Div. II/III Grand Finals notes

[Jim Alberty]

Wow - what a day of drum corps! Drove down with one of my AG drummers who had never seen a live drum corps before. Boy, did he get an experience.

First observation - and something that colored the whole day - it was freakin' hot! I can't remember a Finals day that was so humid and hot - the misery factor was astounding. It was as bad or worse than the first Saturday show in Orlando two years ago, when we all sat on the west side of the metal bleachers as the morning sun rose over the stands.

We noticed it was 85 degrees when we were leaving Foxboro at 11:05 that night - it was hot.

We arrived more than an hour before the show - there was quite a line at the gate already - I didn't get my usual seat (one row down) and the stands filled up fast - and emptied just as fast as folks sought shade down under the stands.

This was no joke - I was worried for a lot of grandparents and older folks who were gasping by the time Spartans went on - a lot of folks left when their kids' corps finished - no surprise.

Still it was good to see a big crowd - the stands, though never packed at any time during the three days I saw shows there, were generally full and the crowd was always enthusiastic.

So I stopped taking notes after the second corps - this is from memory. Every corps was affected by the heat - with turf you can add about 8 to 10 degrees - the amazing thing was that no one went down on the field - one poor young lady who's corps shall remain nameless lost her breakfast on the field after the show - most ageouts leave a pair of shoes, but times change...

Yamato - the sound was a little ragged on the loud end - heat, I suppose - tough to be on first in this situation - I like this show, John Meehan did a nice, listenable book. I think their drums came through best.

Memphis Sound - a lot of tears in the brass - drums missed some big hits, unusual for them - I think they marched a better show than the numbers give them credit for - again, mark it down to the heat.

Taipei Yuehfu - now I see why they use fans so much in Taiwan...the appearance of the fans in the show always catch the crowd up and today was no exception (jealousy, perhaps? I saw of lot of fans sold from TY's souvie table in evidence in the crowd). This is a very good show, I think it didn't have quite the demand the Raiders did - or connected with the crowd as Raider's did. I enjoyed the ethnic Chinese bits - the large yellow flags, the Peking opera dance moves (now you know where Jackie Chan got it from).

Raiders - a cloud or two mercifully blocked out some of the heat during their show - so the only heat came from the field. I think they wanted to show without question - or benefit of penalty - that they were the Div. III champs. The JC Superstar show was a great vehicle to show how well they connected with the crowd. Lovely performance. Horn sound was clear and well-supported to the end.

Jersey Surf - definitely a crowd favorite - these kids have fun and do what they do very well. All the comedy bits were back in except the cell phone call (which could have done with a stronger setup anyway). They win high "color guard be-yotch factor" hands down - that kid has a career on Comedy Central if he wants it. The ending was restaged (thank you, staff member sitting behind me for muttering "c'mon, remember the new ending, remember the new ending" during the closer). Horns down front for the final hit of "Stars and Stripes" - I almost thought they were going to storm the stands like they did last year. Thank you Bob Jacobs. I'll be ripping off some of the jokes with full attribution...

Oregon Crusaders - OC has a great show, which grew on me (even if the kid with the gun NEVER SHOT THE BAD GUY) - the visual performance (M& M for those of us of the dinosaur persuasion) was definitely off - forms weren't clean, intervals sagged - the heat was really amping up about then and a lot of folks sitting around me were just waiting for the break to come so get in the shade and hydrate. Great show.

Tthere were three ways to relate to the heat - 1:be hard corps and tough your way through, pass out once you clear the stands 2:take the easy route and just "get through" in as relaxed a manner as possible (speaking as a director of a band and a corps this is a very, very valid option when it's so stupendously hot) or 3: "say WTF, it's over 100 degrees, we're sweating bullets, the crowd is wilted and the judges are too dehydrated to care, loosen up and swing big".

Impulse - Impulse went with Option 3 - their style let them loosen up, wipe the sweat off their brows and give it all they had. Great performance that seemed a little thin in the middle due to the heat. A fun show.

Teal Sound - I was kind of wavering from the heat at this point - and Teal plays a show called "Firestarter" - is Key Poulan the Chuck Mangione of the new millenium? I think because of the heat they didn't have the energy to totally sell the show the way a score of this complexity needs to be sold - but it was a solid performance in general. Much props to the kids after the final flame incinerates the corps for dropping down on that hot turf and rolling around in agony - who needs Method acting when you have hot turf? Well done, Teal.

Fever - yet another reminder of how hot it was - a corps called "Fever". Good performance. Right off the bat the energy level was there. Met their arranger at their souvie stand before the show and talked about corps management - this group has done great things in only three years - as has OC - keep it up.

Blue Stars - they have a guard member who goes into a single leg-lift on the 25 yard line when the corps is called to attention - she holds it until the first note of the show - an astounding display of technique, focus and commtment to performance - which pretty much sums up the whole corps. The energy was there at the sacrifice of some clarity in forms and accuracy in movement - I sort of expected them to be louder - but the total show was there. I can't wait to see what they do next year, the anime' music they've chosen has a great connection with a lot of the younger members of the crowd and is a gold mine for material.

Get short sleeves. You know you used to do it - you know you want to do it again. Oh baby, get short sleeves.

East Coast Jazz - Le jazz hot - at this point, I could take either them or Spartans - actually, at this point I kind of just wanted to jump in the bay - but ECJ really cut through the heat-induced fog and made me watch. Everything seemed to work and work well. Great brass and percussion, selling the show despite the heat.

Spartans - This corps absolutely knows how to assimilate and perform a show of this kind of symphonic and dramatic complexity. They have some kind of sympatico with wherever Key Poulan is coming from - a kind of dark, intense vision that weaves a spell commanding the audience to become involved. I hope they continue to explore this kind of expression.

Oh yeah, they can march and play the living crap out of it too. Wow.

There will be a gallery of pix later today on the Atlantic Guardian website - mid-evening.

So thus ends 2005's only month-long weekend.

The thing I'm taking away is the astounding level of quality of the overwhelming majority of corps in Div. II/III - Revolution, Capital Sound, Citations - all of them could have been part of this show with no letup in the quality of design and execution.

Even the smaller Div. III corps - Targets, H.Y.P.E., CNYC and others - are pushing their kids to reach greater levels of expresson and execution.

But the Div. II corps, in particular - there wasn't a weak show in the bunch.

Also, on a personal note - Atlantic Guardian took the streets with horns and drums to do parades here in Maine - now with the grace of God and a long handled spoon we're going to take the field next year.

Thank you, everyone who made this season so memorable.

Yeah baby. Drum Corps.

regards - Jim