Not really in MICHIGAN CITY

[ThirdValvesAreForWimps]

7 minutes ago, Flguardman said:

Carolina Crown 72.7

Cavaliers  71.5

Blue Stars 66.1

Crossmen 66.0

Madison Scouts 64.6

Colts 60.6

Pioneer 49.2

Partial panel; no brass scores other than music analysis.  I can't wait to see The Cavaliers in Hamilton tomorrow.

[Flguardman]

1 minute ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

Partial panel; no brass scores other than music analysis.  I can't wait to see The Cavaliers in Hamilton tomorrow.

Yes, No Brass, VP or Guard!

[Terri Schehr]

4 hours ago, Ghost said:

He drives that bad huh?

It's as if the devil has taken the wheel. 

[jpaul]

2 hours ago, PopcornEater1963 said:

He called home today about a money matter ( or I would have never heard from him! ) and told me from the ballad on he could barely even feel his legs between the cold and the wind. And I very calmly told him this is what he signed up for. To which he replied..."I know...and I wouldn't have it any other way". Kids will take a lot of physical discomfort to do what they really love! 

If you don't hear from him, that typically means he's fine, busy, and having a great time. 

[PopcornEater1963]

6 minutes ago, jpaul said:

If you don't hear from him, that typically means he's fine, busy, and having a great time. 

For sure...I saw him in Indy on Thursday at Lucas Oil and I've never seen the kid happier. I'm trying to remain as unobtrusive to his summer as possible. :-) 

[cowtown]

Always enjoy this show, go early meet up with a few folks, like the small town vibe and the stadium

Brief thoughts from the seats, I sat near Terri (judging from her pictures), second row from the top.

Colt Cadets didn’t make it to my seat, sorry, always enjoy you

Pioneer, smaller brass line and guard than in recent years, enjoyable show. Needs more work but very hummable. Singer was good, not sure what they brought new to this version, don’t really care. Drums were their strength.

Colts, always a fan, some nice hits, good drill but the theme is nowhere outside the gratuitous use of props which, don’t add anything. The pylons look poorly with their wrinkled tarps. Hate to say it; this show won’t get them into finals. For Colts, I like their family friendly theme shows or even their attempts at newer style shows. This one is neither; sort of wonder how it got from their staff’s brain onto the field.

Madison, stronger visually and cleaner than last year at this time, by far and it is very MCM (wgi champs). The painted oxygen tanks they drag around are amusing but. It’s a decent start, seems finals bound depending on what’s around them, show needs to be darker, more chaotic, more menacing. I don’t know, mellow runs in a post-apocalyptic show are a tough sell regardless. They need to add a lot to keep this show moving up. Their music did nothing for me but it was played well to be fair, my first listen so that may come.

Crossmen, pretty clean, a more mature corps for them, some nice moments, provided the first big musical impacts of the night. Saw them in the theatre so it looked a bit cleaner except the guard (windy). If Enigma is their show without a theme, cool. Otherwise, again, too many props with too little payoff. They’d do better to lose half the props and open up the field. Lose some of the black as it weighs down the entire visual. Outside of boxing in corps a few times in the drill, the propos don’t do much. The talent is there, they are getting a more talented membership, the show needs more and it needs some pop.

Blue Stars marched cleaner than in the theatre. There is a lot of room in this show to grab more points. The tables, sorry to sound like a broken record but they come out too early and are a distraction. They move around a bit, some horns lean on them and they move some more, so? They have some nice visual in the drill but their brass wasn’t where I expected it to be and their drums ran cold tonight, seems they spent their time on marching better. I’m warm to this show, it just need some more time.  Lady Marmalade isn’t working for me. Thought last years’ show was a better design and more interesting.

Crown, always a pleasure to hear their brass and live it’s more enjoyable more so tonight than in the theatre because the singer was drowned out by the horn line from the build of the ballad through the end. Almost thought they cut some of it out but she would squeak thorough the ensemble every now and then. She sucks up a lot of visual space and attention while not doing much.  I feel their visual is incomplete as it begs for so more. I did notice a drop in guard and the overall design doesn’t seem as cohesive as the past few years. As corps clean around them, if they don’t add some big, positive additions, this show will drop. It’s missing something

Cavies, way better than the theatre as the electronic weren’t front and center, many of them got lost on the field. Its Xtraordinary part two but lacks the depth of concept, development and the music book of 2011. Some nice stuff but it really just meanders as their guard and corps vamps. It’s OK; Mad World was a Mad Mess at this time of year, so they may get it together. Crowd loved it but it’s their home show, they love anything the Cavies put out. Best drums by far, need to check but they better have won the captions (was there even a drum judge?).

