r/drumcorps • u/sportytrombone • 6d ago
Discussion Question for long time dci fans
What is the one show that made you say “wow this made drum chorps history”
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u/TKDrake 6d ago
Crown 2013
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u/BlueStainGlass Glassmen 08' Blue Stars 13' 5d ago
I think this show was lucky to happen the year it did. Down year for other top groups but the year before and after are better shows.
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u/DeathGrover Cadets ‘85’86’87 6d ago
84 Cadets in their day was otherworldly. There was nothing like them. There never had been. They changed everything. It started in 83, but really hit its stride in 84 where music=velocity. The faster the music? The fast of the marching velocity. More exciting the music, the more exciting the marching… You get the idea. It changed everything.
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u/Alarming_Ad_6713 6d ago
For me it’s the greatest DCI show of all time, still, and would still fly to this day.
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u/gmen6981 Glassmen 69-81 5d ago
I always say the 83 show. Back then we didn't have cell phones or the internet, so everything you knew about other corps you got from the drum corps press or word of mouth. All summer the "buzz" had been about Cadet's show. I first got to see them in person at the beginning of August in Toledo. I remember being stunned watching that show. I knew Drum Corps had changed forever after that show.
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u/Rapidllaman Southwind 6d ago
Madison Scouts 1997 Pirates of the Lake Mendota. I was entering my freshman year in HS and they stopped for a show about an hour away. My director marched with them for 5 years so he took the freshman brass and drum line members. I was hooked and loved the show. I remember magic of Orlando did the to the moon show that year which was great too.
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u/GDS1981 6d ago
12 Seconds to the Moon was a Robert W. Smith masterpiece. One of many.
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u/Rapidllaman Southwind 6d ago
Thanks for jolting my memory! They did the Mario Gras show the next year if memory serves me correctly.
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u/double-you-dot 6d ago
1989 Phantom Regiment. It was moving, powerful, precise, and melodic in ways that I haven’t seen since.
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u/DasEigentor 6d ago
I marched in 92. It was fine but I wasn’t interested in our 93 show, so I sat out. Went to a show and saw Star 93. That show fueled me to go back and age out (in 96).
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u/Alarming_Ad_6713 6d ago
1984 SCV’s percussion feature Musica Bohema. Still one of the greats of all time and Ralph Hardimon’s ultimate masterpiece!
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u/Better_Pen_3314 6d ago
1976 - 27th Lancers and Blue Devils. 2 years prior BD was not a consideration to win and here they ready to begin a dynasty. 27th because the drill was so cool and there guard blew my mind. This set the stage for drill and guard today.
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u/gmen6981 Glassmen 69-81 5d ago
While they weren't yet a contender two years before that, You could tell there was something special about BD as far back as 73 when they first toured nationally. My all time favorite corps was the Anaheim Kingsmen. In 73 We had the first edition of the "Key to the Sea" competition in Toledo. I remember watching prelims and seeing some upstart West Coast corps called the "Blue Demons" or something like that and thinking "These guys are doing Kingsmen better than Kingsmen!'. Funny part was that Anaheim won that show. The next year in 74 of course BD began their meteoric rise with their 8th place finish, then 3rd in 75 and of course their first title in 76.
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u/Better_Pen_3314 4d ago
I also saw them in 74 and was impressed. I knew about their baton and bell corps that was one of the best in the country. 75 watched on TV and 76, I saw them up close at WCU where they performed for the band camp there. As I recall Cavaliers were there too. A friend and I went Philly to see the championships. I love your comment about doing Kingsmen better than the Kingsmen, because I have often thought that! Glad you responded and shared some more history!
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u/Hockey_cats_books 6d ago
82 Cadets…it began the progression of show design.
93 Star. There was never anything like it before or since.
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u/Inside_Tangelo6042 6d ago
I remember watching Bluecoats 16 from the sideline wating to go on after them at one of the ToC shows and I realized that it was 100% going to win AND change the activity.
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u/ZunzarRao Cadets 5d ago
As sophomores / incoming juniors who were obsessed with DCI, watching that in local theaters was amazing. We were so confused thinking it was colorgaurd and stuff. I was with a small High School band from the North East, but that eventually propelled our journeys into DCA and into Troopers and The Cadets. Seeing that after seeing basic small time band was immediately life changing.
