Jeff Ream

Lee?

yes. did you have fun?

i wasnt sure ballsy was legal, but nothing ventured nothing gained

well, you could be on at 2. at least this way you get a lot of rehearsal time in.

well you could be on at 2.

GOD I LOVE THE MONDAY BEFORE FINALS

7 less than 7 times 7?

and 2 rows down from the press box

many DCI shows, including the Atlanta regional have DCA corps. A lot of it depends on where the show is and when

i believe i have called them out many times. maybe not in this thread, but startin off with "winning championships before you were born" never helps make friends even when disagreeing.

when planning for finals wherever it is, i pack for all 4 seasons and several types of natural disasters.

sun...use the stuff baseball players do, aka war paint. does wonders

while you may make a point, by starting off with such a rude attitude your point is lost. just wanted to point that out

you owe me for this too

fact. pits came thru loud and clear, especially the ones with 50+ brass

oh how i loved 92. more than 93 even

ok, after last night, I'm hyped.

trust me Bill. you guys did nothing wrong. i just think that since Albright seems to get rained on every time we go there, you may want to rethink the grass and you guys handled the storms great, no complaints about that.

sorry. i had a life today. it's up now

gonna be a long day filled with some great shows. GOD I LOVE THE DAY PRELIMS TIMES GET POSTED!

