Thoughts on 2005 DVD

[posaune10]

I've noticed that the audio and visual don't line up in quite a few places., which I found pretty disappointing considering how long we had to wait to get them.

I'm also noticing that they touched up some of the solo work. Most noticably, the first sop solo in PR's show. (the one with the plunger provided by Gene Kelly!) That solo was flubbed a bit on finals night....wasn't it? Is that usual on a DVD release from DCI? I mean, it wasn't that bad....not like it was '89 BD or anything!

[JMS0527]

It was a flub from what I can tell..

I have the APDs from Quarterfinals, I listened to the Semis stream on the Season Pass...I don't remember how I heard the finals, but I think the poor guy had a flub all 3 nights...I felt bad for him

Oh well...still a great show...I think Phantom has had tremendous momentum lately....after the great season they just finished, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they will be contenders in 2006...certainly, I think they'll get a title before 2010..

[ACE-Driving]

I noticed that too...

Anyway, here are some of my first impressions of the DVDs so far (I haven't finished yet though...):

Good

-Cadets were just clean, clean, clean. 99.15 was not because they were near-perfect, but they were just that much better than the other corps.

-Phantom's show sounded great, and as noted above, the trumpet soloist sounded great too!

-Blue Devils- WOW. I knew it. I knew that even if it was 4th place it would still be on of BD's best shows. Kudos to them, I was really impressed.

-Madison's drill- Not very clean, but I must say, HOLY CRAP. Best drill I've seen Madison perform in years. Peter Weber is going to do great things at SCV this next season.

-SCV really stepped it up finals night...a truly great performance.

Bad

-Maybe it was all the hype from the summer, but in the end, Phantom's show didn't impress me much. I loved it...but I was definitely expecting more based on what I heard.

-I'd been waiting for months to see the Bluecoats show, as it's my favorite show to listen to from the CDs. Was let down when I finally saw it. It wasn't all bad, but I again was expecting more from a group that sounded as good as they did. They have DEFINITELY stepped up for sure though, so they're going in the right direction.

-Madison's lackluster, anticlimatic ending. Sorry to sound so negative, but not only was it un-Madison, it just ruined the whole story they were telling throughout the show. I was confused and disappointed.

-Crown...Ok, yes, they sound great. Fine. But in my opinion, the musical book didn't sound challenging enough. Again, more things to be solved next year, and they performed what they had great.

-SCV's show design as a whole.

[GeneralTsoChicken]

It was a flub from what I can tell..

I have the APDs from Quarterfinals, I listened to the Semis stream on the Season Pass...I don't remember how I heard the finals, but I think the poor guy had a flub all 3 nights...I felt bad for him

Oh well...still a great show...I think Phantom has had tremendous momentum lately....after the great season they just finished, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they will be contenders in 2006...certainly, I think they'll get a title before 2010..

It is a she, her name is Lindsay.

She is a good trumpet player that goes to Austin Peay, and bless her heart had some helladrill going into that solo, and worked hard on it all season long.

I'm glad they snip cut that performance, because the corps itself didn't let it slow them down performance wise, and it would be sad for that to overshadow the energy the show had that night.

[posaune10]

It is a she, her name is Lindsay.

She is a good trumpet player that goes to Austin Peay, and bless her heart had some helladrill going into that solo, and worked hard on it all season long.

I'm glad they snip cut that performance, because the corps itself didn't let it slow them down performance wise, and it would be sad for that to overshadow the energy the show had that night.

She is, indeed a good player. She nailed it at Indy, and it wasn't really that noticable at finals. I just noticed the DVD version was unblemished. ...not knocking her as a player, that's for sure!!

[JMS0527]

It is a she, her name is Lindsay.

She is a good trumpet player that goes to Austin Peay, and bless her heart had some helladrill going into that solo, and worked hard on it all season long.

I'm glad they snip cut that performance, because the corps itself didn't let it slow them down performance wise, and it would be sad for that to overshadow the energy the show had that night.

####....I knew the soloist could've been a she...naturally, I forgot to put a qualifier in there....

