karuna

Oh and Thrower’s arrangement is sheer genius. Next to Crown, Bluecoats have been my favorite brass line for a decade. Severely overlooked IMHO.

That’s not my intention. It’s just that Ravi’s influence far exceeded the Beatles. Amazing really. There were a LOT of influential people he managed to reach. And lot of those people influenced the Beatles. No trolling Bloo. Said from the first show I was in love.

Calling a show a beast is long standing metaphor for me. Always asked performers 'would the beast own them or would they own the beast?' The moment that transition from one to the other occurs is a very rewarding experience for a designer/instructor. In any case -- tying this to Beast -- this year is clearly a reflection of learning from last year's experiences. (so there - I tied them together as well)

The Kinks? The Yardbirds? David Crosby? Coltrane? Heck Yehudi Menuhin (sp?) ?The Beatles were a phenomenon but they didn't break that ground.

Honestly I don't understand the pre-occupation with props. You climb on them, sit on them, push them around, stand and play on them (oh and bang on them). It's not innovative AT ALL. Heck Crown was climbing up and playing on props in 2011! This has all been done before. Lots of times. The only element I see increasing is the performer risk. Just makes no sense at all to me. I'm really, really glad Crown is marching actual drill. </rant>

I love how the choice to hear just the brass in such an exposed raw emotional moment ties so well into the show concept. But oh I forgot this design has no cohesion

Some of that horribly over—arranged unrecognizable ballad:

At the Liberty Bowl -- a venue Crown is mildly acquainted with! In any case I think this year is going to be a "long climb" kind of season. They have a lot of work ahead to clean this beast.

The hose is used sparingly. Most of the hosing has been to avoid the wacky timing demands Crown places on their ensemble. We’ve become so used to what that hornline does every year that the difficulty is often now overlooked. I can’t think of a drill hosing off hand. One of the fundamental design tenets of Crown is to do things others won’t even try. Its not an egotistical thing; It’s more of “ok we’ll see if we can actually do that”. Its just part of who they are.

IF Crown is actually hearing about the contrast and IF it’s a general consensus vs just one guy then perhaps a change is in order. I don’t lose the weapons or flags— just the dancers. But this show is written for a big venue. It will read poorly in smaller stadiums.

Well if George Dixon says..... And I don’t think there were any judges riding in that drone! No doubt Crown has far more to clean than Boston. That’s only a bad thing if you can’t get it clean.

Wrong thread?

People can't help themselves. They want to just say "MY corps is better than THIS corps" but they don't want to say that out loud so they come up with silly things like "lacks cohesiveness" because it sounds so objective. Not sure why people are so afraid to just openly admit their bias. Heck I think Crown is the best drum corps EVERY SEASON! Sure I know that's just hype and homerism and SO WHAT?!? GO CROWN!

I'll just point out that Tim's focus in his interviews was NOT to explain the show but instead to give his audience a peek "behind the scenes" at spring training. I'm sure he came away with a much clearer understanding of Crown's design than those videos reveal because most of that discussion took place off-camera. We tend to drill deep into any material we can find because we just don't get designers talking about their shows at all. I often wonder why drum corps don't release all the material they send to judges before the season begins. No harm in doing so and there are many spectators who'd love to hear what they (the designers) have to say. Anyway just sit back and enjoy things. It's a good drum corps season.

FTFY. Watch Crown in person. You won't have any trouble with accessibility. It's a really good drum corps show and live -- you just don't care if you don't get every nuance. Bluecoats and Boston -- same thing (although I find Boston's show a little TOO obvious -- that's just me). Actually I take that back. There's nothing sophisticated about Boston. They are hit you over the head with a big hammer obvious -- far from a "sophisticated" design. Nothing wrong with that approach -- just not what I'd call sophisticated at all.

My optimism is rooted in the fact that this is fundamentally a really good drum corps show with a really good drum corps. Preseason my two biggest concerns -- new visual staff and younger hornline -- are already vaporized. Guard is leaps and bounds better than the two previous seasons. Going to be fun to see how this all shakes out.

Crown has been just a few tenths back from last year's Zingali-winning guard. They're fine. IMO BD is trying to compensate for the shocking read they received from one of their long-time supporters last season by chucking their equipment WAY more this season. (frankly they over compensated) Anyway It's ONE READ guys. Same thing happened last season where the CrownBeat and Orlando panels had Boston far closer than any other panel the rest of the season. Can you at least wait until Broken Arrow before pressing your panic button ?

No need. Just look at the name on the recap. He's...um...special. (and yeah i've heard his tapes before)

Crown’s standstill was terrifyingly good. Like T1000 come with me if you want to live good.

They are indeed and have said so publicly. It's pretty much a love fest all 'round.

We should also remember that Boston has a darn fine drum corps this year. Numbers aside, they've been hanging really well with Bloo (which means Crown has been right there with them).

The field drains really well. If the rain lets up it will be fine.

No worries. We're all arm-chairing the season here.

Someone needs to tell those rain clouds it's a SHOW DAY!

We're all missing a key component here: what are they hearing on the GE tapes? I'm not ready to hit the big red button (no where near that actually).