vaguardguy

The Cadet's closer was announced as "Mirrors" (thus all the look-alike school-girls running into each other), an original piece based loosely off "Dance of Vengeance" from Samuel Barber's "Medea". Yes, the two sound very similar (I wonder how the music licensing worked on that one). As far as Star of Indiana is concerned, I'm sure it's a complete non-issue. I doubt it's homage, nor a jibe. The comparison between the two corps' usage is pretty irrelevant except that yes, indeed one of the corps has played it in the past (its not like Star "owned" that piece in the same way you can perceive certain other corps "owning" a particular song). I do agree that it's a great show. With a minor exception of an awful, foolish-sounding interpretation of the opening of Bjork's "Cvalda" (sor, regardless of your stance on amps, it really does sound bad (though I confess aesthetics are fairly subjective)), this is a great piece of drum corps; worthy of a title. Edit: spelling/grammar

Though Corpsreps isn't completely comprehensive, it's pretty darn close. According to their score archive, SCV's lowest placement at any given show since '72 are two 8th place finishes at '92 quarterfinals and semifinals. This would make San Antonio's 9th place finish their lowest placement in the DCI-era. I could be wrong, since this was my only point of reference. Anyone have a more definite answer?

Hello again DCP, I got back from my weekend foray into PA yesterday afternoon and am finally getting around to writing my review of the Reading, PA DCA show. As for introductions/biases/etc. for which people around here clamor, you can read the beginning of my Westminster, MD DCI review found here. My friend Luis, with whom I'm seeing shows this summer, and I left from NoVA around 1:30PM in his Audi Twin-Turbo - a sweet ride to corps shows if you don't mind my saying. After completing a few errands, we were on our way to PA to pick up two friends, and lovely young ladies I might add (must be something in the Harrisburg water), in the environs of greater Harrisburg adding on an additional hour or so of travel time. We drove past Reading, PA with about twenty minutes to spare before the show and suffered a few directional mishaps. Sor, there is no excuse for one city to have a Penn St., Penn Ave., and Mt. Penn exits all in the course of a few miles. I know he's the state's founder and all, but it's awfully confusing as a motorist. Ten minutes remained for the 7PM start time when we arrived at Exeter HS and tried to park. Sadly, the parking was a mess. I don't know if the HS had a parking lot available for cars, but it seemed like everyone had to try and find parking spaces along the sides of the roads in the surrounding neighborhood. We ended up parking a good six or seven blocks away from the HS. As bad as the parking was, at least the weather was absolutely perfect for drum corps. The temperature was pleasantly in the 70s with a very slight breeze. It got chilly enough at night I wish I had long sleeves, but other than that the weather was flawless (it didn't tick once :P ). After passing by a few warmup areas and wishing some of our friends good luck, we went to the ticket box and bought a sit-anywhere-you-can-find-a-seat ticket for only $12. What a deal compared to the Westminster, MD DCI show where sitting inside the 20's was $20, and even more inside the 40's. Entering the stadium only minutes before the Star Spangled Banner, there weren't many good seats left. We ended up walking back and forth in the stands until we found Glen Paisley, former tour director of LVK. We joined him and took our seats about four rows up on the side-A 40, not high enough to see the drill well, but just right to have our faces blown off from the loudness. I do miss Albright Stadium, having performed there for the Reading show the three years previous, but it was nice to not have "the pole" obstructing the view. A member of the Buccaneers Alumni played the Star Spangled Banner on mellophone to commence the show. It was a beautiful rendition, much better than playing a recording of the Anthem over the intercom. There was a sketchy moment or two, but his tasteful flourishes more than made up for them. Now on to the corps: Sunrisers - A very young corps, but you could tell they had a lot of "heart" (har-dee-har-har). I don't know if they're Open Class or Class A, but they have Class A numbers and I think they'll do well there. Their show was "The Tell-Tale Heart", and you can tell many heart references throughout the show from the opening bass-drum "heartbeat" and the heart on their jacket (though the heart really should've been on the other side of the jacket, closer to where the heart is actually located). One of the best parts about their program was they were the only corps present with a complete show - complete as in having all their drill and all their guard work. The show was designed well to meet their abilities. The guard book was easy, but well-performed. There was an older gentleman in the guard who was excellent, out-performing the rest of the guard. The weakest section of the show was the singing portion. It was almost inaudible for such a small corps, and they clearly had no vocal training. It was pretty bad, and should probably be taken out until they can add both numbers and training. It was still a very interesting show, well-done for such a small, young group (I remember thinking that even their DM didn't look legal). New York Skyliners - This is another corps that, given their numbers, should consider Class A. Again, this was an entertaining corps, but clearly on a different competitive level than the remaining four corps. I remember there being four drum majors: two men in white cadet-style outfits, and two ladies in black dresses and white gloves. For a corps with less than 60 members, this seems a little excessive (though one of the older gentlemen drum majors had a lot of flash - was fun to