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!