For a time, the Cavaliers were sinking every week .. and seemed to be in danger of dropping out of the 'top 12'. But, they seem to have recovered a bit in the last week .. now only about 6 or 7 points behind the leaders.

The results from Minneapolis will be interesting. Might see some corps doing extensive program changes if they fail to place well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

What did you do in the Corps? drummer; quartermaster 1964-66; asst. drum instr. 1964-70

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

In Minneapolis the Cavaliers were 8 pts behind the leader (Blue Devils) and only 4 pts above the 12th place corps (Denver). Closer to the bottom than the top. Somehow they beat Madison but Boston jumped over them.

I went to the Cavie show in Lisle; it was the first contest I've been to in 22 years. It rained most of the day but ended up being a beautiful night for a show.

I picked the corps exactly as placed. I enjoyed The Cadets and Vanguard while Madison has always been a favorite of mine. The Cavaliers show was simply strange.

To be honest, the performances weren't as dramatically different from the last corps show I saw as I would have expected. I'm not sure when they decided to go with 15-20 contra basses (tubas?). I don't think it added that much more to the bass sound, but it was visually interesting. Personally I think those bodies would be better served as other members of the horn line. Other suggested changes:
- Pull the plug on the electronics
- Get rid of the dozen or so keyboards in the pit. Similar to the huge contra lines, I'm not sure what purpose it serves.
- Musically the arrangements are too choppy. For the most part they never seemed to have extended phrases, much less just playing a song. They play a short part then stop and run somewhere to play some more choppy phrases.
- Musically they seemed totally disinterested in grabbing us emotionally and then really socking it to the crowd. The Cadets came closest as they were reeling me in, then just as they should have kicked it into overdrive they turned and ran towards the back of the field. This is the most disappointing aspect for me. I'm used to multiple standing ovations during a performance. The only standing ovations received were at the end of the show, and they seemed to be more out of respect for a job well done than because the crowd was wowed by them.

Despite these desires to turn back the clock I enjoyed going. My 15 year old daughter, who's now in her high school band, thought it was terrific. The perforances have so much going on that's it's difficult for us to soak it all in. We'll probably make a point of starting to get to a show on an annual basis.

What did you do in the Corps? Soprano

What years were you a Corps member? 1974-79,81

Jim,

Thanks for the review, and good to see you back out here! I agree with everything you say. Drum corps gave up the "power" they used to have when they switched to B-flat bugles, brought in Kevlar heads for the snare drums and made all the other drums smaller and higher pitched. Some of the electronics didn't bother me, but the Cavaliers use was excessive. But the best point you make is the arrangements - nobody plays a full song anymore! Everything is so chopped up that you barely recognize it before they move onto something else. Maybe it happened when they toughened up the copyright laws?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Did anyone go to the Rockford show (or Minnesotra). Rockford included the top 8 from last year. Interested in comments on Carolina and Blue Devils in comparison to all. Lisle included just the Cadets plus Santa Clara and Cavaliers from last years elite 8 plus Madison who has been beating the Cavaliers and Boston.

I've only seen the Blue Devils and Santa Clara early this season in Concord CA. Based on the scores through last night the Blue Devils are now scoring about two points higher than Carolina with the big show in San Antoniao taking place tonight.

The Blue Devils do play one complete number at the end which is a swing number called Peppy and George from the movie the Artist. Great use of trap drum set (jazz band style) and end the number and show (at least they did early in the season) with a "park and blow" Also, the last chord of the number(which they've ended on a number of times since I saw them first in 1976) always reminds me of Sac (1960-1964) and Pennington's Norwood (1965 and 1966)arrangements. I'd say they have a "Big Sound" for the B-flat horns but then I was in a smaller stadium and close to the field. The "park and blow" also reminded me of Blue Devils, Madison and Atlanta from a show I saw at Stillwater in 1980.

When Santa Clara's on it's always a good time to go to the hot dog stand or use the facilities (Phantom Regiment is like that too). Aren't any different this year. So far they are ranked 5th in DCI's ranking system. The corps below them must be pretty mediocre.

Interesting results from last night. Cavaliers dropped back down under Madison and Boston to 9th, although very close with Boston. Phantom passed Cadets to move into 4th. And Blue Devils beat SCV in drums by a tenth - apparently only the second time this season.

Loved the comment about getting a hot dog during Phantom, though I never would have for Santa Clara in the 70's - just for that drum line.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Last time I liked the Phantom Regiment was 1976 in Philadelphia--American in Paris.

I've never seen Carolina live but from what I've seen on the DCI site videos they remind me of Star of Indiana. That would be another hot dog stand visit.

Frankly, it's so bad that I only go to shows to see the Blue Devils and visiting corps from east of the Sierra Nevadas--hoping one of them will be entertaining. Only time that's happened recently was 2011 when the Cadet's did their Angels and Demons show.

I think my wife has the best idea, she took her Kindle to the last DCI show so she has something to do instead of being bored my most of the corps performances.