watch). They had a big backdrop of supposedly the NYC skyline. Though I personally cannot stand backdrops, I think they're alright for small corps to limit the perceived field size and make the corps appear relatively bigger. I won't talk about the visual program because there isn't much to talk about (drill, guard, etc. was simply blase), but musically this was a fun show. They had a drum rack a la BD '03, but with trash can parts instead of cymbals. Right now, this was the most embarrassing part of the show, being unreadably dirty. They either need to remove that section, or rehearse it into the ground. Other than that, this was a fun show in which to listen. Connecticut Hurricanes - There was a big gap in quality between Hurcs and Sky, probably the biggest competitive gap of the night. They were the first corps to have a truly exciting visual package (moreso their drill than their colorguard - though there guard was leaps and bounds beyond the two corps previous). They had both very wide-open moments and very close-quarter moments. Some field visual moments still need to be addressed, with one gentlemen completely not roll-stepping the entire program. There isn't a consistent marching style from member to member, but when this is worked out they will have an amazing visual program for their size. The most noticeable aspect of their program was their drumline. These guys can play. What impressed me the most was how "senior" these ladies and gentlemen were as they passed in retreat. They were clearly the "oldest" corps I've ever seen (some members were clearly well over 60), yet they can play on the same level as the big boys. This was by far the most inspiring corps of the evening, and I left for intermission with "Magnificent 7" stuck in my head. Intermission - The intermission was moved back to allow Bush to perform afterwards. We used this time to visit some of our friends marching various senior corps or wandering around the stadium. It was like a reunion, fantastic! Bushwackers - Speaking of great visual programs, Bush had probably the most creative drill of the night. All around, this was a solid program - one of the best Bush shows in years. "Russlan and Ludmilla" was the first really loud part of the night, and this was such a well-performed, exciting piece. The whole musical program was great. There was singing in this program too, but was much better executed than Sun (it sounds like these guys received some vocal training). As great as their musical program was, I was far more excited about their visual program. This was the first solid guard of the night, displaying some great equipment technique (some of the most solid catches of the night). The silent guard feature was hotttttt (yes, it warrants all 6 t's). Most importantly, the drill here was well-written and made the best use of space of the night. There were moments where the corps was spread out all over the field looking huge, and other moments where there was such tight, fast, and close drill. I don't know if Bush studied Esperanza's 2003 show (the year they won DCI DivII), but the last 30s of drill was almost a straight rip. I doubt they studied DivII tapes, so I imagine it's just a case of great minds thinking alike (unlike another case later in the night). Their guard staging was best of the night. They didn't take Bucs approach of simply arching the flagline around the corps-proper, nor did they follow Cabs lead and stage the guard off to the side most of the show. The guard (including the flagline) was well-integrated into the show, and provided multi-dimensional visual support to the overall program. Serious accolades to the drill writer for this corps. Hawthorne Caballeros - The numbers rumours made things sound awful for Hawthorne, but wow were they way off. Rumours also said this show wasn't "Latin" enough, but those were way off too. Sure, this might've been a "Journey to the Pyramids", but it could just as easily be any Cabs show. The Egyptian visuals were pretty good and well-integrated over the course of the show. The corps managed to take up a lot of space and look large for what I hear is one of their smaller hornlines. The guard had great technique, I just think their staging worked against them. The drumline was good, but I think they had a little too difficult a book (lots of notes). My only complaint was they were the only corps without all their drill. The last minute or so was a standstill performance, but at least the music was exciting. I know this is an "off" year for them, but it doesn't take away from the fact that this is still a very exciting show. Reading Buccaneers - This will be my most critical review, but for a corps that's executing this well, it's warranted. Before I begin, let me preface this is an amazing corps. They are performing well, they are consistently executing, they are exciting, and they could very well be DCA champions (deservedly so). My biggest complaint of this show is from a design standpoint. I couldn't pick out the moment where I'm supposed to yell, "VANGUARD!!!" Yes, I know SCV performed three of the four pieces they used, and two of them in 2000; I just never expected them to take such a copy-cat interpretation. The arrangements were almost identical, the staging was very similar, they even used some of the same visuals (watch the tenor visuals with their sticks, and then watch a tape of SCV2000). Sor, this is drum corps and creativeness should be a prerequisite. Marching bands copy drum corps, and if drum corps as an activity wants to remain at the forefront of the marching activity they need to ensure a strong focus on newer, creative ideas within the limitations of the idiom. I hope they're being courteous enough to forward SCV some royalties, because this was far more of a rip than simply using some of the same music. I know the designers can do better, I've seen it. This is just an opinion, let it go because this really is otherwise