Lets keep tradition going of the past couple years, and compile your show reviews for the season right here...

Bluecoats "The Knockout"-
The program goes a little something like this:
Excerpts from- "On The Waterfront"
Excerpts from- "The Boxer"
Excerpts from- "Rocky"

The opener is EXTREMELY intense. Percussion is on fire with visuals. The best part for me in the whole show was when (SPOILER) the corps, at the end of the third movement, lines up on the sideline and sings an excerpt from, "The Boxer". (SPOILER ENDED) So yeah, look for them in the top 3 this year.

I thought for sure the boards would be aflame about this already...I went to the show in Toledo Ohio. I know the season's just starting but...

Pioneer - I enjoyed their show. Another Irish themed show, of course, "Celtic Traditions" I believe. The had giant triangular props with mirrors on them. I remember being blinded once or twicee . I can't wait to see this corps when they are cleaner.

Troopers - "Iron Horse Express". The crowd liked this show. The tenors started on brushes, then the snares came in. They definitely have the train effect going on. All the musical selections were good and made sense. Another show I really want to see later in the season.

Crossmen - "Planet X". Another good show. Some of the Drill was a little off. I had watched them the night before at their housing site. Their percussion still need some more work...They are right underneath the next level. My favorite part was when they played "What a Wonderful World". I really like this corps. It also seemed a little short, so I'm guessing they are planning on adding some more stuff to the show.

Boston Crusaders - "NeoCosmos". I've never seen the Boston Crusaders before, and it was quite a surprise. Everything was clean, and their visual ensemble was their strong point. In my opinion, it seemed like they had the most challenging drill, and boy did they do well with it. My favorite hornline of the night. Their was a moment where I was totally reminded of The Matrix movie... The Boston Crusaders and The Bluecoats had the favorite shows of the night.

Blue Coats - "Knockout". Amazing. This, my friends, is how narration should be used. It wasn't overbearing, and it made total sense. It started out with the 'Coats forming rings around the boxers, and then merging when they fought. Everything about this show was good. Like many other corps, a contender for top 3 this year, they're only going up. There was also a part where the hornline came in the front and sang. "And it was good...". Except I think one guy got off pitch ;p. The drumline...wow. I got goosebumps from this line. Major props to the Bass Drums during the "training" feature where the main character hits the speed bags. AMAZING. As I said before, a crowd favorite.

The Cadets - "...And the Pursuit of Happiness". Well, if you didn't like their show last year, your not gonna like it this year. They were good, the cadets always are, but the narration was a little overbearing. I don't know how to feel about this show. The narration is heartfelt, but... I didn't notice any of the accidents on the field. It just feels as if they put drill/music backstage to the narration. You can feel the potential this corps has every time they play and every time they moved. I really do feel like they are being limited in a way. Another clean drumline, and the tenor break was amazing, first time I heard everyone cheer for the drumline in any corps when they were exposed. Obviously, the Cadets one. I hope this show changes a lot by the time finals comes around. Yes they do end with narration. And the girl on stage gets off and gives her "daughter" (?) a hug. The corps drill ended with them forming a smiley face .

The Glassmen - "Karnevel". A good, fun show. I like this much better than last years. A lot of guard work, and a lot of circus themed music. There was also a lot of bumping into their props.Out of all the shows at Toledo, this one had the most battery exposure. They are really close to being clean, this will be a very good show by finals. Also, everyone loved when they did double rifles in the guard.

Every show was good last night...it will be a great season for Drum Corps.

Just my two cents .

Shows you have seen live should be reviewed on here, not shows you've seen on Youtube.

I had a show on the 22nd with JSU, Coats, G men, Boston and Pioneer.

Watch out for Bluecoats!!!! Their show is called The Knockout and has a boxing theme with selections from the Rocky movies. The horn line is sounding great, the drum line has a lil dirt here and there but sounds awsome for this early in the season, the pit has some pretty cool parts and the gaurd is lookin good. From what I see all the Coats need to do is clean up their feet and they will be good to go. I'm excited to see them at my next show, I belive the Coats will break their all time highest place of 4th this year.

