What Went Wrong At DCI World Championships?

[glory]

allowing one corps to deviate from the prescribed entrance and exit panders to bad behaviour and ensures more will happen in the future. Good lessons for the kids to learn and using those lessons will pay off handsomely as they try to do the same when they enter the workforce. :sshh:

Let's not start that. More than one corps availed themselves of an extra entry gate. No single corps was granted a special favor. All the corps that used the extra gate obviously did so with the consent and within the rules of DCI.

HH

[BadgerTan]

The 50 different groups of people yelling "Go Johnny" or whoever they were yelling for during Ave Maria during Regiment. Was bad enough one or two people did it in the upper deck, but when about 15 different people yelled it in a 30 second span in one of the most emoitional parts of the show deserved the middle finger given to them by the guy sitting in the front of them.

[glory]

My rant:

Camp Randall is the worst drum corps venue we've seen in years. I even like the Citrus Bowl better. Sitting sardine-style on those benches was awful. People who have the gall to squeeze an extra body into a already packed row are jerks. And the redesign which closed off the lower level gates and concessions effectively forced everyone into the mezzanine level bathrooms and concessions (which weren't adequate five years ago when the lower level took half the load) is stupid. God forbid, what if there were some emergency that required the rapid evacuation of the stadium; how many would be crushed?

I don't have an opinion about the Indy deal. I am, however, delighted that we won't be coming back to Camp Randall for a long time. Madison is a nice city. And the weather is generally favorable. But the stadium stinks from parking to seating to facilities to entrance/exit. The Rose Bowl has its limitations, but at least I'll be able to park nearby and sit comfortably in my own seat.

Rant No. 2:

Amid all the Phantom hype, I was left flat. And I'm a Phantom fan.

I saw the show four times this year. Each time I hoped I'd finally get it. I'm afraid I didn't. Maybe it was the repetoire that just didn't resonate with me the way so many Phantom books have in the past. Maybe it was a basic visual disconnect between the dark show and the white uniforms. Or maybe it's just me and my failure to grasp the story as it was told on the field (though I've read and understood Goethe's Faust and other similar texts). The playing and the marching were surely great. The package didn't work for me - a disappointment, particularly when so many around me were enjoying it so much.

Not a rant, just a general observation:

The shows this year generally weren't as compelling as last year's. Some good stuff, yes, but not as tasty as last year or some other recent years. The 9-12 corps in particular were a drop from a year ago.

HH

Edited August 14, 2006 by glory

[Wadep66]

:P Sure sounds like a lot of people on here are disagreeing with rules and the scoring and the judging.

What infamous corps director that is continuously flamed by some of the same people does this remind you of?

Hilarous

[mobrien]

- the omnipresent braaacking, humming, whining, whirring of the generator truck (or whatever it was that was making noise) outside the south endzone. If you were sitting upstairs on Friday night when the wind was up, it was sometimes louder than the corps on the field. It wasn't much better on Saturday.

- bleacher seats at $55-$125 per person. Unconscionable, but at least we're all done with that.

- $3.50 for a Ballpark Frank or something on that level that was cold, served on a stale bun. Oh, you want mustard? Join the scrum over there in the corner. C'mon, there are only 40 or 50 people trying to access one mustard pump...

- The kids in the Waukesha North High School band t-shirts in section DD who needed to be asked three times not to talk at a conversational level during the semi shows. Sheesh, my 9 year old knew enough to whisper during the shows if he had a comment or question.

- the handling of I & E awards, etc. Look, no offense to the winners, but take the pictures afterwards, and get through the announcements. Literally 25 minutes was spent on announcing a winner (long pause, thrity seconds....one minute....), another winner (thirty seconds...one minute). You get the picture. It could have been done in 4 minutes' time and let the audience move on to the rest of the night. We ended up leaving after the Madison alumni show rather than waiting another 30 minutes for the Cavies score to be announced. By that time, it was already nearly an hour after their performance had concluded. Bad, DCI.

- Finale is now a total cluster___k. Have the corps play themselves off after scores are announced, or have them go up into the stands and witness the victory performance, but please get the members off the field for their social hour. As much as people want to say "the time belongs to the kids...", it doesn't. If you're producing the event, your first responsibility is to the paying audience member. The Cadets were the only corps that seemed to care about the audience from that standpoint, as they promptly left the field. That unison clapping from the stands after 15 minutes of milling around on the field was a signal to move it. It shouldn't take the show announcer asking you to vacate again to get the picture.

Edited August 14, 2006 by mobrien

[WordRider]

There were more 80s than 90s :(

rimshotTerrance floodgateBack out of the way 80s!

[Chris Scott]

My rant:

least I'll be able to park nearby and sit comfortably in my own seat.

Rant No. 2:

Amid all the Phantom hype, I was left flat. And I'm a Phantom fan.

I saw the show four times this year. Each time I hoped I'd finally get it. I'm afraid I didn't. Maybe it was the repetoire that just didn't resonate with me the way so many Phantom books have in the past. Maybe it was a basic visual disconnect between the dark show and the white uniforms. Or maybe it's just me and my failure to grasp the story as it was told on the field (though I've read and understood Goethe's Faust and other similar texts). The playing and the marching were surely great. The package didn't work for me - a disappointment, particularly when so many around me were enjoying it so much.

HH

It is nice to read a dissenting opinion that does not berate or belittle the corps. I appreciate that!

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I have yet to see a post that actually rips on the entire corps itself and not the show.

[leadsoplove]

I saw the shows all three nights, and with the exception of Madison really deserving the move up to ninth (they had a great show finals night, improved SO much from the beginning of the season) it seemed as though the coastal corps got the shaft.

SCV had a great show on finals night, and I was not that impressed at all by Bluecoats show which was right before them. Bluecoats' percussion didn't have that great of a show (for them) and their hornline wasn't too impressive either. I didn't mind the lower placement for the Cadets, but I think that the Cadets should have taken 6th, Bluecoats 5th, and SCV 4th if there was going to be such an upset.

The one that I feel the most strongly about was the top 3 placement, as I'm sure a lot of others who were there feel as well. The Blue Devils WITHOUT DOUBT had their absolute best show finals night. Again, Phantom, who was on right before them, wasn't nearly as clean (I was high) and their hornline's performance was probably the best in quarterfinals. I was sure that with the show they had BD was going to give the Cavaliers a run for their money. Maybe the judges never saw the Godfather so they just didn't get it.

I think that the corps from the midwest had the home field advantage, bottom line... and though it shouldn't have mattered I believe that it was reflected in the scores.

Besides, the Madison Reunion Project should have won DCI.

[Colts&CoatsDad]

What went wrong?

Why wasn't the big screen on the south(?) end of the stadium working(section A). You couldn't see the live camera feed or the videos if you were in the upper 15 or so rows. They put up still pictures of each corps and left them up during performances and switched back and forth to the logo screens, they should have had the live video up there too.

Horseradish in large containers next to the ketchup looked like mustard to me. My wife was not pleased.

I agree that the parking situation was lousy although we lucked into a couple spots fairly close to the stadium both nights. Too bad about that pedestrian accident Saturday night. Anybody know what happened? In that person's opinion I'm sure impacting with an automobile or bus was high on the "what went wrong" list.