2006 DCI Classic Countdown

[Lancerlady]

I have to say just one thing about those who don't understand or may not know about something regarding the earlier corps, just consider it a little history lesson.

In 1975 the 27th Lancers were still playing on rotary horns...so I personally think anything they did rocked..it's hard playing on those horns .

For those who don't know about the color guards back then, there was only so much they were allowed to do back then. 27 was the first one to bring out double flags, so for it's time it was ground breaking and they still weren't allowed to do much movement in concert pieces (up until 75). 1976 and later was when they really started doing more things with equipment and dancing started slowly coming into play more. I hope that helps explain some of why they didn't do as much as you'd expect for that time, it was 1975. So think of how much drum corps evolved from then until 80's. :) I personally prefer more equipment then dancing.

Also I loved 1979 Blue Devils, that "Free" Chart is one of my favorites and the closer, "My heart belongs to me", just is incredible to me..beautiful arrangement.

1980 Bridgemen, well what can I say, I am a fan, it took our crowd a while to warm up to them after the opener it seemed.

84 Cadets show is one of my favorites, it got a great response..

I still don't get the Star show, I mean, I get it, and understand it, but don't understand why it's considered so controversial, it's not one of my personal favorites, I picked the 90 show over this one so...I don't know what kind of response that was, I guess scattered....

Crossmen, I enjoyed the first half of the show, (it seemed the crowd did too), it was just the ending the puzzled me and the crowd didn't respond much either.

Cavaliers, well received..loved the show.

Madison, everyone loves Madison...when they did the big turn around it seemed like a whole bit of electricity came over everyone...:) The mellophone solo leading up to that..just awesome.

Phantom was the biggest response, I think there must've been some alumni in the house, but we were all glad to see they came in first place with the votes. To me that says something.

It was my first time seeing the 99 SCV show, at first I was getting into it, loved the drill, but then, I just got lost somewhere along the way. Not with the drill but the corps identity didn't seem to be SCV for me...I was told I had to see this show live to get a better understanding...oh well..not my favorite SCV show and I'm a big SCV fan.

We were at the Waterford Lakes in Orlando..

Not a big response for Bluecoats really nor was there one for Crown and when the guy did his beatnik "Love" poetry people started laughing...I felt uncomfortable during that time. And these two shows had the lowest votes.

Over all the sound was pretty decent and the show was okay I enjoyed the first half better...70's and 80's...and some 90's..

Edited April 28, 2006 by Lancerlady

[randomguy]

Loved the show....low volume from the speakers and the crowd at my theatre didnt leave me very happy. There was a guy that BOOOOOHED the Bluecoats...I wanted to beat him. But good times none the less. Maybe next year I will find more corps buddies.

i've got a guess of what corps they were pulling for in 05, but i wont go there...

[JTE]

1993 Star..... No offense to hard-core Star fans ( and I'm not "anti-Star" by any means, in fact I very much enjoyed the '91 "Roman Festivals" show and various other Star offerings) .... but I could watch this 1993 show 500 times and not quite "get" it. But that's just me. Maybe that was the whole point of that '93 show..... to REALLY shake things up in the drum corps world. If so, mission accomplished, for what it was worth

Maybe I can help...

During the Classic Countdown a teenage girl behind me stated, "I just don't find this exciting." The show is not meant to be "exciting." It taps into the emotions of "the dark side." The show attempts to connect to the feelings of despair, sadness, hate, anger, and vengeance. The show also throws out the DCI mentality of "RFL" and places emphasis on clarity and quality of sound at ALL dynamic levels for the percussion as well as the horn line. This combined with clean feet and clean drill at breakneck speeds.

On Star’s MySpace website there is a clip called "93 Closer to the end”

Star's MySpace Page

If you can not hear Medea killing her husband and childern in the music, tempo, and the dynamics then I’m not sure there is anything that can help you understand the show.

Edited April 28, 2006 by JTE

[Geneva]

Victor, NY (near Rochester)...crowd smaller than I expected and a little reserved, though Phantom reached them. This has always been one of my favorite shows. Glad to see so many agree with a well deserved first. The picture was fuzzy particularly in the early years, but I think this may have partly been due to magnification to crop close ups from the original images. Many of those shots reminded me of what I loved so much about old drum corps...the incredible focus and trance-like intensity that the simpler phase of the art-form lent itself to. I appreciate modern drum corps, but sometimes it seems like all the emoting can get distracting.

