Murfreesboro

[camel lips]

BAC. Another strong showing for BAC. I loved the show last year and this years was no disappointment. Probably my overall favorite show of the 2009 and 2010 season. Nice guard work. Brass is the real show here. They play balls out and not afraid to push the envelope. I found the music wonderfully accessible and the drill really exciting. You have really showed the last couple of years that you have moved on from the 2004 color of crap show :) THANK YOU! BTW I was sitting in Taco Bell after the show and went up to some drum corps peeps and said hello and asked them what they thought of the show. One Gentlemen had on a SCV jacket and the other had a DCI shirt on. Their thoughts? They really loved your show too and thought it stood out over the others. You guys are on the right track,,keep it up.

Phantom. Overall I thought your show was well played and well executed . Your entrance/ pre-show warm up whatever you want to call it was the best of the night. Well executed and nice staging through out your show.Your flugal horn soloist was outstanding. He is obviously a striving professional musician or serious music major. I would call him a ringer but if he is of age he gets my vote because he added a bunch of flair to your show. I thought your guard integration in the show was excellent as well.

SCV . I will state now, that throughout watching SCV over my 20+ years of watching SCV I either love your shows or feel flat about your shows. Last year you had me ,,this year you lost me. I realize this show is way over my head in terms of the intellect it plays to the judging community so I won't go too deep into your show. This should not be a big surprise to anyone because people have been stating it all season on here. I will say that I love the brass sounds coming from the hornline but the book plays to a different fan. You play very controlled and very well. I thought your hornline staged much better than any of the shows all night long. One of the few corps that did not try and push visuals when you had beautiful moments in the music. Trumpets were some of the best of the night and were staged down front when needed. Excellent job in that respect. I spoke with several SCV fans throughout the night. The die hard SCV fans told me they loved the show but at the same time felt it was not one of your best productions. No major violations on the electronic front either. Cudos there.

Cadets- Ok,,if you are a Cadets fan and you hate to hear the constant bashing Cadets get on here about the constant need to push the envelope of technology you will want to skip right past this review and go onto the next one. First the good. No one marches like the Cadets. And I mean that in a good way. Very clean and striving for excellence . I love the different marching styles that you display during the show. Hornline plays very clean and at time balls out. Very good sound. Trumpets were outstanding as well as the low brass. The staging and development of the show is top notch. Gaurd work was outstanding. Now for the bad. The whole jeofry the drum major thing was cute for the first part of the show but wore heavy on me through the middle and towards the end. TOO MUCH! The electronics with the NAA NAA the NAA naa was cute the first time you did it,,but why did you have to do it twice? Annoying!

Carolina Crown - God I love you guys. I watched your show all season on the Fan Network and it has been amazing. First the GREAT. I hated the new unis when I first saw the picture posted on DCP and on the FN but seeing it up close integrated with the guard unis against the green field it could be one of my favorite uniform designs of all time. Who would have thought that all that brown would be so distinctive . Someone with a real flair for color and design put a lot of thought and effort into the whole color concept right down to the Guard uniforms,the brass horns and the drums. Yes I said something about the drums. Even the heads were colored to go with the concept. Excellent is all I can about that. Wow your horn book is probably the hardest of the night and was played with great precision. The mello section was the best mello section of the night. The runs and power they produced were unmatched. Low brass you say????? AMAZING. God they know how to get some power out of those tubas. I thought early on in the season that you guys would be fighting BD for top honors but your show is so clean I think it has lost some of its raw edge. Let loose and let it all hang out and I think you will see your numbers climb back up.

Bluecoats. I have always been a Bluecoats fan and loved your shows in the past but I must say that this show to me was the most disappointing of the night. Not sure why. First the good. Hornline played well and strong though the night. Guard look amazing and was far above the rest in both numbers,colors and technical skill. Its clear that someone on the design team knew what they were doing when they wrote this book because the visuals and design of the show are top notch and executed well . Ok, now for the bad. TURN THAT STUFF OFF. Its called a Chord in music not a CORD! It seems to me that someone else took over design of the show about 7 min into it and said " lets see how we can really destroy this show with electronics". I am serious about that! It was horrible from this fans perspective. While we are on the subject soloist do not need to have a microphone to be heard. Soloist just need to be staged properly. They certainly don't need to be backed up by a synthesizer. I know the young people in the hornline can play. I heard that earlier in the show. Let them play. The pit was fun to watch and played technically well but was over amped. Now before anyone starts talking about Bluecoats peaking, that is pure bunk in my book. There is no such thing as peaking. Corps can continue to rise during the season and should. Your show is doing well with the judges and obviously giving you good scores. The show has plenty of room to grow.

Cavies. Cavies never seem to disappoint me and this year was no exception. No one does it like the Cavaliers. Cavies just know how to get interaction with the fans and tonight show was received well by the fans. Only Standing ovation of the night and rightfully deserved. Lets start with the opening of the show. I must say the pre show warm up was very entertaining and distracting negatively all at the same time. The pre recorded singing or whatever it was sounded horrible and did not really match up with anything in the show that I could see. Now I love the guys in the pit doing a impersonation of Pvt. Pyle from Full Metal Jacket and his rifle. I swear if this guy was a bit heavier he would have passed for PVT,Pyle played by Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket.

