Carolina Crown

My first experience of drum corps was watching 2013 Crown after finals night when the trumpet section leader in my marching band was SO excited that they won. E=mc^2 totally captivated me in ways words can't express and I immediately fell in love with the activity, a year later I went to my first ever DCI show in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Crown was playing and I was excited beyond words to see them live. From the opening vocal notes of "Space Oddity" I was hooked beyond measure to "Out of this World". Their closer (the part where they play half notes and march horizontally in one form, you know what I mean...) legitimately made my eyes tear because I was so in love with this corps, and the drum corps activity in general.

You never forget your first corps.


Ever.

Wow... where do I start? I can't say I have a FAV.... let's say... hehe, top 12, and then another three....
Now then, let's get to my first twelve, among them are corps that well... you'll see.

Alright. Bridgemen. I loved watching the shows that they did back then. I felt they were very entertaining and had flare, this is my opinion.

For the sake of your reading, i'll keep the "Whys" brief.

Next up, Velvet Knights, a lot of my older friends talked their shows up, so, I saw for myself, and... yeah man, VK did some bueno stuff.

Star of Indiana... Barber and Bartok, Roman Images, two shows I know people know, because they are the most talked about shows from Star, at least around where I am. I'm going to only mention those two, even though they have a lot more nicely nice shows, because, I'm on a rush and want to get my list out.

Madison Scouts. Especially back in the years they were winning DCI, and even now, I feel like I get slapped in the face everytime I hear an impact from their hornline.

Phantom Regiment, I don't want to repeat anything anyone else has said (that was positive) otherwise, you'd be reading the same thing. Honestly, I want to see them do a show about Isolde, from "Tristan and Isolde". that would be sweet.

Blue Devils, I love the modern approaches they're doing, pushing the bar, and just about every show they did. First time I saw Cabaret Voltaire when I was watching DCI shows in 2012, I was like... I've heard that title somewhere, then I realized, I took an art appreciation class, in my collegiate studies, and wrote a paper on Dadaism... and I was like holy cow... I didn't even know that could be a DCI show.. Burt Bacharach, Rite of Spring, I can see, but... anyway, I'm not just a fan of the new millenium stuff Blue Devils did, I like all the stuff they did, and the whole system blue thing they have going on.

The Cavaliers. I don't think I'll ever watch Michael Gaines's Drill on multi-cam, because of the stuff he's writing, the stuff they're executing. I've had a lot of friends who are Cavaliers, and the stuff they tell me about how they learn drill, how they march, essentially the stuff they're allowed to tell me, is just mind-blowing.

BTW these are in no particular order, just as they appear in my mind.

Carolina Crown, the newest name on that DCI trophy, killer brass in recent years, at least I think so.

Cadets, known by many names over the years. I likes me some Cadets in my Corps playlists.

Santa Clara Vanguard, I love shouting "Vanguard", I fell in love with their phantom shows, the Russian show they did in '05, Les Mis, and Scherezade (I don't know if I spelt that right). I remember watching a 1973 show, or was it 74, back when there was only one yard line in the center, and everything marched, the simple, but scary clean rifle work.

I said 12 right.. darn...

Bluecoats, does anyone remember the killer steel pan solo in one of their shows? I thought that was pretty sweet. I guess I have them to thank because every time I type in "Tilt" on google. I think about their most recent show. Of course that's not the only show I know them by,

Blue Knights. Me likey the Knights, much like, such blue, wow.

Know what, I got a few more.
Crossmen, Bones are an essential part of my body, and my DCI playlists, their 2012 show was one of my favorites from that year.

Troopers, one moment that I won't forget is what people called the Infinity Chord, from, I think it was 2012, or wait, it was 2011... that concert A-flat major chord that they held out forever, while standing in the infinity set.

Now that I think about it, Every corps is my favorite, in a sense. since, it's drum corps, what's not to like?

I don't have a favorite corps, but I have several favorite shows. I saw live the ones with stars by them. I attended the 2000, 2001, and 2007 DCI finals.

Star of Indiana 1990-93.

