Stanford Show

[bayareafan]

Went to the Stanford show tonight. Was a great night of drumcorps. A lot of people made it out, the weather was nice, and Stanford is a great stadium for drumcorps. Just a few very brief thoughts on each corps. This is in the order the corps performed.

SCV Cadets: Nice concept taking an artistic look at war. Good repertoire and performed well though the show isn't finished yet. They did the last few minutes standing. Though they are good they are definitely not as strong as BDB this year so I don't understand how the two corps scored so closely.

Blue Devils B: This corps is really strong this year. They could win the open class championship I think. Their show is titled "Warped" and that name really fits the entire show. BD is clearly grooming these kids for the kind of avant-garde productions that the A corps has taken to producing each year. This corps is worth watching if nothing else than for their drum line. They were smoking tonight and the crowd loved it. As with SCV Cadets their show isn't fully done yet so they stood and played some at the end. Buy I'm impressed with these guys and look forward to seeing how they progress this year. You should check them out.

Blue Devils C: The youngest training corps in the activity is always fun to watch. Their show is themed Route 66 and includes recognizable music like Car Wash and I Can't Drive 55. I love that BD provides an avenue for young kids to participate in corps at such an early age. Fun show.

Mandarins: I enjoyed this show more than anything the Mandarins have done in years. It's about the story of a Chinese man migrating to America. It's a fitting theme for the corps. The music is more accessible this year than the past couple of years and the corps seems to me to be off to a better start than the past few years.

Pacific Crest: Nice show but just not memorable in any way. I didn't really get the whole Transfixed theme. It's not like with the other World Class corps where in each case you could clearly grab onto something memorable. So...not much to say here.

Blue Knights: Best show I've seen from them in years. Really, really nice visual design for this show. They use circles throughout to play on their theme of "no beginning, no end". They use some prerecorded audio extensively throughout the first several minutes of the show. But they do it to very good effect. The show really works. You can't take your eyes off the field while they're out there. Good stuff.

Carolina Crown: By far the crowd favorite tonight even though this is the "home show" for SCV and BD. But Carolina Crown earned it. Man are they good. It's a stunning show visually. They call it E=mc² and somehow they tie this formula into the theme of passion.....whatever. I think it's just a way for their designers to say they have a theme when in fact they don't need a theme. Their designers are just so good they can go and design whatever show they want and people will watch it. Their brass section is so clean they bested the Blue Devils in my opinion. And visually the show is very demanding but is executed very well for this time of the season. It's a crowd pleaser from beginning to end and the people around me couldn't help shouting and clapping throughout. These guys deserve to win a championship sometime. Thanks for coming out and entertaining us Crown. We appreciate you making the trek.

SCV: The staff changes made off season have really helped with SCV. This is the first time in many years that they've fielded a corps I felt had a solid chance to compete with the likes of the Cadets and BD. This is a very fine corps this year. The new uniforms look AWESOME. So much better than the old uniforms. And guard uniforms are great year as well. I felt sorry for the guard last year having to dress in those horrible uniforms and put their hair up like they had gone to be. This years production is visually and musically head and shoulders above last years. The music from Les Mis is recognizable and performed with just the right amount of aggression by the horn line. The percussion is great as always, and the overall look of the show is vintage SCV with clean design, etc. They always improve more than others as the year progresses and I predict this year they will finish a notch or two higher than last year. These guys are on a good course now. Watch for good thing to come in the next year or so.

Blue Devils: BD is serving up an unhinged irreverent version of The Rite of Spring this year. You've never hear it played this way before. They of course have props and they have new ultra tall plumes this year. It is quite an elaborate production and the music book is very demanding. To me, the entire show starts strong and I found myself wanting to like it. However, once you get to about minute 6 of the show it starts to wear thin. The book this year is filled with a lot of loud, dissonant music that is hard to play but...somehow it didn't work for me in the end. Of course last years show didn't work for me as well early season but then I grew to really like it. So maybe this is another one that you have to view a few times to appreciate. One thing for sure though, BD was not as clean visually as we're used to early season. Lot's of dirt out there.

Overall it was a great night. I agree with most of the judges ratings, but I don't for the life of me understand how they can rate BD over Crown. Most people in the stands couldn't understand that either. This was a home show for BD and yet when Crown came in second people booed. They have BD over Crown by .7. I think that's reversed. Crown should have beaten BD by about 1 point in my estimation. I'm not a BD hater. Quite the contrary. I'm a BD supporter. I buy most everything they sell, wear their shirts, etc, but they were not the best corps tonight.

[PeeWee]

Thanks for taking the time to write a full review. Some of us won't get to see the corps live until Indianapolis, so this really helps.