Citizen-Seth
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Posts posted by Citizen-Seth
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Random question for anyone who might know...the second set of flags are yellow with a word in Arabic written across them. The word on the boys' flags is red while the word on the girl's flag is blue. Does anyone know what the word/s are?
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Honestly, if this is quite possible the great rifle feature in modern DCI histoy, I need to go back and just concentrate that. I've tried to look at guards more this year, but I keep going back to drill and hornlines. And unison guard moves... Those get me drum corps-excited.
For my money, it's great. During the actual tambourine dance, there are some really exposed speed changes and one handed carving paths that require some really extreme muscle control to get clean. During the percussion feature as the riles transition to side 1, their responsibility to both form and equipment double, and when you add on top of that the dance work it become one of, I think, the most well written weapon books of the year.
Edit: Check out the Atlanta high cam on FN if you have it. I think the Nashville run was a touch cleaner, but you can get a better idea of the lyricism from the ATL vids, I think.
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I honestly don't think I've ever been so confused by a thread in all my years of lurking here....
How y'all can even notice a dance while what is possibly (probably) the greatest rifle line/feature in modern DCI history is happening a few yards away is beyond me. I think this year's BD guard is probably the single most talented section of any corps this summer, and I'm way too busy being blown away by their talent to even notice what they wear.
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What a wet night it was . . . very glad the show didn't get rained out, but I remember hating rain delays almost as much as cancellations (if not worse) when I marched. Something about getting into performance mode, then getting out of it during the wait that always made for a rough show, and I felt like many of the corps tonight had the same issue.
I got stuck under the stands during Seattle's show, which was unfortunate because their opener of Summer Time/Fire Bird one of my favorites of the year.
Made it to my seat in time to see Academy, and they had a great run. Their guard suffered some from wet equipment, and, I'm sure, from an abbreviated warm up. Probably my favorite show from them since their Left of Spring show a few years back. During the percussion feature, theres a great flag feature that was as affective as anything else on the field the whole night.
I don't think I've seen Oregon perform since I was marching Div 2 in 2004, so obviously things have changed. Can't say that I enjoyed their show as much as Academy, and their guard seemed to be struggling even more so than the ones before them. I'm honestly not sure if the ballad was supposed to be one giant ripple. Those feather flags were so heavy from water some of the smaller members had difficulty achieving the work. During the percussion feature, when the audience suddenly finds twenty-odd (cardboard?) eyeballs staring back at them, you just have to wonder what the design team was thinking. Surely they could have found something better to put in their hands.
Crossmen were on next and marked a big step up in quality. I wish I hadn't missed them in Dallas. They had a great show with fun music and, as a whole, some of the most solid weapon catches of the night. I think I only counted one drop, which may have been the least from any corps.
Fearing rain tonight, I went out to watch BAC rehearse last night. I watched them rep chunks of the opener, and I was glad to see the changes that were made yesterday look seamless tonight. I don't think I really realized, however, hard their show is. Not only is the equipment work difficult (check of the flagline in the opener), but the drill itself is one of the hardest of any gaurd's this season. There were several drops tonight, and I wonder if that is due to wet equipment or to poor sight lines from the masks. Personally, I would lose them about half way through (or when the uniform change happens), but they are an excellent effect at the beginning of the show - they look down right creepy.
BK followed up their show in Dallas with another solid run. Now that I know the orange things are the hands of a clock, they make a lot more sense. 3 of the prism shaped props broke on the field, not sure if that's from being incorrectly assembled or from actual structural failure. I think their guard is a little over scored in the content department. I would have them tied or just under Boston.
Bluecoats were on next, and the most obvious thing was that they chose not to use the tarp. Maybe there had just been too much slipping and sliding this afternoon to trot it back out again. Then, when the show began, something was just...off. i couldn't put my finger on it under the big opening hit: they weren't using the props. They were on the field, but in the opening moments of the show, the brass ran around them instead of over them, and the guard was doing work beside the prop instead of on it. . . sometimes. There were several times when the guard was inconsistant in their interaction with the props. You could have two props next to each other, one with a member on it and one with a member beside it. It looked as though they hadn't been given clear instruction, or had been told to do what they felt comfortable with in the moment. Either way, I found it distracting, and personally, I think I would have just told them to stay off the props all together. At the beginning of the ballad when there is a guard member of holding on to the highest corner of the propped up triangle, several members slid down the side. At the end when they are supposed to run up and jump off, only one person was able to actually make it up their triangle. The rest just mimed and jumped from the ground. Maybe I'm thinking this because I've seen the show the way it's supposed to be performed, but it just wasn't as interesting without the props fully integrated. The guard work became less affective and it was a big drain on overall effectiveness of the show. On the plus side, they're using a different silk in the opener from the one they used in Dallas. The change is slight (fade is now red to yellow instead of yellow to red with blue and white stripes instead of just white), but it made the work so much more readable and impactful. Silk design matters more than you'd think. Over all, a good show given the rain delay, but not the kind of performance that earns a medal.
