I like your matter-of-fact style of review. I didn't catch the afternoon shows, but I agree pretty much with your views of the night gigs.
It was cool to see a corps doing broadway tunes again. The years of Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, and City of Angels were among my all time favorite, though the only thing I took home with me from Spirit's show was their ballad. Nice collage of broadway ballads. The rest was hardly memorable.
Couldn't tell you what Glassmen or Blue Knights (my hotdog corps) did.
Vanguard was the only corps that gave me any resemblance of goose bumps simply because of RCM. I was too young to ever see their 87 show live and videos/CD recordings just don't cut it for me, so hearing SCV play it live was simply amazing. I think their show lacked a lot of meat, but I still loved it. Who cares if it was in 9th. I actually like their new look, more so than the green/red of the past few years. They have a very clean appearance which brings back memories of their late 80s/early 90s years.
Was it Crown who had that unreal french horn sound? Don't remember, but there was one corps right around this point of the night who just belted out gorgeous midhorn sound. Sounded more like an orchestra horn section than a drum corps. Kudos! And thank you for not singing this year. Now fix your plumes. :P
Boston - Don't remember
Bluecoats - I can't say I remember a single part of their show, but what I DO remember is how great they were! WoW! Awesome sound, great look, very very cool.
Phantom had me looking up to see if it were raining, then realizing we were inside a dome. Don't know how I feel about the guard gimmick, for lack of better term, but what I do know is I LOVED their Gershwin charts! Such a refreshing book for Phantom, and they performed it well. For the first time in many years I didn't feel like I was hearing rehashed pit parts and horn hits.
Madison... Bout all I remember is the Malguanea tag they threw in near the end. Oh, and that chick in red. Neat. I guess.
Devils - I agree with you completely here.. They didn't play anything that lasted long enough to really get into it, AND they rehashed some horn arrangements from past years. Or at least they were similar enough for me to think so. Who was narrating? Someone in the pit? I spent the entire 12 minutes looking for the narrator and paid no attention to anything else. For a while I thought it was pre-recorded, which I'm not sure is allowed? Or is it. Whatever. The show put me to sleep (sans that one incredibly LOUD hit they smacked us with towards the end). Didn't like it. I got it. Just didn't like it. Sorry.
Cadets - SCHOOLGIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^OO^
Cavies - Don't remember much except they moved well.