billparlan

What a ridiculous assertion. The bluecoats were 4th in most vis captions finals nite in '05. How does that fit with the statement that opens this thread. Was that really as far as Rogers can take the Bluecoats? Did the 8th place guard have anything to do with it?

Zingali did not design the dissappearing/ reappearing cross in Star's '91 show. Steve Suslik (currently a vis judge) wrote that.

It's called the telephone! Got a call from someone on the spot as recaps were handed out.

Bluecoats 85.35 Phantom 84.35 Blue wins all effect and visual captions

Are we watching the same shows? I thought the Bluecoats were a riot in Evansville. The beginning is intriguing and covers the field well. The moving wave that starts the show is something I havent seen before. The rest of the opener is catchy and exciting with a very cool moment with the whole brass line on the 50 yard line and a surprising moment where the guard come together out of nowhere. The 2nd tune was a lot of fun, the opening solos were cool and it had a climax that rocked hard towards the end. The ballad was gorgeous and the closing drill witht he return of the wave drill during the company front was outstanding. I hardly noticed anything with amps and mics. The Cadets were very weird and I suspect, like last year's show will take some time to produce. I enjoyed all the corps to differing degrees.

"MADISON SCOUTS - Ok, I'll admit right now that I'm biased...HOWEVER, I am trying to be as subjective as possible in my review, " No no, dont worry about it seemed perfectly objective, no really...

I believe BD 79 played Chicago.

SCV beat BD in June in 2002

No Age limit. Aimachi has fathers marching with sons or daughters or both. Their former drum major was in the band 30 years or more I'm told.

The Aimachi Native American show was recycled for WAMSB. They first performed it in the season which went from September '00 to January '01 and won the championships. Their performance at the All Japan Championships in '01 was much much better than the WAMSB video shows. The WAMSB was thrown together with very little rehearsal time. Probably less than a third of what a drum corps has here. The WAMSB was a diversion for Aimachi as it happened well before their competitive show for THAT season was on the field so they brought out an old show and had the new members learn it quickly. Interesting to note: Their are members marching in Aimachi who've been in the band for decades... yes decades. AS for bizarre interpretations, I'll just say that it doesnt seem the least bit bizarre to the Japanese I talked to. Neither did the Africa show they did the year before (2000) with the entire ensemble in African costumes and blackface. Japan has a very different culture than the US and many things are different and appear very bizarre (did you see Lost in Translation?). On the other hands, they often remark about how bizarre aspects of US culture appear that seem completely normal to us. Finally, if they dropped the trombones, they would easily make semi-finals after a summer touring in the US. Easily. Most likely a finalist in the 8-10 range. Maybe higher. Guard, drums, visual all competitive in the 7-8 range and brass a bit lower- again without daily rehearsals of the full ensemble.

I've attended the All Japan Championships a few times and have learned a bit about AImachi. Aimachi's staff for the last 10-12 years includes Gordon Henderson (SCV, Cavies, Cap Regiment) as arranger and Mitch Rogers as drill writer (currently Bluecoats drill writer for the last few years he was with Cavies for a long time in the 80's and 90's). Also, on staff are former Cavie perc guys Brett Kuhn and Eric Johnson. Michael Gaines works with the winter guard and this year with the winter drumline. Mitch Rogers did the winter drumline the last few times they came to WGI. The Japanese staff picks the show and create the theme and the US staff designs the music and drill. They seem to like doing US drum corps shows with elaborate props and costuming. One year they did Miss Saigon and rolled out a huge helicpoter prop with actual working rotors and a guy inside. They rehearse evenings and SUndays and rarely have full attendance at a rehearsal as most members work full time and many have families. Since around 1998 Aimachi and the Soka Rennaisance Vanguard have traded victories at the ALL Japan Championships. Robins are an up and comer but have never won. Japanese crowds are very quiet and overly polite. I saw the Japanese Championships live the year Aimachi won with the American Indian show and considering the amount of rehearsal time and personnel (some of whom are in their mid to late 40's) would put their drill, marching and guard up against any here. The brass have a ways to go to match the best over here and the drums could be as good as all the best here if given the rehearsal time drum corps have. Hope this helps answer some questions.

Nice review but I think you got the performace evaluation wrong between Madison and BC. Madison marched poorly (for them) sat nite. When you get your dvd, take a look at the sequential drill move that leads the focus back to Carmen's entrance. It was very sloppy. Same with their other big move at the end of the drum solo- they had trouble covering the shrinking columns. These are just two of many spots which were not as clean as the night before. BC had two hot runs and that consistency was the difference. In addition, Madison's guard although improved this season was not up to the task of supporting the climatic moments. More than once a huge musical moment was not supported by equipment work but rather only by some relatively ineffective dance sequence or even worse, some appropriate but again, relatively ineffective play-acting. The last flag sequence at the end of the show was, relative to the demands of the competition, a mess. The three in a row championship format separates the good from the very good shows. The smoke and mirrors (again relative to their brutal competition this year) of Madison's guard, their sub-par marching performance on the night of record, and finally, the two solid performances by Bluecoats added up to the Bluecoats taking all but one caption from Madison as well as all the subcaptions except for that one percussion sheet. That kind of judging slam dunk isnt a fluke or politics or a mistake, it's about as close to correct as the system can come up with.

The Bluecoats drum speak is not "just" drum speak. The show uses various eastern musical ideas and the drum feature vocals are used in Indian Tabla drumming. They have not been composed or made up by the Bluecoats.