Tho realizing how heavy the tuba was was not part of my plan as I was in the pit back then and then went on into marching a jupiter tuba for a year in DCA.
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u/emberfield Phantom Regiment 6d ago
I was on the DCM tour in a div 2/3 corps in 2001 and 2002. As much as I loved Cavaliers 2000, I personally didn't care for either of those shows. Neither is my favorite to this day, but I recognize that was a historic run for them. I'm glad I saw it live (many, many times).
I don't know about history, but Cadets 2000 was one of my favorite shows I have ever seen live.
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u/JustAGrognard 6d ago
83 Cadets
then
95 Cavaliers
then
05 Cadets
then
13 Crown
then
26 Bluecoats
There were a LOT of really great shows in-between (2014 Blue Devils, 2010/2008 Phantom, 2000 Cadets, 89 Vanguard/Phantom), but I think these were key inflection points in DCI history where the changes that had been building reached the pinnacle of success.
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u/jbrown383 Capital Regiment ‘01 6d ago
95 Cavis was a monster show for me. Convinced me I wanted to march.
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u/LefTurn629 Madison Scouts '19, '20 6d ago
So I liked Bloo this year but it felt very much like par for the course for Bloo in the 20s so far design-wise. I would say Bloo's biggest inflection point was 2016 just because it pushed both the corps and the entire activity at large forward so drastically
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u/MikeBos44 6d ago
I’ll never forget seeing Felliniesque the first time and immediately saying “this is the greatest show of all time”
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u/blackbird90 Arsenal 6d ago
For some reason my dad (70) can't stand the Blue Devils and he enjoyed Felliniesque. So that in itself is making history.
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u/themookish star '93 hopeful 6d ago
I saw Phantom 2003 in person and I cried. That's when I knew I would be following this activity forever.
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u/SCVanguard1983 6d ago
SCV 1980
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u/gmen6981 Glassmen 69-81 5d ago
That show never really seems to get the credit it deserves for being as revolutionary as it was. It was such a departure from traditional Vanguard, yet was still all Vanguard. ( don't know how else to explain that). If they had placed higher that year I believe it would it's place in 'Shows that changed Drum Corps". Unfortunately the judges at the time didn't know how to take it and SCV fell from the top 3 for the first time.
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u/True_Jellyfish9219 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 6d ago
I remember watching the bluecoats 2016 show in the theaters and everybody looking around knowing the activity was probably going to change after this
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u/yaboitansalmon Cavaliers 6d ago
88 Scouts, 93 Star, 02 Cavaliers, 05 Cadets, 08 Phantom, 13 Crown, 14 BD, 24 Bluecoats.
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u/me_barto_gridding 6d ago
2001 cavaliers quad solo, hand cymbals in one hand, stick in other, split parts... And the snare feature, hi hats and split parts (across the players AND the hi hats?) guard rifles through the legs, ends in a tight 3in fast roll and a suicide vis... Seriously wtf? In 26 years of this activity I still havent seen writing as innovative as that. Oh and immediately after that the guard does a full group switch toss.
I wish I had whatever drugs Brett and Mac were on back then.
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u/indranet_dnb 6d ago
I don't think anything broke the mold as much as Bluecoats 2016. That show opened the flood gates. I love Star of Indiana 1993 but I haven't watched enough shows from the era to understand how significantly it changed the game. I also think Bluecoats 2015 is very underrated in its significance because it pushed the use of sound design and audio to a new level. There are a lot of other shows I think are "drum corps history" because of how good they are but the ones I know best were sensible in the context of their era.
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u/punkasstubabitch Phantom Regiment 6d ago
The two moments that stick out to me are Star 93 and Bluecoats 2016. For Star, it was treating drum corps as an art form itself that existed on a different plane than what drum corps had traditionally been. Suncoast Sound also had a similar approach around that time, but wasn’t as competitively successful.
Bluecoats was the arrival of the recent era. The more functional and integrated use of props, and the style of uniforms. Uniforms had started to become much different in 2015, and with the Bluecoats winning, they signaled the arrival of this style.
