Soajoe

No prob. I really was impressed with the CorpsVets performance. Some day I plan on marching CorpsVets, but I want to focus on graduating school first. - Joe

sorry... turned out being longer than I planned The past few days I had been debating whether I actually wanted to do a review of the Jacksonville show this year. I don't know why. I guess I just don't have the inspiration for it that I had last year. I figured I should put something in for the competition though. Even though I doubt it will be good enough to win. Forenote - dinner ran a little late so I got to the show just as the show was starting... saw Corpsvets from the top of the stands and saw the rest of the show from around the 10 yard line on left side of the field (AKA.. waaay over yonder) Corpsvets - From what I saw of their show dodging people that were coming in, I really dug it. It may have just been where I was standing, or it may have just been that they were a little off tonight, but I didn't think that they were as loud as I've seen them in the past. They definitely had their loud portions, but their were times that I was left wanting more. One of the biggest things that I noticed a difference between this year and last year is their drill. They are definitely attempting a more difficult drill this year than they have in years past as of now I think this is what is effecting them the most. There are parts of the show near the end of pieces that they are attempting to do some relatively high velocity drill and it seems like they just aren't getting the punch musically at those points that they are when they are standing still. Othen than that I think it is a great show. I applaud the Corpsvets for trying to branch out and try a harder show, and knowing a lot of the members of the Corpsvets I know that before all of this is over they will have a very polished product and some DCA corps that have never done so will be staring Corpsvets in the back instead of the other way around. Court of Honor - Alright, this was the first time that I had ever seen Court of Honor perform and I have to say that I was quite impressed, but knowing the staff that they have I can't say that I was surprised. For starters I will say that I'm not making this as a back handed comment or anything, but I usually do not enjoy the top level division 2 and 3 shows. With the level of cleanliness they have to get to get to the top it sometimes seems that they are afraid to let loose and play balls out. I could be wrong with that statement, but that's just what I've observed from my limited viewage of top div 2/3 corps. With that being said though I throughly enjoyed the Court of Honor show. The brass line sounds impressive. I can't really comment on the guard, because I'm not really a big guard person. The only thing that I'll say about the drill is that at times I think that it seems to be a little over their head. Not over their head that I don't think they'll be able to perform it well by the end of the season, but right now they seem to be struggling with it. I'm very interested to see how this show will finish out at the end of the season Colts - What to say about the Colts? I really don't know what to say about this show. I like it. I really do, but something just isn't there. I don't think this show is being executed as well as it could be. There are several visual problems throughout the show that seriously need to be addressed if this show is going to go anywhere. I see this being a show that is going to be fighting to get into semifinals. I'm not really sure where they are score wise now, but I know that the quality of competition as gone up tremendously this year. A lot of corps have come out to play this summer and really mean it. All that aside the hornline sounds quite good. There are some intonation problems at points, mostly at the parts that they are having trouble with the drill, but for the most part they sound good. I really wish I could see them cleaning up their visual in the next two weeks and making jumps by leaps and bounds, but I just don't see it happening. I hope they prove me wrong. Blue Knights - I like this show. I know it. I said it. I'm a spirit fan and I like the Blue Knights show. Shoot me! Ok.. all jokes aside this is the first Blue Knights show that I have actually enjoyed in a long time. I may dare say it is the first Blue Knights show that I have ever enjoyed. I knew it was going to be close tonight, and despite what my gf and her brother said I actually had a gut feeling that BK was going to win at the Jville show and they did. With all that aside I don't see this show going much further. It may be bias talking and it may not, but before the end of the summer I see Spirit passing BK. BK has a very good show with some very entertaining moments. Some of the body movements remind me of SCV 99 and some of the body movements.. like the knee bend.. remind me of Bluecoats shows of recent. I think it will be a tight fight between BK, Spirit, Glassmen, and Crossmen for the rest of the season. I haven't seen either Glassmen or Crossmen yet so I can't really say much, but I think BK will be in the big show come the end of this season. Madison Scouts - The boys from Madison did a good job at the Jacksonville show. I don't think the brass line was as loud as it has been in years past. It could also be the fact that I was sitting where I was sitting though. I'm really not sure. I really like the way that this show is designed. I really do. There are just so many things about it that are cool and make me go... yeah Madison. I have to say that when they started to do the rotating company front that I found myself audibly saying "Show that Cadets that you own that move Madison!" Even though it may have been a little dirty that night. I really don't know where I see this show placing this summer. It is so hard to say with how good everyone is this summer. I think I see Scouts being anywhere between 7-9th, but I definitely see them being in finals again, which is a really cool thing to be able to say after it appeared they were on a downward spiral which thankfully ended last year. Go Scouts!! Blue Devils - Two words, #### clean. OK.. I've never really understood what that phrase means, but that's what