WarriorHal Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Saw the Scouts live for the first time this year in Dallas and loved their show. Very enjoyable music -- outstanding jazz, which sadly is now a rare treat in DCI. Terrific trumpet trio and great lead soloist. And I didn't even mind the short trombone feature. Still strange to see and hear trombones in drum corps. But I'll take that by a mile over all the narration,electronic gizmos, and other gimmicky nonsense. It's taken some time, but the Scouts have put together one of the most entertaining shows of the year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madcityscout Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 I saw this show live for the first time last night. This show is awesome!!! Had some good conversation with staff members yesterday who I will keep nameless. I will say that after the conversation that I honestly walked away relieved as to where this corps is headed in the near future in the eyes of the judging community. There is a lot more now that goes into show design than I realize. If you are going to play with the elite corps you have to start designing shows that peak in August, not July as in previous years with the Scouts. The judges are starting to really appreciate what these guys are doing, the Scouts just need to clean it up and they will get the numbers! Before I don't think some of them appreciated their level of difficulty and they got jumped by other corps around this time. Should not happen so easy this time. Having said that , I will personally say that since I have seen BS and BK live, those two corps are some very, very fine horn lines and they do what they do extremely well!!! It should a dog fight with Scouts, BS, BK and Phantom down to the wire. At this point Scouts have more content to clean and are less proficient. But, if it all clicks within these next two weeks, it should be really interesting. Although I am a Scout alum I love BS and BK horn lines this year! They are really powerful!! It's all good for the activity to survive. We need to supppball of these corps and give credit when credit is due. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madcityscout Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Just throwing this out there. With so much narration being used in drum corps these day, what if in the future Scouts were to give a presentation from "John Connor's" perspective the day "Skynet" went online and the day the machines took over (terminators)? Hmmm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Just throwing this out there. With so much narration being used in drum corps these day, what if in the future Scouts were to give a presentation from "John Connor's" perspective the day "Skynet" went online and the day the machines took over (terminators)? Hmmm? sounds more like a cavies show for some reason 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corps8294 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 sounds more like a cavies show for some reason ...and that would be one of the all time best Cavie shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 The Scouts have one of the most difficult musical books on the field this year. I would venture to say top 6. The visual design is a step up from the past couple of years as well. It is a bit unfortunate at the moment that they don't seem to be getting the musical credit they deserve. Overall I like the direction that they are headed. It's about velocity, which is hard to do with the music they're playing. Love the music, minus the Sqaure-ish fanfare for the new. Still like that okay, but it doesn't compare to previous versions of the tune done by other corps in the past. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 The more symphonic sound from 06 was definitely a bit of a shock and didn't seem to fit very well. You could hear it starting to show itself as early as '03. The percussion arrangements in particular from 04 to 06 just didn't pack the necessary punch you'd expect. It wasn't really bad, just very lyrical at times, and it didn't always get the best moments meshing with the brass book. They always felt like they were backing away from huge moments instead of building up to them. On another note, I think their lead sop went down mid-season in 06 and it hurt them pretty bad considering quite a few moments were built around screaming sections. Someone might have to correct me there, but I'm pretty sure the early season soloist was not the same as the late season soloist. And yeah, Rosander really brought out the crazy for that year. When people talk about Troopers abandoning their history I think about that show. You can not change too much too quickly or you implode. This is an example of imploding after starting to build back up. While they didn't quite implode with the talent they had in 2006. Madison 2007 wasn't as good as they were use to. ...and it took them until 2010 to not be in danger of falling out of finals again. What was their solution? Get back closer to where they were before. Other corps have gone through this too. We need to give the Scouts time to figure it out. The show this year has good music. I just think that they have to add so much design clutter to get the points because they can't really have velocity drill and high tempos with the music. It's a problem with the way the judging system works right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contraman85-90 Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 I saw this show in Omaha and it was much better than I expected; they were definitely the crowd favorite. From what I've seen on the fan network the continuity has improved quite a bit over the season. I'm sad that a large chunk Fanfare for the New was cut back (BTW the Argonne Rebels is still my favorite performance of this by far) but I have to admit it does make the show flow better. Starts with a fanfare and moves on. The guard was better than I expected from what I've seen on the recap sheets. Seeing seven snares was awkward but I understand. Didn't mind the wheel and the clock, but the ticking of the clock went too far into the songs. As it didn't match the tempi of the songs it distracted and confused what was going on. I was surprised it didn't affect their performance, but as an audience member I got the idea. Loved the music, drill was pretty good, liked their intensity and sound. I can take or leave the ending. I understood what they were going for and enjoyed it. Surprisingly, I liked the trombone ensemble, very well done. Generally, I really enjoyed the show as did the crowd. There was a noticeable reaction when the score didn't match their performance. The boys seemed in good spirits and the pride and swagger was there. Good luck to them for the rest of the season. Go Scouts! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swmstom Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Just got back from Atlanta. I had bad seats so I couldn't tell if the drop in score tonight was from a bad run or if it was the rough go-on draw. Regardless, I still enjoy the show after seeing it a second time. But the one thing that troubles me is how far behind in show design Scouts are right now. I'm not talking narration and a field full of props...but goodness. It is just night and day from Scouts and the upper corps....I mean, not even the same zip code. And it really pained my heart to see that huge Atlanta crowd give the Scouts just a nice ovation when all was said and done whereas Crown and Bloo had that crowd rocketing up out of their seats before their respective shows ended. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magbo Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Lots of talent in that corps, but seems like the design team is not doing the corps justice. Still, I think it is an entertaining show, and should be ranked higher than 11th in the standings. Brass and percussion scores are under-rated and are likely taking a hit due to the judges' overall impression of the design of the show. The ending of the show is killing them, in my opinion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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