an amazing show. At least they do a very faithful interpretation, and the effect is paralleled. On to more positive things. For starters, they were huge and easily the loudest corps of the night. Every moment was edge-of-your-seat. "Farandole" (by far my favourite part of the show), was riveting, and "Adagio for Strings" was gorgeous (yes, they were able to duplicate the effect almost as well as SCV). They marched well, and the drill was very good (not very creative, but still good). The members were outstanding and deserve to have gold medals around their neck come September. The guard was great, probably the best Bucs guard I've ever seen. I liked their use of curved flagpoles in the ballad (for anyone who saw LVK's show last year, there's a little bit of pseudo-irony in that the instructor who wrote our curved pole work is now marching Reading and spinning those awful things herself now - what a performer and great job!). The guard was truly performing the show. This was the best show of the night; very entertaining and very well-performed. They deserved to win, and the members were simply amazing. Jersey Surf - What a difference a week can make (and if you want to know what their show is like, check out my Westminster review - this will be mostly focused on change since then). It's hard to believe this is the same corps I saw last Thursday. They cleaned up a great deal since mid-last-week, and improved on the show immensely. They added in more gags, and made some of the older ones more noticeable (I still love it when the guard boy walks off with the show near the opener). Things have improved a lot visually and musically. The guard, as a whole, is a lot better; though there were a lot of individual ticks (poor boy who dropped his sabre solo in the ballad) that will be ironed out with practice. By no means did they look bad going after Reading. They were easily comparable, and were a fantastic exhibition before retreat. This is the best Surf corps since 2000, no contest. I recall back in '02-'03, this used to be a judged show for junior corps. Whatever happened to this, and why did they become exhibition-only? Good job Surf, you will finish no lower than 4th this August in DCI DivII. We didn't stay for retreat or encore (if there was one). We had to drop off the two girls, driving all over Central PA in the process. We stayed overnight at our ex-tour director's house and hung out the next morning before driving back to VA. What a great show, Reading. Thanks for hosting, you truly changed my entire perception of senior corps for the better. P.S. Thank you people for the kind comments on my last review. You know who you are. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy this one too! Edit: for a punctuation/grammar mistake or two.

Rest assured, not in this show (though when/if you see it, you'll find one or two others from the '00-'04 era). I think that move went away along with the Tarpon Springs fellows.

I have never designed for a corps, nor have I ever instructed for one, but I'll gladly throw in an additional $0.02 for you. Thanks for asking nicely. That's pretty rare around here sometimes with the, "Corps X got the shaft," "No, Corps Y has the better show," "No, Corps Z is, and will always be, the best corps to ever grace the field," arguments. I think the first thing Magic needs is 30hr days (maybe 32hr). I know, not possible yet, but maybe if they do a few reps of their show backwards they can alter time in such a way that...okay, in complete seriousness, I get the impression Magic is really young this year. They play like they're young and they march like they're young. This is not a bad thing, it just means a lot of time focusing on the basics and integrating them into their program. I know last year was rough on them competitively (but at least they ate), and I can't help but wonder how many of the vets returned? In more specific terms, there are a fair number of problems with their feet: both timing and technique. They might want to consider defining their marching technique in greater detail, and if it already is well defined, then simplifying the style in such a manner that everyone looks the same. They could also consider marching basics blocks without a gock block and to their show music to focus just on the timing of their feet with the show music without the additional responsibility of drill. Musically, I'm certain that with more and more cleaning, it will sound good once the really difficult parts (like this one horn lick towards the end of the show that was a bit of a mess comes to mind) are hosed. They also don't have the same dynamic range as some of the other corps despite being roughly the same size. Maybe this is by nature of their horns, or it could be they're not putting enough air into their horns. Maybe they need to do more cardiovascular workouts to better control their breathing. As for design, I would go as far to say they potentially have a better drill design than even Spirit and maybe Crossmen (tweak a few sets here and there). There are some really strong moments in the drill that are far better than those two corps. If the transitions between these moments are tweaked a little, the production may become more memorable through and through rather than two or three exciting moments. The problem is the technique is missing at the moment, but lots of rehearsal can address that issue. Musically, I wish I could help there. There needs to be some rewrites. It's has the dynamics, at times it has excitement, it's just missing a melody to tie it all together. Recall the Cavalier's experiments with original music: the jazzy riff in '01 and the reversed "Over the Rainbow" riff in '02. I think a rewrite that has a melodic theme could do wonders for that show. I hope these comments were constructive. Again, I am neither a designer nor an instructor for a DCI drum corps. Thanks for asking, and I wish you, and Magic, luck this summer.