the Blue Devils where tonight. The way that they move on that field. They just make it look so easy. The way that when they move as a block every member makes direction changes the exact same way. And I don't mean the way that most corps do the exact same way. I mean the EXACT same way. You could take a picture of one of Blue Devils moving blocks at the time of a direction change and everybody would look the exact same.. every foot height would be the same, every leg angle would be the same, every torso angle would be the same. I think you get where I'm going with this. They make their drill look easy not because it's easy but because (in best Triple H voice) They are just that d(*& good. There are points in the music where they play some runs that just make you scream inside yourself #### yeah. There was one run that I remember them doing that seemed to just go on forever. And the solos. I don't know who their screamer is but boy can he wail. I'm not usually a fan of the Blue Devils but I can honestly say I enjoyed their show tonight. I enjoyed all the train effects. At some points the ambiance of the show reminded me a lot of the show that I did with Spirit in '01, Ghost Train. That all being said, I don't like the ending. The crowd didn't get it. The train effect is cool, but I don't think it works the way that it is currently being done. I look forward to seeing if and how it will be changed. Santa Clara - All I can say is that I really loved this show. It has really cool drill and it's all there. It reminds me a lot of the '99 SCV show, but I really don't think the energy is there yet. I remember seeing Santa Clara at Madison in '99 and just feeling the energy being poured off of that field on finals night. I don't think they have that yet, but I think they will, and I think that once they do it will be a magical experience and will be one #### of a ride for the members. If they pull out a show that reaches the potential that I know they have for this show on finals night that they will take it all. If they don't it will take nothing away from what they have accomplished with this show. The brassline (best Mike Myers impersonation).. just like butter. They melt you. Man they sounded so good tonight. The drill needs some work, and even the guard work could use some touching up here and there, but with an inspired performance on finals night I think that SCV could take it all. Spirit - For once you're not going to have to worry about a biased review of a spirit show from me, because actually I thought that the show was relatively flat at the Jacksonville show. I know I was outside the 10, but it didn't have the intensity that other shows had, at the moments that should have had the intensity. Maybe I'm being rougher on them because I have heard them playing the show standing still and I know how well they can play certain parts. I'm really not sure. The show is very difficult. The is no disputing that. This show will not be maxed out until finals week. That's my story and I'm sticken to it. Now back to their Jacksonville show performace. Their were several parts that the guard was off at the show. I'm not a guard person either. So if I can tell that there was something wrong with the guard performance than their was something wrong. Everybody has been ranting about how good Spirits guard is this year so I'm pretty sure it was just the jitters of being in front of a home crowd that got to them. Although they are a very good guard. I am still relatively sure that they are a rather young guard at the same time. I think maybe the whole corps had a case of the jitters tonight. I don't know. I know they will clean this show. There is no doubt in my mind about that. So scores are announced and sadly they came out just as I had suspected that they would. I was glad to see Blue Devils defer the encore peformance to Spirit. That was very classy of them. Now to comment on the encore performance. All I can say is why oh why can't you march and play with the intensity and passion marching and playing as you did in that encore performance. Wow! That was a top 6 hornline that played that encore peformance. I don't care what anyone says. That was a top 6 hornline. Georgia was just wow as it always is. The drum major did the turn around and get the crowd on their feet move during the last hold which seems to be becoming a signature thing to do and when he turned back around he brought the hornline back up to a whole new decibal. Of the people left I seriously doubt there was a person left in their seat after that. My Finals Notes based on the one and only show I saw- Court of Honor is going to do very well for themselves and in a couple of years I see them being a possible power house in div 2/3. Colts have a lot of work to do. Blue Knights should be back in finals. Where they finish off is entirely up to how willing they are to work for it. Madison will probably be in 8th. I don't know why I say 8th. It is just the number I say. It is not like I say a number and it is Joe said this number thus this number it shall be. I just have a gut feeling. Blue Devils will either get 2nd or 3rd. I can't say whether I think Cavies or Cadets will beat them because I haven't seen Cavies or Cadets. SCV will win it this year. The feeling I get when I see this corps on the field matches to the tee the feeling I got when I saw the '99 Vanguard on the field. Just this time they will share with no one. Spirit. Spirit will be in finals. Spirit will clean their show up. Spirit will get some intensity in their show, and come finals spirit will be kicking some a. The one thing Spirit lacks now, and it something we lacked when I marched, is consistency. With confidence will come consistency and by finals Spirit will be a force to be reckoned with. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope you enjoyed me review. Didn't mean it to be as long as it is. I didn't think I would remember as much as I did. I ate a 48oz. steak the night before the show and I really wasn't feeling the greatest in the world during the show. If you read this far though I salute you. - Joe

Hi, my name is Joe, and I'm now officially a WHORE

Just wondering what happened to it. If there was still one. Fun stuff like that.