Cavies 91, 92, 95, 00*, 02, 03, 04, 06*

Cadets 92, 93, 97, 98, 00*, 02, 03, 05*, 07, 11 (although I hated the narration in their 2007 show)

Blue Devils 94, 96, 97, 99, 03, 04, 06, 07*

Phantom 89, 91, 96*, 02, 03, 05*, 06, 08

Vanguard 89, 91, 97, 98*, 99, 00*, 02, 04, 07*, 14

Bluecoats 2005 - 2014

Carolina Crown 2007-2014

Boston Crusaders 2000 & 2002

Glassmen 1998 & '99

Madison Scouts 1992 & 1995

Blue Knights 94, 99, 06, 07, 14

So is it weird I like Spirit of Atlanta...I told someone that once and they laughed... For those who are wondering why I like them- Someone I know that marched with them, I loved their 2014 show, and they were one of the first drum corps I ever saw perform.

That's stupid for someone to laugh, everyone has there own background on why they like a corps, for example I liked the Blue Knights show more than anyone else's at the first show I went to, and they blew me away, so they're my favorite. Are they the best? no. but they are my best, so if someone doesn't agree, than they can shove it.

mine is BAC, my first drum corps show was pittsburgh 2013 and they were the first world group to go on, rise was such a beautiful show and the color guard that year was Amazing.

Yeah buddy! Crown all the way man!

As long as the group is marching and playing and tossing, in that summer heat, or breeze, or wherever they go, and get better at the end of tour, then, that's good for me.

With my brother in the corp for 4 years, and marching with them myself this summer, I can't help but be bias and place the Crossmen as my favorite corp. Their 2012 show is a whole lot of fun to listen to.
When all else is gone, only the Bones remain.

Personally, Bluecoats and Blue Stars.

Bluecoats are the first corps I ever saw live when they rehearsed here pre season in 2009 and Blue Stars were the first REALLY good corps I saw in competition in 2010. Loved both ever since. Carolina Crown doesn't have a show I don't like, so they're up there. Santa Clara Vanguard as well, any show from 1996 - 2003, I absolutely LOVE, some of my favorite pure drum corps, especially Myron Rosander's visual packages and those Casella drumlines, WOOF. Blue Knights earn a spot after their 2014 show, that was just wow on an emotional level.

.

Is that your only comment strad? A period? Lol

This is really hard, so I guess I'll just talk about my favorite corps in relative order of preference, though it is really hard for me to choose a single favorite.

I like Santa Clara Vanguard a lot, when I watched Scheheraze: Words to Live By as a freshman trombonist, that trombone feature blew me away, and I watched a lot of their battery videos when I marched field cyms that Winter. I might audition on cymbals or Euph this next season there, as it is one of the closest corps in my area. I also really like their show design and music more consitently than some other corps.

Another one of my favorites is the Bluecoats. Their usage of props from year to year is really cool, and I like their musical selections a lot. Heck, last Halloween I carved a pumpkin with their logo because it sat at an angle and reminded me of their 2014(?) show Tilt.

Blue Devils was my favorite corps Freshman year, and I still follow them pretty closely. I might be kind of biased as most of our staff is ex-BD, but I really like their visual style, though I don't like their musical choices as consistently. I was lucky enough to attend their Socal System Blue camp this last week and I have to say they are incredibly inspiring in person. Oh and their show this year? Yeah, trombone heaven!

I really like the Academy's hornline. They've got a huge and powerful sound. I also got to attend one of their rehearsals recently and I was blown away by their dynamics. They actually strike me as having a fuller sound than BD, though maybe a little less technically proficient.

Carolina Crown is another corps with amazing sound, and I got to say Inferno might be my favorite show to date.

Pacific Crest is probably my favorite lesser known corps, but that's probably because I know a lot of people who march there, and the horn line from Catalyst is eternally stuck in my head after it's near meme status in our band last year.

Those are just a few of my favorite DCI corps, and there's still a lot of things I don't know about DCI. Huge respect to those who march drum corps.

PS: I also forgot, I find Phantom Regiment's whole "kill the drum major" thing amusing, though I've not seen enough of them to say much more.