When taking these pictures I had planned on doing an in-depth post. Really digging into the corps’ shows from DCI Finals 2015. But as I made the post, I realized that wasn’t my real experience of the event. What I experienced was actually joy that 12 shows had genuinely entertained me. 11 of them I would’ve watched back-to-back gleefully and the other I’d still be willing to watch again at some point.
Not every year of DCI has that same effect on me. This was a good one; one for the books. No crazy high winning score but there was stiff competition that kept all the scores reasonable. Anyone that tells you any other corps “clearly should’ve won” is clearly biased, because there was no clear winner. There was a judge that placed the champions, Blue Devils, as low as 4th. And when the two General Effect captions are split, it’s fair to say it could’ve gone either way for BD or Crown. I wasn’t even convinced the Bluecoats were 100% out of it – there was only 0.725 points between 3rd and 1st.
So rather than offer long diatribes of what I liked and didn’t like – I hope you enjoy a few pics I snapped from the cushy seats at the front. I normally stick to the nosebleeds where I can watch the drill, but that didn’t happen this year. It was whole different energy down low, and in some ways that was better. I really don’t like looking up at the jumbotron for big drill moments, but here I got to appreciate a lot of little details I normally miss, and really felt the energy of Finals night.
The Early Program
Crossmen
Blue Stars
This show did grow on me a little more than it did in theaters. Being right by that front stage was pretty neat.
Boston Crusaders
As close to Game of Thrones as you can be without being Game of Thrones. Best vocalist moment of the night.
The Cavaliers
Madison Scouts
Phantom Regiment
Blue Knights
I stood up twice for this show. I could not stop talking about how much I liked it. Best BK ever.
Santa Clara Vanguard
I regret not looking more into them earlier. Any other year would’ve been a title contender. This design was so much better than 5th place.
The Cadets
Really surprised they didn’t win Percussion. Love the french horns.
Bluecoats
My favorite show of the year.
Blue Devils
Their sound was so huge, I thought they had an extra 30 brass players.
Carolina Crown
Looks like hell, sounds like heaven. I thought they earned the win and it probably had the best crowd reaction.
Finale
I did my first ever Periscope broadcast by letting people share my view of the finale. Unfortunately I didn’t mark the broadcast to save, so can’t embed a video here. You can watch the official DCI version though.
Blue Devils Encore
This encore run was amazing. You could hear the clinking of their medals throughout.
Alex Gustafson 