I actually planned on jotting down some notes, but I forgot to bring anything to write on...lol.. and yeah.. last year was awesome playing Georgia with you guys outside the stadium

OK.. this is my second review of the season. I'm not really sure if my first review was that good, because nobody commented on it. I do know that it's just the day after the show and I didn't spend a day between writing the review and seeing the show throwing up like I did last time. I had to work the day of the show so that was kind of a bummer. I got off work at 4 to leave for the show. I had to go home pick up my mom and I knew that traffic going out of Birmingham was going to be murder, and it was. I was in bumper to bumper traffic for around 30 minutes just trying to get out of Birmingham. We got to Jacksonville around 6:30. Then when we did get to the stadium I had to wait for my gf's family to arrive.. won't go into that though, but they got there and I got in just in time to see CorpsVets. I don't know what it is about a drum corps show, but you could just fell the electricity when you stepped in the stadium. CorpsVets looked very smooth when they started to walk in. CorpsVets ------------------ I really wasn't expecting a whole lot when they first came on the field. I'd heard about how good they were and I was really looking forward to seeing them, but I wasn't really expecting a whole lot. MAN was a surprised! They are awesome this year. The guard definitely deserves the scores they are getting right now. They are on fire. Way to go Lisa! The hornline is sizzling, the guard is very together, and the drumline is clean (from a brass players perspective at least). They're really doing some drill too. I've never really seen a senior corps do difficult drill, but I really haven't seen that many senior corps. You can tell that they aren't able to spend as much time on the drill as the juniors, but it is still very exciting drill. I love the jazz section in the show. It is catchy, loud, and just in your face. They play jazz like it's supposed to be played. Hunter Moss is the absolute man. Nobody can play a sop like he can. I really look forward to seeing how these guys do in DCA finals this year. I plan on eventually marching CorpsVets. Maybe next year of the year after. Teal Sound ------------------ Although I still don't know how big of a fan I am of this show, one thing I do know is that they are far improved over where they were when I saw them in Birmingham. I absolutely love Firebird. I can't say that I have ever seen it performed by a group of this size before, it's interesting. It could just be me, but I don't think that it has the impact that I have come to expect from that piece. I guess I just have the memory of how well Cavaliers did it, and by no means would it be fair for me to try to hold Teal Sound to the same standards that I would hold the Cavaliers to. I think the best thing that they have going for them right now is their drill. The drill is pretty clean. At times though I think that the drill may be a little too difficult for them and you can hear feet through the horns. That's why it is so hard for smaller corps though. You don't have a lot of people to cover you up and every error, bounce in sound, intonation problem is just RIGHT out there for the whole audience to see. You can tell that they are working hard and I think that besides the intonation problems that they have a good product on their hands. Pioneer ------------------ This was my first viewing of the pioneer show so I didn't really know what to expect. I had been hearing bad things about the uniform, but I liked it. I think it fits them quite well. I actually think I like it better than I like their old uniforms. I'm not really sure how much I'm going to have to say about this show though. They're pretty small in numbers this year. This is the first time I've really been able to watch them from the stands in three years though, so I don't know if this is small compared to what they have been in the past. I remember enjoying it, but for the life of me right now I can't really remember a whole lot about the show. They have some good visual moments and at the very same time they have some very exposed visual moments. I think they deserve the scores that they have been getting as of late. I sadly can't point my finger on one particular thing that they need to fix. Southwind ------------------ There was a definite difference in the level of this show from the prior shows. I can say