Cadets were next and they, as usual, were excellent. The guard fought through to have a stellar show. I only counted a single drop. The Bill Clinton flag got a few chuckles from the people around me. During the FDR section one of the dancers slipped making her way up the ramp to the stage, and in the same section, where the dancer typically jumps into the soloist's arms, she actually slipped on the metals and slid into him.
Crown was on last, and the were the only corps (other than Xmen) to get much of a crowd reaction while coming onto the field. In my review of the Dallas show, I was hard on the guard for some careless errors. As a whole, they were much better, (minus someone starting the opening hit a count early). The issues with this performance were all musical. When the first turned the speakers on a horrible screeching sound filled the stadium. They tried 4 more times to get the speakers to work, but it just wasn't happening for them. Eventually they started without them, and the singers were singing unamplified in a 55k person stadium, to surprisingly nice results. The crowd was dead silent and the guard/corps' dance was actually even more impressive in the near silence. During the actual liftoff section, I was shocked to hear all the extra drums and gongs spread across the field. In Dallas, I guess I had heard the sound, but because there was so much synth on top of it, I wasn't able to really discern what was what; a great affect over all. It was really interesting hearing the actual music of the show on its own . . . I liked it a lot more tonight than in Dallas. Maybe the music just has too many bells and whistles for my taste. There was another section of the show that was really affected by the lack of amplification, but it's escaped me what it was. Either way, good on them for powering through and good on the guard for a good show. Those ballad silks have to be some of the best looking flags of the summer.
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Lots of people in the stands, but no one is sitting closer than about the 15th row or so
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I believe Bloo stayed at Maumelle high school and Cadets were at Little rock central
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Hearing from a few corps members there is just a rain delay
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Currently sitting at a restaurant down the street from the stadium...rain is coming down hard with lots of lightening. Ive been looking at radar all day, and it looks like the storm is moving pretty fast, so I hope it'll clear out with just a minor rain delay
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The more symphonic sound from 06 was definitely a bit of a shock and didn't seem to fit very well. You could hear it starting to show itself as early as '03. The percussion arrangements in particular from 04 to 06 just didn't pack the necessary punch you'd expect. It wasn't really bad, just very lyrical at times, and it didn't always get the best moments meshing with the brass book. They always felt like they were backing away from huge moments instead of building up to them. On another note, I think their lead sop went down mid-season in 06 and it hurt them pretty bad considering quite a few moments were built around screaming sections. Someone might have to correct me there, but I'm pretty sure the early season soloist was not the same as the late season soloist.
And yeah, Rosander really brought out the crazy for that year.
As someone who marched that year, yes, he absolute brought the crazy...and purple fox that jumped over green moons.
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Picking a nit: G.H.W. Bush was #41 and G.W. Bush was #43. B. Clinton was #42. (At least in the usual numbering system. If you count G. Cleveland only once, then Bush pere was #40 and Bush fils was #42. But it's not typically done that way.)
Great review!
D'oh! Should have known that! I eat at the restaurant 42 in Little Rock all the time. And for the record, it was Bush 43, I saw.
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I was at the show tonight, and I have to wonder why DCI keeps having the show there? It's been there since at least 2006, and while the field is nice to perform on, the parking is terrible, there's nowhere for the corps to warm up at that isn't within view/earshot of the stands, and the stadium is so compact that it sometimes takes the entire length of a corps' performance to get from the beginning of the vomitroium ramp to your seat.
But anyways, onto the show...I spent the first half of the night watching warm ups and catching up with friends on the various staffs so I missed anyone that was on before intermission.
BK was the first on after intermission, and they were excellent. Wonderful color pallet from the guard (but when has BK ever not had a brilliant color scheme?). I was a little confused with what the orange staff things were supposed to be, but they were effective enough. I'm not sure the tarp, table, and panels really added to the show, but the corps itself was so strong that they didn't take away from the performance at all. I really like that the guard's uniform matched that of the corps proper. I wonder if they'll find new ways to match next year, or forgo it for something different entirely.
Now I have to admit that I am an alum of the Madison color guard, but, that being said, they were fantastic! I'm so proud of my brothers and they show they put on tonight. Is it the most perfect Scouts show ever? No. But I still loved every second of it. Some really great moments from the guard, and I can see marked improvement from past FanNetwork showings, even from Saturday night. They have a hard show and seem to be finally getting it under the belt. I'm still waiting for the featured dancer to be worked in more - honestly, I'm not sure if I would really notice if they took him out. I know a lot of alumni are disappointed in this year's offering, but from where I sat, they gave me just about everything I asked for.
Bloo was next and they were on fire! Excellent show from top to bottom. They know a medal is within reach, and they're going to fight for it. The show itself reminds me a lot of SCV 99 in it's brazen "in your face-ness" and flare. My only quabble is the ending - the jumps off the props are undeniably cool, but I'm still longing for a run and gun, Cadet's style ending to this show. Right now, the whole things feels just a tiny bit tacked on. I'd hate to have to compete against this corps, but I also don't think I'd mind losing to them.
