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DCM show in DeKalb, IL.


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Okay, I have not posted on these forums in a looooooooooooong time. In fact, I haven't even been reading either. I've taken a vacation of sorts from drum corps and it has refreshed my perspective on the activity. After being away from it for a time, one can come back refreshed.

I'm no expert, I'm just a guy who sat in the stands and am going to tell it like it is.

I saw the DCM show in DeKalb, IL, this weekend. I was disappointed at not seeing the div I corps of the midwest perform here as they have been in years past, but no use crying over things beyond my control. I did get to see the midwest all-age corps along with the Renegades, so that was a treat.

Div 3.

The Kingsmen: considering the circumstances these kids may come from, I applaud these hard-working kids. While it may be true that the show overall didn't sound or look that great, I give these guys credit for their perseverence. This is a group of people who won't give up trying for a cause that transcends us all. I hope the Kingsmen never give up trying to be the best they can be...no matter what the circumstances.

Racine Scouts: I enjoyed their show. They played music I recognized and could tap my foot to. These guys seem to come out on the field with a "something" that says to me at least, "we're gonna play what we like to play the way we know how to play it and we don't care what others think." Of course, I think what they did was enjoyable.

Bandettes: I enjoyed this show. I applaud the fact that they are still an all-femle group and are still functioning. I can remember they days of the Ventures and Capitolaires, and it's nice to still see a group of young ladies doing it. I hope they keep going.

Capitol Sound: well now, they shrunk! Yeah, I know about the "late" start. However, I give these guys credit for not giving up. I only hope they come back next year stronger than ever.

Lake Erie Regiment: I honestly don't have anything to say about the show, in fact I don't even remember what they played. Of course, I don't remember what almost every corps that night played. So I guess that makes it even.

Marine drum and bugle corps: OMG! That's all I can say about these guys. They played music I recognized and they performed very well.

Blue Stars: well now, they grew! I can't help but wonder if we'll be seeing Blue Stars back among the ranks of the open class/div I...maybe?

Pioneer: I really wanted to stay away from making any comments about horns, drums, and guard/visual...but I just have to say that this drumline was very tight.

Chops: I love a corps that can come out and poke fun at the "artsy-fartsy". Only Chops could do this. I salute you Ronald McWhopper!

Govies: I also love a corps that interacts with their audience. I really enjoyed this show.

Kilties: weeeeeell, being one who has marched within the ranks of this corps before I feel it's almost unfair to make any comment at all. I did enjoy the show and the new unis. One thing that sticks out the most is the colorguard...not just membership equalling the single digits, but a full-sized guard. God only knows what the years to come will bring.

Renegades: yikes! Loud is good...or is it evil? Hmmmmmmmm, I did enjoy the show and can see that this is a group who comes out and does what they love to do in the way that know how to do it.

MBI: I enjoyed this show. I recognized some of the music they played. I do like it when a hornline does a park-n-blow.

Well that's about it. Nope, I'm not gonna comment about drums or brass or guard simply because I'm really no expert on it. Sure, I know how to play a drum and a baritone, but that doesn't make me an expert and who am I say if someone is playing it right or not? So that's it. Like I said, I'm just a guy who sat in the stands and told it like it is. I don't know...maybe my passion for drum corps has left me... :silly:

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good job Preacher.

Four who stood out

Joliet Kingsmen---these kids are just awesome!!!

Capital Sound---right now, I'd say of all the DCM corps, they've improved the most since the first show......They are going to be much better off being on their own

Renegades---most bizarre show I've ever seen..and I loved it!

The Marines---awesome as always...they are THE best.

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Does anybody have the scores for the juniors?

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Scores from Dekalb (comments to follow):

Division 3

1. Lake Erie Regiment - 56.05

2. Bandettes - 48.30

3. Capital Sound - 45.70

4. Racine Scouts - 36.70

5. Joliet Kingsmen - 32.55

Division 2

1. Blue Stars - 64.95

Division 1

1. Pioneer - 68.85

Senior

1. Minnesota Brass - 75.40

2. Renegades - 74.65

3. Kilties - 56.15

4. Govenaires - 50.95

5. Chops - 46.90

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These are all on DIV. I sheets right?????

If so, the Blue Stars are right in line with some of the DIV. I corps - less than four points away from Pioneer!!!! b**bs (I know, I know, the scores really don't mean anything unless you put the corps head to head!)

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I won't comment on individual shows here (reviewing for DCW), but here are a few overall thoughts about the performances and about the show in general.

First, the theme for the evening for D3 would be: Color Guard drill nearing completion and performance much improved; Brass much improved. It seems that with the smaller corps, early season usually finds the brass line not up to the same level of performance as the percussion line, and CG shows tend to be very incomplete as the season gets underway. It seemed in Dekalb that the shows were getting very close to completion and that both Brass and CG performance has improved considerably. Brass is playing better balanced and more consistently throughout the shows. Guard drill is much cleaner - flags and rifles more in sync, etc.

DCM has only one D2 and one D1 corps - makes for a bit of an odd competition.

Pioneer's new guard costumes make much more sense out of the show, particularly in the dance sections. I like that the skirts match the sashes on the corps - they complement the corps uni's well, which is a refreshing change from most guard costumes.

Renegades were certainly loud, but the loudness award for the evening goes to the Marines. Wow. What a performance.

