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A Corps by Corps review, by new eyes and someone


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I decided to take my 18yo son with me. He plays Baritone and tuba in band. He's never seen a drum corps show so I thought it would be interesting to see how he reacts. Also it might give him the bug to march next year. Went to the Riverview Theatre in Philly. Was worried because one, I could find thier number to see if it was sold out and two I got there late. I'm thinking the place would be packed and it wasn't close. Lots of empty seats. We ended up with seats along the 40. :P . The crowd seemed a little subdued.

74 Kingsmen, I didn't know what to expect but I came in half way through their show. Like what I saw but noticed there wasn;t alot of guard work. I noticed the gaurds didn't get active until the late 70's.

75 Scouts, Wow, Even with the bad sound (not bad but they could have turned it up way up some more). I can see how they were almost undeated that year. My son who has never seen a DCI show was most impressed with the mallet players and timps. He was amazed they could play so well and march at the same time. This was a championship show from top to bottom.

76 Devils, To me Channel One Suite is the ultimate opener. I love the timps in this peice (being an old timp player in my high school days, yes we were the last HS in TOB to carry timps in 81) and I can listen to Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor all day long.

I noticed a rapid progression in quality each year. It was good having three different years in a row to show the upgrade of music, marching and GE in the activity. Kingsmen military style, to Scouts blow you away to Blue Devils new Jazz style. Love it all.

80 Spirit of Atlanta, Jim Ott was smiling down from heaven after this show. To me this was a championsip show. The guard work was very imnpressive ( this coming from a drummer) The CG work fit the show. Looking at the recaps I never knew they tied Bridgemen in Drums. I seen they were good but man oh man. I see they lost it in GE of all things. With this show...simply amazing. I was blown away. I keep thinking, "how did they not win". My son sat with his mouth open the whole show.

80 Lancers. How did they not win. I'm listening to English Folk Song Suite and thinking I've heard that before, Then realized my band played it in 81. We also had the flag toss on the 50 in 81 and our flags were the same. And we got 2nd also, go figure. 27 you have to mention the guard. Of the night they had to be in the top 2. I still love the Rifle uni's. I'm thinking the whole time, "you don't dance in that gear" then they danced....a little. Another half point in Horns and they would have won it all. This was one of my sons favorites.

80 had to be one of the best years for Corps from number 1 to number 25

89 SCV...............................................................speachless. They ran the whole show it seemed. I mean run. Run like your a black man being chased by the cops running (don't get offended I'm black so I can say that :) but I haven't been chaed by the police yet) and playing their collective Arses off. This is a show I could watch everyday. man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the words of Paris Hilton, Thats hot. This show could win today.

91 Star of Indiana. I never seen this show. Uniforms seems a little busy. Like it was too much going on around the head area. It seemed to leave the audience a little dry. But to those who say Rap or Hip-hop is too repetitative to use on the field I have one thing to say, Pines of Rome. The "theme" repeats over and over and over and over and over and over again but it's still a great piece for the field. maybe one day someone will have the gonads to put truly progressive on the field. And I did hear the best corps money could buy once while they were on.

92 Velvet Knights haven't seen his show since 92 and I laughed my butt off. My son went crazy, There was so much stuff going on I couldn't keep up. How do you come in 10 in GE with this show. The crowd was into it the whole time. Loosen up a little DCI. I'm thinking this is a great show. If they marched tighter (more in step and better forms) they could have done some damage. My son loved it.

96 Phantom Regiment. I'm not a fan of the black at all. But they show was tight all the way through. Phantom is my favorite but this show for some reason wasn;t it for me. My son felt the same way.

2000 Crusaders. First let me apologize. Why because I didn;t like Cru for some reason. But RED changed my mind about them. Bolero, luv'd it, Time to say goodbye, Luv'd it. luv'd the whole show. Even the singing part :P

2000 The Cadets. The intro mentions obscure. To 80% of the audience 90% of the music in Drum Corps is obscure. But good music is good music. if you have people clapping or tapping thier feet is good music. Well I wasn't tapping. I was looking but I couldn't really grasped what they were playing. I found myself more initerested in the guard work. The biggest reaction came from the Drum solo which was hot. I loved the horn line leg kick also. Lots of good stuff though.

2002 Cavaliers, I remember seeing this in 2002, (I taped the broadcast and my daughter taped over it with spongebob or something) but I have more apprecation for it now. This is the kind of show you fold after because you can't do it any better. I'm this close to calling this the best total Drum Corps show ever...EVER.

Some observations. I know there's this thing about old school and new school. But seeing the two together gives me a better apprecation of the new stuff. But, I would love to see Guard uniforms,

A drum solo, a real solo were the line plays for 2-3 minutes instead of these little interludes.