Glassmen have a circus themed show this year. To be honest there's not to much good I've seen with them so far and I'm not going into details.

Boston's Show I don't know too much about their theme but they are looking good, very powerful brass and percussion.

As far as the other corps I'm not sure about them I was in the lot during their shows.

I also attended the Toldeo Show

After watching Pioneer in the lot, and seeing their show, I was not really impressed, Good Corp, But between being blinded by the mirrors, and seeing the drumline attempt to backstick out a lick, and come up short, They were kind of, eh on me.

I'm not much of a fan of the troopers, but man! I loved their show, Especailly the random pose in the middle of it when everyone took a pose that reminds you of the old drunk crazy guy in western movies. Good show, and good effects.

The crossmen, This was the corp that I actually kind of day dreamed through, After noticing they changed their jacket color, I just kind of zoned out and waited for the bluecoats and cadets.

The crusaders came on next, and man they blew me away, Just the finish on their drums made me want to go run onto the feild and steal one. They hammered the entire show through, and I was very impressed, especailly with one of their snares, he seemed to be about 5,4, taking these GIGANTIC strides for the drill.

And then came the Coats, Man, I love the coats, from the first groove in the start of the show on the set to the last pose, I was entertained throughout the entire show, especailly when I saw the guard attempting to change from boxing shorts into the guard uniform behind the pit, kind of amusing. They were on fire, And of course, they ranked #1 in percussion.

-Did anyone else see the original announcers amp go out, so he had to yell his dialog over the sound of a drumset, suprisingly, I could still hear the outline of what he was saying

The cadets... Total let down =( I thought they might drop the vocals, or at least use them sparingly, Nope, I think there was about as much vocals as there was playing. The story in itself was not very impressive for me, I did'nt really want to hear the story of a life of a (I'm Assuming) fictional person who got a divorce and lived through breast cancer. It may seem jerk-ish to say, But, the Cadets let most of the crowd down, especially with the ending. (SPOILER) Who ends the show with a cut dialog and a hug between guard members?

-Watching the drums trip was almost like watching someone else get hit in the groin, I really don't know what Hopkins is trying to do out there, but the dialog is not working. Im not one to say its un-traditional, I don't care, But lay off it

And then the Glassmen. Typical glassmen show, it never made me want to jump up and go march with them, but it definatly did not bore me. They hung where they have been, a good top 15 corp, but nothing that stands out.

well i watched the Madison shows on DCI fan network's live stream so here's what i could hear(speakers are terrible)

pioneer-Like all world class drumline's, they're amazing. i can see them beating mandarins(i haven't seen them yet but i just have a feeling)

Madison scouts- didn't watch much of them

The Troopers- This might be biased due to the fact my brother marches trumpet there, but wow! I love their show and if it wasn't for all the missing guard spots and the fact that some of the guard came a week within the show, they could have beaten Crossmen and maybe spirit(they beat pioneer and madison). If they work super hard and get this show very clean, I could see the troop in finals.

Spirit- didn't watch much, wasn't too memorable.

Crusaders(yes i skipped a lot, didn't watch them)- very good this year, i can definitely see them in top 6 or maybe 5.

Carolina- Skipped them(just had my opener for our high schools show emailed to me, had to hack away at it)

Bluecoats- I love this show and they're drumline is great! I think if they get this show perfect, top 3 for them!

Cadets- Narration is distracting from the music which is always good, but the music wasn't as hard this year, I don't think cadets can get into top 3 or maybe even top 5 this year.

Cavaliers- My speakers really screwed up, but what i saw was great! guard amazing as usual, from what i heard of the drumline, it was clean for the most part(they got first in percussion as well as first overall).

I think this year will be great!!!

What I've seen so far...

Cavaliers - This show, to me, is just like Machine, only the theme has been replaced. Hell, the second half of the drum break is 7/4, just like 2006. But, I think that's a good way to go, considering Machine won that year. I'd like to see how this show evolves. Drums are rockin' it - I wouldn't rule them out for winning drums, or everything for that matter.