I haven't been a true spectator at a drum corps show since June 2001 (I've spent the past three years marching), and this is my first show review...ever, so be gentle . For what it's worth (very little), I'll give a little background on myself since that has been a concern for a few people in this forum from review submitters. I marched in LVK's colorguard (flag) from '02-'04, ageing out last summer. I have had a little bit of instructing experience, but for the time being I am relegating myself to fandom. Accompanying me to shows this summer is a friend of mine who marched in LVK's drumline (snare) in '02. He ended his marching career after that summer, and this would have been his ageout year. Between the two of us, we have friends who are currently marching members of almost every corps present at tonight's show. As for biases, I tend to notice most things visual (it's been many years since I've been a musician), especially the colorguard (with most of my attention given to flaglines). I value consistent technique and solid execution, and get pretty frustrated when it shows that a performer has a poor grasp of the basics he/she should've learned prior to performance season. My friend's a drummer, he likes drums :P . The day began with concerns over the weather. Some forecasters predicted rain, but by good fortune it held off tonight. We departed Northern VA at 4:30PM for the 7:30PM show, hoping to have planned in enough time for ATM/gas/dinner and still arrive early enough to watch warm-ups. DC-area traffic (second worst in the nation after LA) never ceases to amaze me, and after a short dinner stop where we ran into a family also en route to the show from Richmond, VA, we arrived with only 20min. to spare. Three hours to go a mere 65mi is unacceptable. After a long walk around the perimeter of the school, we went straight to the ticket counter to purchase our seats for the night. We chose the $20 reserved seats (reserved seats being between the 20-40, with the expensive seats being between the 40-50 and the general admission $10 seats outside the 20's), which seemed like a good idea at the time until we were given two seats in section A, row 7. I sat right next to the red tape that separated the reserved seating from general admission on the 20yd line (side B ), not much higher than field level. We sat in front of some band kids who must've thought we were weird cheering during loud sections and after great features - I think they must've thought this was more like a concert and less like a sporting event and should save their polite golf-applause for the end. Overall, the stadium itself was great by HS standards. The stadium was clean, there was plenty of seating for tonight's large crowd, the upper rows had good vantage of the field, and the sound projected well. This was a fantastic venue for drum corps with two exceptions. The PA system was unreliable, and the warm-up areas were far too close to the field. During the quiet sections of certain shows, you would invariably here a snare, a tenor, or a gock block in the background. We left to watch Surf's colorguard warm-up a little before heading back to our seats just in time for the beginning of the show after a late start. After thanking the local high schools for hosting the corps, we stood for the Star-Spangled Banner played over the PA. I wish they would've had a guest singer or maybe the HS band play it, because it sounded terrible over this bad PA system. We again took our seats as the first corps took the field. Jersey Surf - My first drum corps show was '00 DivII/III finals at College Park, MD. I was hooked on the activity from that moment, and hold a special place in my heart for DivII/III. In fact, Surf 2000 is the very show that convinced me I was going to someday march a DCI colorguard. I now never miss a DivII/III performance, and it's corps like Surf tonight who prove time and time again just how enjoyable these corps can be to watch. Admittedly, I have been in the minority by not being a huge fan of them the past four summers, but let me be the first to say that this is the best Surf corps since 2000's Re-inCARMEN-ation show. They have new uniforms this year that look very sharp, though I was a sucker for the mostly-white ones they used to have over these very dark uniforms they're sporting this summer. I'll admit they look great, I just liked the old ones better. The guard comes out in a costume with a shiny silver/gold top with a short, black cover-up they wear in the opener, and turquoise pants that become a skirt in the ballad. The corps itself is huge by DivII standards. They were indistinguishable, size-wise, from all the other corps of the night. The music is very recognisable and very fun, performed in almost a campy manner given the classical nature of the pieces. There are a few sight-gags in the show, but either there aren't very many of them or they have more of them that just aren't very noticeable. Parts of the show seem written too far beyond their abilities, but most of it should clean up by finals after they break out the hose. The staging is great, and makes for some exciting drill moments. After they work on their individual marching technique, they'll become very effective. One of the highlights of the show was a very "old school" feature presented by their colorguard. It added a little to the campiness of the show, but probably went on far longer than needed. The biggest surprise for Surf this year is their colorguard. The past two seasons have been a train wreck for them, but this year they are getting their act together and could very well be their best guard since 2000 (when they won DivII high guard). When all is said and done in Brockton, MA this Aug., they will finish no lower than fourth place in DivII. The Magic - Sor to