i'll vouch for it. came back in, started to pour again, went back out

well you heard about the rain elsewhere, so i'll save that. But as i said in the htread last night ( or this morning) to whoever owned the white lexus parked in the grass/swamp across the street at the school, it was not us that kicked all the mud up onto your car. I made a point to not go near your car after I saw it walking out of the stadium. this is the unabridged he said portion of the he said she said review coming in a DCW soon. You want to hear her part, buy the issue. to color guards...i apologize for not catching a lot of you until later in the show. first reads make it tough...i'm a drummer, and on the first read i go after the music stuff unless a visual moment wows. luckily, if you buy DCW, she'll make up for the visual comments for me. Danny Fitz...playing the Canadian and U.S. national anthems in a downpour..and well! props to you sir! Sky Alumni....was not able to get up into the seats in time, so we took them in from track level. Loved seeing a larger corps than Lewisburg, and the sound was definitely what we wanted...loud!! They played all the Sky favorites, and was it funny to hear the snare line get cleaner as the drum heads dried out. a couple minor timing issues in the front half of the show, and now I fear Carl....just the look he shot at the offending section was scary! Somethings Coming, Give my Regards, NYNY...you name it, they had it, and the fans ate it up. Awesome way to start the show, and yes, ($ 1 to Scott Humm) that snare line still serves up more singles than Wendys. My wife laughs every time we see them...I have to drum along to the end of Elk's Parade! Shenandoah Sound: A small corps playing an original show with a concept like "Shadows of Roswell" is a ballsy move. They had some serious field coverage for their size, tho I think at times it hurt the music sound. Even with the 7 pit members out there, at times their sound was totally hidden....I wonder if staging hurt? there some balance issues brass to battery when all members of the battery played, which was not the whole show( new bodies). mello solo in ballad was really pretty, and i appluad the decision to bring the brass up front to help make them sound larger. The role playing tho is a serious issue, and it needs to be fixed this week to help people get the storyline. I know the performers are young, and i think here is where the design team can help in just a week...clearly define their role and how to communicate it to the crowd. the MIB charachter seemed to just wander up front as opposed to search for the aliens, and never once had his head up or looking at either where the aliens could be, or the crowd. It's a ballsy show choice, but some easy fixes can help, tho they wont be enough to challenge the top dogs in A Class. White Sabers: I always enjoy music from the Cirque shows, and the designers did one very smart thing...they tried to capture the grooves needed to make these songs have the aura needed. Thw visual is safe, but they do not spread themselves out to far and sacrifice the sound. Battery better than they have been...some performance issues, and it seemed like when playing as part of the corps, they did well, but tended to overhype on features/ensemble breaks. The one really harsh thing that I noticed several times was one soprano seemed to overpower the entire brass ection at times, and when they went really high, they had trouble gettting all the way there. I really liked the big rifle toss leading into the last push, but the horns started tosound tired and the ending didnt have the punch I thought it could have had. Still...with some good focused cleaning this week, they can still keep Class A interesting. Grennies: So I'v been reading some guy named Allen was coming in to work with the brass. yeah, I'd say it's paying off. They had power you wouldn't expect for their size. The kenton charts flowed well, and Mr. Summers percussion line did a really nice job...a few overhype moments in some breaks, but thats easy to fix. Honestly, I would have scored their percussion higher, but I won't argue with the guys working the show last night...they probably had a batter vantage point to catch stuff I couldn't. I appreciated the colors of the flags used, especially in Pegasus. The big issue to me last night was some indivisual visual issues...if fixed, look out, that title may cross the border again! Fusion Core: looking at the recap, I see two huge issues that held them behind grennies...color guard and field percussion. I hve to agree with the guys and gals in the blue shirts here. I applaud Fusion for taking new twists on the Disney Millenium music, especially when everyone thinks of Cadets version. the opening sequence visually and musically works to build to the first hit...definitely eye and ear catching. The design is really smart in how they do have some field spreads in moments where they have isolated attacks for impacts, yet keep close when they really need the power. The percussion is featured a lot, but performance was rough in a few spots. The saber solo was well done, but he became the star of the show and the rest of the guard felt like an after thought. ome stamina issues at the end of the show kept the climax from being what it can be, but again, with a week to go...who knows. Cru: going down the Holst path again, I had been told by many folks that they were really bad. They aren't. They have some issues, especially percussion balance with the brass, but I'll offer a very easy fix for that: TAKE THE SCOOPS OFF THE SNARES! With 6 snares and a hornline that suze, you DO NOT need them, and any little fuzz is instantly amplified to where everyone can hear you in the stadium. The brass show some real power when standing still and close together, which makes sense to me from a design standpoint. However, in more than one place, feet was heard coming thru the horns. I liked the take on Moorside March. Loved the sop soloist with the contras, but the pause til the pit came back in kinda drug out....hurt the effect of the moment. the endof the ballad, the going roll covered up the entire brass sound, which, IMO also hurt the effect. Is finals possible? Dunno. Some big issues to address, but this corps was written off for dead in June, and here they are still fighting. Cabs: if there is a complaint I have about doing show reviews, it's that I have to look down while I write, and I miss things. I think I missed a lot here, and can not wait til next week to see it without having to take notes. This is my favorite cabs show since the mid season of 2004 before some changes were made that I felt hurt it. The opening of Espana Cani was hot, and the build to the bull Call was rocking. Their huge guard was well integrated and very eye catching. While the 10 snares project well, it also helped the fuzz sound carry up top. visual treat...the guard/brass pass thru with those purple flags...wow!! then, i loved the staging after this which left the guard up front...very cool. Time To Say Goodbye is far from a Boston rip off, and the pit had some really tasty 4 mallet work going on under the mellos. the corps used the backfield well here and the rile toss into the hit was sweet! the battery stuff leading into Abuelos was cool with the body work, but had some dirt.however all battery sections nailed their features, and so did the pit. My only real issue with the sound was that at the end of the show, the sops seemed to be overpowering the rest of the brass section. . Whoeever on here said they don't move is smoking something I don't want any of, that's for sure. in the logjam for what seems to be 2nd and 5th, i predict nothing as I have not seen Empire, Hurcs and MBI yet, but this corps will not go down without a fight. Bucs: here's my complaint about Bucs: at times tonight the corps, well the brass, seemed to suffer from home show overhype. Now, what they did right: the opening percussion stuff is a gas...the basses with the running 16ths backfield, snare/tenor rolls with dyanmics..and BAM! the horn line smacks you upside the head with beginning of Dias Irae. The brass has pwer to spare while covering a lot of turf. Simple Song is so pretty with some gorgeous 4 mallet work in the pit...and yet when the corps turns up the volume for the hit, the pit is clearly heard...no need for amps here. In fact at one spot towards the end the vibes were really cutting thru! The screamers in Fire Dance were a gas, and the drum break...dear God....that tenor solo is unreal ( and props to MT for being perfectly in position to see the guys wail and not get hit by the flying rifles). After the re-entry..wow what front ot back percussion scoring and ensemble clarity...and all audible with the brass wailing. Easter Symphony really cooked, and the guard's uniform change make the field look totally different as the angels appear. The drill at the end is insane, and yet no really noticable stamina issues. Can they be beaten? dunno, haven't seen all the players yet. But, I said it in July, and i'll say it now...this is the best total package the Bucs have had since the run began in 2005. you want crazy drill? they have it. You want power? They have it. Notes? got em. screamers...yep them too. if they are beaten, hats off to whoever does it because this is the best DCA corps I have ever seen, narrowly edging Empire 97 and Bush's 92 prelims run. Bucs Alumni: I can not say enough about how far this corps has come in the last two years. Playing past classics like Canon In D, Rainmaker, bellavia, Russian Xmas and beyond the Sea was the perfect way to end the show! strong solo work, and some nice power when needed. The infusion of some new staff and younger faces has helped grow this corps and I'd imagine when many members of the last decade start jumping in, the corps will only get better!

gimme an hour or so.

i tell ya what...at a DCA show tonight, pits came thru unamped just fine, especially Bucs and cabs