SCV - I gotta say, I was slightly disappointed at this one. I was expecting insane percussion especially with their line of SIX tenors. But, in the words of Cal, for anyone that's seen the 40-Year-Old Virgin, "I got there, and I was expecting a woman f****** a horse, and well...it was a woman f****** a horse. It just wasn't really as great as I thought it would be." Exactly that, only with six tenors, pretty much. It's still early in the season, though, so I'll keep an eye out for them.

Blue Devils - Oh my God...this show is ridiculous. It's really an amazing turnaround from last year, even though they won last year. Right from the beginning with the pre-show music from the pit, it grabs your attention. Again, they did add some quirky movement in the drum feature, but they're atcually playing some notes this time around. The entire corps in general portrays their quirky, weird, circus-like characters amazingly, and I would be willing to bet a lot of money that this show is going to win this year.

July 3rd, San Diego.

SCV
Great opener. Excellent quality of sound. They still had some ticks tonight, but the drumline was playing great.

BD,
Coolest pit ever. The Bach invention section of the show was awesome. The battery had some stellar moments, and played a lot of notes, but had some clarity issues at this show. When it's all done, I bet they will be rockin', but there are too many ticks to be totally in love with them right now.

Regiment:
CLARITY! The entire battery is burnin' through this show. Not only are they playing a bunch of great beats, they are clean from top to bottom. What a great show for them. Their show Sparticus is wonderful to watch. This is going to be a great year for Phantom.

G

I could feel a little bit of '02 and '06 in the cavies show. I really like this show but as of now I don't think they will take first, top three but not first.

I've got the DCI.org fan network thing, so I've seen just about everybody so far. However, I will only see the Cavvies live this season, so I'll just review what I feel most strongly about.

Cavaliers - I remember hearing Samurai being announced as the show theme and responding with a resounding EH. And that is exactly what I say to you now. Eh. It's good, I guess. It's Cavvies, everything is good when they do it. But that's just all. It's GOOD. It's not great. It's not memorable. No signs of their theme except the occasional RA! HUH! KIMOSABE! which is disappointing. It's earlier in the season, so I'll let up on them a little, but seriously, I'm really not impressed thusfar. I'll give them a chance, though. They haven't let me down in the past.

Carolina Crown - Well, I don't know about a great theme, but HOLY CRAPOLA BATMAN that music was amazing. They did such a great job, and you can almost feel your face melting off as you watch. Visually great, as always, but it looks like a great, fun show to perform, and I throughly enjoyed every second.

The Cadets - Oh. Lawdy. I was praying really hard to the DCI gods that George Hopkins might stop the narration after all the negative reaction last year (my friends and I still say things like "When I pick up a sandwich, something AMAZING! happens!" to this day). But no. It returns in all its glory. I hated it then, and I hate it more now. The show theme is ridiculous. Breast cancer? Really? A show about breast cancer? Maybe for marching band, but not for a top 10 corps. And the fakeness in the way they narrated it makes me wonder if the Cadets hate the Cadets as much as I do. It's not genuine. The music I can't even comment on because none of it was memorable and all I can recall is BLAH BLAH BLAH SNAP! So basically this show is for the die-hard Cadets fans and breast cancer patients. If you are neither, I don't see you liking this show at all. As for the percussion, when you could hear it, clean and concise. Good work, guys.


*cough* Sorry. I'm a little biased.

I'm sorry if this is off-topic, but I'd like to get this off my chest. Is the show really that bad? Is it that bad that every DCI Fan everywhere has to bash them endlessly? Everyone blames the Cadets for the narration. The Cadets suck. Anyone who plays with them sucks. But that's not it! If you want to blame someone, blame Hopkins, and even then, I think it's not right.