General overall thoughts, every corps has a gimmick or a prop and only about a half of them work so you get a lot of duds. And when you compare props, gimmicks, costumes to other corps’, you’re talking a lot away from the marchers. I feel we are in peak prop and expect a pull back over the next few years because when they miss, it can kill an otherwise good corps and show. Props should enhance shows and not have shows designed around them. A lot of corps haven’t seemed to figure out what’s good before it hits the field, the risk reward is too great.  As a fan, gimmick after gimmick after prop gets tiresome, it changes the nature and enjoyment of the entire evening. I wasn’t musically satisfied. I feel this year is over hyped in general and the shows are not on the field, kind of reminds me of 2005. New rules, new trends that everyone had to try and many failed,  it ended up as a very mediocre year over all due to design.  

[mjoakes]

26 minutes ago, cowtown said:

Always enjoy this show, go early meet up with a few folks, like the small town vibe and the stadium

Brief thoughts from the seats, I sat near Terri (judging from her pictures), second row from the top.

Colt Cadets didn’t make it to my seat, sorry, always enjoy you

Pioneer, smaller brass line and guard than in recent years, enjoyable show. Needs more work but very hummable. Singer was good, not sure what they brought new to this version, don’t really care. Drums were their strength.

Colts, always a fan, some nice hits, good drill but the theme is nowhere outside the gratuitous use of props which, don’t add anything. The pylons look poorly with their wrinkled tarps. Hate to say it; this show won’t get them into finals. For Colts, I like their family friendly theme shows or even their attempts at newer style shows. This one is neither; sort of wonder how it got from their staff’s brain onto the field.

Madison, stronger visually and cleaner than last year at this time, by far and it is very MCM (wgi champs). The painted oxygen tanks they drag around are amusing but. It’s a decent start, seems finals bound depending on what’s around them, show needs to be darker, more chaotic, more menacing. I don’t know, mellow runs in a post-apocalyptic show are a tough sell regardless. They need to add a lot to keep this show moving up. Their music did nothing for me but it was played well to be fair, my first listen so that may come.

Crossmen, pretty clean, a more mature corps for them, some nice moments, provided the first big musical impacts of the night. Saw them in the theatre so it looked a bit cleaner except the guard (windy). If Enigma is their show without a theme, cool. Otherwise, again, too many props with too little payoff. They’d do better to lose half the props and open up the field. Lose some of the black as it weighs down the entire visual. Outside of boxing in corps a few times in the drill, the propos don’t do much. The talent is there, they are getting a more talented membership, the show needs more and it needs some pop.

Blue Stars marched cleaner than in the theatre. There is a lot of room in this show to grab more points. The tables, sorry to sound like a broken record but they come out too early and are a distraction. They move around a bit, some horns lean on them and they move some more, so? They have some nice visual in the drill but their brass wasn’t where I expected it to be and their drums ran cold tonight, seems they spent their time on marching better. I’m warm to this show, it just need some more time.  Lady Marmalade isn’t working for me. Thought last years’ show was a better design and more interesting.

Crown, always a pleasure to hear their brass and live it’s more enjoyable more so tonight than in the theatre because the singer was drowned out by the horn line from the build of the ballad through the end. Almost thought they cut some of it out but she would squeak thorough the ensemble every now and then. She sucks up a lot of visual space and attention while not doing much.  I feel their visual is incomplete as it begs for so more. I did notice a drop in guard and the overall design doesn’t seem as cohesive as the past few years. As corps clean around them, if they don’t add some big, positive additions, this show will drop. It’s missing something

Cavies, way better than the theatre as the electronic weren’t front and center, many of them got lost on the field. Its Xtraordinary part two but lacks the depth of concept, development and the music book of 2011. Some nice stuff but it really just meanders as their guard and corps vamps. It’s OK; Mad World was a Mad Mess at this time of year, so they may get it together. Crowd loved it but it’s their home show, they love anything the Cavies put out. Best drums by far, need to check but they better have won the captions (was there even a drum judge?).

General overall thoughts, every corps has a gimmick or a prop and only about a half of them work so you get a lot of duds. And when you compare props, gimmicks, costumes to other corps’, you’re talking a lot away from the marchers. I feel we are in peak prop and expect a pull back over the next few years because when they miss, it can kill an otherwise good corps and show. Props should enhance shows and not have shows designed around them. A lot of corps haven’t seemed to figure out what’s good before it hits the field, the risk reward is too great.  As a fan, gimmick after gimmick after prop gets tiresome, it changes the nature and enjoyment of the entire evening. I wasn’t musically satisfied. I feel this year is over hyped in general and the shows are not on the field, kind of reminds me of 2005. New rules, new trends that everyone had to try and many failed,  it ended up as a very mediocre year over all due to design.  

Thanks for such a solid commentary.

One thing I kept thinking at Indy last week: The props for Crossmen, and those tables for Blue Stars, constrain what can happen with drill. I know designers - and plenty of others more expert than me - must be thinking that props give them an added dimension to the drill. Bluecoats achieve that. But this is a fine line to balance on, as you suggest. It can be too much. How the Crossmen can expect to get any kind of cool drill work out of more than just small blocks of mms, I don't know. Maybe that's the plan. It's fine talent and marching on the field; just diminished, I think, from what's possible.