[davam]

The report from Kenosha, Wis.:

Good crowd; the theater was nearly full. Only the front two or three rows had empty seats. Saw lots of corps jackets, T-shirts, etc. -- mostly Kilties, Scouts, some Cavies and Royalaires, even an old Kingsmen jacket (Kenosha Kingsmen, I believe). I'd say most of the crowd was middle-age and up; handful of kids and 20-somethings.

Crowd was into it from the get-go. Applause after almost every show, and during certain shows. Scouts and Phantom were the favorites, and people cheered for Camp Randall (well, this is Wisconsin).

Best responses were probably for Scouts, Phantom and Cavies. Trailing the pack were Crossmen, Star, Blue Devils.

Some folks left before the 2000s, but most stayed to the end.

Vote reveal at the end was the most fun. As the list narrowed and people realized Scouts or Phantom hadn't been listed yet, there was lots of buzz. Scouts announced in third drew boos (just like every year they don't win). Big cheer for Phantom in first place.

On a side note: Michael Cesario is from Kenosha. I sat with a friend/co-worker who talked about when she was in high school and Michael worked with the Kenosha band (The Band of the Black Watch) and how he'd sit high up on a hill watching rehearsal with a towel wrapped around his head to keep the sun off and come storming down the hill when mistakes were made!

[Michael Boo]

I was at the downtown Chicago show. The theater was maybe a third full, but then, there were three Chicago area theaters this year compared to only one last year. There was a lot of clapping for the corps. I own all the shows on DVD, but to see them on the big screen is really neat.

The DVD of the show is now available from www.dci.org for $39.

[ShortAndFast]

Thoughts for the night

- That poor chimes player in 27! I just cannot imagine...

- Good lord, the Garfield mello soloist was good.

- I really didn't need to know that Michael Cesario dreams about Phantom Regiment.

- Star 1993 is some of the most amazing brass playing I have heard in the activity.

- The Cavies spinning DNA drill is still really cool a decade later. But oh my, has their brass program come a long way since 1995!

- Crown's show didn't age as well as I expected it to in 2004.

- I like Bluecoats 2005 more every time I see their show

Well worth the price of admission. I'll definitely go to next year's edition

[argonaut]

- I really didn't need to know that Michael Cesario dreams about Phantom Regiment.

:spit:

that got a little laugh at the Portland show.

[Geoff]

The Vegas report:

Crowd was large, but not sold out. Tonight was also the Las Vegas Color Guard Championships, so we lost a lot of audience do to that. I am sure we would of hit capacity if the guard show was on another night. A lot of local band kids too, which was really nice to see.

Crowd was also into it, especially for Regiment and Cavaliers. Like some other theaters reports, we had a handful of people leave just before Crown started. Take that for what you will.

Sound was much better at our theater this year, but the video was a tad dark. Not unwatchable, though, and didn't really annoy me.

We had Regiment, Argonne Rebels, Vanguard and Cavaliers alum in our theater, and probably more.

Made some serious contacts with some people about getting a corps started out here. The Rebels alum is an advertising guy for one of the local stations, and promised some advertising if we can make it happen. Encouraging. :)

[Guizeppe]

Natomas (Sacramento), CA:

Theatre was great, once the cranked the sound up and turned the lights off. Would guess there to be around 100 people there, young and old (i.e. River City Regiment and Mandarins). Not as many as last year and certaintly not as many as Quarters. I liked the new 2-4-4-2 year format, though I think they should negate the previous year, no offense to Bloo. I would change the commentary to fall between every two shows. I had a tough time remembering what the mighty Cesario said about Phantom and SCV because there was 40 minutes between his comments and the performance.

My dad's quote regarding Star:

"That was just about the longest 12 minutes of my life."

Surprisingly entertained by Xmen and 2-7 (why do we type 2-7? just curious)

There was no booing and polite applause after/during each show. Good stuff. Thank you DCI for putting this together. Can't wait till next years'.