without doubt in my mind that I enjoy this Southwind show more than I have enjoyed any other Southwind show in the past. They are performing the crap out of it. Yes they have their dirty spots, but overall it is a very enjoyable show. I haven't looked at their recaps for many shows, so I'm not really sure what it is that is holding them back. It is a good show in what has turned out to be a VERY competitive year. If they don't make semifinals I would be very surprised. They have some very cool drill moves. Some cool body work. They also have some cool drill moves that integrate the guard very well. I think Southwind is definitely on the right track with this show. I actually liked the sashes. I thought it added a touch of character. My gf's mom said they looked like bumble bee's. No offense to Pioneer, but Southwind was the first corps of the night that you could absolutely tell was Div I. Awesome sop section! Intermission ----------------- The hotdogs were pretty good. There was some interval problems on the ketchup but nothing that would really keep them from making it into my stomach. I got to see a lot of people I know during intermission, but most of all I just pretty much stayed around my seat. I did make a point however to go tell the Pioneer members that I saw sitting in the stands that I thought they had a good show. I just remember from the days that I marched that nothing felt better than to have a person go out of their way to tell you that they thought that you did I good job. I hope they enjoy every and cherish every moment of the summer. Colts ---------------- I think the biggest impression that the Colts left on me was their horns. They have a pretty dang good horn book. I think that this show just goes to show how high the quality of the entire top 17 is this year. It's VERY exciting to say the least, but back to the Colts show. I'm captain short term memory so I really don't remember a whole lot about their drill. I don't remember seeing any glaring errors. I totally dig their guard uni's. They are cool, and really compliment the flow of the show. They have a very good brass sound. They had some nice loud moments. I enjoyed the show thoroughly, but sadly I can't really remember a whole lot about it. Crossmen --------------- Bones was there! Having bones in the back stands for this show just set the tone from the second they were announced. The moment I saw bones in the back stands I knew they were going to be on fire, and they were. I don't know what I think about the over the rainbow intro. It is a little cheesy, but I think I like it. The rest of the show, wow. They march very well. They have some dress and interval problems, but everybody I have seen which is in that 82-85 range does. They have a very good guard. Overall they have a very complete package. I love the bringing back of the intro drill from last years show in the the drum solo. I knew that was coming and just totally ate it up. I love it. I also love the last piece that they play. Pretty much the whole audience was bobbing their heads along with the music. It just has that grab you and pull you along for the ride feel to it. You can't say that the Crossmen do not sell the crap out of their show. I still love the ending. The park and bark until the standing ovation is just pure genius. I don't know if anybody has ever done this before, but I love it. I hope the very best for Crossmen. Since Crossmen are like a brother corps to Spirit, I consider every member of Crossmen and every person that has marched Crossmen like a brother and sister to me. Some of my fondest memories of the seasons that I marched are meals that we shared with the Crossmen. addition: I also really liked how the ending of the opener was the same or similar as the beginning of last years opener and I totally dug the clip of Birdland at the end of the show.. just remembered those parts Cadets -------------- I went into this show thinking that I was just absolutely going to hate it. I didn't like last years show, because it was so trite and cheesy(OK.. I in the closet liked it.. so shoot me..lol). I liked the marching warmup. I thought that it was pretty cool. It's different. I didn't really recognize the first piece until it got into the major meat of it and then it was loud and clear to me. This song screamed SCV. I liked it. It was definitely a good tipping of the hat to Vanguard. It even appeared that the drill was kind of a tip towards SCV to with the snaking through boxes and such. I may have