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2014 Program Discussion


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Carolina Crown, while having a very good show, tried to do WAY too much visually in last years show. It would've been better with just one trampoline and, maybe, a frisbee or two, but not four trampolines and 6357487236 frisbees.

I felt the number of frisbee throw's were used just right with the music.

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Something that I wholly never expected to have happen to me happened last year.

Blue Stars made me cry.

I became familiar with Blue Stars from their break-back-into-Finals late-aughts/early-teens run. Stuff like The Factory, and Houdini, and ReBourne. Fantastic stuff, but going more for the brain than the heart. Which very much has its appeal--it's one of the reasons I enjoyed Boston's late-aughts/early-teens run (Neocosmos and The Core of Temptation and Thy Kingdom Come). But it's a different sort of appeal.

But this year's show for them...the red plumes with these uniforms just worked, like "oh, this is exactly what the Blue Stars should be" in a way none of the previous uniforms I saw them in did. The music worked very well--Chairman Dances, despite the consternation about it on here when it was announced, worked exactly the way they wanted it to work. The visual aspects with the blueprint worked well. The ballad was fantastic (especially the way guitar was incorporated into the falling action).

And then they got into that block, and sang. And that was all, she wrote.

The *best* show I've seen them do is still probably Houdini.

But last year's is my favorite.

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Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" as a fanfare after the drum break following the all trumpet / mello feature. Brilliant!

I ran into him in September and came 'thisclose' to mentioning Crown to see if he was aware of it but didn't want to dork out in front of my rock friends. Still could ask him though...

I loved the pitch bend. It was a great idea, and a novel use of electronics. I felt it was slightly overdone come Finals - too much of a good thing - but it was still awesomely done. And of course it let them add "tilt" to the music.

BK... I'm one of the few who didn't fall for the show at all. I thought the music was great, but the script didn't match the emotion.

Mike

I agree with both those, I didn't connect with BK's show at all, I really didn't like it

Bluecoats ballad didn't rock me

And for all the season hype about Bluecoats use of electronic being awesome, hearing the CD’s, Bluecoats did a better job with electronic in 2010 and 13 and not a very good job with them in 2014. The choral sounds in the ballad make it almost unlistenable, their little set-up synth licks before a big hit worked in 2010 well but has since become over-used by them and steps on impacts, plus the part itslef sounds rushed…and then that guitar, synth sound backing lead parts…always sounds out of time with the horns, like’s it pushing and they are dragging and the blend of sound; way to Keytar sounding, it's nasty on the ears (worst example was in 2013 but it showed up again last years)

Most confusing show; Colts. It was a disaster early season but really liked it at Semi’s and wanted it to jump Bones. It’s dead boring on the DVD. Need to watch it more to decide fer sure. Boston was boring on video too, another show that had more GE-live than on DVD

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re: benjmusic, on 13 Apr 2015 - 10:24 PM, said:

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Carolina Crown, while having a very good show, tried to do WAY too much visually in last years show. It would've been better with just one trampoline and, maybe, a frisbee or two, but not four trampolines and 6357487236 frisbees.

To which Ghost replied: "I felt the number of frisbee throws were used just right with the music." (spelling edited.)

* * * *

The rule of thumb, borrowed from public speaking design, marketing research plans, and educational effectiveness strategies usually was: 3 is the limit; do something in repetition more than 3x and it becomes characterture, often comedy. If humor is not the desired effect, then that's not a successful choice. Where surprise is desired, it is lost after the third attempt.

This was the principal that was traditionally followed in all judging clinics dicussing general effect and assigning numbers. Even the Grand Master Cesario used to state such.

For instance, when a color guard's flag line is across the field and each member individual repeats the move in set sequence (such as the "waterfall" flag presentation from left to right,) by the time the third member does it, the audience already gets the rote, the effect is diminished, and the mind has moved on. Unless of course something new is added in as when the Cadets changed color patterns as in the article Michael Boo recently featured on the DCI web page for the same show. Revisit the effectiveness of Santa Clara's Les Miz flag line behind the props and how surprise danced beautifully around repetition and sequence.

Ask any educator who repeats a word, phrase, or principle more than three times in the same lecture. At the fourth try and after, the students are mouthing, even shouting it back to him/her, often with the attitude of "We get it, we get it."

Such, the frisbees used by Crown lost their effectiveness and surprise once the "shooting stars" or "meteors" became rote. Other methods of projecting "space junk" across the cosmos might have been more effective once the audience was lulled into routine.

[Missing from the whole cosmic event was the obvious cow jumping the moon...to some the sole reason why the show placed so low compared to the previous season, I kid, I kid.]

Edited by xandandl
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I love drum corps but I don't think I have ever felt that way about it...

Obviously, "skevin" is not an abbreviation for "Seeley Kevin"....at least in your case.

Edited by HornTeacher
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Obviously, "skevin" is not an abbreviation for "Seeley Kevin"....at least in your case.

Ha I still think of him as the vampire he previously was. Maybe that's why the Cavaliers show had a skeleton in it.

I did like that skeleton. It was a good dancer. Maybe if it had a great personality and a cool car...

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I enjoyed Crown the most. Maybe there was a bit much on the field, but I thought use of the tramps was cool, music was stellar and it pulled me in from beginning to end. Bluecoats were my next favorite. Really loved the music. Visual was ok, bend was cool and the concept of the show was great.

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1992, 1991, 1988, 1984, 2001, and 2011, are my favorite top 12's of all time (and in that order). However, 2014's .top 12 shows from top to bottom were fantastic, in terms of entertainment. Wnen you can talk about the 12th, 11th, and 10th place corps being played in the Car CD player continuously, just as much as the Top 5, then that's a good year of corps. Heck throwin 12-17 as well. Oregon, Academy , Troppers, and BDB had some great shows too. Particularly Academy, as I really enjoyed their version of the Shostakovich, Jazz Suite for Orchestra piece.

I want to focus on talking about Madison from last year. Seeing them live in Denver at DATR was a highlight, I sat low at Sports Authority field, really close to the sideline ro see that show. This was at the request of my friend., who hadn't seen Madison live since 99. He wanted his face blown off that night. More on him in a minute....Anyhow, was one of my favorite shows I have seen from them in the last few years, Preseason, I was thinking this show would be something like 84-86 Madison. Maybe a hint of of the 89-90 Scouts too. Great charts for the brass. and great groove.

However, the one drawback, which I think is the opinion of many,- The small samples of each tune, while entertaining, would have benefitted much more by playing 3 or 4 tunes tops. Majority of those tunes in Madison balls out style, but still being nuanced where they needed to be. With that said, I wish they would have given more time to Final Analysis. It was is a great ending, but maybe an even better one had they just made that a full 3-4 minute closer. And of course, keeping the soloist at the end which made me happy. I am in the DCI needs to bring back more screamers and soloists demographic.

When I saw them In Denver, a friend of mine at the show commented that the soloist at the end should be given a G

Soprano. My friend is a 90's corps alum, and hadn't seen the show prior to Denver. I think he was expecting that 90's style of arranging for the show, as it was a Madison jazz show. He is a fan of the "Give 1st Sopranos a ton of freedom and high notes to rip it". This a guy that would give a left arm to have played in 93 BD. Anyhow, after seeing the show, it left him with an impression of a less than balls out Show, that could have been......His expectations of a 90's version we saw from BD and even the 93 Madison arrangement of Strawberry Soup- that excitement and electricity with material that was thought to generate it- he wasn't feeling it. I suppose that feeling was with some people, as maybe we were expecting something else.

For me, it's been the most listened to show of the CD in my car. I look forward to the MGM show they are doing this year.

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