Classic Countdown: A success?

[Murph]

2003 - Oregon Crusaders Mellophone

2004 - Oregon Crusaders Baritone

2005 - Oregon Crusaders Euphonium

Thank God I am aging out this year... I hate to see how big my horn would have been next year!

Now that's funny. I don't care who you are... $2 to Larry the Cable Guy

[jwillis35]

Honestly, I don't think this was about marketing at all. If it happens to some extent then great. But this was about the drum corps fan. This was about allowing fans to select 12 corps from 4 decades and go to the theaters and just enjoy. I loved it. What a great night. 74 Kingsmen just blew me away. Talk about power throughout the entire show, and they were clean. I loved them all. Yes, it wasn't the best 12 of all time, but I don't know how you can pick that anyway. But it was a good 12.

Jonathan

[frontline99]

I think that the voting created some"interesting" results. Unfortunatly the 80's were left our of it. Yes, we did have 3 corps from the 80', but that was barely a technicality. 1980 show's which were great were very much in the 1970's style. 89 Vanguard is a great show, but much more like the early ninties shows than the bulk of 80's shows. (I also think that SCV should have represented the 70's which they so dominated) I would have liked to see something like 86 Cavies or 87 Cadets in the 80's.

I think for the next time a better system might be to pick one show from groupings of 3 year periods, that way we don't leave any out. The bottom line is that there are a lot of great shows and every one has their own favorites. It's impossible to please everyone one hundred percent. for me personally, Phantom 1996 made it totally worth while, but they were all fun to watch.

Edited April 22, 2005 by frontline99

[Murph]

I understand the Thursday night deal, but IMO, it would have been better when school's out. People mention that it was mostly older fans. That's because the younger fans can't (in some cases) drive 2 hrs to a city where it's being shown and get home after midnight to go to school the next day.

[notelvis]

We had a lot of band-age members in attendance in our theater in Las Vegas (quite the packed house!), and I did hear several of them comment positively on the earlier shows. I specifically heard "Cool" and "awesome" during Spirit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Best comment from my viewing was from a high school kid near me in SC. After the Madison soprano soloist in 'MacArthur Park' he exclaims "That guy must be like 50 now!"

It was a good night and a great opportunity for a cross-generational drum corps experience. A number of 1980's era age-outs near us had their own teen-age kids with them hoping the bug would bite. There were some recent age-outs, a few Carolina Crown member jackets, and most everybody was drawn in by a mutual love of the activity.

David

[AlexL]

I understand the Thursday night deal, but IMO, it would have been better when school's out. People mention that it was mostly older fans. That's because the younger fans can't (in some cases) drive 2 hrs to a city where it's being shown and get home after midnight to go to school the next day.

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if its gotta be an off weekend.. maybe there should be more than one day..... oh.. and not around finals time would be great

Edited April 23, 2005 by alarson83

[MuZiK11]

Thursday is the best night DCI can get. One day away from the weekend. Theatres make a ton of money on the weekends, so they are less likely to carry an event like this which would be depriving them of a lot more than they would make on a DCI show.

I liked it and would go see something like this every year. They should do it again, eliminating this year's winners from the competition. A blast from the past before each season might also slow down the encroachment of silly rule changes as people are consistently reminded what drum corps is all about.

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i b et you would get more people on that thursday nite than you would on saturday for finals .... for people marching senior corps, there are shows on saturday

[Eddie]

I think I almost agree with MagicFlea.

While I do appreciate the opportunity to get to see some drum corps history, IMO, 70's/early 80's drum corps isn't the most exciting thing to watch on a screen.

Even watching current shows on TV grows a little tiresome after only a few shows.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm going to have to disagree here. As snow cone said, the Portland showing was about half and half when it came to current members vs. Drum Corps Bums ($1.00 to Cesario), with most coming from OC. There were more crowd reaction during performances by MS, BD, 27, and Spirit than from the more recent shows.

SCV, VK, and Star got some good reactions too, but man... the older corps really showed that they were having fun, especially the DMs.

Edited April 23, 2005 by bari_benzo

[gdisney]

Thursday is the best night DCI can get. One day away from the weekend. Theatres make a ton of money on the weekends, so they are less likely to carry an event like this which would be depriving them of a lot more than they would make on a DCI show.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does anyone know what percentage Regal is getting of sales, or if they are ust getting a flat fee for theatre use? I think the quarters last year proved they could get good crowds for a DCI event; depending on what cut the theatre is getting they could potentially make more on a DCI show on a Friday or Saturday than they would on a movie.

My only problem with the event is that it receives no advertising from the theatre - at least here there were no lobby cards or attraction posters or signs of any kind that this was going on. Not sure what restrictions there may be, or if DCI just needs to create and send out an ad of some sort, but this event can't help increase the activity's presence in the community if the community doesn't know we're there. Does anyone know where the advertising issue stands on this event?