just been seeing things that weren't really there. Malaguena, based on the preseason recording I didn't think that I was going to like Malaguena. I thought it was alright. They played it really well. I liked the company front rotation, being that I never actually saw Madison do it. They were loud, but I thought that the big hits could have used some more sound. The rest of the show pretty much goes under the same category. I like this show. It was obviously on a different quality level than the rest of the corps that night. I just think there was something missing. The classic drill moves weren't blatantly obvious unless you knew exactly what you were looking for. Like I said earlier though, I can't put my finger on it, but it just felt like something was missing. Spirit --------------- If you don't want to see a biased review of this show then don't read this one because I am as biased as it comes when talking about the Spirit show. I bleed baby blue. I sweat baby blue. I..well you get the point. I can't say enough how much this show has improved since the first time that I saw it in Birmingham. They have made a lot of changes and I totally dig all of them. I can tell that they've watered down the music in the opener a bit, which is probably for the best. It was probably holding them back. The drill, albeit dirty, is leaps and bounds over anything that Spirit has ever done before. Right now all the visual aspects are what is holding Spirit back. The drill is dirty, and the guard work is a little dirty. I, however, have no doubt in my mind that they can clean this show. They may not be as visually clean as the corps in the spots around them, but they also have around 190 pages of drill. Now it's not, if they clean, When they clean the visual program they will be a force to be reckoned with. I think the most changes to the show since I first saw it were in the ballad and the closer. I like the ballad with the new changes. I think the flags add a lot to it and the way it is done it is not cheesy at all. It is a really emotional piece that they are performing the heck out of. Nuttville/No Jive is crankin. There is no other way to describe it than that. They crank the sh*& out of that song. Lot of cool dance/body work in this song throughout the guard and the hornline that I think really works. Closer is cool and I REALLY dig the Let It Be Me ending. I have to say that I never really liked the soft ending. I supported it cause their my corps, but I never really liked it. Way to go Spirit! Retreat/Encore/Going Home :( ---------------- So in the end I think that I agreed with the placements. I won't say that I agreed with the scores, but I did agree with the placements. I personally don't think that Crossmen are 3 points better than Spirit. They are a slight bit cleaner drill wise and cleaner guard wise. Crossmen does have a better guard than Spirit right now. I have to give props to the Cadets for letting Spirit play the encore. That was a VERY class act of them that was highly appreciated by everybody that has anything to do with Spirit. Spirit played Band of Brothers which is a piece that is really starting to grow on me.. Nuttville/No Jive, then they played the closer. After the closer they played what I had been waiting to hear ALL night...... Georgia. Man can that hornline crank. I definitely think that they were the loudest hornline of the night. And not only are they loud but they are LOUD with a good tone quality. They just have that perfect pyramid sound. At the last chord of Georgia Jeff Richmond(the drum major) turned around while they were still holding the chord bowed, waved, asked if they wanted more, stood there for a little while just letting this wall of sound build and build, asked if the crowd wanted more again, and then he turned around and brought it up to an "oh my god my ears are bleeding" loud level. The crowd jumped up and went absolutely insane. That's a moment I think I'll always remember. Then they went back to the busses and played again. They played Salvation and they played Georgia again. Spirit fed Crossmen tonight and just being around that atmosphere, I could feel it again. There's just an electricity in the air around a corps after a show in the parking lot. It was even harder to leave this time than it was at the Birmingham show. I didn't cry this time though. Overall it was a great experience and I wish everybody touring this summer this VERY best of luck. I hope you enjoy my review besides it's EXTREME length.