Any show in Dekalb is going to be a great show to attend, and this was no exception. I don't have attendance figures, but basically the entire middle of the field (between the 40's) was mostly full all the way up (some lower seats empty), as well as some seats outside the 40's. Not the kind of attendance DCM's have gotten in the past, certainly, but it was a good crowd, very enthusiastic. I'd have to think DCM would be pleased with the outcome.

BTW I love the DCM mixed retreats. This was the biggest one they tried all summer, so had a few positioning kinks to work out, but I really like the idea.

As compared to DCM's of the past, of course, we were missing most of the D1 corps that we've seen before. That means fewer souvie stands to browse (though we still had about a half dozen there) and concessions were not the Dekalb norm. I know that there were A LOT of politics behind this show, but from a fan's point of view, it was just a great show.

A few organizational kinks - two of the corps (New Day and Decorah Kilties) did not show and this fact was not announced until after the show was over. They were scheduled to be the first two to perform, and some of the other D3 corps did not seem prepared for the fact that they were now expected to perform about half an hour earlier. This led to some corps taking a long time to get on the field. The same thing seemed to affect the Marines somehow, although they should not have been impacted, as they performed after intermission.

I would have liked to see more effort put into the programs. They were small and had mostly general information - they did have lineups but no details about the shows and no page for entering the scores. Honestly, I expected better there. Also, although the ushers were helpful at the beginning in finding seats, they made no effort to keep people from entering/leaving during shows. It got quite disruptive at times.

I really hope DCM will continue to hold championships at Dekalb. It's the best venue for drum corps I've ever been in, and the evening was really a great drum corps evening. I think it's great for DCI to have a show there earlier in the season and DCM to have one in July - the more shows in Dekalb, the better. Again, overall - just a great evening of drum corps.

--Andrew

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My thoughts of DCM:

Crowd was light for the first couple corps but filled up quickly after that.

Bandettes' hornline had the best, clearest articulations of all D3 corps competing. And they have, pound for pound, the strongest contra section in drum corps B)

I talked with a couple Cap Sound people at their souvie booth, they said that the corps was having fun this season and were very happy to be able to still be operating. I liked their new uniforms, without the grey. The jackets look like Vanguard's, but with a black, red, and white color scheme.

Lake Erie was the first corps who really got the crowd into their show with their ending, where one guard member throws a big reg flag over the hornline to another member.

Marines: These guys are the EPITOME of what drum corps is. They were LOUD, clean musically and visually, and compelling. From the "clank" that came with their first horns-up, they had the crowd riveted, and got 3 standing O's in the first half of their show with a really cool rendition of America the Beautiful with a jazzy rhythm played underneath it. Second number started with Tchaik 4 and ended with Stars and Stripes.

I thought, "man, I'd hate to be the corps that has to follow that up". Blue Stars were that corps, and they were stellar. This is the biggest and best Blue Stars corps I've seen in my 3 years of drum corps (I know, that kind of misses a LOT). They really sell their "Reloaded" program well with a strong visual and guard package. About halfway through the show, I was thinking, "They LOOK like a Div 1 corps out there". Could be a good sign that they're about ready to indeed move back up to Div 1.

Santa Clara may have the most famous cymbal line in DCI, but Pioneer has the biggest, with SEVEN cymbal players on the field. They debuted their new guard uniforms tonight, which got more than a few "Catholic school girl" comments. They're bigger than they've been in the past couple seasons, with close to 50 horns, and they have a pretty good-looking visual package this year, but their high brass needs to develop some more strength when playing soft dynamics and the guard looks like they could be doing more in some spots.

Governairs sounded very strong for a hornline of 12. They started with Georgia and finished with In The Stone and sounded pretty strong the whole way through their show.

Kilties were very strong last night. Their new coats look pretty good, but the sashes look a bit wide even from high up in the stands. Jerry Kelsey's done a fabulous job with the hornline.

Renegades flew in at 5 am Friday and apparantly got a rude introduction to midwest weather with both rain and lots of humidity. They played so loud Friday night that they broke the "corps" shell in Hopkins park, with a storm closing in. It was very cool to hear them play while lightning was flickering in the sky. They have some PVC "tubes" similar to what Blue Man Group plays on that they use for their closer Navras. They're experimenting with the paddles right now to get them to project better. I commented to one of their members that they could also try making some "bells" for the bottoms of the tubes (which shows the extent of my knowledge with PVC instruments). As for their show Saturday, I don't think most of the crowd knew what was about to happen to them when the show started, but they found out pretty #### quick. Crowd gave them standing O's for the first 2 numbers. One of their sops flubbed the end of the "Open Wide" segment and that might have taken a little wind out of the crowd, but the closer got them back into it. All in all, a very successful adventure for the world's loudest drum CULT.

I was wondering if Minnesota would be intimidated by Renegades performance. They made the answer to that very clear, very quickly: NO. They had a really cool program called "Moondancing" which had Moondance, Moonlight Sonata (which was arranged VERY well) and Fly me to the Moon. They had a cleaner drill than Renegades, but some individual rifle drops diminished a few big visual ensemble moments. Hornline didn't quite match Renegades on the volume-meter, but weren't too far behind, and also had a broader dynamic range. They should be another strong contender at DCA this year.

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