whoever thought the definite article at the front of their name was a good idea, but, "Now on the field, presenting their 2005 production 'A New Beginning', The Magic," sounds really bad. I can understand wanting to remove the affiliation with a specific city, but placing "The" in the name (in this specific instance) sounds like a joke. On a more relevant note, their uniforms look great. The silver belt looks far better than the red one did, and they even bought new gauntlets that were similar to the old ones with the red stripe, but with a silver stripe instead to match. The guard had shiny gold and black outfits that look great under the lights. I hope they don't have to do many day shows this year, because they won't have the same effect. The members performed well, the problem was they were given a vehicle that was totally forgettable and written slightly above their abilities. The colorguard had moments where their book was unreadable, the drill was too challenging that it highlighted their inconsistent marching technique, and there were parts of their horn book that are going to need a hosing by Aug. The new drums sound better on the field than they did in the lot, and was pleasantly surprised with the Ludwigs. I can say that I enjoyed the show while they were performing, and there were some fantastic drill moves. The ending sequence of their opener, and the section of their production number where they form the "M" were especially exciting. Aside from those two moments, the remainder of the show was wholly forgettable. Intermission - Yes, after only two of the seven corps, they had an intermission. It sounded like a few corps weren't aware of Baltimore-Washington traffic and were late to the show site. We decided to stay seated for the 25min. break and wait until the next corps began. Spirit from JSU - This was a fun show musically. There was such a noticeable volume difference from Magic to them. They played a lot of recognisable Broadway hits, and were the first corps of the night to garner a standing ovation. More noticeably, what a drumline (also, they were 6-5-6, a combination I've never seen before)! They took occasion to feature them numerous times in the show, and each time was clean and exciting. I can see why they did so well in percussion the other night. At the start of the show, two Cavalier drummer alumni took a seat in front of us, and we all agreed it's great they moved away from the Cavie-lite fare they've been doing the past few years (though parts of their marching technique like marking time in first position are reminiscent of the Caviliers). My only complaint was the lack of interesting drill. They had some moments where the hornline danced (poorly - unlike Crown later in the show who appeared to at least have some dance training), but other than that, there wasn't a whole lot going on visually. Also, they covered the white delta with dark blue sequins that really takes away from the effect presented by the solid white on baby blue in their uniform. I can't help but think this was in an effort to hide dirt, because the two tones of blue certainly don't look good together on their own. The silks were very busy, which really made their dirt stand out. I'm sure they'll have it clean by Aug. and it'll work out alright, but for now their flag work looks really rough all because of their choice in silks. Overall, this was such an enjoyable show in which to listen (especially the drumline), but visually left me with nothing. Boston Crusaders - They were the first corps tonight to have the total package (in my opinion, one of two), and I'm glad to see they're finally getting scores they deserved. They have really exciting music. Their take on "Candide" was interesting, and they really had the crowd going on "Sing Sang Sung". I won't say their brassline was as good as Crown's, or their percussion as good as Spirit's, but I will say that their average was better than the two's. Visually, I don't see what people were complaining about. They had some classic BAC moves in there, and in my opinion had the second best individual marching technique of the night after Cadets. Their colorguard was the first to have a completely readable show from start to finish, but they certainly weren't better than Crown's guard. All in all, this was my second favourite show of the night, and though I doubt it will be permanent, I hope they manage to remain above Crown the rest of the season. My only complaint is I didn't hear the "Conquest" riff. Is it in there this year? Crown - They have a brassline that could rival top four this year. Who would've ever thought Crown's premier section would be their brassline instead of their colorguard or percussion. To play off the same pun everyone else has been using this year, their sound was heavenly. Their colorguard held true to the high Crown standards of the past many years and put out a show with some of the most difficult work I've ever seen put on the field. Some of their weapons book I can't believe they're even trying outdoors. They have such a risky book (even more so than the Cadets) and are able to pull it off. Right now, they have two big weaknesses. Their first is their individual marching technique. The only corps who had more members out of step or marching with varying technique than Crown tonight was DivII Jersey Surf. They need to seriously have a few long basics blocks, maybe even playing their entire show over and over in block while focusing on their foot technique. They had a few features where the hornline had a great deal of body, and I'm glad they were taught to pay attention to all the details. It looked good and is probably what is salvaging their visual scores (because the drill was alright, but nothing amazing). Second, their percussion isn't up to some of