GEVisual

The fight for 5 - 6 - 7 in Indianapolis is going to be fun to watch. This Mandarin show is legit.

Loving the increase in sophistication level with Music City this year. Saw them live on Monday and they have cleaned up a TON in just a few days. Hope they continue this trajectory.

Will Dan Potter ask her if their championship felt more legit since Spartans were there? 😁😁😁

Based on what I saw/heard tonight, I'm thinking 1- BD 2- Coats 3- Crown Crown wins Brass, SCV wins drums, and BD takes everything else.

A very motivated Crown! WOW!

Most I have enjoyed Cavaliers in a LONG time. That was fantastic.

Just got home from the show. My $.02 . . . Bloo - so much fun to watch. Much better live. Kids are really starting to own the show and give it some personality. Timing demands at opening of show (they are spread all over the field) are handled exquisitely. Drums have cleaned up A TON. Guard is solid, but the book at times seems to be less complex than others. Unlike last year when it seemed to be a re-pasted of 2016, this show seems fresh. Could see this winning it all, and don't expect to see them lower than 3rd. Crown - The brass line is just incredibly good. Drums are solid and guard has improved quite a bit from what I saw in Orlando. They are layering more body involvement to better portray the thematic material. Not 100% sold on the GE yet. A colleague of mine described the show as "a lot of notes for the sake of playing a lot of notes". If they can find the emotional hook, it could contend for a medal. I could also see this easily in 6th if it's not engaging. Spirit - this is the most I've enjoyed Spirit in YEARS! The whole concept makes sense and the show is loaded with variety. They seem much more mature in performance this year all around. Would imagine they will be in that Scouts/Colts/Academy dog fight. Music City - This was good on video and is GREAT live. Easy to understand, superbly detailed, and the kids are performing the snot out of it. Crazy Train is a BLAST on the field. Kudos to this organization. This is a show I would want to see again. And the upside is huge! Surf - Pleasantly suprised. Nice brass moments and a more sophisticated design this year. Lots of dirt to clean, but nothing over their heads.

My original post was not clear. I realize they are different people. The burning witch at the end is what the audience loves.

Sorry for the delay folks, but just got in from the show. Here's my $.02 . . . . Cincinnati Tradition - Much better than past years. Drums are very good and guard is MUCH improved from last year, Flag book seems a bit overwritten at times and some performers struggle. Brass still has some folks sticking out at higher volumes, but is still noticeably better as well. Very pleasant to watch/hear. Surf - Big corps and ton of volume when they elect to do that. Brass might be their best caption right now. Very good soloists. Both drums and guard struggled at times. Some noticeable tempo issues in second half of show. Guard skirts seem more of a hindrance than a help. COOL musical selections and the members have a blast performing. Spirit - Drill and guard are WAY better this year. The concept still seems a bit "out there" and could use refinement/reinforcement. Never quite grasped what role the props had in the show. Good soloists as well from Atlanta. I like the new look. Much sleeker. Madison - Love the concept. If they can figure out a way to get the members to really sell this show, it will be dynamite. It's good, but could be great. Finals is within reach, but they need to commit to the role. You can tell the audience wants this show to take off. Guard seemed to have a good night. Boston - Believe the hype folks. This show is spectacular. The design work is so well detailed from beginning to end. Everything makes so much sense and the storyline draws you in and keeps your interest throughout. The guard is insane. Might be the best guard EVAH from Boston. Solid brass and percussion and the drill moves all over the place. Kids are really performing the snot out of this show and are getting credit for it. With some additional detailing and fine tuning, I could actually see this show in 5th and possibly challenging for 4th. The use of the vocalist is subtle and engaging. Just enough without overkill. When she burns, the place ate that up. Crown -Honestly, I struggled to get into the show. The brass is stellar, but I feel the show is a vehicle to demonstrate the technical brilliance but lacking a heart (flame away folks). The volcalist is nice, but then I feel like she is overused in the closer. The small stages with the pedaled set drums had me wondering "why" (as did some of the props/tarps). Whereas last year I was totally on board with their concept, I find myself struggling this year to even understand it. Visually, VERY clean at this point as well compared to others. GREAT night of corps at a great venue.