These kids work their butts off all summer to perform for you. If you don't appreciate the hard work these kids are putting in for you, then keep your mouth closed. If it's not nice, don't say it. George is obviously doing something right, hence the 2nd place last year. And this show isn't for breast cancer patients and die-hard Cadets fans. It's for die-hard DCI fans that appreciate the work being put into the show they are performing.

I can understand how you're biased, and this little rant isn't directed toward just you. It's to everyone who hates the Cadets for the "crap" everyone thinks they're doing. If you think it sucks, why don't you go out for the Cadets and audition. Perform that show with them. Be the butt of riducule. That's how they feel when you talk about them behind their backs.

I rest my case. Again, sorry for the off-topic rant.

its true they work their butts off.... but no ones hating the cadets...its just the show we disslike.Its no different than when an Ohio State fan says " michigan sucks"....they dont hate michigan players they just disslike the team.i love the cadets but not this show..............and "talking behind there backs" sorry but i dont feel like driving 21 hours to pennsylvania to tell george hopkins i disslike the narration

This isn't a musician review thread. This is a show thread. You can't sit there and tell me you want to sit through a show about breast cancer and all this talking during it. The kids are great. No one respects them more than us. But seriously, the show stinks. The plot and everything are horrible. There is a freaking stage on the field where the people sit and chat. And talking behind their backs? What is this, high school? Are you saying we can't give our opinions on shows because we are talking behind a corps' back?

Pacific Crest: They were a pleasant surprise. A lot better than what I expected. And the tenor line was on fire hahaha.

I didn't see Academy, but i wanted to, and i wanna hear their Mapex Drums....

SCV: Dude, I LOVE this show!!! Very awesome drill and a larger than life brassline. Their drum break was very reminiscent to that of a Drum n' Bass groove, and by golly, it was one of the most awesome things ever! The pit left things to be desired, but they were able to lock in with the battery's hits exactly even though the drumline was on the 20 ha. And of course the cymbals were insane! Watch out for this one, i smell top 5

BD: Everytime I see this show, i fall in love with it more. It definitely is different than any other devs show I have ever seen and I like it better than Vanguard's show. Drumline's book is a HUGE step up from last year, but they need to do some serious cleaning.... The pit is just amazing......quite possibly THE best front ensemble in DCI this year. The drill design is innovative for the most part and the brass is just haulin' it across the field. This is definitely a contender for the title, guys.

Phantom: one word: Amazing. truly truly amazing. I cannot explain how awesome this show is. They got 2nd overall, 2nd in drums and 2nd in brass. These placings are ATROCIOUS and Phantom definitely deserves the 1st placing instead of BD (BD swept pretty much everything) man this show is off the chart. The hornline has unmatched dynamic clarity. UNMATCHED. The drumline was very very VERY clean and the General effect of this show was through the roof. So far, I think Spartacus can take the world championships, but I still need to see Cavies and Cadets, so we shall see.

What he said.

And as for the "die-hard DCI fans" comment, you can be a DCI fan and not like every single show. You can appreciate that they worked hard to do this, but you don't have to enjoy the show, and you can still call yourself a drum corps fan. The point of this is to have an opinion, and clearly we have opposing ones. It's ok. That means we'll give different reviews. That's fine. Not ever judge will judge the same, and not every fan will think the same way about every show.

</off topic>

I think that there should be a rule
YOU CANNOT REVIEW A SHOW UMLESS YOUVE SEEN IT IN PERSON.

everyone has seen DVD's then seen the realy thing... its not the same...(same concept)

there are lots of eh shows on DVDs that were incredible in person.
so please if all youve seen is the fan network POS recording, leave it out.

I'm not talking about the recordings, I'm talking about the live streams. Also I'm just reviewing some small points and the general direction of the corps.

I saw the July 12th show in Denver


BD won. Their show seemed all over the place, but it was cool. Their pit is awesome, is just seemed like the drumset seemed like it didnt fit in sometimes, at least with the way it was mic'd... seemed kinda boxy and stuck out. i loved the taikos in the beginning i just wish they brought them back out again, it was cool. the bass drums spinning in their feature was pretty sick too.. i guess the whole show seemed full of tricks, and i guess everybody loves the random experimental shows?