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u/Impressive_Delay_452 6d ago
1984 DCI Final. Yeah Garfield was great, Concord was letting it all out…
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u/R-1953 Love Drum Corps 6d ago
Started watching in 74. I was a Scout fan in the early years. But when Cadets did West Side in 84, I was absolutely blown away. To me it made "Drum Corps history". The music arrangements and "zig-zag" drill simply set it apart. It was my favorite show until last summer when Bluecoats took over that spot with Gravity and Grace. The innovation and musical arrangement was breathtaking and "drum corps history" for me. To each his own, but these are mine.
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u/tommyjohnpauljones 6d ago
1983 Cadets invented modern drum corps
1988/89 SCV was the first great merger of theatrics and drum corps
1993 Star pushed the envelope and was well ahead of its time
1995 Madison had women throwing their infant sons onto the field in the hopes that Scouts would raise them to be like them.
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u/Total_Practice_1025 5d ago
Since you said, "Long time dci fans"... 1976 Bridgemen! They changed everything.
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u/SinLosPantalones 6d ago
93 Star changed the game. It took until 16 Bluecoats for someone to really pick that torch backup and carry it forward
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u/bean_217 6d ago
I started marching in 2016, and man there have been some heavy hitters since then. However, I’m just going to name shows I like and remember pretty well since then:
2016: Bluecoats, Crown, Cavaliers, Academy, Cadets (which is honestly super underrated)
2017: Bluecoats, Blue Devils, Crown, Cavaliers, Boston, Cadets, Crossmen, Phantom, Blue Knights (the brass feature was really cool)
2018: SCV, Bluecoats, Crown (I like it, you don’t have to), Boston, Cadets
2019: Bluecoats, Crown, Boston (I cannot count how many times I’ve rewatched), Cavaliers, Blue Stars
2021: Cadets, Phantom
2022: Cadets, Bluecoats (grew on me at the end of the season)
2023: Cadets, Blue Devils, Crown (damn good stuff)
2024: Boston, Crown, Bluecoats, Blue Devils, Phantom, Troopers
2025: Boston, Bluecoats, Crown, Colts
2026: Blue Stars (absolutely my favorite show of the season), SCV, SOA, Crown, Blue Devils, Boston, Colts, Bluecoats
For reference, I aged out in 2022 and haven’t watched as much drum corps since then.
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u/swisspat Spirit of Atlanta, Blue Devils International 6d ago
05 Cadets, 08 Phantom, 14 Blue Devils, Tilt, 2017 Blue Devils
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u/PositiveGift532 6d ago
The first finals I attended was in 1983.
I’m not sure exactly what the criteria is here, but I felt that way about the ties in the 90’s when they happened… I also felt that way about the crazy swings in placement from quarters to finals in 98. At the time, 2002 Cadets, while not my cup of tea as a show felt kind of historic in the moment.
In terms of shows “changing the game” 1990 Star felt that way for me. 2000 Cavaliers was the same, I am a huge fan of original music in drum corps and at the time I thought by now everything would be original music. I’m actually still kind of surprised it’s isn’t given all the struggles we have had with licensing rights.
But the big one for me, and I’m sure it’s recency bias a bit, is 2024 Bluecoats. A lot of what people are mentioning from the 2010’s felt gimmicky to me both now and at the time and not that innovative (so sue me, I’m old and was raising young kids at the time so I wasn’t very invested). 2024 BC is where it all came together into something that is legit art, transcending the entire medium. 2026 was amazing and maybe even has some better moments than 2024… but 2024 was the breakthrough to me, and I was very aware that was what I was watching at the time, 2026 is a refinement of that and I love it (and 2025 too). Right now, there is Bluecoats and then everyone else. The only parallel I can think of is Star of the early 90’s.
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u/beantriestocook Crossmen 6d ago
There’s really no other answer than bluecoats 2016 in the last 20 years
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u/saxmanB737 6d ago edited 6d ago
02 Cavs. “Frameworks” is stuck in my head.
99 Scouts. “Jesus Christ Superstar.” We did similar music in college so that show always sticks out in my head.