and hotel for next year's events! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Honestly the parade on a weekday causes a mess for the folks that live and work there. I can understand kids being bummed.....i heard one corps didn't know what they would play as they don't do parades.....but a weekday will not be good for a host city. Crowd did sound dead a lot in the theater and online. Couldn't read crowd size but it seemed like some empties in the lower levels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calistar Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) First off, what an amazing weekend, <snip> I have to agree with the OP. What a great weekend...and a great season overall. Absolutely the strongest top 12 (on avg) that I can remember. What I take away from this past week: Open Class & World Class together again. In my opinion, this was a huge success. I loved seeing all the corps together, being judged on the same sheets. BDB, OC, and SCVC were all amazing this year and represented Open Class very well (and BDB's drumline actually placed 17th...higher than 5 World Class drumlines). Spirit of Atlanta - I had seen this show a couple of times during the season, but it wasn't until finals week that I absolultely fell in love with it. They won't fly under the radar next season. A powerhouse in the making. Carolina Crown - At the beginning of the season, I HATED the Rock/Rach concept. Thought it was (cheesy) and all that, but they blew me away this week. Congrats to Crown for sticking with the concept and making it work. Live Coverage - As a FN subscriber, I got to watch the World Class Semi's live. Plus I get the Open Class Finals VOD. For the Prelims, we got the warm-up live (bonus!) until moving to the local movie theater for the top 15! And the cherry on top was the live coverage of the awards. For those of us that couldn't be in Indy this week, all the live coverage was appreciated! Now, if we can just get the Finals LIVE on PPV... and finally...watching the awards and seeing all those "kids" out there on the field, performing the Battle Hymn of the Republic...it struck me what a productive, inspiring, and character building activity this is. I hadn't thought about it in those terms in a while. Those musicians and performers on the field dedicated themselves to achiving excellence. And they achived it through hard work and dedication... and therefore should be celebrated. Congrats to all the Performers, Staff, Mgmt, and Fans on one of the best Drum Corps seasons of all time. Cali. Edited August 14, 2011 by Calistar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Attendance WAS up for Thursday, Friday and Saturday by a significant amounts...several THOUSANDS...and that's a fact. Don't know where Mr. A was sitting, but the crowd was into ALL of the corps ALL 3 NIGHTS on the 100 level. Is this just your viewpoint, or do you have a citation to facts that can back it up? This issue is a hot and important one for the activity; if you have facts you should cite the sources. If it's just conjecture on your part, that's fine, too. But to claim you have facts demands a citation of fact. And no, "...my sources tell me..." doesn't count. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Attendance WAS up for Thursday, Friday and Saturday by a significant amounts...several THOUSANDS...and that's a fact. Not disagreeing here, but how do you know this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Remember ##### in the seats don't equal paid customers. Lots of freebies and wristbands last year made the number look bigger than what actually paid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 (edited) Remember ##### in the seats don't equal paid customers. Lots of freebies and wristbands last year made the number look bigger than what actually paid And this is why the parade works on Saturday. The stadium was over-run with kids who didn't make finals. They wanted to see the show, too. Sure, some wanted to just go home, but I'd bet (my guess) that many more of them wanted to stay and see the last show of the season. Doing a parade in the morning is a small price to pay for admission to the show of shows. We were in sec. 240 and we had kids sitting in the aisles and poaching empty seats all night. I doubt any of them actually bought tickets. Edited August 14, 2011 by garfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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