Cavies took 2nd. awesome show, but its nowhere close to Machine. everyone keeps saying its Machine with a different theme... not really, its not as brilliant, but its pretty cool. i guess i came in with higher hopes and wasnt satisfied. its cavies and there was some really awesome drill moments like always, but there were also a lot of spots that could have been more exciting for the theme. they were frickin clean though.. i was just hoping for this to be the kind of masterpeice that Machine was. I dont know if its good enough to win now that i have seen it.

Phantom took 3rd, but they had the best show IMO. Spartacus is AMAZING. my only issue was that from the very start when they ride in with their convoy and are in character from the very beginning it sets up this amazing show, stays exciting for long time.. but by the time it gets to the end its not exciting anymore. seems like it peaked too soon and the ending wasnt as great as it could have been. i liked how they marched over the corpse though lol. their drumline was killin it though, especially for not doing all the tricks like the top 2 corps and just drumming. overall a very well done theme

SVC took 4th. meh... their drill was nasty.. i give them props for attempting so much hard stuff in the drill, but snugglebunny wasnt clean... and then 6 tenors and no special amazing trick to feature them? just 6 for the sake of 6? lame.. and their cymbals were not early as exciting as they have been, this year they were just... there.. and their show was just... there....

BK took 5th but were probably exhibition anyways. i just think it was kinda boring.. nothing ever really happened. then they ended on a sloppy set lol.. oh well. i think BK has a lot of potential and just play the same stuff all the time, they could be really great but for some reason dont. once again another show thats just there but nothing special.

Madison Scouts took 6th, they were pretty good, just have a ways to go i think. i definitely think they had a better performance than SCV did

Troopers took 7th, man they have a pretty cool show. I wish it wasnt so kiddy all the time, but there are some awesome moments.

I didnt get in for Mandarins, 8th.

I hung out with the bluecoats yesterday at the lafayette show. I got to see several runs of their feature and man they nailed it every time. The snare features...omg...notes galore, at one point the whole line is spread like 5 yards apart person to person and the ram like a bunch of flam drags. Now on to the bass feature,which is EXACTLY what it is supposed to be,a speed bag work out.(i caught it because im an amateur boxer) Now the thing that is so amazing about it is that they actually warp the time and the notes diminish in sets of 3's. I swear it feels like the real thing. I think they should be winning drums, this show is the bomb. Anyway tried to find cheese but i don't know what drum he's on, so i just gave them a good show during their lot.

I think hes on 5, but man i agree, the bass feature is so sick it's not even funny.

So I just came back from the North Texas competition... and here's what I got from it (seeing as I only watched 3 of the better shows.)

Blue Devils - LOVED all of the visual stuff. It was a fun show, but that's all it was. A fun, clean visual show. I really didn't like the musical aspect of the show much, and after watching the whole show, you don't really remember the music. You just remember the cool little things they did. Which is fine, but if this is the direction drum corps are headed, please, put some good music with it. This isn't BOA (I'm looking at you L.D. Bell)

I don't like how the drum book is so... beefy. Sure, a lot of notes CAN be fantastic, but if they don't go effectively with the music, but if it can't be played completely cleanly or very convincingly musically, then there's no real point to it.

SCV - Neeeext. I didn't think it flowed very well, formations were pretty dirty, and I overall just didn't buy it.

Phantom - I will admit, I have bias for phantom. But when watching shows I realy try not to let it show through.

Phantom has had a major improvement in the visual aspect. How they started the show off was fantastic. And then the end. Oh. My. God. Something about them yelling "I AM SPARTACUS" seemed to give them more energy, or make me feel it more. The entire end there gave me chills (consistantly, since I watched it twice). No other show had the musical emotion that Phantom did. It was truly remarkable. My only complaints were that they used the "play backfield and turn around to give a nice crescendo effect" too often. That and the transition to the ballad was... awkward to say the least. But a beautiful ballad it was.

