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Thoughts on Bluecoats 2016 after the smoke has cleared?


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2 hours ago, BoaDci said:

Percussion....seriously

Honestly BD guard was overrated. The show was ok. Crown should have beat BD by a point including GE and Bloo should have been 1.3 down from Crown overall. Bloo should have gotten wiped in VP.  Crown Percussion was 5th greatly improved. Numbers should have been tight in top 5.

Edited by Tobias
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24 minutes ago, DrumManTx said:

It didn't keep them from it either.  Neither has it pretty much any other time people said in was the the reason they lost.

5th against 4 monster lines isn't a bad place to be anyway, percussion is one of the deepest captions and being in the top 5 in the current competitive climate is a great place to be. They were way more competitive with those 4 in 2016 and were great to listen to which is what really matters.  Huge improvement.   

Yeah, Its not anything against the line.  If you have 4 monster lines ahead of you, you still have 4 monster lines ahead of you.  The scores dont change.

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2 hours ago, corpsband said:

Agree 100%.  Watching performers so clearly having fun was infectious.   It will be interesting to see how they move forward;  is that a choice that plays well season after season?  

It might not be a one trick pony, but over time, if others follow suit, it might become less interesting.

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You really had to see this show live to fully appreciate it. Were they dirtier than BD and Crown? You bet. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable show to watch. Oozing GE, and enough achievement to keep them in the mix. That monster of a show design was going to win regardless of how technically proficient those below them were. They sold that show and deserved the win.

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9 hours ago, Ghost said:

It might not be a one trick pony, but over time, if others follow suit, it might become less interesting.

I just hope corps keep their identities.  I dont want everyone to be the bluecoats.

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I was ok with any of the top 3 winning, tho less Crown after they tweaked the ending.

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19 hours ago, Bruckner8 said:

1. ...and zero did it the way Bloo did. 

2. True. And again, zero did like Bloo did (or any of the other corps who grounded their instruments). Dude, it's not that anyone's doing anything new...it's HOW and WHAt they are doing with it! Bloo's "game changer" was the over-all encompassing production (GE) AND musical performance (Which they also won!)

3. "better" is in the eye of the beholder on this, and not mentioned on the sheet. Granted, if one hornline played for 1 minute, and another played for 10 minutes, points would have to be taken into consideration where exposure is slightly measured (it's not much). On the other hand, if you take this into consideration, then you also have to consider Bloo's hornline exposure with 15 BRASS SOLOISTS. (5 trumpets, 4 bass bones, 6 tenor bones in the octet). That alone would (did?) wipe out any perceived measurement of elapsed time playing (again, as it relates to sheets, which is all that matters...not our personal musical values). 

4. Yep.

5. Totally wrong on that one. Aussies are intended (the way they're worn by SCV and Cavies) to hide faces. Shakos do to a certain degree as well, and certainly do from any angle above 10° (that is, anyone sitting above, say row 20). There's no doubt the "no head gear" decision was a design necessity to sell THAT SHOW AT THAT TIME. I'm sure the head gear decision will be just as important this year, and the correct call will be made, head gear or not, and if so, what it will be.

6. For you. All good. There's no measure for that on the sheet. 

Do you watch shows from the sideline often? Your issues seem to indicate that you do.

I watch shows everywhere from row 1 to the press box, so I notice what works up close, what works up top, and what works regardless of where you sit.

Several thoughts regarding item 5:

- If the aussie style hat is "intended to hide faces", then what is the intent when the wearer tilts their head upward?

- Not everyone has sharp enough vision to discern facial detail from press box level.  

- I have no problem with the Bluecoats choosing to go without headgear for their 2016 show.  However, I am not feeling the same urgency about it that you do.  Why was it a "design necessity"?  Would that show not have deserved to win with hats?

- My initial reaction to the whole subject was that for many years now, the people trained to incorporate facial expressions into their performances (pit and guard) generally have not been wearing headgear.  If that does matter, then it is not something unique to 2016 or to the Bluecoats.

As for #3, I thoroughly enjoyed the brass soloists and small ensembles... and the full hornline.  (And the percussion, and the visual show.  I guess I need to clarify my appreciation up front, and that any criticism I post here is in the context of parsing the finer points of DCI champions and their title contending peers.)

With that stipulated, back to #1 and #2.  Sorry, but just because it is different does not necessarily mean it is a previously unattained level of greatness.  The ramp work was not clean.  You can go on forever about how difficult and exposed it is, but the effect is not achieved when people clearly trying to slide together are not together.  But it is okay - while the score of 100.000 was not attained, you still won.

One aspect of it, marching tilted halfway up the ramps, will never look clean from all angles if the performers are not of uniform height.  If the feet are clean, the upper bodies appear out of sync, and vice versa.  The same move that appears nailed up high looks wrong down low, and vice versa.  For that reason, I do not expect to see all other corps marching through their own versions of skateparks in the near future.

Edited by cixelsyd
edited for neatness
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54 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

 

One aspect of it, marching tilted halfway up the ramps, will never look clean from all angles if the performers are not of uniform height.  If the feet are clean, the upper bodies appear out of sync, and vice versa.  The same move that appears nailed up high looks wrong down low, and vice versa.  For that reason, I do not expect to see all other corps marching through their own versions of skateparks in the near future.

Exactly.

New dynamic needs new ways of adjudication for the judging.

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On 1/9/2017 at 5:49 PM, shofmon88 said:

This really should have been the 4th place show. While it is a GE monster, it is so incredibly dirty visually and musically. I really couldn't get over that fact during the season, and I actually find myself enjoying the show more now, though my thoughts on where it should have placed haven't changed. 

 

I actually just just listened to the lossless audio yesterday for the first time. There is a lot there that I had never heard before, and it really drove home how little the brass and percussion actually play during the show. This show is driven by the synthesizer, and it was jarring to hear it so clearly defined in the lossless audio. 

Six minutes and twenty four seconds. And I too think this should have been 4th, and a reasonable distant 4th at that. DOn't get me wrong, I was hyping this as much as the next guy, but there is no way this corps won. I'd have scored it, BD, Crown, Santa Clara, Bloo

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