truman

We woke up to thunder and lightning, so we postponed our early beach plan and relaxed at the hotel before heading south to find BD. First, of course, we required a stop for lunch at The Palmer River Clam Shack, along the way on Rt 6 between Swansea and Rehobeth, for clam cakes and chowder...excellent! I always love the feeling of arriving at a housing site and finding a corps. That feeling was there when we arrived at Bishop Hendrickson Prep High School in Warwick. We found out at the food truck that the Corps had a flight delay because of the weather, and got in later than expected. I was trying to convince myself based on the times, that they had actually been on one of the planes we had seen last night. There was a system blue camp in progress, with all the campers working with staff separate from the corps. We did not see the guard anywhere, the pit was working in a nice shaded area, and the brass and battery were in a visual block on the field. A nice facility with good room for the fleet to park, and a clean modern looking school. A nice turf surface, but a relatively low box. The brass and battery worked visual basics for about an hour. Ski track, rt foot plant for direction change, some high mark time. Basics that even championship corps know are important. They also were repping a weird bowing and running to a meter footwork change. As they set the opener it was apparent that the brass would be air and valve for the rest of the block. I intentionally did not listen or watch any online content, (other than renting Into the Woods), because I wanted my first viewing to be live. So as we watched them work the visual for the opener, i had no idea what the soundtrack would be. That also allowed us to focus on the visual. Loved the snares starting on the platforms, cool pinwheels going on everywhere. I saw an ABC and an XYZ in the drill. A lot of field ensemble cleaning, dot checking and reps of the first half of the opener before they broke for dinner. Next up...dinner and some INK!

If you like food and drum corps, then come along for a summer of fun! I found myself in a position to have the summer off again, and immediately started planning drum corps road trips. This portion of the plan was to take advantage of BD coming East for the 4th, expecting to see the champs 5 out of the 6 days they are here. It was extra special when my oldest daughter decided to take a summer off after 3 straight years of marching, and was able to join me for the first part of the trip. Starting with the summer of 1999, we have taken all our summer vacations around drum corps. As we made our way through the rain in New York and into New England while listening to past BD shows, I remembered all the great times we had following the Devils, especially some of our early trips to see them when they were here around the 4th. I could so clearly see my 2 little girls, dressed in their little devil T’s, toting their custom BD decorated crayon activity boxes into the back seat. Good grief it goes by so fast! We made great time to our hotel in Swansea MA, centrally located to BD housing, Foxboro, and Boston. After a quick visit to the hot tub, we headed north to Boston for dinner. It was a beautiful night as the storm that was following us had not made it into New England yet Just north of the city over the Tobin Bridge, on the way to Revere, in Chelsea, is The Newbridge Café. A few blocks from an apartment that I lived in after aging out in 82, the place doesn’t look like much from the outside. They have won Best of Boston awards for their steak/pork/lamb tips, and there is little wonder why. I recommend choosing the salad as the side, the house dressing perfectly compliments the BBQ sauce on the tips, and a half order of their huge hand cut fries is plenty to share. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend giving them a try! After dinner we drove down Broadway in Revere and over to Revere Beach. I was hoping to show my daughter the old 27th Lancer Hall and the back parking lot, home of the 84 Townie vs. Drum Corps massacre, and the parking lots across from the beach that served as our practice fields. These sites have changed dramatically with the construction of townhouses and businesses, and are no longer recognizable. As we drove the familiar route from the hall area to the beach, I remembered what a blast it was living here and marching in 27. We took a little walk on the beach and as the planes flew into Logan overhead, I sensed a disturbance in the force. The Devils were on the East Coast! We found some room for desert before heading back to the hotel for the night. NEXT UP….BD in Rhode Island!!!!!!!

As I mentioned in my review post, many things have "changed" in the activity in the past few years. Some enhance my enjoyment, some not so much. As an example, BD's use if amplification of brass last year was really cool. Well mixed, fitting in perfectly with the ensemble blend, and most importantly to me, requiring performer excellence to generate maximum effect. Conversly I found Cadets narration to be an unwanted and unessesary distraction, which I believe may have been recorded and lip synched, requiring minimal perfromer excellence. I think the discussion of visual competitive advantage of modern uniforms is a little over rated. In my recent experience with visual judges and tapes, there is little focus on individual brass performance and excellence, (no visual judge even needed on the field), and more emphasis on staging and dance movement as it relates to visual effect. Most visual tapes are saturated with attention to the guard and how the design and music enhance their effect. We certainly can't say that body size and type is a major consideration of guard uniform effect. Some bodies are going to stick out visually no matter what. For many years I can tell you the personal effect of the white satin and kick pleats taking the field with the arm swing to the street beat has NEVER gotten old to me, and I will miss it very much. I certainly won't say that it will ruin my enjoyment of the rest of the show. I do think a little more bling is needed to create the visual pop and flash the old uniform provided. The red sequins on the sombrero do not flash as dramatically as the silver, and currently there is nothing else "shiny" on the uniform.