the Crown shows in the past. If Crown can clean up their feet, they will overtake Boston again, but I can't see it happening until then. The Cadets - What can I say other than this is, barring two or three unpleasant moments, an amazing show. This review will take a few paragraphs since this is such controversial show. The show began with a narration explaining the concept. For starters, the volume was too low that it was inaudible on the 20's. Secondly, the little parts I did hear sounded like they were written by an 8th grader. The ending went something to the effect, "...and now welcome to THE ZONE." It was so campy. This has been my major complaint with narration the past two seasons is that whoever they have writing this garbage to be spoken into the microphones is terrible at using the language to generate the desired effect. The introducing narration sounds like a script written by a little kid taking his dad's video camera and shooting his first sci-fi flick. It's cheesy to the extreme (and there's plenty more where this came from). I'm also bothered the designer assumes we can't understand the show concept. I had no problem understanding most of what was occurring on the field, but I do have the benefit of having a lot of exposure to the source material ("Kill Bill" and "Dancer in the Dark"). It's fairly obvious: a girl is stumbling into their surreal domains, or "zones", via the door. The production piece is called "Liquid", which explains the "water" flags and the girl wearing a rain coat. The ballad has the guard exposing parts of their costumes to display chess pieces, and the girl is wearing a fitting medieval headpiece (I wonder, did the design staff ever consider having the guard members only do drill in the ballad according to the movements given to them by the chess piece on their outfit - that would be a neat effect). The drum feature is from "Cvalda" (another track off "Dancer in the Dark"), which takes place in a factory. This explains the girl in the hardhat. My only complaint here is that you need to know the source material to understand this variation on the theme (unless you understand the percussion section is trying to generate "factory" sounds). The final piece is called "Mirrors", which accounts for why all the girls are on the field looking at themselves. Rather than an unsatisfactory narration, which explains nothing, the audience really needs to see the source material to truly appreciate certain aspects of the show (like the drums in the ballad, the Bjork-speak, etc.). This is no different than SCV '89 or Madison's "Carmen" show this summer, to fully appreciate some shows on all levels, it helps to have seen the source. Other than that, this show is no more bizarre or surreal than any other. The other really jarring moment was the Bjork-speak at the start of the drum feature. Sor, don't f- with Bjork. She's got something that is impossible to replicate without sounding like an idiot. I feel bad for the girl (presumably) that is being made to repeat the vocal gestures at the beginning of the source material. As a service to DCP, I'm providing a link to the Amazon sale page of the "Selmasongs" (the soundtrack to "Dancer in the Dark") record, which includes audio samples of Cvalda and what is meant by the Bjork-speak at the beginning of the feature. Conveniently, these samples include parts of the song that include these vocal sounds. The point is, whoever they have doing this featurette can't pull it off. She sounds bad doing it, and it comes off as silly. This is not an anti-amp rant, this is an anti-"this sounds like crap" rant. Like the narration in the beginning, it comes off as awfully silly sounding, and for a production such as this, it's wholly unfitting. Either hire Bjork for finals, or scrap it because you're not going to find anyone that can replicate that effect with any success...promise. Aside from those two hilarious moments, the remainder of the show was great. I don't care what the recaps say, the Cadets really do have the best visual performance of any corps there. All their members stay in step, have uniform technique, and perform. No other corps does it quite as well. I can't help but wonder if the judges are punishing them for their pants, and the "perceived" sense of highlighting dirt. Frankly, if you're even half-attentive, it's not hard to tell that regardless of the pants the Cadets are good marchers. Sor, it's not the pants colour that hides dirt, it's the contrast with the green backdrop and within the pants themselves (like stripes). The only solid-coloured pants that truly hide dirt is green. I've always loved the Cadets for the stripe on their pants, it shows they can march, but maybe the judges are getting carried away with this "what hides dirt and what doesn't" convention and are faulting them on that. I wonder what their visual performance score would be if they wore black pants one night (they might make that elusive box 6). Point is, their marching was the best and I still fail to completely understand their visual performance scores. The door does not really hamper their drill at all. In fact, this is the drill that made us fall in love with the Cadets. The door is not as big a distraction as everyone claims, the forms are very readable, and the drill is very exciting. Keep the door, just give it a fresh paint job every once in a while. The uniforms looked alright from the stands. I still wish they would make sure the corners of the applique on the back of the jacket were secured better (it still looks like a few are loose on the edges on the back of the jacket). I'm still waiting on them to fix the problem with different uniforms showing different amounts of cumberbund now that the cumberbunds are situated below the jacket instead of over. Some people have