I didn't watch the full battery in the lot, but I did watch the tenors. This is hands down THE best tenor line in DCI this year. Completely clean and fluent with each other. Everyone always talks about how a line should sound like one drum if it is completely clean... but when people refer to a line being clean, they don't ever achieve this level. Phantom's tenors were at this level, and it was a great experience to hear them.

Troopers: I will honestly say this show is good. It met and exceeded all of my expectations. It's entertaining, has its ups and downs, and other than crown got the biggest crowd response...(maybe cause over half the corps is from Houston alone).

Spirit: I didnt see their show

Colts: good show, some sweet drum notes in it, but really never got into it, i will give this another try in San Antonio.

Glassmen: the last 2 minutes of this show is awesome!!! the drum break and some of the open rolls in the end were spit shine clean. I love the tri-color effect of the drums. Drill had some dirty spots in it.

Blue Stars: the cleanest show to date for the Blue Stars. very impressed by what i saw, willlook further into this show in San Antonio.

Boston: Nothing against these guys but it was boring to me. Music was great, drill was clean but 2 sets of it were obviously dirty. I commend there efforts and have no bias but this show did nothing for me, will give it another once over in San Antonio.

Crown: WOW! I dig the Cavies '90 music in the opener, all in all awesome show, when they were announced 2nd some boos came flying from the crowd out of protest for crown to take first. They will be a sure fight for a top 3 or 4 spot. There drumline was spotless.

Cadets: well as we all know...... TALK TALK TALK, drum drum drum, TALK TALK TALK, blow blow drum, TALK TALK TALK....... need i say more. what sections they played it was good except there was a decresendo (to the edge) buzz section that was so dirty the 6 year old with us picked up on it, you saw the crowd go ewwww. Drill was clean, brass was balls to the wall when they played, so why not utilize that!!! there are corps out there who would kill to havethat strong of brass and give them 10 minutes worth of notes! I will keep the rest of my comment to myself on this show. my hats off to the cadets members, not the upper brass.

I will get more detailed after San Antonio.

you missed out on a serious drumline. VERY good, they should be scoring higher numbers than they are, and the fact that they are already scoring 5-6 places higher than the drum corps says something.

i will see it tomorrow

san antonio

BD- ummmmmm, i am still wondering what the heck that was i just witnessed. Does that deserve a 1.5 to 2 point spread on 2nd.... NO!!! The show, i dont like it, it was a mess, was a circus.

Cavies- very awesome show, some drill miss haps in the bassline, top bass player would always park and play in what should be a straight line he was a full step or 2 out of it. The music is good but on the flip it doesnt flow well, it seems choppy, you never know with these guys as Fielder always says the only show that counts is finals and they are no strangers to pulling out a whole different look for finals.


Crown- once again an amazing show, the horn parts are screaming hard while the run around that field, no well in gods green earth could i ever do that and blow air through a horn like that.... and finger those notes. The battery was spit shine clean. The done really didnt work well with their music lots of the inner notes in both the battery and brass we covered by the white noise. Never been the biggest fan of crown but would love to see these guys take the cake this year.

PR- WOW this show is flat out cool. The percussion is unstopable, I couldnt find one tick in that show book or their lot. The pit book is awesome, once again I make my comment negative on the drill front they had a couple obvious blown sets.

Cadets- NO! NO! NO! keep my comments to myself other then the fact i will tip my hat to the battery they are clean!!! very clean. But i swear 10 people tripped and fell and domino effect all over the place. It was a mess this poor corps had the crowd in tears of laughter from the sure fact of the tripping and falling everywhere. This show it literally hurting them.

Bluecoats- i didnt see it

SCV- ummm i know im gonna rub the wrong way on this but this is way over hyped. Flores in the lot was filth, their line was not consistant. Has ticks all over it. Show is cool, dig the book, they deserve where they are placed, except for the Cadets being over it.

Blue Knight- NO! this was a mess too their day show was 10 times better than the night.