Have a seat on the 50 tonight and the weather should be ideal. Looking forward to it!

Since I have a few hours to kill I've post my thoughts/predictions. My opinion only . . . I don't flame people for what they think, so please extend the same courtesy to me. Yes, I know all the performers work extremely hard all summer and should be applauded (and I do that). But it is a competition, so here goes . . . Non-Finalists: Really loved some of the Open Class shows - very high level of creativity. Pacific Crest in particular was a highlight. Madison - all of the talent is there but they need to program better. Hope to see them rebound with a bang next season. 12th - Boston - Saw them in July and found the show to be extremely dull. Good for them for making the necessary changes to edge out Scouts for the final spot in finals. They truly earned this spot. I think they remain in 12th, but kudos to them for not packing it in after San Antonio. Coolest props of the year. 10th & 11th - Saw Crossmen in July and enjoyed the music book quite a bit. That said, after watching them again last night it didn't intrigue me as much. First viewing of Academy last night and was VERY impressed. Solid all around and a great conceptual vehicle to catapult them into the Saturday night show. Could feed off the audience hype and move up even further tonight. 7/8/9 - Blue Stars may have the most difficult and exposed program in this neighborhood. Crazy hard guard book which is coming together at the right time. If they can get a performance edge to them, they could finish at the top of this group. If they are even slightly off, they are relegated to 9th. Phantom plays the heck out of this show. One of the best ballads on the field this summer (and there are a crap-ton of good ones!). The visual program and guard programming seems a bit dated, but they perform the absolute snot out of it. The spread last night to 7th seemed a bit big, so not overly optimistic about their chances of moving up. Drums are fun to watch as well - GREAT performers. Blue Knights left me somewhat confused. I normally love their cerebral approach to programming, but this left me a bit flat. Maybe needs a second viewing. Very talented all around and I love the fact that they are willing to take risks. 4/5/6 - Cadets fell to sixth last night mainly due to the fact that they are still noticeably dirty in the visual caption. I completely buy this show all the way through the ballad, but they lose me in the closer. Kudos to them for challenging the performers with some of the most exposed drill of the summer. Guard continues to improve, but are sometimes overpowered (both musically and visually) by what the brass and battery are being asked to do. Deserving of the "most pages of drill rewritten" award for 2016. I honestly have not cared much for Cavaliers the past couple of seasons - and last night they were one of the highlights of the show. Well programmed and EXTREMELY well performed. Nice to see the green team get their swagger back. Was not shocked to see them move to 5th and if they can equal that level of performance tonight I think they stay there. The closer is one of the coolest things on the field this summer. SCV might have my favorite package of the year. It's just a show to sit back and watch develop - you don't need to look too deep to figure it out and they also perform the crap out of it. Best use of a mello section this year. The subtleties are what make it special. Congrats Vanguard - you get my fan favorite vote this season. 1/2/3 - Let's roll the dice again this evening and see what number shows up. I honestly thought Bluecoats would not be on top last night. The early electronic issues seemed to dull their performance level just a bit and it wasn't until mid-way through the ballad until I felt they got it back. Ballad features some of the tastiest trombone voicings of the season. They are asking the performers to do quite a bit in this show and the effort changes are numerous. Best moving corps out of Canton by a long shot. If they max it out tonight, I don't see anyone over them. Devils are another mystery to me. LOVED their show last year, but this one seems to be so similar to what we've heard over the past 4-5 years from them. Ballad climax is truly the highlight of the program (that soloist - WOW). Just perfection in arrangement and performance. I completely lose the guard in the show this year until the end when they are leveled on the props (which is VERY cool from a design standpoint). The program is missing something, but I'm not sure what it is. Still the best movers out there. I felt Crown's brass simply put on a clinic in semis. I'm amazed at the level of precision at every dynamic level. Sorry, but no one else plays like them. If they play like they did last night and are not up in brass performance, then something's wrong. Drums are better, but not at the level of Devils or Bloo. Guard was SMOKING in semis. The mass weapon statements are deadly accurate. Solid visually, but the program sometimes doesn't seem nearly as complex as others either in this neighborhood or even below them. If all three of these groups have their best performance tonight, I don't envy the panel. Just hope they rank them in the order that the performers are dictating. My order of finish: Bluecoats Crown Blue Devils SCV Cavies Cadets Phantom Blue Knights Blue Stars Academy Crossmen Boston The real winners tonight will be the audience. What a great year!