very little gold showing, some have the entire cumberbund on display. Please, it's the details that make you look like a champion. Also, I'm in love with their colorguard this year. They spend the entire production number on these water-themed flags, and the book is great. They have the entire show on the field, and it grips you for the entire performance. Bravo Cadets, this is a colorguard fitting for a title! All in all, this is a championship calibre vehicle with a championship calibre performance - clearly the best of the night in all captions. There are those two awful moments in the show, but barring those, it's a true-to-form, loud, exciting, clean drum corps show. Crossmen - As the host corps, the Crossmen had the misfortune of appearing after the Cadets. This is a really fun show, and I love the music. It had some great moments like the risque guard "duet"s in the closer. They had some of the most prominently featured screamers of the night who were alright and will improve as the summer continues. The colorguard had a really difficult book given their level of execution. The book was a step above Boston's, but below Crown's and Cadet's. It was pretty dirty, and I imagine the hose will be brought out soon. The problem (other than the drumline, which could use some serious cleaning) is that the show just feels like it's missing something. There's nothing that drags the viewer in, compels him/her to not miss a second. It's an all-around good, fun-to-listen show, but it's by no means a must-see show. This isn't just an execution problem, but a design problem. I just wish I knew what it was, because it would justify this review more thoroughly. I hope the staff finds it, because until they do they will be swapping places with Spirit all summer. After Crossmen's show, they forwent America/O' Canada and went straight to the DM retreat. After retreat, Crossmen performed an exciting encore. I wish their field performance was as exciting as their standstill. Wow, they were loud. The encore alone was worth the price of admission. The crowd was shocked at all the place-swapping with Spirit/Xmen and Crown/BAC. For this particular show, I felt the first was justified. Spirit brought it tonight with an exciting show, and Crossmen's was flat. I talked to a few members of Xmen after the show, and they said it was painfully worse than Chesapeake the night before. The guard especially got reamed a new one by their staff. These two corps really are comparable, but I do think when the Crossmen can figure out what's missing in their show, they will push ahead. If they don't, I'm going to say it can go either way between the two. As for Crown and BAC, I have to profess I like BAC more but I would've placed Crown ahead tonight. Crown really did have the more professional show, and their brassline and guard were leaps and bounds better than BAC's. True, Crown's feet were a gross mess, but I can't see that being bad enough to relegate them to third last night. I profess to liking Boston (other than last year) a lot, but I feel this show's placement was a fluke with respect to Crown. When all was said and done, it was 11:30PM and we had a drive ahead of us. This turned out to be an incredibly well-run show, and thank you YEA for hosting such an excellent event. Next stop for us, 9 July DCA show at Reading, PA. Edit: Part of my text accidentally made a smilie :) . Also, I changed a punctuation/grammar mistake or two

There's a lady over at the Soundmachine (SM) board named Marianne (her SM handle is the same as her name) that marched BK from '68-'74. I don't know if those are your years of interest (the '70's were a long decade, there were like ten years in it :P ), but talking to her might be a start. Hope this is a help, and best of luck finding her!

It's an orchestral arrangement by Third Eye Open of the rock band Tool's song "Sober". A snippet from Amazon can be found here Fever from Modesto, CA did a Tool song this past summer, but I don't believe it was "Sober" (correct me if I'm wrong). To the best of my (and Corpsrep's) knowledge, that is the only time Tool has been put on the field. Regardless, Onyx's show this winter is super-hotttttt (yes, deserves all six t's). What a flag book! Their director used to be the caption head for Cincinnati Glory and Marion Glory Cadets back in the days when they were winning DivIII colorguard titles left and right.

Mr. Armstrong, LVK was in a similar position to CoH this summer with respect to our colorguard. As a corps, LVK was locked into 5th place DivIII, but we had taken the colorguard caption all of finals week (and by "Divisional Finals", we were soundly ahead of the 2nd place guard). Sadly we also didn't make "Grand Finals" (I ought to refrain from getting started on the inherent bias in awarding "Grand Finalist" spots), but I guess that's what you get when your musical program doesn't even come close to your visual program (and it looks like you guys had the exact opposite problem). This was particularly hard on the vets, who had taken the guard caption the previous year (as a 4th place, finalist corps), but were unable to defend it. As a brief anecdote, those of us in our retreat party were half-joking about calling your corps up and encouraging the two of us to walk into "Grand Finals" in uniform to pick up our respective caption awards. Obviously this would've been fairly juvenile, but joking about the idea did lighten the mood a little. On topic, I do believe Oakland is the only case of a DivI corps taking a caption and not making finals (but this was under the "tick system" where things like that were more likely to happen), and LVK and CoH are the only corps since to have done that regardless of division (and this only happened because of the changes in awarding II/III finalist spots).