BAC- didnt see

Blue Stars- Saw the day time show, man it was good, im just alround impressed by it.

Glassmen- didnt see

Crossmen- watched both shows, umm they shouldnt of made finals, but i guess with all the parents and San Antonio in the done it was a good idea. They get the dirtiest drill award. The music is AWESOME, i love the show, if they polished that drill a whole lot they could place very well.

outside from the night show my quick comment on the day shows.

Spirt- this line is smoking, absolutly clean, they will pull a corps will place 17th but the line will place 8th in prelims kinda thing. The bicycle stuff is dumb, just chessy dumb. I think their guard is hurting them bad.

Troopers- once again very impressed and NO they deserve not one stitch of the 2nd to last in percussion. It had some minor ticks but not that low of placement.

Madison- they get the dirtiest line award from me. I love the look, would like to see them keep these jackets, and possibly switch to a wedge style hat, like the old military "boy scout" hats. it would look really good with the jackets. The show is cool though just not clean. The horn line is very powerful.

Academy- man those Mapex's are beautiful and a very nice sounding (insert this plug as an artist of Jupiter).no seriously though they are. The show is cool, drill is choppy, brass lines are very good, some inner note ticks.

thats all for now

my 2 cents

The bike thing - did you mean Blue Stars? I only watched the regional on the Fan Network thing and missed Spirit. Didn't think they did that too.

Thanks for the review...though I don't entirely agree with you. I'll wait until seeing everyone at Allentown and Indy before arguing.

you know i do stand corrected, my apologies about that. The blue stars, the show is good but the bicycle stuff is not. Spirit's drumline is very good. As well as the Blue stars.

Patty thanks for not killing my comments over opinions. but i do have a question dont agree with the crossmen comments? cause The show really is great, but that drill needs some work, and some horn players need to get in step.

Haha...actually, I agreed with MOST of your Crossmen comments. Don't you know that alumni are even harsher critics of their home teams? I think their drill is still dirty (though much improved since I saw them 2 weeks ago), their drums/pit are their weakest sections which makes me REALLY sad, and the guard is making up all of the points they're losing from the horns and perc.

That said, what I didn't agree with - I still think that they deserved to make the Night show, and that it wasn't just because it was basically another home show for them. Sure, could be some hometown bias on my part, but I thought that they had the better overall "package" then the other corps in the 12-15 range. I just thought that they ROCKED the GE that night and that alone put them over the edge. And I know for a fact that VisGE judge #1 wouldn't have given them 2nd in that caption just because they're from Texas. (he's my old indoor director.)

Anyway, I just didn't agree with you on the Cadets and BK comments, but again...that was just from what I saw online. Not fair to compare minutia without seeing them in person.

yeah cool, deal. My cadets comments are really on my opinion only, why i put in there i will keep that to myself. As a corps muscally they are very good!!! and very clean. but the TALK TALK TALK is not my game.

Blue Knights- they had some trips and falls like the cadets and the show actually tore in tempo for about 5 ful seconds and no it wasnt me hearing the dome sound. That dome is hard to play in I know this i played a bottom bass in it back in my prime.

In all every corps did great, I always tip my hat to every corps and their membership from last to first place. I can call out ticks even further in my reviews but this is not a place for it. I am also not as critical as i sound, i dont watch a show to find mistakes but when one slaps me in the face its hard not to point it out.

Post up your comments when allentown comes around, i look forward to it.

Word!

You know patty, I'd consider myself fairly unbaised when It comes to who should have made that 12th spot. Im a homer from both who made it and who didnt. Ive seen both recently, I think that both shows are on par with each other However, I find that the ones who didnt make it, are more talented (cleaner) from an overall standpoint. Both drumlines/ pits are relatively weak, but better than last year. But there is a large gap in the brass and guard proograms. I dont dont care to comment on design, because theyre are roughly equal, and its nearly unquantifiable at that point. Its a matter of opinion. The exececutions From the crossmen just arent as good as the other team. I really belive that the other team will pass them at some point, and itll be up to the crossmen to re-catch up. The opinion captions are what put them over the top. Had it been someone else, it could have easily gone the other way.

