I completely agree...blew me away. The power and clarity was wonderful. The only thing that bothered me about their show was the awkward musical transition into Ode to Joy, but I know that will get cleaned up later in the season.A few of my observations after attending the show:
Troopers - very dirty visually. The marching technique of some of the members was very rough. Hopefully they can clean it up because the brass line sounded pretty good.
Cavaliers - the crowd was very quiet throughout their show. I don't know if it was because it was coming out of intermission, but the crowd wasn't into it for some reason. I liked the show a lot, personally.
Cadets - good musically, but a surprising number of holes on the visual side.
Costs - I'll be interested to see how the effects they are using sound indoors with a the reverberation inherent in performing indoors. Hopefully it doesn't muddle it up at all. Really liked the show and has a ton of promise.
On a final note, I hope the Cavies marcher that fell hard on his back on one of the boxes isn't too sore tomorrow. Looked quite painful to me.
Overall a very enjoyable evening. I brought my 4 year old to his first show and he seemed to have a great time. He barely even got restless, which is saying a lot for him. Should be a great season!