quietcity

Sure, the level of performance is impressive, but what lousy field coverage!

SCV Bluecoats Mandarins Cadets Cavies Spirit HM: Genesis, SCVC, Southwind, Music City (whose rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was more heartfelt than Crown's)

Cappy, how come your top six list does not match the list in your signature??

"If it sounds good, it IS good." -Duke Ellington.

Thanks, SWriverstone, for letting me know how misguided I have been! I will endeavor to un-love SCV's show, starting right now!

Men of the Cloth?

Talk about exposure!

A few weeks ago, a DCP contributor (sorry, can't remember who) made the observation that most shows tend to be on a continuum between feeling audience-focused, e.g. Bloo and Cavies, or technique and judge-focused, e.g. BD and Crown. But SCV this year is neither; they are intensely INNER-focused. The rest of us can simply marvel at their phenomenon, like watching a star go super-nova. I agree, leading me to see the Yell from the audience as superfluous. Better just to dance along with the dub step, like I do!

That is actually Steve Jobs quoting Pablo Picasso.

I agree, Phantom Regiment is the overall winner. I have always loved the alliterative poetry of the Santa Clara Vanguard. And I have a soft spot for the Seneca Optimists in their sunshine-yellow uniforms. My all-time favorite is The Muchachos. To my early adolescent self, the name (and their 1974 show) sounded indescribably cool. But my wife, a native Spanish-speaker, always laughs when she hears this, as to her ears, it just sounds like "the guys."

Steve Jobs said: Creativity is just connecting things. Picasso did not invent red. Stravinsky did not invent dissonance. Giacometti did not invent sculpture. Like any artist, they all took existing concepts and materials and put them together in innovative ways that play on our senses. The gestalt of this re-assembling process, and not the viewing of individual pieces, is what we experience as art. This is the "it" that other folks here have referred to. Drum corps is a highly constrained art form, given the physical limitations, the high levels of skill required by the (young) participants, the logistics, the difficulty and cost of building a design team, and the need to entertain while also competing. While there are a lot of great drum corps shows, few truly transcend these limitations to create genuine art. Fellini-esque did. Downside Up did. And now Babylon does. Session 44 comes pretty close too. On the other hand, BD this year seems more like a collection of great parts that do not cohere into something larger.

I am having cognitive dissonance, reading kevingamin's commentary on SCV while watching Blue Devils B in open class prelims.

Agreed, the guitar is nicely incorporated into the show, but the brass is still the star.

Wow, Southwind, wow, nice opening. Very musical, and sets a great atmosphere.

I am naming my next child Mello Sustain.

Yes, cymbals are behind entire battery when they do the move. You can see near the end of this clip (and the DM has some nice moves too!):

I just noticed that the SCV's cymbals do a modified Viper near the end of Club Sounds. So much goes on in this show that I am still finding these delicious little details. If you are unfamiliar with the Viper, it is a signature move of the cymbal line but I don't think they have done it in the last few years.

1984 and 1987. The Ott has not been SCV's friend.

Just sent you a PM

Half full of what?

Kazakstan?

Listening to BD's show is like randomly switching stations on the radio.

Mandies have a fun happy drum corps ending, but it does not seem quite fitting with the rest of their show. Maybe they could all fall down after playing the last chord?

The two trumpets triple-tonguing over the baritones playing that solemn hymn is really eerie and effective.

Are the tarps new? Tarps always make me nervous.