Bloo finished strong, but felt the wind was taken out of their sails in the front half of the program. Could easily see them 3rd tonight only to bounce back tomorrow. Both Crown and Devils brought it tonight.

Holy Mother of Brass !

Oh HELL yes Vanguard!

There is so much to love in this SCV show. Initial impact is powerful, and then the ballad is just gorgeous. Drill has lots of eye candy.

Thank you Cavaliers! Nice to see you back!

Regiment can still produce a ballad with so much finesse.

Sprung for semis today as well. As far as who has appeared so far - REALLY impressed by Legends . . . BIG brass sound. Spirit has cleaned up nicely since I saw them in July (especially the guard). SCVC - just a well put together production. Can easily see why they are scoring where they are.

I'll add my $.02 (even though it's a few days late) . . . Great venue - the show sponsors did the best they can with parking. I heard some grumbling, but I do give credit to the fact that they knew things would be tight and had a contingency plan in place to shuttle folks from the nearby elementary school. This was not the original site of this show, but I would hate to see it leave due to people complaining about parking. The Cincinnati area only has one other show (normally during the opening week of the season), so it's nice to see corps with completed shows. GREAT job by the Campbell County Band Parents for organizing and staffing the show. Cincinnati Tradition - Glad to still see a corps from the local area. Brass needs to work for a warmer, fuller sound. Noticeable attack issues with trumpets throughout. Drum line is large and pretty decent (although my OCD wanted an additional tenor player to balance things out). Guard was sufficient but not memorable. Surf - Nice sized corps this year and a step up in complexity from previous years. Brass has moments when they really lock the tuning in and when they do the sound is massive. Guard seems to have a blast performing this show. Great color palette to reflect the thematic material. Depending on what the upper level open class corps are like, this has the potential to make semis, but they will need to really do some serious cleaning for that to happen. Spirit - I was excited when I heard what they were performing to celebrate their 40th year, but it seems they have taken recognizable charts and re-arranged them simply in hopes of getting additional points. What this has done is turn the musical program to the point where it's almost non-recognizable. Good talent in all sections, but the vehicle they've been given simply isn't going to allow them to display those talents. Looks like a finish between 17-20 again this year. Crossmen - WOW! Was pleasantly suprised by what they are doing. Being from this area, I've heard plenty of Andrew Markworth band compositions, and this is very similar to those compositions. Very percussive, but also with plenty of variety. Guard is constantly moving throughout the show and the color palette is spot on. I like the subtle references to the props/tarp. Ending seemed forced (have read where others remarked this is a new ending), and the trumpet fracks at the end didn't help. Was not surprised to see them ahead of Boston tonight and if they can do some additional visual cleaning (which seems to be their weakest caption right now), could see them closing in further to the groups right ahead of them. Right now I'd say a solid 11th at finals is their worst finish. Boston - I've always been a Crusader fan and they have done some wonderful shows in the past. However, this just left me flat. Like Spirit, they've taken well known compositions and tried to add additional embellishments in hopes of gaining additional points. Never once did I feel the intensity of Man of La Mancha that normally is associated with that piece of music. Props are cool, but sometimes seem forced into the visual design. Guard is good, but doesn't seem to capture the characterization that I think they are going for. While the corps is talented enough to make finals, I won't be surprised if they are outside looking in on Saturday night in Indianapolis. Cadets - The false start due to electronic difficulties was a bit odd but the kids took it in stride. I have heard they are making wholesale changes as they go, so it's understandable that this show still has quite a bit of dirt in it. Visually they are still noticeably dirty which I'm sure is affecting their GE numbers. Guard work is effective, but could create even more impact with a better use of color (very bland overall) and better consistency among the ensemble. Musically, the corps is quite talented. The brass line has moments when they just overpower you with sound. I can follow the story line and the performers owned it in the second half of the show. I don't think they have the time to catch the Top 3, but if they can get things together I can see this in 4th above Vanguard and Cavies in Indy. If it's still dirty come finals night, don't be surprised if they are in 6th. Bluecoats - This show has to be seen live to truly be appreciated. First of all, this is absolutely the best MOVING Bluecoats corps ever. They move confidently and with purpose and the ensemble consistency is extremely high. And then look at what they are asking the performers to do, often while playing. The opener is so intense that when they hit the Pink Floyd section mid-show it's a welcome change of pace. They continue to come up with unique ways to utilize the ramps. Drums are just stupid good! Guard is good, but needs to elevate the performance level to match what the brass and percussion are achieving. Caught myself a couple of times wanting the electronic balance to be turned down a bit and that was my only big criticism. Will be no lower than 3rd at finals and if they light the place up I can see them walking away with the big trophy. Crown - I get the concept. What I'd love to see from them is possibly an even more "over the top" depiction of that concept. If you are wanting to tell the story, give us EVERYTHING, not just a few pieces and let our imagination do the rest. That is what might elevate that GE number to vault this show to the top. Brass line is simply stellar. Percussion seems improved from past years. Drill (at times) seems a bit predictable and not as complex as some others, but I've said that in the past about them and it never seems to have an affect on their numbers. Rifles have some exposed moments that are performed brilliantly. Top 3 seems a lock in Indy, but it remains to be seen if they can move past either Coats or Devils. GREAT night for corps in Northern Kentucky!