Cavies guard just really has that whole attitude and connecting with the fans at the begging of the shows and this year was no disappointment. I really loved the unis of the guard and the work was outstanding. Show top to the bottom was well played and well executed. I could really see this show 100 times and not get sick of it. I love how the whole corps,gaurd,drumline and hornline mix it up at the drum feature about 9 min into the show. Where did all those rifles come from? I missed how you got them onto the field like you did but isint that the point? Outstanding use of vocals during that part. I thank if anyone has a chance to knock BD off this year its gonna be Cavies. Clean the visuals up and sort out some minor issues and you have a real shot. I thought you got much closer to BD tonight and did not agree with the judges score. I will go through the recaps shortly and may post something contrary to that but I loved this show. BTW outstanding trumpet soloist. You got a standing O and it was very deserved. Lose the MIC. You do not need it. If anything it covered your pure raw edge of the trumpet up. Let her loose.

BD ok folks,,here you have it. Ive been saying all season that BD will not be defeated this season and I stand by those statements. They will go undefeated and win yet another deserving championship.

My only exposure to BD this year has been through the fan network. Ive watched every show they have been too that was posted. I love this show from up top. There is so much visually going on its exciting. I love the mirrors and the effects it gives from up top. My seat for this show was on the 40 yard line 5 rows up and while I got to see those really cool mirror visuals from ground level it was not quite as impactfull as it was for the seats up top. The mirrors do add a lot to the visuals even at ground level. Just not as much as it does from up top.

Visually this show is a killer and I mean that in a good way. No one is going to accuse them of holding still and using yard markers this year.

I agree with what others have posted that BD hornline is sort of bland. Not really the powerhouse we have come to expect from BD but its tightly played and well executed. Its going to be interesting to see how BD does with this show in the dome Tonight in Atlanta. I kind of wonder if the blandness we are hearing on the field from the hornline is not some sort of strategy of the BD staff to play to a dome crowd. Such as FINALS! Wink Wink :) BD sure knows how to win so they may have something up their sleeve here.

Thanks goes out to ALL the performers tonight. It was well worth the price of admission. Without you we would not have drum corps. I know the dedication you young people have for your craft and I hope you enjoy every moment of it.

Edited August 1, 2010 by camel lips

[bluesop08]

Agree with most of this review, except you do realize that the mic'd solos in Bloo's show are not for volume but for effect? Both solos were altered in a way that couldn't be done with just the horn and fit better into what was going on at that moment than the player by himself. I know both of those guys and I guarantee you even without staging, they could blow your face off, but that is not what they were going for at that moment.

[camel lips]

Agree with most of this review, except you do realize that the mic'd solos in Bloo's show are not for volume but for effect? Both solos were altered in a way that couldn't be done with just the horn and fit better into what was going on at that moment than the player by himself. I know both of those guys and I guarantee you even without staging, they could blow your face off, but that is not what they were going for at that moment.

Yes I totally get that and I totally did not like that. I am sure they can blow my face off. I was hoping someone would but I left with my face in tact :) .

I guess on a positive note its better to have the horn run through a synthesizer than someone just pushing a key. Does not mean I will like it any better.

Better luck next year. :)

Edited July 31, 2010 by camel lips

[bluesop08]

Yes I totally get that and I totally did not like that. I am sure they can blow my face off. I was hoping someone would but I left with my face in tact :) .

I guess on a positive note its better to have the horn run through a synthesizer than someone just pushing a key. Does not mean I will like it any better.

Better luck next year. :)

On a second thought, I can understand your position though and I agree on certain levels, stuff like electric guitar, electric piano (which sounds awful), holding down the bass note key are distracting and seem more tacky than anything else. Electronics in and of themselves could (and in your opinion and a lot of others does) detract from the activity more than contribute, but I feel that Bloo is definitely achieving the highest level of integration. If the future of bloo or corps in general is a tactful use of electronics rather than an abrasive one, I am not as opposed as I would normally be.

[somerville]

You were at a Taco Bell?

[hank13579]

Not quite sure why you chose to call out Bluecoats amplification and Electronics "and now for the bad..." and yet you don't apply the same criteria to Cavaliers whose use is at least as much or greater.

IMO Bluecoats have chosen to help sell the theme of "the future is now" through the use of synthesized sounds that work very effectively.

The Cavaliers have chosen synthesized sounds as much or more to support their theme.

I think Bluecoats do it better, but both corps seem to be using a similar approach.

It would be hard to characterize anything these two corps are doing as "bad"

IMO

[deftguy]

Not quite sure why you chose to call out Bluecoats amplification and Electronics "and now for the bad..." and yet you don't apply the same criteria to Cavaliers whose use is at least as much or greater.

IMO Bluecoats have chosen to help sell the theme of "the future is now" through the use of synthesized sounds that work very effectively.

The Cavaliers have chosen synthesized sounds as much or more to support their theme.

I think Bluecoats do it better, but both corps seem to be using a similar approach.

It would be hard to characterize anything these two corps are doing as "bad"

IMO

You have your opinion, he has his. You cannot cancel out his "IMO" for your "IMO". This is HIS review right?