Whether she reads the board or not.....my bad, Lindsay

[Matt_S]

She nailed it at Indy

She certainly did! That solo was definitely one of the highlights of the evening. :)

[Tez]

-First off, let me say how happy I am with the quality of this years DVDs. The volume level is way up from last year and I even think the balance is better between the front ensembles and the field musicians. The camera work is also top notch. I usually only watch shows from the high cam, but some of the angles they have for the multi-cam view are extremely interesting.

-When I saw the Blue Devils at the Indy show, I was very dissapointed. I think they were they only corps in the evening show whom I did not give a standing ovation... and I consider the Blue Devils to be my favorite corps. Well, now after viewing the DVD, they have like my third or fourth favorite show of this year. The performance level is just amazing. I really don't see why they scored so low (for them). I thought they were just as clean as the past few years. It must have been the show design... but then I ask... why did the Cadets score soooooo high with a strange show and the Blue Devils didn't? I would like to hear eveyone's opinion on this matter. What made the judges like the Cadets much better than the Blue Devils in 2005? I'm not saying they were wrong, I would just like to understand this better.

-Phantom Regiment... what an astounding show and performance. This will probably become one of my top 3 favorite shows of all time (along with BD '99 and Star '91). The thing they said toward the beginning of the commentary was right on about this show... it is simply full of melody. So many different melodies. The show just makes you feel good. And, by far the best drill they have ever marched.

-On that subject, I believe this was easily the best year ever for drill all around. In my opinion, the Cadets, Phantom, Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Madison, Crown and possibly some more had their best drills to date. Almost every drill designer stepped it up in complexity of design and velocity this year.

-Is it me, or did the gap between the very top corps and the rest really close up this year. The past several years, it seemed as though the top 2 or 3 corps were easily better than the rest.. on a level by themselves. I guess you could say that about the Cadets this year, but to a much lesser extent. I honestly think if most of us could view the top 6 performances in a random order without knowing who actually won, it would be extremely difficult to guess in which the order the judjes placed them. Just think about this for a bit and tell me if you agree or not... be honest.

-I really enjoyed the last production of the Cavaliers show this year. It was very refreshing to hear them let loose and just jam. This blues is probably my favorite musical selection from this corps.

-Did any corps have a quiet ending this year?

-Make sure you watch the Cadets show with the drum judge tape audio. At the beginning he wishes the corps, and himself, good luck because he had not been on the field with them prior to finals. Doesn't that seem really strange? Is that very common? It is also amusing to hear his comments about the drumspeak. He seemed to really dig it.

-On the subject of the judge tapes... the guard judge's reaction to the Cavies baseball is priceless.

-Final note: I am so pleased with the way Drum and Bugle Corps is progressing at this point. It is just awesome how much better these performances got this year. If there is this much improvement next year... All I can say is, we need to get more people exposed to this amazing spectacle.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Tez

[Jared_mello]

-Did any corps have a quiet ending this year?

Mandarins, in div 1.

[Linnehan13]

-When I saw the Blue Devils at the Indy show, I was very dissapointed. I think they were they only corps in the evening show whom I did not give a standing ovation... and I consider the Blue Devils to be my favorite corps. Well, now after viewing the DVD, they have like my third or fourth favorite show of this year. The performance level is just amazing. I really don't see why they scored so low (for them). I thought they were just as clean as the past few years. It must have been the show design... but then I ask... why did the Cadets score soooooo high with a strange show and the Blue Devils didn't? I would like to hear eveyone's opinion on this matter. What made the judges like the Cadets much better than the Blue Devils in 2005? I'm not saying they were wrong, I would just like to understand this better.

Cadets were simply on a different level. They played tons of notes, cleanly. BD's show was a boring show in person. I sat way up high near the 40, and I couldn't pick out a melody. Also, the show designs were completely defferent. BD's show was centered on talking and the screamers (BOR-ING and easy!), while the Cadets' show was centered on their drumline and guard (entertaining and extremely difficult!). Another quick note, BD's percussion was not nearly as clean as Cadets'.