Just got home, here's a few thoughts... I love the tradition of this show and venue. Although the stands are less than ideal, the location at the beach and boardwalk are worth the trade off. We arrived early Saturday and enjoyed the water and sand for a few hours before heading to see Cabs afternoon block. The Cabs were working hard on the stadium field, and the Bucs just as hard on the field behind the stadium. There are changes to the rules involving timing taking the field. Guard is allowed on right away to set equipment, and can stay on the field. Brass/percussion can assist them, and providing they leave the field boundaries when they are done, the "clock" does not start. This allows for a precise and better timed pre show stage that many corps showed last night, and that the Cabs worked on, and will continue to develop. They play a cool unchained melody vocal for the pre show. A nice run through by the Cabs, I loved the musical arrangements. Goosebump city 4 or 5 times, and some great use of the "unchained" theme. They have 3 big "swing set" props that they use to store guard equipment, including huge carabiner clips that are tossed and spun. 3 snare players are hoisted up and suspended during the percussion feature, then the tenor drums are suspended as the players straddle them. Bases are suspended sideways by chains and held by other members. Brass sections are wearing chains that they have around their necks, and that they take down and hook together to other members with. Featured brass climb the swing sets to start the ballad. Sections pose under and around them. Of course props of this size add another whole set of challenges. Transporting them, maintaining them, moving them around the field in a coordinated and non distracting way, additional time for rehearsal chunk resets, etc etc. The Cabs are doing a nice job handling much of these challenges very well already. [/ We had a couple hours to go back to our hotel and relax with some cocktails for us, and showers and sandwiches for the mm before the show. I resisted the urge to look in any uniform bags to get a glimpse of what was to come, but did see the new bibs and red sequined sombreros. When we dropped off our Cabs at the gate at 5:45, the stands were almost full. My wonderful wife went in to get some seats, and me and my oldest checked out the lot as we walked back from a couple blocks away. It was a beautiful night for a show, clear and a comfortable little breeze. The familiar voice booming from the stadium announcing the Bushwackers snapped me out of the lot coma that I am known to enjoy, (thanks Fran), and we made our way into the stadium as they were finishing up. Thanks to my wife for getting some pix that I posted, and really sorry I can't comment on Hurcs and Bush. Bucs came on with their 2015 show "Twist It". Familiar music, high velocity drill, colorful guard. Just some very solid drum and bugling, they did not disappoint the crowd, including the usual strong contingent of Bucs flag waivers on hand. I will forgo the obligatory calling out on tics everywhere, (that means performance errors for you youngins), as they were prevalent in every show this night. Fusions "All Aboard" show is another strong offering. A "track" is put down on the field around the back hash. The guard was not in a uniform, (shorts and tank tops) but they have some solid performers and nice moments. Opener ESOM is a fave. Expect this corps to continue on their upward drive in DCA. When Cabs came out, there was an astonished hush because of the new unis. I noticed that because they take take the field from both sides and the back to the pre show stuff, that the honor guard, ( still in traditional uniforms), kind of had to just come out of the right end zone and turn and stand. Although I am a drum corps dino, I have really embraced all the changes in the activity over the last few years. Some I find to enhance the experience, and some not so much. I must say that it was a very bittersweet moment for me personally. No Satin, no kick pleats, no arm swing, no street beat. I am probably not a good judge of this change, because I am not sure ANYTHING could enhance the experience that those things have provided to me for 50+ years. That said, I feel the new unis need some bling of some kind. The DM uniform has some of what I am referring to. A solid job by Cabs, and no major malfunctions that are possible with the props used. I felt that the afternoon run was actually a couple points better. This show has all that is needed to contend competitively, and fan appeal that will entertain all summer. My "Rump Fix" was satisfied when the Cabs Alumni Corps took the field. They never disappoint and gave the crowd a great show as always. After a quick stop at the hotel, it was out to the boardwalk and a stop off at Kelly's. Had some outstanding clams! It was great seeing old friends and meeting some new ones. We grabbed a pie to go from Mack's and got back to the hotel just ahead of a thunder and lightning storm that rolled in. Unfortunately the rain and clouds hung around this morning, so we slept in a little instead of our early beach fun plan. Thanks to all the performers and staffs and volunteers! It was a great start to what is going to be a great season!

Alumni finishing things up now

As permanent as kick pleats i guess

Watchin Cabs afternoon block...WOW what a cool show! Cloudy and breezy, but no rain right now.