Based on what I saw/heard from my seat on Saturday night: 1. Crown (Visual, Brass & GE) 2. Cadets (Percussion) 3. Blue Devils 4. SCV (Guard) 5. Bluecoats 6. Phantom 7. Boston 8. Madison 9. Blue Knights 10. Cavaliers 11. Spirit 12. Troopers (should've been in ahead of Blue Stars based on semis run)

It's late, but I'll share a few thoughts on tonight's show in Centerville. First off, GREAT venue for a show. parking is a little sketchy, but other than that things seemed great. Legends was up first. They are making all the right decisions with a design that continues to mature. Some good moments out of the brass tonight, especially the baritones who I thought had great tone quality and blend. The concept is easy to follow and features an excellent arrangement of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Drums are solid, but guard is a weak spot right now (along with general visual cleanliness). If the guard can really start to generate some emotion and highlight some moments a little more effectively musically, they are going to be just fine. Good job tonight from the Michigan crew. Teal Sound followed. BIG sound from them, but sometimes moved past the threshold of controlled. Guard had some moments that were VERY good, but were a little inconsistent. They are another corp whose concept is easily understood and followed. The tossing, spinning cymbal trick was well received and got a great response. Visually they are still REALLY sloppy. I heard afterwards that their board decided to end their tour with tonight's performance. I really feel bad for those kids and wonder if the corps realized they had these issues 3 weeks ago prior to departing on tour. It would be a shame to lose yet another world class corp so I wish the best for the organization. Spirit hit the field next. Wow, they are really having a ball with this show. It's another that is easy to follow. Would've never thought poker face would work on the field, but they have a nice take on it. LOVE the king/queen split and how it's visually represented in the show. Big sound tonight from them (some killer mid-voice features). Seemed to run out of steam a bit at the end. Their showmanship level is really sustaining them right now. Some visual dirt remains, but my biggest concern with this program might be depth. Visually it seems a bit routine and simplistic at times when compared to other groups around them. However, there's no denying that they are one of the more entertaining groups on the field this season. Well done Atlanta! Madison was next. While others have been critical of some of the musical choices in this show, I think the music is actually what makes it unique. This program reminds me a bit of their "Carmen Project" from a few years back. Visually, this is the best I have seen Madison in YEARS. They move with so much more authority and maturity this season. The guard seems to be better integrated this year, and they also are working what seems to be a much more varied book. The voice only section was well done, and of course the large spinning front got a huge crowd reaction. Bluecoats were first up after intermission. Personally, I LOVE the sound of their brass section. To me, it sounds more like 'classic' drum corp than almost anyone else. Some very exposed and wonderfully played moments from the upper brass. Bluecoats' sound is so well blended and controlled. Drums were very solid and the guard is much improved. The whole corps looks so majestic in the opener