I know it's a little late but I got a stomach bug yesterday and had to leave work early. I still don't really feel to well, but I'm home from work and thought I'd go ahead and write this. It was the night before the show. My first show as a spectator since I aged out. I felt like a 7 year old on the night before Christmas. Visions of screaming sop soloists and tight box rotations danced in my head. I got very little sleep. The day of the show came up. I thought that I would go by Hoover High School and see how the Crossmen were doing. I arrived there at around 2 I think, to find them just ending up what I assume was their lunch break. They were all going into sectionals. I took the time to talk to Chuck Naffier for a little while during the brass warmup. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. We talked about scores and I asked him about crossmens show and he asked me about Spirits show. It was a lot of fun but he ended up having to work with the hornline and I wanted to go catch the clinic Spirit was doing at 3. I made it in time for the clinic. The performance at the clinic was a little flat, but you could tell that they had played a lot that day and their lips were a little tired. I knew that I was going to get my face blown off that night by em. Went to eat with my friend Hallberg.. man of DCP fame OldManAlto I think his sn is got back about 15 minutes before the show. first corps on Memphis Sound.. I think the main thing with all of the corps tonight was confidence. I think once Memphis Sound gets more confidence that they could have a really good show on their hands. Of course this confidence will come from more repitition of the show. It's a very hard show. It may be a little over their heads, but from what I saw I don't think it is. It's early in the season and they looked quite well marching. They did have a tough time playing the music while marching though. I think this will come with time and they'll end up being a force to be reckoned with. Scenic City was next. I'm not really sure what I thought of this show. They don't look that bad, but like Memphis Sound and every other smaller corps tonight, they just need confidence. I think people are easy to pick on smaller corps because everything they do is so out there because they don't have other people to cover them up. With some work I think they could have a show they'll be really proud of. No matter what. I hope at the end of the season they're proud of what they've done. Then Teal Sound. I thought they were a good bit better than the two corps before them. With a day of throwing up between now and the day of the show.. sadly.. I don't really remember much about their show though. sorry Revolution...wow... I had never seen this corps before, but I was extremely impressed by the product that they put on the field. Good for you. There were some spills but a lot of corps had some spills tonight. The field must have been wet. They had some really cool drill that they performed very well. I really dug the loud ending. Southwind.. definitely showed that they were the first Div I corps on tonight when they turned around and blew the crowd away with the first big hit. I was very impressed with their performance tonight. The ending drill is really cool. I think this show should put them a shoe in for being back in semis. It's a accessible show with a pretty difficult ending. And when they want to be loud they're pretty darn loud. Congrats Southwind.. I liked this show immensely more than I liked last years show. Next was Madison.. WooHoo.. yeah Madison.. I think that's really all I would have to say but I'm going to say more. It was obvious that the drill was cleaner than last year. The guard was cleaner than last year. I definitely think they deserve the score that they are getting right now. Spirit.. OMG LOUD is an understatement. Somebody said in a different review that they thought Spirit was flat. I don't see it, but I could be biased. I thought the show was oozing with emotion from the sheer velocity of the opener to the tear wrenching emotion of October to the toe tapping melody of nutville to the balls to the wall company front near the end. I think a lot of people pass the whole show off as being flat because of the ending. They may not end the show blazing away, but I still like the ending. I think it's different. I also know that it will change, not much, but I think this is going to be one of the most entertaining shows of the summer. Glassmen.. more entertaining than years past but I didn't really get into the show. It's clean, but I just don't think it had the edge that most of the other Div I corps had tonight. I liked Spirits arrangement of October much better. Yet again I'll offer the idea that I may be biased. I just thought their rendition was flat and didn't really see how it fit in with their show Crossmen have their dirt. I think it was a very good show none the less though. The crowd got into it. Bobbed their head with the music. It's definitely a very entertaining show. I think it could go very far once it is cleaned up. I really dug them bringing back the intro drill from last year in the drum solo. In the end this show could do some major damage when cleaned up. I for the most part agreed with the scores for that show. I was really excited with all the shows. I think there were more overall entertaining shows this year than there have been in a while. There were more than a few moments that just made me stand up and say "#### yeah!"... Southwind made me cheer.. Madison made me stand up and yell.. Spirit almost made me cry then made me jump up and scream during the nutville/no jive hit and the hit at the company front.. Glassmen made me smile and clap.. and Crossmen made me jump up and scream "oh #### yeah!" at the big chord until the standing O After retreat me and Hallberg stayed around a little to hear part of Madisons finale then we went over to the busses to see if Spirit would play. I was at first upset to see that they were getting out of uniform and setting up their horns. Then I heard someone say that they were going to get out of uniform then they were going to play by the food truck. So in a haphazard manner, because the message that they were going to do this was spread word of mouth. So I went to sit in front of the food truck. The whole hornline arched up between the busses and the food truck. It was very cramped. You can just imagine the sound level that came next. They played through Band of Brothers the new on the field warm up. It's not Salvation but I'm starting to warm up to it... no pun intended.. Then they played Georgia. OMG it was louder than FRIGGEN LOUD. If I had tears that weren't blown out of my eye sockets I would have cried. My ears rang from the sheer intensity of the sound. I then said my goodbyes and walked away from the busses back to my car. I didn't want to leave. I cried on the way back to my house. Oh God I miss it so much :( . Well I hope you enjoyed my review... as long as it is

he said "package"...huh huh