And then after seeing Blue Devils on video I realized what a difference it makes when the props are off to the side and a designer can actually work with a huge part of an open field. (I'll reserve judgment until I see them live in San Antonio, but I wonder just how necessary all those BD props are, too.)

[Terri Schehr]

1 hour ago, cowtown said:

Always enjoy this show, go early meet up with a few folks, like the small town vibe and the stadium

Brief thoughts from the seats, I sat near Terri (judging from her pictures), second row from the top.

Colt Cadets didn’t make it to my seat, sorry, always enjoy you

Pioneer, smaller brass line and guard than in recent years, enjoyable show. Needs more work but very hummable. Singer was good, not sure what they brought new to this version, don’t really care. Drums were their strength.

Colts, always a fan, some nice hits, good drill but the theme is nowhere outside the gratuitous use of props which, don’t add anything. The pylons look poorly with their wrinkled tarps. Hate to say it; this show won’t get them into finals. For Colts, I like their family friendly theme shows or even their attempts at newer style shows. This one is neither; sort of wonder how it got from their staff’s brain onto the field.

Madison, stronger visually and cleaner than last year at this time, by far and it is very MCM (wgi champs). The painted oxygen tanks they drag around are amusing but. It’s a decent start, seems finals bound depending on what’s around them, show needs to be darker, more chaotic, more menacing. I don’t know, mellow runs in a post-apocalyptic show are a tough sell regardless. They need to add a lot to keep this show moving up. Their music did nothing for me but it was played well to be fair, my first listen so that may come.

Crossmen, pretty clean, a more mature corps for them, some nice moments, provided the first big musical impacts of the night. Saw them in the theatre so it looked a bit cleaner except the guard (windy). If Enigma is their show without a theme, cool. Otherwise, again, too many props with too little payoff. They’d do better to lose half the props and open up the field. Lose some of the black as it weighs down the entire visual. Outside of boxing in corps a few times in the drill, the propos don’t do much. The talent is there, they are getting a more talented membership, the show needs more and it needs some pop.

Blue Stars marched cleaner than in the theatre. There is a lot of room in this show to grab more points. The tables, sorry to sound like a broken record but they come out too early and are a distraction. They move around a bit, some horns lean on them and they move some more, so? They have some nice visual in the drill but their brass wasn’t where I expected it to be and their drums ran cold tonight, seems they spent their time on marching better. I’m warm to this show, it just need some more time.  Lady Marmalade isn’t working for me. Thought last years’ show was a better design and more interesting.

Crown, always a pleasure to hear their brass and live it’s more enjoyable more so tonight than in the theatre because the singer was drowned out by the horn line from the build of the ballad through the end. Almost thought they cut some of it out but she would squeak thorough the ensemble every now and then. She sucks up a lot of visual space and attention while not doing much.  I feel their visual is incomplete as it begs for so more. I did notice a drop in guard and the overall design doesn’t seem as cohesive as the past few years. As corps clean around them, if they don’t add some big, positive additions, this show will drop. It’s missing something

Cavies, way better than the theatre as the electronic weren’t front and center, many of them got lost on the field. Its Xtraordinary part two but lacks the depth of concept, development and the music book of 2011. Some nice stuff but it really just meanders as their guard and corps vamps. It’s OK; Mad World was a Mad Mess at this time of year, so they may get it together. Crowd loved it but it’s their home show, they love anything the Cavies put out. Best drums by far, need to check but they better have won the captions (was there even a drum judge?).

General overall thoughts, every corps has a gimmick or a prop and only about a half of them work so you get a lot of duds. And when you compare props, gimmicks, costumes to other corps’, you’re talking a lot away from the marchers. I feel we are in peak prop and expect a pull back over the next few years because when they miss, it can kill an otherwise good corps and show. Props should enhance shows and not have shows designed around them. A lot of corps haven’t seemed to figure out what’s good before it hits the field, the risk reward is too great.  As a fan, gimmick after gimmick after prop gets tiresome, it changes the nature and enjoyment of the entire evening. I wasn’t musically satisfied. I feel this year is over hyped in general and the shows are not on the field, kind of reminds me of 2005. New rules, new trends that everyone had to try and many failed,  it ended up as a very mediocre year over all due to design.  

Thanks for the review!  I'm just not very good at them.  But you are! 

[Ghost]

17 hours ago, DrumManTx said:

Would love to hear your thoughts on Madison Scouts!  At your convenience of course.  

 

17 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

I will do so probably tomorrow.posted from the DrumScorps app

 

1 hour ago, Terri Schehr said:

Thanks for the review!  I'm just not very good at them.  But you are! 

[Terri Schehr]

57 minutes ago, Ghost said:

 

 

Ok, I'll do a very short review of Scouts.  

The costumes didn't bother me at all.  Maybe because I've seen so much WGI percussion.  This is just how they roll.

i felt disconnected from the music.  Like Cowtown said, all sections seem ahead of last year.  Probably back in finals.