Phantom Regiment: The Thread

[TAMUK420]

so, what's with the fake punching of a judge i've read about in a couple of posts? has that always been there, or is it something that just happened?

[kdaddy]

My reactions based only on the live feed:

1. The drillwriter took a serious step in the wrong direction from his refreshing work last year.

2. I like the musical changes at the end of the opener. I really didn't like the original arrangement of Alien God. However, I didn't dig the musical changes to the end of the closer - I'd like to listen to them again.

3. Parts of the drill remind me somewhat of 2002 in that it looks like the members are running all over the place, but overall it's very ineffective. I'd still say that 06 drill is far superior to 02 drill though.

4. I know nothing about guard, but they appear to be getting slammed. That's also a departure from last year.

5. Last year around this time, PR was about two points behind eventual champion Cadets.

6. I don't see this challenging for top two, but third place isn't outside of the realm of comprehension.

[George]

The Cavaliers are a point or so ahead. The Blue Devils are inexplicably on another planet.

Actually - the only thing we DO know is that BD is very far ahead. Cavaliers (and Cadets) were at a completely different venue and scored by a completely different set of judges. You can't compare those results.

IMO BD is on another level from PR - I felt the scoring was too close - should have been more than 4 points IMO

I would "guess" Cavaliers are roughly 1 point behind BD. Of the remaining corps - only Cadets have a program box five enough to compete with those two - it will take their famous "late-season surge" to get them back into contention.

Regiments drums are strong - box 5. Horns are box 4. Guard is box 3. Drill is box 4 but they are struggling with it.

Not a contender for the championship. Still love their program though - they are very good!

[CloudFuel]

Haven't seen any shows yet, but I will definitely chime in once I get back from SA this weekend.

My guess? PR's not outta the hunt yet... it's gonna come down to 2 things.

A) How well can they clean?

B) How much cleaner & more demanding are the other corps' shows.

[Loud-is-good]

Everyone said it: the drill just isn't as good as it should be, given the overall quality of talent and the music. I could easily see regiment winning every music caption, including GE; it is tough to see them competeting with BD (and I assume the Cavaliers) visually though, which is going to make it tough to compete for the title this year. I wouldn't count them out yet though; some quick cleaning and a few really effective visual changes and they could still contend for number 1. Otherwise, another great shot at top 3- Cadets' show is a bag.

[Malibu]

My gut feeling is and has been since May 28th, Phantom Regiment will be 3rd, Cavaliers 2nd, Blue Devils 1st.

[LAMystreaux]

I think the real question is, what can Phantom do to stay top 3/4/5. This show just does not have the visual package to stay where it is come late season, especially if the other top corps clean their shows (which we know they will).

[SteenAZ]

It is nice to see the guard scores moving up but I think if PR is ever going to win a championship again they need to have a guard to stand up to Cadets, Cavies and BD. Heck, even Crown beats PR in Guard every time they meet. Drill design is also a bit of a concern but i will be able to tell after seeing them in SA.

[mobrien]

They've put themselves in a tough position, because telling people that you're doing a show based on a story with a definite narrative (Faust) more or less means that you have to try and nail certain narrative elements OR it means that you have to be really bold and explore non-literal visual representations that require a lot of thought to create. As far as literal story-telling, it's something that drum and bugle corps is notoriously poor at doing. So the show doesn't seem to be expressive enough AND the literal elements aren't being all that well-handled, so it's in its own version of limbo (imho).

For this year, the top 3 is already established as the Usual Suspects, and it's unlikely that PR is gonna be able to pop through, since the horse they chose to ride is what it is. BUT....there's enough talent in the corps that they can maintain a top 5 position, maybe even tweaking it to 4th if Bluecoats stall or have an off-performance at Finals.

Edited July 16, 2006 by mobrien

[CadetPhan]

In defense concerning the guard, keep in mind where they were last year at this point folks...in the middle of the pack. I think they finished 7th in Murfreesboro and then jumped to 3rd the very next night (and this was the last weekend in July). I'm very confident that Adam Sage has a definite gameplan like last year. I think we are going to see their scores rise closer to the BD/Cavies tier as finals approach. If this indeed happens they could take third or better.