Some park and blow. A nice concert, Since Guards want to dance this would be a great time to showcase them.

Also too much dancing. There should be a rule that guards have to have a piece of equipment in their hands at all times.

The tick system. While not prefect it's easier to change something thats wrong instead of judge telling you his opinion. You can fix a flaw easier then you can change someones mind.

Overall I thought it was a nice. Got out with my son. Seen some great corps, I just wished the crowd was into a little more. Maybe a little time between corps or list of the repertiore before or after each corps. It was rapid fire for each decade with breaks in between. Oh did it seem that Mike Cesarios eyes were kind of red. I'm not saying he was high but visine wouldn;t have hurt. I hope they do this every year.

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91 Star of Indiana. I never seen this show. Uniforms seems a little busy. Like it was too much going on around the head area. It seemed to leave the audience a little dry. But to those who say Rap or Hip-hop is too repetitative to use on the field I have one thing to say, Pines of Rome. The "theme" repeats over and over and over and over and over and over again but it's still a great piece for the field. maybe one day someone will have the gonads to put truly progressive on the field. And I did hear the best corps money could buy once while they were on.

[snip]

2000 The Cadets. The intro mentions obscure. To 80% of the audience 90% of the music in Drum Corps is obscure. But good music is good music. if you have people clapping or tapping thier feet is good music. Well I wasn't tapping. I was looking but I couldn't really grasped what they were playing. I found myself more initerested in the guard work. The biggest reaction came from the Drum solo which was hot. I loved the horn line leg kick also. Lots of good stuff though.

I sincerely hope the comment you overheard during Star was meant as a joke. Bill Cook did say that, but it was all a joke. What he tried to do with Star has been very misunderstood and attacked for reasons that just don't make any sense. The activity has been hurt by losing a man like Bill Cook who loved the activity and was willing to put his money where his heart was. I really wish Star was still on the field. The influence of Star from 1990-1993 is all over the activity now.

As for the Cadets' music, if you ever go to Walt Disney World and take in the 'end-of-the-day' celebration at Epcot known as "Illuminations: Reflections of Earth", you will get to hear the pieces that their show was based on.

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For my money '96 Phantom was the treat of the evening. That show was an understated delight. I'm disappointed at the 'placement' the fans gave but not surprised given their history. Between PR and '89 SCV, neither of whom I'd ever seen, it was money well spent. I was also impressed by Cavies - a second seeing increased my appreciation for 'Frameworks'.

It's nice to see that despite some significant changes, drum corps is alive and well at least at the upper echelon.

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I really loved the whole evening, and kept saying to myself, "I'm sitting in a big movie theatre watching DRUM CORPS!" Our crowd (seattle) was sufficiently into it to make it loose and fun. I haven't been following DCI much since the mid-80s and mistakenly thought DCI had degenerated into self-aggrandizing Broadway cheese. I am delighted to eat my words on that, and was so excited to see what corps are doing nowadays. The big moment for me -- really big -- was the Phantom show. Whoa, that was heavy!! I have never followed Phantom or been a fan. I remember on tour in 85 we shared a rehearsal facility w/Phantom and I didn't even really care, whereas when we shared spaces w/Suncoast and Garfield I was over there every second recording the rehearsals (still have the tapes, too). So imagine my surprise last night when Phantom's show had me gasping for air and choking back tears. I just wish I could go back and see it for the first time again. Austere, dark, intense, totally serious drum corps. And that kick halt at the end...yes!!

I loved being able to finally see the 70's stuff after listening to tapes for so long. Scouts just rocked the house! I've seen the 89 SCV show enough times and never cared for it particularly. I don't like Webber, even though SCV really brought a lot of class and drama to what I consider to be incredibly lame source material. Still a wonderful show because their performance was stellar and very honest.

I'll probably be vilified for this, but Star's Resphigi show is one that I've always strongly disliked. Which is a shame because I have always wanted to hear a corps play Roman Festivals and Fountains of Rome (loved 82-83 cavies Pines). That stuff seems made for corps and Star's brass book just sucks all the life out of the stuff. It is totally unbalanced and mid-heavy, and all the potential impact is watered down by incessant middle-horn runs. Not to mention sloppy M&M execution. Maybe in person it was more impressive?

The Cadets and Cavs were real eye-openers for me. That's 20 years' worth of evolution happening there, and it's just unbelievable. I love the old stuff, of course, but I feel that the activity is stronger than ever in many ways after seeing this stuff. Just, please, someone, keep the #$%^@@# microphones away from the singers! That's just horrifying.

It's so exciting that this even happened. It sounds like a lot of theatres had sound issues. That's a real bummer. Our sound was fine, so we were loving it. Thanks for all the great votes and to DCI for doing it.

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