MedicineMan Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 Post Dekalb So how did the Crossmen do last night in their first DCI judged performance of 2023. ( In my day they were called drum corps competitions ; DCI in its attempt to evolve with the drum corps activity changed the name to summer musical games and now I think each performance has its own unique name ; tonight it is the Whitewater Classic. But anyway , how did the corps do. Well first and foremost ; Congratulations to the performers ; you are all extremely talented individuals who no doubt made your family, friends, alumni, and staff very proud. You all put your hearts and souls into that performance and it reflects on your character. Great job. You are now in the official record books as a Crossmen performer and overnight your blood has been transformed to Crossmen red. No matter where you all ultimately end your drum corps carers; there will always be a part of you that is a Crossmen and you will fondly take that with you on your post drum corps journey. So back to the show ; how did the Crossmen do? Well the official slate of DCI judges gave then a 70.65. 0.25 points below Madison ; 3 points below the Colts and 4 points below Troopers. OK ; we are off and running ; and it's a marathon. For me : I very much liked the show. There are a lot of very interesting visual and musical concepts to this production. The corps to me seems very balanced ; no weak sections. Now if you analyze the sub captions (. I firmly believe that one day soon there will be a college course on analysis and interpretation of drum corps scoring. And no doubt that the DCP geeks love to obsess and micro analyze the numbers. But to keep it simple for a knucklehead guy like myself ; the Crossmen were in the game with Visual Analysis and Music, but there GE is a bit of a problem. They were 2 points behind the Colts and 2.5 points behind the Troopers in GE alone. Some may say ; well it's their first show and no doubt there were some 1st show performance issues and with some adjustments the numbers will approve. I partly agree with this; I think that this show has a lot of potential for meaningful growth.. But, one of the achilles heels IMHO with the Crossmen is their GE. ( 2019 the exception ). And what is GE ; well DCI has a definition which judging is predicating on, but to this Flo March / DCP geek ; GE can be defined as ; the ability of a corps to get you up out of your chair or seat and make you pump your chest and scream out : THERE THEY ARE : THAT's MY CORPS; .. the tear in the eye for an incredible emotional connection. What I see in the Crossmen is a corps that has you on the edge of your seat, but never gets you up pumping your chest. I am hopeful that subtle changes in design and more performances will change that. So where will the cops go from here : In my many many years of watching the activity and at times being obsessed with the numbers I find that show # 2 is very key and it helps to bring some clarity with regards to the season. Corps who see a jump in their score usually are on a better trajectory on finishing better than what some of the pundits say. No matter what : this is a very good Crossmen edition and there are a lot of folks out there cheering, rooting, an and standing up and pumping their chests for the performers. Best of luck tonight!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStainGlass Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 2 minutes ago, MedicineMan said: Post Dekalb So how did the Crossmen do last night in their first DCI judged performance of 2023. ( In my day they were called drum corps competitions ; DCI in its attempt to evolve with the drum corps activity changed the name to summer musical games and now I think each performance has its own unique name ; tonight it is the Whitewater Classic. But anyway , how did the corps do. Well first and foremost ; Congratulations to the performers ; you are all extremely talented individuals who no doubt made your family, friends, alumni, and staff very proud. You all put your hearts and souls into that performance and it reflects on your character. Great job. You are now in the official record books as a Crossmen performer and overnight your blood has been transformed to Crossmen red. No matter where you all ultimately end your drum corps carers; there will always be a part of you that is a Crossmen and you will fondly take that with you on your post drum corps journey. So back to the show ; how did the Crossmen do? Well the official slate of DCI judges gave then a 70.65. 0.25 points below Madison ; 3 points below the Colts and 4 points below Troopers. OK ; we are off and running ; and it's a marathon. For me : I very much liked the show. There are a lot of very interesting visual and musical concepts to this production. The corps to me seems very balanced ; no weak sections. Now if you analyze the sub captions (. I firmly believe that one day soon there will be a college course on analysis and interpretation of drum corps scoring. And no doubt that the DCP geeks love to obsess and micro analyze the numbers. But to keep it simple for a knucklehead guy like myself ; the Crossmen were in the game with Visual Analysis and Music, but there GE is a bit of a problem. They were 2 points behind the Colts and 2.5 points behind the Troopers in GE alone. Some may say ; well it's their first show and no doubt there were some 1st show performance issues and with some adjustments the numbers will approve. I partly agree with this; I think that this show has a lot of potential for meaningful growth.. But, one of the achilles heels IMHO with the Crossmen is their GE. ( 2019 the exception ). And what is GE ; well DCI has a definition which judging