as you hear strains of 'Masquerade' from Phantom. Bluecoats also may have had the coolest looking silks of the night, but wonder if that final purple flag is just a teaser. Not sure if this show has the legs to push Top 3, but should make 4-6 very interesting. Then came Crown. The brassline is freakishly good, especially when you consider the visual demands that are being placed on the performers. Subtle one moment, and deafening the next. Drums were solid, and seem better than I can remember them being in then past. Guard seemed to have a great run tonight. If the guard can continue to elevate both their technical level as well as their emotional involvement, this show could take it all in Indy. They are now getting to the point where their are 'quirky' moments in the program that just make it fun to watch. Visual demand is much more apparent this year as well. Crown made a believer out of me tonight. Cavaliers were on last. I commend the staff for beginning to work the bugs out of the program. My biggest issue with the program is lack of continuity, especially musically. I never felt like the program flowed smoothly. In a year where other groups seem to have very logical shows, this makes this one stick out even more. There is so much that is disjointed, but it seems those issues are being addressed. Guard seems to be very talented, but had a sub-par run in spots tonight. The other biggest flaw (IMO) is the over-reliance on electronics, to the point tonight where it was actually distorted. While I wasn't surprised to see Cavies go back in front of Spirit tonight, they will have to continue changing things in order to move past others.

Didn't know if it might've affected power or warm-ups.

Have there been any types of disruptions tonight at LOS due to the storms? It was just reported that the winds blew down the stage at the Sugarland concert being held tonight at the State Fairgrouds in Indy.

I may be incorrect, but I think this may be the first time since Miamisburg first began attending WGI (mid-80's) that they won't be in finals. While it's true that they have "slipped" a bit in recent years from their normal championship level of excellence, I also think that other groups have simply taken their talents to new heights. Scholastic World has become competitive like never before. Here's hoping that Miamisburg can regroup and return to their place among the activity's elite. They need to look no further than Northview HS for inspiration. After a few sub-par years, that ensemble is now looking at possibly their best placement in recent memory.

Anticipating these moves from WGI, Sebastienne was successful in coordinating the safe arrival of the Convalesence sabre line in Dayton. Fleeing on foot first to Mexico, they then travelled to Pakistan where they donned burqas and assumed roles as political prisoners. Shouting "ASYLUM! ASYLUM!", they were sent to the US Embassy who immediately arranged for their safe transport to New York's JFK Airport. Once there, they were able to blend in with members of Alter Ego as they prepared to leave for WGI. At the last minute, they packed themselves in boxes and shipped themselves as cargo on the next Comair flight to Dayton. No word on whether the rifle line has arrived as Sebastienne was in heavy negotiations with Somalia pirates to secure their passage to the UD Arena on a hijacked Royal Carribean liner that was scheduled to cruise up the Great Miami River and drop them off near the Marriott.