I'm fairly certain there's no set, universal standard for referring to soprano/trumpet and contra/tuba players in drum corps yet. I've seen some corps that have been playing Bb horns for years (e.g. The Cadets, Blue Devils, etc.) regularly use trumpet/tuba in place of soprano/contra from both the members and the staff. I have seen corps that have recently switched from G to Bb (e.g. Capital Regiment, Colts) use the same terminology to emphasise their new instrumentation. For the corps in between, they seem to be used interchangeably. In some cases, just the staff (or certain sections of the staff) uses trumpet/tuba in lieu of soprano/contra, in other cases, just the members (we like to call them "rookies" :sshh: ) use the "band terms" (note: I'm using this expression in a historical context and am not explicitly bashing band - which has it's own place in the pageantry arts). Sometimes both members and staff use the new terms, sometimes neither use them. To summerise a long-winded discourse, the words used to describe the soprano and contrabass voices of the brass choir that composes a particular corps' hornline varies from corps to corps. I can't speak to the inner workings of most corps, but I know at LVK we have been using Bb horns since '02. Despite this, and while trying to avoid the "G vs. Bb" debate, most people still refer to the horn and horn players as sopranos and contras. Excluding the brass staff, the remainder of the staff has seemingly preferred using soprano/contra over trumpet/tuba (I imagine as much out of force for habit as preference). The members themselves almost exclusively use soprano and contra in reference to their Bb respective horns and the members who play them. Our Guestbook seems to be a good indicator of this (and out of curiosity, do any other corps often refer to their fellow members in the form [instrument] [first name] like Guard Chris (in my case) or Contra Tim (as taken from the Guestbook) - we've done this for years and I wonder how common it is). This is where I make my wild assumptions, but I think the membership prefers the "drum corps terms" because it's a distinguishing factor from marching band. I contend most of our members take deep pride in being in a drum and bugle corps (albeit Bb bugles), and since most can justify the terms "soprano" and "contra" in reference to their voices, this is a fair practice. This puts us more in touch with our roots (both generically to drum corps past, and also to the Chieftains Senior D&BC from where we originated), and is a point of pride specifically relevant to marching a drum corps. I'm sure we're not the only corps that seemingly operates as above, and I'm sure there are also corps that operate on nearly the exact opposite principle. For the time being, it's all relative.

If you didn't get a chance to see Patriot's guard this summer, you missed out. Aside from being amazing (probably as good as some top 12, DivI guards) and taking high guard in DivII, they looked amazing doing it. I don't know who designed their guard uniform, but it's got so many great qualities: it works well with the music, it provides a great colour contrast to the corps proper, looks great from afar but still even more detail up close, and the different versions for the guys and girls are similar enough to not stand out on the field, but still different enough to properly emphasise different body types. I'll post some links below. Give credit to DCI and Drum Corps World for having amazing photographers. From DCI II/III Prelims Photo Gallery (DCI) Appears to be II/III Finals (Drum Corps World) From DCI's Live Event Coverage of II/III Prelims (DCI) (I tried posting the images directly to the thread, but maybe DCI and DCW's websites don't allow external image sourcing)

I have marched 5.5, 6, and 6.5-foot poles, and I find there to be a noticeable difference. 6-foot poles are generally more challenging than 5.5-foot poles (in that they are simply larger and heavier), but they allow for a larger, more visible silk (and thus more visual effect). The larger pole also allows you to do more "body work" such as rolling the flag over your shoulder or around you neck because the points on the pole are proportionally larger at which you can do pole/body work. My high school made the "mistake" one season (the only one I've marched with a 5.5', and only for a small portion of a marching band show) of putting silks from a 6-foot pole on to a 5.5', and only then did it become challenging because the weight was extremely awkward. 6-foot poles tend to be the requisite for winterguard, drum corps, and upper-tier marching bands. As far as silks are concerned, for a 6' pole, the length usually comes down half-way (often a little more) from the top, or 36"-40". The width varies more, and often ranges from 36" to 54". Pole width is almost always 1" in diameter. Bolts are often used for weighting. Usually one wants the flag to be a little top-heavy, so 3.5" in the top and 3" in the bottom for bolt lengths are normal (both 1" in diameter at the top of the bolt). The bolts are usually crammed tight into the crutch tips at the ends of the pole (sometimes the crutch tips have to be run under hot water as to loosen them enough for the bolts to fit), so they don't move much. Just as a precaution, it's a good idea to wrap the length of the bolts in electric tape so even if they do come loose they won't make as much noise. Regardless, how flags are assembled ranges from guard to guard, but those are just what I've used and observed.

14 is really large for a DivIII guard. I think Revolution and Dutch Boy had the largest guards last year, and they both fielded 14. I'm pretty sure no one in our division had more. We at LVK had 10 last year, and even that was large compared to most other DivIII corps, so congratulations! Best of luck this year and see you on the field! (and I know, it's pretty mean for me not to share our numbers - you'll just have to wait and see...or IM me or something if you're really curious)