If I hadn't of marched Madison, I would have loved to have been a member of the Cadets, and I would have loved to have marched this show. There was an issue with the mic tonight - it cut out about half way through the FDR piece, but you could still hear the narrator speaking his lines when the corps wasn't playing or was playing backfield. I loved the cumberbund changes, and I thought the final set of flags each having a different president's face on them was a nice touch. I picked out Bush 42 and Clinton pretty quickly, but I assume almost everyone else is in there somewhere. I've only seend BD on FN, but the Cadets are my pick to win it all.
Crown was last, and, from the guard's perspective at least, the had a rough run. Lots of phasing issues and thoughtless mistakes. At one point a member started spinning with the ballad flag during the opener. After about 25 seconds of work, he ran back to the sideline to await a time he could make a reentrance with his saber. Not sure how that happened (one pole was teal, the other purple...), but he recovered as best he could. Things got worse, unfortunately, when, because he had not done the opener, a girl didn't have a flag to use in the percussion feature. After miming the work for about 15 seconds, she also made her way to the front sideline to wait for the ballad to start. I've only seen this happen twice before...once in the BD winterguard's finals performance from 1996 and again in 2004 during an SCV show in Mississippi. I really don't understand how that sort of mistake happens...I wonder if, after the all trumpet brass feature a contra player has ever picked up a baritone? For me, a visual highlight of the show was the pit...when the corps "lifts off" the jump out of hiding underneath their instruments, and, when in the percussion feature when the frisbees are being thrown, the pit performers toss their mallets in a ripple that matches the rippled flag tosses that the guard is doing being them. I personally thing that this show has a little too much going on, concept-wise, but I do appreciate their attention to detail.
All in all, an excellent night of drum corps, and I can't wait to see these corps again in Little Rock!
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Nothing wrong with having a signature move/set/horn rip/etc.
No, not at all, but I think what makes these signature moves great is the way they're constantly reinvented and reworked for the show each year. BD's guard's 8's, for example; everyone knows they're coming, but each year they're at a different point in the show and staged differently. Likewise, BAC's "Conquest" melody is played in minor chords this year to fit the theme of the show this year.
I'm all for Crowngaurd having a signature, and an impressive one to boot, but I'd like to see them expand on it. Certainly, I would get a little tired of a hornline starting N shows with a variation on the same 8th note run; this is no different.
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I can't imagine any guard this year (or probably any guard of any other year) beating BD come finals night. I do think they're unusually dirty for this point in the season, but that is a testament to the difficulty of their show (and their run in Ft. Wayne was just all out dirty.).
On the other hand, I do have a little problem with Crown's colorguard...for what seems like the Nth year in a row, the guard starts the show with a ripple of rifle tosses. Seriously, I think the last time they didn't start this way was 2009? It's getting a little stale.
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Has anyone seen the show (of video of the show?) since they added the time wheel? I'm hoping that should clear up a lot of the confusion with regards to the theme and the lone guard soloist/walker.
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Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to sit in the bottom 10 or 20 rows anyway. Visually you can't tell what the heck is going on, and whatever part of the corps you are closest to is louder than the rest.
It is a shame so many shows are in stadiums that don't go all that much higher than that. But that too is a different topic I suppose.
I try to get my first read of a corps from near the top, but for a second read, I like to be closer to the bottom to watch the guard. I want to see what their hands are actually doing, to really appreciate the book they're performing.
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Check out the soloist at the beginning...he is bending flat at the end of his solo, so cool.
Okay, forgive my guard focused ignorance, but what does that even mean?
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Just saw a video of last night's show . . . WOW, that color guard is going to be one for the ages! From the staging of the opening hit on the ladders to the closer flags that say "The End" - what an enjoyable flag book; this has to be one of their most difficult in years. And the men's rifle life during "Be Italian" . . . just incredible! I can't imagine any other guard getting close to these guys.
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Looks like last year's French facades have been replaces by palace minarets, and that the pillow/boxes are featured throughout the show.
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Not sure if this has been posted before, but according to the IG of a few members, the chairs are returning this year.
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Aaaaannnnddd there went my live feed.
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You've noticed it being full or noticed it NOT being full? I don't want to drive 40 miles just to find out that there are lousy general admission tickets available.
Sorry about that! Noticed it NOT being full.
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I'm in the same boat. As late as Sunday, there were several tickets available in the reserved ticket area. Once I decided that I wanted to go, the option of choosing anything other than general admission has disappeared. I can't find a phone number to call.
I'm also looking for an extra ticket. I tried calling but ticket sales have been suspended (except for GA) until two hours before the show begins on Thursday. I would imagine that there are still several seats higher up as I have attended this show several times and I've noticed it being full.
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I really love the guard's silks this year. The camo ones and the helicopter blade ones look great, but the "medal of valor" flag takes the cake!
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I wonder if they have the patent on those "non-weapons" ...
At least one set of them is called "bolts," as in lightening bolts.
Blue Devils injured guard member
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
I'm pretty sure I saw a picture of her walking to gate with the guard on finals night...I hope she'll be back on the field next year