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Opening Night!


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Just now, cfirwin3 said:

Close your eyes and you feel like you are in the 80's... Open your eyes and you simply know what is going on... it's not confusing.

I absolutely love it! I still get the "melted face" factor and sinister drum line. Guard is COOL! I love this show because they know exactly who they are and they slap you right in the face with it! BRAVO BLOO!!!

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32 minutes ago, Geneva said:

Agreed. I find nothing about the presentation appealing visually or musically. They have totally lost their trademarks. I always marveled at the surgical placement of their feet and the spectacular pattern drills which popped due to their white hats. Now they are just a cacophonous black glop. Very poor choices being made here in my opinion .

Get out of my head.

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1 hour ago, kdaddy said:

I told some friends last night - if BD and SCV saw the broadcast last night, they couldn't be happier. 

And while I think Regiment is going to struggle performance-wise (show is pretty difficult, it sounds), last night should give them some hope.

Agreed. There were a lot of similar comments in the theatre I attended (granted this is pretty much Devils country).

I didn't see anything last night that made me think "they can't be caught". It will be an entertaining summer for sure, though.

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A couple notebooks observations from being there live last night:

I have to remind myself this is the first show of the year. No one is near championship form yet. Some are more polished at this time of year than others. Things will most definitely change. 

We haven't seen the west coasters, BK, BAC and Phantom yet. I'm sure they will have something to say about last night. 

Not lumping everyone into this but has drill and footwork,dancework, become so difficult that gone are the days of plain old in-your-face, peel your ears back music?

CC's brassline is still ringing in my ears.  This is one seriously powerful line!  If the second half of the show can catch up to the first this show is a monster.  I do hope to understand the yard line props better later.  Can't wait to hear this brass line again in July.

MASS is already growing on me.  I really want to see where this show goes.

I get the feeling reading about the Theater experiences that most of the electronics were WAY better balanced lived.  Even Crowns vocal was mixed pretty well live.  I think it probably made more sense live too.  As did the MASS choir.  One Coats solo was missing live so imagine it sounded terrible in theater.  

Speaking of the Coats.  You make me nervous!  I cannot help but think there is a disaster waiting to happen.  Really cool concept though!  Coats have a bit of an attitude, as you would expect from a reigning champion.  Before the National Anthem was even sung Coats DM came out to the sidelines and carried himself with so much confidence.  As if to say "go ahead, try and beat us".  Standing in the tunnel waiting for Crown to finish you could see the same attitude from the rest of the corps.  I like that in a competitor but that is a slippery slope.  This show is definitely beatable but they perform the heck out of it!  The music is a lot of fun. I'll be curious to see where they take it from here.

all in all I still say this is going to be a fun year!

 

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My thoughts from last night:

Theatre 3/4 full and not to bad since I had a choice of going to at least 20 theatres within a 30 mile radius. Dropped the wife off at the MGM National Harbor casino so that she could donate to the local economy!!!!!

Crossmen: Loved the music, but the drill was not challenging at all. They will need to make some major changes in order to stay top 12.

Blue Stars: Actually pretty good. Once they clean the show, it should be one of their best ever.

Cadets: I thought it was the worst show of the night. The staging (except the last two minutes) was horrible throughout the show and the electronics were to loud. Drum score should have been higher. There was WAY to much signing! Those uniforms just did not do it for me and most of the audience at the theatre.

Cavaliers: Fast-paced, fun and should get better during the season.

Crown: "Refreshed" and a very nice stab at GH (and well deserved by Jeff). This show can be great once they get rid of the singing. Horn line and guard great as usual.

Blue Coats: Nice show and visual package! This show has a lot of great moments and should compete again. Will they be wearing the helmets this year??? 

This was a very exciting show and I can't wait until I see them all live. One of my biggest complaints is that the electronics are ruining nice horn and drum parts as well as a lot of the singing, but it is early and hopefully, we will see the changes as the season progresses.

DCI is in for another fantastic season as well.

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9 minutes ago, derek005 said:

 Cadets: I thought it was the worst show of the night. The staging (except the last two minutes) was horrible throughout the show and the electronics were to loud. Drum score should have been higher. There was WAY to much signing! Those uniforms just did not do it for me and most of the audience at the theatre. 

Don't know about worst of the night, but this show might not go over well in the Bible Belt, a city in Michigan, and never do this show in most of the Middle East.  As a "practicing Catholic", I felt uncomfortable with the verbal religious parts.  A Church and state moment I guess and maybe it's needed to provide more meat for the show.

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Did not attend the theater broadcast. But, have seen enough full videos to believe 2017 will be a "watershed" moment for drum corps.  This year, we are seeing more program elements that, frankly, work much better ON SCREEN than from any single stadium seat, live and IN PERSON. Quite a challenge to find common ground that works equally well for both audiences.

No longer just one or two groups going outside the box. It's the box being destroyed.

 

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2 hours ago, mjoakes said:

One more: Last minute, two Bluecoats staff members jumped in empty seats behind us. One of them had a piercing, wail of a shout of excitement. She both wailed and pierced frequently, and I wondered if the Coats plan to use her as an awkward vocal later in the season. Plus, they had to comment on everything they saw and heard.

Thanks, Coats, for diminishing the show on the field for me and my parents. It's just one data point, but still left a bad impression (a bit of arrogance?) of the Bluecoats organization. Oh, I'll overcome that, and yes, I know it doesn't reflect the kids and rest of the staff and volunteers, etc.. Still, why do this?

I was sitting about two rows behind probably the same two people in 239. I thought the same thing. Well said. 

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Just now, Fred Windish said:

Did not attend the theater broadcast. But, have seen enough full videos to believe 2017 will be a "watershed" moment for drum corps.  This year, we are seeing more program elements that, frankly, work much better ON SCREEN than from any single stadium seat, live and IN PERSON. Quite a challenge to find common ground that works equally well for both audiences.

No longer just one or two groups going outside the box. It's the box being destroyed.

 

In all fairness, your perspective comes on the basis of having "seen enough full VIDEOS..." in order to draw a conclusion about how the shows are received "from any single stadium seat, live and IN PERSON".

I'm not disagreeing with you on the crazy omnidirectional box breaking... just on the 'doom and gloom' sort of slant that you seem to be giving it.

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1 hour ago, Geneva said:

Agreed. I find nothing about the presentation appealing visually or musically. They have totally lost their trademarks. I always marveled at the surgical placement of their feet and the spectacular pattern drills which popped due to their white hats. Now they are just a cacophonous black glop. Very poor choices being made here in my opinion .

Those "poor choices" brought them back into the Top 5 again last year for the first time in five years and have now put them within a point of Crown on opening night sooooo :shrug::thumbs-up:

Personally, Propaganda was one of my favorites last year.

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