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Broken Arrow's Answer to Ramps - the Arms Race Continues


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I watched online, thought it was pretty brilliant. Not overly in the way or reliant on them either, that show could stand very easily on its own with the great music and fantastic visual program as always. TONS of great shows in that competition. Runner up Blue Springs was incredibly interesting and well performed. Owasso sounded amazing and had some very interesting guard costuming. Bellevue West had a very Broken Arrow-esque show, very well designed. Unions light boxes took the idea of Colts this past summer and actually executed pretty brilliantly. O'Fallon Township had a great visual program and very exciting arrangements of some beaten to death pieces. Rosemount had one of the more exciting vampire shows I've seen, some obvious Cavaliers 2014 influences. After that top half some other standouts for me were Bixby who FINALLY fielded some Maslanka music and had some of the better uses of mirror props that I've seen and first one out Bentonville (who I had top 10) had one of the most fun and colorful high school shows I've seen awhile.

When you look at a lot of the designers and instructors it's no surprise the DCI ties. Not all but a very good portion. People who speak down on and talk about high school like it's amateur hour make me laugh.

Mitch Rogers and Wayne Downey have also created an absolute masterpiece down in Flower Mound Texas. Best arrangement of To Tame the Perilous Skies I've heard since Cadets in 1992. That show is just amazing music and amazing drill performed BRILLIANTLY.

Edited by DrumManTx
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Back in 2010 Broken Arrow's show was based on the Wizard of Oz and they filled the field with bicycles. https://youtu.be/IU1rjx8dQqc

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i liked BA's show but it seems to me DCI shows flow better because of the extra time allowed

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What I said in last year's thread comparing BOA to DCI holds true this year as well:

Some of the the best BOA bands can have better designs / effect than some of the top DCI corps for two reasons:

(1) The difficulty required of the best corps can get in the way of creating an effective design. When you have to showcase performers playing and moving at a much higher level, you may need to sacrifice "art" to do so. The top BOA groups, even setting aside any penalty for forbidden instruments or too many members, will score about 70 in DCI. What they do is just not as challenging. (Super challenging for high school band, not so much for drum corps.)

(2) BOA Finalists typically have 200 members or more. They can have a number of members whose primary job is not to perform, but to move props and look pretty. They can have every other member not play half the time.

Broken Arrow's tricycles are really cool, that's for sure. I'm just seeing the show now. They'd surely be in the running for another championship if they were attending Grand Nationals this year.

I attended my first live BOA show earlier this year. William Mason won (it wasn't even close, not even with a partial show). Last year they had 35 huge scaffolding units (to evoke the fire escapes of West Side Story). This year they have a similar number of large plastic bubbles. That's also a nifty prop.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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i liked BA's show but it seems to me DCI shows flow better because of the extra time allowed

Only 30 seconds difference, actually. Maximum time in BOA is 11 min. Maximum time in DCI is 11 min. 30 sec. Right?

Minimum times are different, however: 7 min. in BOA but 10 min. in DCI.

But most high-end BOA shows are in the range of 10 min., I think.

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Last year I said the BA show was better designed than many top drum corps programs. Folks had a fit. It went on to win the 2015 BOA Championship.

Some folks had a fit. I remember looking at the video you posted and deciding Broken Arrow was the clear favorite to win--and I hadn't even seen most of the other potential finalist bands at that point.

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now, we just need to combine the two......RAMPS + GO CARTS!!!!!

Evil Kenevil meets TILT?

Throw in a little Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and you get "Karn Evel Knievel meets TILT".

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