Does anyone have any updates on Crossmen and how they are doing?

They were at Memphis with us, but they went on immediately following us. I didn't get to see more than about 5 seconds of their show before we had a meeting.

I want to hear how the new opener is, with the capes and all. It was way different at the All-Star Review that I went to at the beginning of the season, or so I hear.

regarding SCV, I didn't see a single green feather (worn by members aging out) on the field. Anybody else notice that?

Yeah it's only done on finals night.

My review will come in a days when I have time to get set after my long absence.

Just saw semifinals yesterday (I'm pissed that I can't go to finals, though). Anyway...

I was having a great time from beggining with Pacific Crest, Crossmen and the like, but seriously, once SCV took the field, nearly everything from then on just had my friends and I going, "HOLY S***!" the entire time. Of course, we'd never been to a DCI show before, but we payed attention to marching and playing (I was the only drummer, though), so I'm confident my choices as favorites are somewhat intelligent.

SCV was my favorite, along with the Cadets. Their show altogether was really fun to watch, and the drums had it down. They were clean through pretty much the entire show. Really, I don't remember details all that well, but I know that show blew me away. After the show, I went and bought an SCV shirt, and actually met a couple of the snares, who were really nice guys.

My next favorites were the Cadets. Their show was just amazingly entertaining, and the music was great. I was particularly amazed by the bassline, which I dubbed a "tongue-trill line", meaning that people that see it just have to imitate it with those stupid trill sounds. Also, the show inspired us to go and fix our damned basic block. My friend actually picked them as his favorite over Vanguard.

Other notable ones to me:

My band director is a hardcore Blue Devils guy, and when they came on, I turned to him and made a "V" (for Vanguard, of course) with some sticks I bought. He shrugged and said, "Vic Firth?". Anyway, I turned to look once they started playing, and I liked what I heard. I was never really a BD fan, but their playing was solid, and the drums were just pounding note after note. I really liked the thing they did with the big toms, but really, I wasn't that interested by the show. It just got boring to me a little after the drum break.

Bluecoats had a pretty cool show, probably the most visual of the night. I don't have much to say about the music, but I will say that the tenor feature made us go hysterical.

I'm sad to say that I missed Phantom (Thanks, security guard who wouldn't let us in from three sections over). We spent that show sitting in the tunnel under our section cursing.

So, that's about it. Forgive me if my choices seem just unintelligent, because they probably are, but those shows were the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. I had a great night, and I'm looking forward to attending shows in the future.

Nobody heard.

And tool . . . Well, in the context I used in that sentence . . . A follower. Someone who sees something happening, has no idea what is going on or why it's happening, and naively joins along.

I thought people were booing . . . I had never seen Coats before . . . So I started to boo also, in my desperate attempt to become an accepted Drum Corps fanatic.

Lol, you are a tool.

I liked DCI '07. It was really competitive and entertaining.