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I have rediscovered drum corps!


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with your love of 2015 Cadets I'd suggest you check out Cadets 1998, 1996, 2009 fo similar fare of music & movement -- enjoy!

like you I've drifted in and out of the activity - I used to love to go to many shows a season, now one or two does the trick

I find many of the shows way too filled with angst & posing on props or amplified solos - and fifteen songs chopped into 11 minutes vs. "music" with a proper arch

I tend to enjoy what I enjoy and do my best to irgnore the rest!

welcome back!

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5 hours ago, Skeletor '96 said:

Hello, all – my name is Michael and I marched mellophone in the 1996 Cavaliers and was absolutely obsessed with drum corps in the late 80s and 90s when I was in high school and college.  I started to lose interest in drum corps after about 2009 and stopped going to shows or paying much attention to what was going on in DCI at all.  I still went to finals in 2011 and was thoroughly unimpressed.  I decided to pay to watch 2019 finals at home to see again if things had gotten any better.  Let’s just say the Beatles are my favorite band and the Bluecoats got me back into watching drum corps big time.  I had so much fun that night, I spent some big bucks and bought all the DCI blu-rays going back to 2013, the first year I stopped buying DCI DVDs before.  I must say, generally I’m still unimpressed, but there are some great shows out there now from the last six years.  The trends in the activity are interesting and to buy up the whole recent history of DCI in one go and take it all in for the first time was wonderful.

 

I’ve read a fair amount of what’s going on in this forum to learn what other “old-timers” here think about the “new stuff”.  I decided not to read too much more of that until I made this first post and give my impressions of what’s going on from my own “naïve” individual point of view as a “re-newcomer” to DCI again, without knowing much of what others think.  I think some readers might find this a unique way of seeing how an old-timer might feel about this wealth of stuff that’s brand-new to me.

 

Overall, I don’t really like the fact that shows are still often unentertaining, unmelodic, rambling, obscure, and that there are too many huge props and synthesizers.  I hate amplified extended storytelling and singing, and miss uniforms as opposed to “costumes”.  I do like that you can amplify solos over the “loud parts” now, though.  I’m also surprised at how much I enjoy the addition of trombones.  There are a lot of really effective glissando parts, especially with the 2016 Blue Devils.  Generally I still don’t like post-2008 BD, but they still put out a couple winners for me: 2012 and 2016.  I don’t know why they can’t stick to playing the same tune for more than 16 measures and I think their “oddness” seems a little pretentious.  That said, they’re probably the best musicians I’ve ever heard, truly virtuosic sometimes, as is Carolina Crown’s brass.  (I know 2012 BD is the oddest, but I learned about dada in college, and to see and hear BD’s interpretation of it fascinating.  I guess that means I probably should learn more about the meanings of their more recent shows, in BD’s defense.)

 

The greatest shows of the “new era” to my eyes (why does nobody have killer drill anymore?) and ears would be 2016 Bluecoats, 2015 Cadets, 2015 Crown, 2016 Crown, 2016 Devils, 2013 Cadets, 2018 Boston, and 2019 Bluecoats, in no particular order.  Crown ruined several otherwise amazing shows with narration and singing.  2018 Bluecoats, 2015 Bluecoats, 2014 Cadets, 2017 Cadets, and many others’ did, too.  It’s sad to see the decline of great corps like the Cadets and Phantom.  (But 2015’s Cadets were very 1990s-ish and fantastic for it.  Best Cadets show since 1993.)

 

I didn’t like 2016 Bluecoats’ show at first but have to come to consider it one of my all-time favorites.  What time signature is that relentless Spanish song in, anyway, 13/8???  They actually made Pink Floyd work on the drum corps field, too.  (They need to do the Pinkcoats for 2020 for sure.)  They also made great use of their giant props that year, unlike their giant chairs later  – pretty much like all the other corps with giant props.  That cheesy wink thing was kinda cool though.  Crown was amazing in 2016, too, taking that 1993 Star music in completely the opposite direction and telling an epic story with it successfully.  I was practically hanging off the edge of my seat holding my breath to see how that show would end on my first viewing - a first for me.

 

It’s too bad corps often play such difficult horn parts now that they usually can’t march while playing them, but BD and Crown are still amazing musicians.  Crown managed impressively to march through a few ridiculously hard parts over the years, though.  Also fantastic now is all the body choreography by the horn players in more shows now.  1993 Star was way ahead of their time.  I know I personally never had the coordination to do any of that.

 

It looks like my Cavies have been engaging in some “rebuilding” years, but 2019 looks like the beginning of a great corps coming back.  But just say no to singing and cheesy electronic sound effects, guys.  Some of their newer uniforms are really great I’m surprised to say.  The men in green will always be my brothers and it’s exciting to see their new directions.  Splooie!

 

Santa Clara is generally excellent every year, too, but not enough so to make me comment on anything specific, other than maybe 2015’s Spark of Invention.  Boston’s made some great strides in the last few years, their “SOS” production being my favorite show of 2018.  It’s good to be literal sometimes; too many shows today have such obscure themes if any at all – just visual motifs.

 

I don’t want to go on too long and I know I’ve been kinda rambling, but thought some people might be interested in what somebody who’s re-lost his “drum corps virginity” without tainting myself yet with today’s general opinions.  I hope I haven’t said anything too inappropriate that might have offended anyone.  One of my general impressions, though, is that every top 6 corps’ musicians are now musical virtuosos compared to anything from the 90s.  And maybe despite what I’ve said about some shows, I really do love almost all of them to some degree or another and am thrilled to be back.  I am very much looking to getting my 2019 blu-rays soon and watching much of 2020 live online.

 

 

 

“Number 9” \ “Turn me on Deadman”

 

You marched in 96?!?!? AWESOME! That show was freaking incredible! 

Thank you for sharing! 

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I didn’t like the 1996 Cavaliers at all...when I first saw the show. I saw it at least 6 times that summer, and with each time I saw the show, the more I disliked it. 
 

That said, as I watched it more over the years, I have grown to love it. I felt the same way with SCV in ‘96. Now, I love that show as well.

I think 1996 gets forgotten by many in general in the activity, because 1995 was a great year for so many corps that so many from 1996 got lost.   But it truly was a great season for so many. 

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1996 was an off-year for everybody, but being in the Cavaliers was my ultimate dream come true.  They had been my gods since 1990 when I was a saxophone player.  I didn't teach myself to  play mellophone till I was 19 because I realized I only had two more years left till it was too late forever.

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Just now, Skeletor '96 said:

1996 was an off-year for everybody, but being in the Cavaliers was my ultimate dream come true.  They had been my gods since 1990 when I was a saxophone player.  I didn't teach myself to  play mellophone till I was 19 because I realized I only had two more years left till it was too late forever.

I liked Cadets, BD & Phantom! 😛

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I've only recently come to like Pan-American Sketches (our show in 1996).  I think I was always bummed out I was almost in The Planets.

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