[Blue Devils 2018]

1 minute ago, NakedEye said:

But didn't they shift their course? When is the last time anyone saw a crowd response like what happened last night to a BD show? One of the kids posted that he never imagined he would see everyone on their feet for the full last minute while he wore a BD uniform. People went bananas for this show. 

Despite having a lot of the nuance/deeper ideas going past them, so many seemed to really respond to the outreach and emotion of the music and overall visual effect. This happened because of a dedicated effort by the designers to try to create something that worked on different levels. 

The 2010 show is a masterpiece, but it wasn't exactly easy to get mushy over. The usual response was golf claps and crickets. For them to go from that to what happened yesterday, while still remaining fairly abstract, is a noticeable shift in emphasis over a relatively short timespan. 

Hey, like I said, just my opinion. This year's show didn't do much for me...although some parts are admittedly very well done and beautiful. We both want BD to do well in the future, we just have different ideas of going about it, that's all!

[Blue Devils 2018]

16 minutes ago, NakedEye said:

Watch the Inside BD360 series of videos, readily available on Youtube. They painstakingly break down each section of the show and how it is detailed to reinforce the overall theme. The musical choices, the visual effects, the diamonds, the choreography, the props, the distorted mirrors - all of it supports the central ideas of the past, present and future of the organization and the approach taken by the people involved with it over the decades. Scott Chandler offers more insight in an interview on Marching Roundtable (posted in the BD 2017 thread). 

Your opinion may change when you learn about how much thought went into all of it. Nothing is there without a reason.

I'm sure my opinion will change! I absolutely despised 2016's show when I first saw it, but through watching and listening to it more and more it actually became one of my favorite shows of the season. I have only two more points to offer, really:

1. In my opinion the show (or in fact, any show) should in theory be able to stand on its own, with minimal explanation needed. Again, in my opinion, "Metamorph" just doesn't. If I were to see this show without knowing anything about it going in, I honestly couldn't tell you what it's about. That's why I find myself enjoying shows like "Relentless" over shows like "It Is..." using Crown as an example again. But most importantly...I don't necessarily have any ill will towards "Metamorph," it's got a lot of good moments...but to me it's a "sum of the parts" argument. 

2. I just used "Metamorph" as an example to my argument...I could've made the same point with "As Dreams Are Made On," a BD show that (as I mentioned earlier) I've come to really like despite strongly disliking it initailly. What I'm trying to get across is that if the Devils want to keep doing well, I think they ought to shift their course a bit. For most of this past season, Vanguard was on their tail...and if they get too comfortable it could end up costing them gold, as with 2016. All I'm saying is I feel that they need a slightly different focus than that of the last year or two. Again, no hard feelings towards anyone!

[Blue Devils 2018]

I'm just hoping that BD sticks to more of a 2014-2015 approach, as opposed to a 2016-2017 approach. I truly loved "Felliniesque" and "Ink" for both being solid, if somewhat risky shows. As I listen to it more and more, I've even grown to appreciate "As Dreams Are Made On" for the most part...but this year's "Metamorph" almost felt cynical to me. Sure, we can argue "chop and bop" and "park and bark" semantics, but I feel that overall the show felt more tailored to just win awards, as opposed to actually just putting a solid, enjoyable show. Flight of the Bumblebee feels like it's there just to tell everyone how good the brass is, the Rihanna drum break part is just there to win GE and percussion points, etcetera. They seem to have these things there just for the sake of being there. It just gave off the impression that they wanted to build the program off these "show-off" moments, as opposed to building on a central, underlying theme...and to me it just came off as a bit tacky. Keep in mind I haven't been following drum corps for years, but I'm not exactly brand-new either.

Again, I'm not a hater, I'm not trying to start an argument, BD does amazing stuff and I love plenty of their shows...hell, I even have a lot of these same criticisms about Crown's 2017 show "It Is." I'm not even suggesting that they go back to more traditional shows, or try to make their programs like another corps. I just want them to do well, and I think to do that they need to look back to the 2014-2015 method of crafting a show. These are just my opinions, feel free to respectfully disagree...but again, I'm not trying to discredit the Blue Devils or any of their fans. Stay cool!