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DCI 2018 Post Season Review


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2 minutes ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

The acoustic sound was not from this world.  It was full, transparent, in tune, and energetic.  I wish I could time warp each and every one of you born too late to have heard the ‘75 Scouts, ‘76 Blue Devils, ‘77 Cavaliers, and any Jim Ott Spirit of Atlanta line live.  The sound is great now, please don’t get me wrong, but there was a hard edge to the sound those lines put out.  It wasn’t just loud.  It was good.  

It was a force of nature. You felt it.

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Just now, George Dixon said:

It was a force of nature. You felt it.

Beautifully stated.  At fff the stadium rails would pick up the resonance and vibrate.  

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7 hours ago, MikeN said:

I feel the exact opposite - this was one of my favorite years in decades.  I like that corps are starting to get out of the "DCI style show" box and try new things, and it makes me excited to see what they're going to do next.  The kids are taking everything thrown at them - march, dance, pose, roll, run *and* play - and are putting on quality productions that I know I couldn't have done back then. 

I'm a product of the late 80's/early 90's in DCI, but I'm happy as a clam with what they're doing now.

Mike

i gotta agree. all kinds of musical stayles played, including out and out jazz, which always seems to get complaints about being ignored. Harlem Nocturne in a company front? God Bless the Child? Ozzy and metallica? The Beatles? all over the map and I loved it

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11 hours ago, Spatzzz said:

...things evolve or they die. 

  Read enclosed. Original owners in 1962 should've kept the old thing in the family. They probably now have a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee on a 36 month lease with a leasing Co, where they don't even own the " modern " Car. Oh well, they " evolved " to the 2018 Jeep.

 Meanwhile, the current owners of this old 1962 car that never changed , fetched this for themselves.  It was expected to perhaps fetch them as much as double this... but still in all, not such a bad receipt for the old thing for the owner(s), imo. :

 http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-70-million-dollar-ferrari-sale-20140814-story.html#

Edited by BRASSO
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16 hours ago, Spatzzz said:

Let's also remember that today's MM's much prefer today's style. 

Let's also remember that you cannot know how every current marching member feels about every aspect of current style.  Not to mention how many are alienated by that style, who thus choose not to march.

Quote

That is the reason the corps can all stay stocked with the high level talent they have. Going back in time to the 70's 0r 80's would be like forcing kids today to use a rotary dial phone in the iPhone age. 

For many decades, drum corps was like forcing kids to use bugles in the trumpet age.  And there were more kids marching back then.

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18 hours ago, EntertainmentTrumpsAll said:

Hello!


With the season now over, I wanted to have a discussion on where Drum Corps is and where the activity is going. I want to maintain a positive attitude but I also want to point out some things that have truly rubbed me the wrong way the past few years and see if I am alone in this, or if others here feel the same way.

I live in Arizona and don’t have access to many shows in my immediate vicinity, mainly just the Drums Across the Desert. I also regularly attend the DCI Big Loud and Live events each year, so my view of DCI and Drum Corps in general is limited to only a few events a year, but I have been vigorously following the activity since the early 2000’s.

I mean no disrespect to any of the amazing marching members or volunteers or all of the incredible people it takes to make a DCI season happen, but this 2018 season had to be my least favorite season of DCI that I have ever seen.

There was such a colossal use of props and staging that I sat there in my seat and consistently was taken out of the performances because there seemed to be so little actual marching going on. My father has been a huge DCI fan for years and years and he was chuckling to himself at how little corps were actually playing while marching.

I don’t want to have this turn into a hate post, because I do love this activity so much, but I walked away from Drums Across the Desert quite disappointed and that feeling didn’t leave me after walking out of the theater either.

I feel that the activity as a whole needs to take some big steps toward cutting down on a few things –

1.       Electronic use – Not every solo needs to be mic’ed and pre-recorded audio needs to be kept to a minimum. I don’t have as much problem with microphone usage on live audio, but pre-recorded stuff being played out of speakers is getting out of hand.

2.       Amount of prop use – The sheer amount of props on the field per corps was insane this year. I don’t blame the corps for not moving (see: Marching) as much due to the ridiculous amount of props, but do we really need to have so much? Half of the time it looked more like a stage than a football field.

3.       Dance – There have been some great uses of dance and movement in the past (Cavaliers 2002 – Fight Club comes to mind) but it has gotten to the point where the marching members are dancing around more than they are marching. I have nothing against dance as a visual art form, but its use should be fairly restricted in drum corps.

 

Am I alone here? I was very disheartened leaving the theater Thursday night. My father even said he didn’t know if he wanted to come back next year because we didn’t enjoy ourselves. I feel all of the above issues I have mentioned seem to only be getting worse each year.

 

Thanks!

You make good points although it does appear that your perspective is limited to what you see on the screen provided by either Flomarching or Fathom (in my opinion Flo camera coverage has been very poor again this year - another topic!). For a live perspective we attended a ToC show in Katy, a Regional in San Antonio and all 3 days in Indy and I was astounded by the complexity of drill from a high percentage of corps, incl Open Class. With a few exceptions "mega props" were limited with props generally being an extension of what high schools already put on the field. Electronics at the top end are VERY sophisticated - being on the 4th row of LOS we got a close up view of some very expensive mixing desks, which in itself is OK if you can afford them, but then using adult staff to operate them adds a level of skill to the Corps performance that is inconsistent. I do agree that the use of electronic voices is getting out of hand although I like to hear "effect" samples. Anyway just my 2 cents!

Edited by Freanz
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On 8/13/2018 at 10:46 PM, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

Beautifully stated.  At fff the stadium rails would pick up the resonance and vibrate.  

I invited my girlfriend at the time to a SCV practice in 1988 - they were practicing on a parking lot in the midwest

So we were standing there at the front "sidelines" and that show started a quiet build and then a BIG hit from Phantom (year 1)

As they ran the rep she was smiling and nodding along - enjoying - but when the big first hit happened she fell  backwards off the curb she was standing on and landed on her butt

Not only was it hilarious - and I still remember it 30 years later - but I knew she was a good girlfriend when she stood  back up and said "that was so awesome!"

lol 

Yes - it was real. Bam! 

Edited by George Dixon
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