A dino's less than glowing thoughts: Locally, a cinema about 25 minutes away has been showing DCI events over the last few years. I was excited that a cinema only 5 minutes away was showing this one. There were 8 people total in our theatre. That will probably be the end of that. We watched the pre show trivia questions, then at 8:29, our screen went dark. After waiting patiently, finally at 8:40 my wife got up and went to find someone for an answer. 5 minutes later the house lights went down and we joined the broadcast in the middle of Madison's show. Not sure the guard for Scouts has the strength in design and performance needed to sell this Gene Kelly thing. Was disappointed for some reason to realize that there was no need to have 20 Contra---er I mean Tubas to generate low end boom. Enjoyed the unique arrangements of the Stars show music. They have a lot of possibilities to enhance the thematic effect visually, and through characters, if they explore some more of the freak show portions of the classic side show. Crown's guard was really noticeably cleaner than everyone else. Scary clean for June. I initially thought the Cavies show was titled Gay Mon when it was introduced. Relieved we weren't taken on a journey of alternative lifestyles in Jamaica. Thought the wrestler head gear on the guard was silly. Not a fan of the voice use in the ballad. I keep waiting for them to return to the time when they presented ground breaking visual programs. Guess I will still be waiting. Cadets. Marched and played the best...well second best, of all the corps shown tonight. Not understanding how the random counting fits or enhances the show yet. Horns were pretty cool, but someone with me said they had more than 10 of them? Hope T E N is only a temporary final drill set, and goes away. Gooooooooo-Hope the electronics live sound better than in our theatre. Kinda amazing how much noise is still generated when the brass puts their horns down in places. The hamster balls were cool, but seem somewhat limited in how they can be used. I really don't recall much more of anything other than peeps rolling around inside them? 2014 Champs---My oh my, what a drum corps and show. IMHO, the perfect use of electronics to enhance a tremendous brass sound and book. Guess the copyright laws for recorded performances shown on a live theatre broadcast are different than those that apply to previously recorded online content? Hehe Can't wait to see some live shows in a couple weeks!

The questions in my mind are about previous versions of archived content. Did all the APD's and FN video I have purchased in the past 10+ years violate copywrite laws? Why are free snippets (with the afformentioned buffering issues) of 2014 shows ok? Regardless, just a couple short years ago a live Finals broadcast was a very hot topic, and to get all of finals week, live regionals and more for under 100 is a pretty decent bargain, regardless of DVR and archive capability. The availability of high quality broadcasts on mobile devices also has value to many i would guess. Hopefully the sound quality will match the video quality i got last night. Nothing beats seeing drum corps REALLY live and in person anyway!

Tainted? Nah. I agree that each group "stepped it up" last night. The thing is, I saw a lot of Bucs and Cabs the whole year. Bucs did not beat Cabs in the 20 pt visual caption, head to head, at any point the entire year, including prelims the day before. Suddenly both the Ensemble and Guard captions flopped overnight. Not only the performance sub captions, but the content and design captions as well. Being a visual guy sitting down low, I saw nothing that justified that change from an individual performer aspect. In fact, the opposite was true. It was those 2 judges who didn't agree with your feelings that "each group" stepped it up. I would be happy to let it go at that.

I will preface this by saying that since i have2 kids in Cabs i am somewhat biased. I have seen enough of them and Bucs this year to still speak with insight though. From my seats on the lower left 40, there was no question about the level of the performances. Simply based on the judging that was seen all season and even the day before, Cabs deserved the highest score, before penalty. Being a visual guy I was just specially surprised by the ensemble visual and colorguard scores. Mr Miller and i clearly did not see the same things. I counted at least 5 times that Bucs brass were out of step. Considering most comments from visual judges today have to include something about colorguard and staging, I suppose it shouldn't be a big surprise. Having been around the corps most of yesterday, I can say the members clearly felt they laid down the right performance to win the championship. The look on the staff faces immediately after their show, did not match what we saw on the field however. News of the penalty spread very quickly. Considering the circumstances surrounding the member that was called, the penalty was especially hard to take. I was stunned, as I was unaware that this penalty even existed. It is especially ironic that the championship corps had a show based on the theme of breaking through the front sideline. Perhaps someone can explain this rule to me? As we all know scores and placements are only a small part of the life lessons learned in the activity. I am really proud of my girls, and of the whole Cabs organization, for the way they handled themselves last night. Congratulations to all of those who performed over the whole weekend and the season!

Bloo has the crowd favorite award so far tonight!

I'm callin it now, BD wins going away!

PR has a beautiful show.

SCV...OMG!!! Absolutely magnificent!

Tough draw for Crown being first under delay. Feet coming along nicely, brass line was amazing as always

Well done! Thanks for taking the time!