Just got back to my hotel after tonight's show in Allentown. More later, but I just have to say that Phantom's new ending is probably the greatest thing I've ever seen in drum corps. I think I basically was reduced to giggles for lack of anything else better to do during their last minute and a half. My guy friend now wants a uterus transplant just so that he can have babies to throw at Phantom. Absolutely insane.

Got back from the Massilon show last night. Holy Cow. I guess there is something to be said for difference in YouTube videos and On the Field. And I noticed that difference as soon as the first corp stepped on the field. By the way, I didn't get a chance to see all corps, due to my love for the Crusaders and how much I HAD to see them warm up.

Troopers- The most fun show of the night, by far. These guys were really having fun and loving it. It made me want to be 3 years older so I could get my license, and be able to drive down to audition. Percussion was surprisingly clean. That may sound like I'm dissing them, but I'm not. They were spot on every note, not one of them sounded out of line in the lot nor on the field. Overall, an awesome show with great musical selections, and the corps having fun with some of the louder parts of the show.

Mandarins ans Spirit I can't say much about. My Dad did mention the amount of awesome moments and how outstanding Blue Stars were, though.

Boston Crusaders- BAC!!!!! YES!!!!!! Finally after a few months on the waiting list, and now I get to see my favorite drum corp. And man, they were absoltely nothing short of expectations. But now into the review. Right from the beginning, they start off with some soft pregame playing. Then, of course, when the announcer says, "Playing their 2008 Show, Neocosmos, please welcome to the field the Boston Crusaders", they turn around and completely blast it. The drum break was probably close to the cleanest of the night. They really had it going on! Yes, BD was there. Yes, I think they were pretty close in terms of drum breaks. Overall, let's just say my little brother, who isn't as in to DCI as some of us are in our family, was left with nothing to say but, "Insanity" after the show.

Blue Devils- Though my love for BAC, this was my fav show of the night. When I saw the BD Percussion in the lot, I knew this was going to be insane. Lol, my older brother, was pretty psyched that Tim Jackson was sitting in front of us. The amount of brass and percussion moments evened out. And last years drum break, I can't say I was fond of. ButI will say this years actually fit into the theme. And in the beginning, they use those little mini bongo-like drums (with the sticks, not hands) I'm not sure what you call them. There was some insane backsticking there. And whoever designed this show was an absolute genius. All the little stuff that would happen was insane. You couldn't pay attention to just one thing on the field. They would have a brass player acting like there was a mirror between him and a colorguard girl, and at the same time, have a dude run around the corner of the end zone and back, and I'm not kidding, that's part of the show! Overall, awesome. Just awesome.

Santa Clara Vanguard- I have to say I was dissapointed at the show here. I wasn't sure what the theme was, I don't think the color guard explained it very well. The brass was good, the percussion was amazing, with a bunch of technical stuff and lots of moving, but there was an emptiness on what the show had to do with,"Thr3e". Maybe it's just me, but I think that Boston should have beat SCV. But on the good side, the second moevement had an arabian like feel to it, real cool brass and battery combinations there. I loved the cymbals. I've never seen them, so up until now, I didn't know why everyone though that the cymbals were awesome. Now I know. Because they're awesome!!! Overall, some good moments, a theme I couldn't quite catch. And I missed the Vanguard moment. Darn.

Bluecoats- Y. E. S. Yes. I saw this show at the Blue Debut, and they were just winging it. I didn't even know who had won the battle at the end, because they hadn't learned that part yet! But man, were they on it tonight!!! Percussion was on fire, man. And I didn't notice till the encore how many visuals they had! Those bass splits in the second movement were just plain awesome. Jay and the rest of the bassline were rocking it and loving it. The Boxer. Holy _____. (Enter your own word on how awesome you think it was) The only problem was you couldn't hear half the singing because the crowd was still cheering! But dude, that Boxer moment will forever be tatooed in my head! Overal