is predicating on, but to this Flo March / DCP geek ; GE can be defined as ; the ability of a corps to get you up out of your chair or seat and make you pump your chest and scream out : THERE THEY ARE : THAT's MY CORPS; .. the tear in the eye for an incredible emotional connection. What I see in the Crossmen is a corps that has you on the edge of your seat, but never gets you up pumping your chest. I am hopeful that subtle changes in design and more performances will change that. So where will the cops go from here : In my many many years of watching the activity and at times being obsessed with the numbers I find that show # 2 is very key and it helps to bring some clarity with regards to the season. Corps who see a jump in their score usually are on a better trajectory on finishing better than what some of the pundits say. No matter what : this is a very good Crossmen edition and there are a lot of folks out there cheering, rooting, an and standing up and pumping their chests for the performers. Best of luck tonight!! Please explain the show to me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenHut Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 1 hour ago, BlueStainGlass said: Please explain the show to me Something about an edge...and a lot of the long and winding road bits. All black unis are awful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billj Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 The music, costumes, guardwork, choreography and props did not clearly portray a theme to me. Maybe there's more to add? The props were used a lot in the later portion of the show, but seemed forgotten for much of the show. Again, maybe more to come, to clarify the theme? Until the theme is more clear, those GE numbers are going to be hard to move up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIguard Posted July 9, 2023 Share Posted July 9, 2023 22 hours ago, ContraFart said: I loved Crossmens show but you can tell they just got on tour and Troopers and Colts have some shows under them. I think Crossmen have the upside to beat both of them, but not tonight On 6/4/2023 at 12:05 PM, Zeke said: Which Corps played Letter from home before? It sounds vaguely familiar Crossman played it in 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicineMan Posted July 9, 2023 Share Posted July 9, 2023 Post Whitewater; pre Lacrosse : Last performance of the 3 show weekend. Crossmen continue their touring of some of the legendary midwestern drum corps towns. I did my early education at the University of Wisconsin and experienced the legend of Whitewater as a corps member. Lacrosse is a very nice town on the upper Mississippi River. Home of the legendary 1st Federal Blue Stars, who are having another very competitive season. I am familiar with both of these sites. Networking from some of my midwest drum corps friends, Crossmen are improving ; there may have been a tad of under scoring from the judges in Whitewater. DCI doesn't make it easy for a corps when you fall out the top 12. Early; pre sundown time slots; a bit a slotting to make everyone fit. GE continues to be the biggest concern. I am hopeful that a 3rd performance tonight will bring more clarity to the show and lead to better GE numbers. As disappointing with regards to the corps placement last night ; this is what helps define each and every corps member. The ability to " pull yourself up by your bootstraps " as Crossmen's founding father Robby Robinson would say after a tough show : this helps to define the character and integrity of each and every corps member. It is part of the magic of participating in the activity of drum corps; teaching young professionals the lessons of life. To the current 2023 members ; good luck tonight. Have an awesome run. Your alumni family as always will be cheering you on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumcorpdad62 Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 Wha explains Crossmen surging after San Antonio? New ending, better cleaning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbass598 Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 9 hours ago, Drumcorpdad62 said: Wha explains Crossmen surging after San Antonio? New ending, better cleaning? Last video I saw looks like the same or similar ending. I think they are just cleaning and playing better. I'm not sure coming out a week later than everyone else and living in your own echo chamber of rehearsal was a good thing but the brass was particularly rough in the beginning. Getting on the road and getting feedback from outside your organization a well as just cleaning is helping. They now seem fairly solid in all captions and don't have a specific weakness for their position. Blue Knights seem to be taking the hit in GE. Pacific Crest is taking the hit in the brass and percussion performance captions. Crossmen are just chugging along. The next 2 weeks will be interesting between those 3. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAtenhut Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 15 hours ago, Drumcorpdad62 said: Wha explains Crossmen surging after San Antonio? New ending, better cleaning? Definitely just cleaning. Show had not changed much from what I could see. They just sound and look much cleaner than they did 2 weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas_Dad Posted July 29, 2023 Author Share Posted July 29, 2023 Crossmen have definitely changed the closer. It just hasn't been shown on Flo yet. The first time they performed it for a crowd was last night in Trussville. We'll get to see it on Flo for the first time tomorrow at NightBEAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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