ouooga Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 As I stated earlier, BLAST! is alive and well. They just completed a tour in Japan with an entire new show based on the music of Disney. Wait, they're really alive and well? I was serious about my thoughts on them thriving in Las Vegas. I actually tried reaching out a few months ago, but it looked like their website was down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouooga Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 The members who perform now days are doing what they like. This really is the crux of it. A current MM asked on Reddit recently if DCI "just got really good after 2010". He said anything before that is almost unwatchable to him. Me, I actually saw a noticeable dip around the 2009/2010 mark. I feel it comes down to the shows that are popular in your marching era that really define what makes/breaks drum corps for a person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Holland Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 (edited) Wait, they're really alive and well? I was serious about my thoughts on them thriving in Las Vegas. I actually tried reaching out a few months ago, but it looked like their website was down. "well" is debatable. It ran its course in the US, as then had Shockwave and MIX spin off from it. They didn't do very well here. But it's toured japan in 2014, well... MIX toured japan, and the Disney thing did three weeks out there. There's thoughts of Mason Entertainment Group taking something back in 2017, but again, speculation as the company website looks like it hasn't been touched since 2015. Funny thing about Eastern Europe and Asia. They are starved for live western music. Ska and punks bands routinely take tours overseas to Eastern Europe and Japan and make killings at the box office. However, in the US, they can't fill 200 seats. Bout time for some drum corps to take a tour of the Far East and make some money. Most of my buddies who are tour techs have each had at least one of their tours in the past few years go to Japan and they're always sold out. Vegas wants things that sells seats consistently, IMHO Blast is too much of a niche. We can sell DCI to band people, and do ok for a few shows a year. But in Vegas... its tough. Casino's in every state now have really hurt it. Heck, Cirque's Jubilee and Zarkana closed in 2015 when they had to consistently give away too many comps, and now Jersey Boys and Showstoppers closed this past September. Edited December 14, 2016 by C.Holland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Wait, they're really alive and well? I was serious about my thoughts on them thriving in Las Vegas. I actually tried reaching out a few months ago, but it looked like their website was down. BLAST! Would cost an absolute fortune to produce in Las Vegas, because they'd be subject to paying musician's union scale. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Been a fan since '89, and I'm thrilled to death with today's MSG-laden corps, for the same reason as when I first saw CBC open the PBS broadcast back then. It's 10 minutes of non-stop action that redefines the "art of the possible" with marching music. Look elsewhere for your high art and sophisticated nuance; I'll take a Michael Bay blockbuster with slides, backdrops and stagecoaches on the field any day of the week. Mike 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 The members who perform now days are doing what they like. If they enjoy performing their show then I enjoy watching it. Sure there are aspects of certain shows I do not like but in the end if they enjoy performing it then it is great for them. Just a while ago I was watching 79 Guardsmen and then was watching 2016 Blue Knights. I love both cry much. Expand on this thought, if you'd please, as it challenges for the best descriptor of the point so far. And I might push back a bit on the notion that the MM's are doing "what they want". In the context of show design as a platform for teaching, it's hard to suggest they themselves should write the teaching plan. They're doing what is placed in front of them - show design was done months before the MM's got involved. Corps culture or "vibe", teaching style, and placements in history are stronger determinants of where a student might march than the toys, tools, props, and unis of next year's show during the design stage. Yes, kids can go where they want, but they don't have fore-knowledge of what's going to be put on the field at November auditions. I wonder if there's any empirical evidence to support the contention that today's show design with A&E and all the rest have, in fact, increased the participation rate of today's music students? I'd be interested to see, for sure. But kids will eat anything you put in front of them - artificial additives be-dammed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Expand on this thought, if you'd please, as it challenges for the best descriptor of the point so far. And I might push back a bit on the notion that the MM's are doing "what they want". In the context of show design as a platform for teaching, it's hard to suggest they themselves should write the teaching plan. They're doing what is placed in front of them - show design was done months before the MM's got involved. Corps culture or "vibe", teaching style, and placements in history are stronger determinants of where a student might march than the toys, tools, props, and unis of next year's show during the design stage. Yes, kids can go where they want, but they don't have fore-knowledge of what's going to be put on the field at November auditions. I wonder if there's any empirical evidence to support the contention that today's show design with A&E and all the rest have, in fact, increased the participation rate of today's music students? I'd be interested to see, for sure. But kids will eat anything you put in front of them - artificial additives be-dammed. Although you are right that kids do not have a choice ( nor should they ) on show or design BUT they certainly follow and support their likes. I interview and very active in the audition process, not just for drum corps but for winter programs as well as fall band programs. Even in those other venues MMs do express style verses another's style as well as philosophy is up front as to why a member or potential member is seeking out the process. It's not even close to what "we bitd " did or had little choice to do. Lots of options today as well as kids being alot more vocal about just about everything and every subject. Something not all of us dare to do when we marched. There's the good and bad of that...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 knowing and working with him I can tell ya.....HE SURE WOULD! I think other icons would also have loved it all. They ALL didn't become icons by playing it safe. Bobby wrote Sun's drill in 1980 and '81, and came down to work with us when he could... in particular the weeks after DCI and before DCA championships. We learned a lot from him, and he certainly kept us guessing on a variety of things. LOL. I really think, if he were around today, Vince Bruni would have been all over this "new school" stuff. Another "think out of the box" guy, like Bobby. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 BLAST! Would cost an absolute fortune to produce in Las Vegas, because they'd be subject to paying musician's union scale. Dumb question here, perhaps... what was the situation on Broadway, regarding pay scale for those performers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Expand on this thought, if you'd please, as it challenges for the best descriptor of the point so far. And I might push back a bit on the notion that the MM's are doing "what they want". In the context of show design as a platform for teaching, it's hard to suggest they themselves should write the teaching plan. They're doing what is placed in front of them - show design was done months before the MM's got involved. Corps culture or "vibe", teaching style, and placements in history are stronger determinants of where a student might march than the toys, tools, props, and unis of next year's show during the design stage. Yes, kids can go where they want, but they don't have fore-knowledge of what's going to be put on the field at November auditions. I wonder if there's any empirical evidence to support the contention that today's show design with A&E and all the rest have, in fact, increased the participation rate of today's music students? I'd be interested to see, for sure. But kids will eat anything you put in front of them - artificial additives be-dammed. "Doing what they want" can be taken at a couple of levels...one is the larger scale level of just being in drum corps at all. Just like my day, I "did want I wanted" by participating in drum corps, and moved up the line in corps from parade to class 'B' to class "A". I had zero to do with any of the show designs. At a smaller scale, today kids who choose drum corps have the ability to "do what they want" by auditioning at a national level as opposed to being limited to the corps closest to their home. Anecdotally I know of one guy from NJ who was a contra in BD.because he wanted to be a Blue Devil due to their culture and shows they produced. He had absolutely ZERO interest in a corps like The Cadets, though he was driving distance to their location at the time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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