MikeN

Thanks for the link - that was a funny entry. Mike

There's already a similar topic open here. Thanks! :) Mike

I got to talk to my informant about this (I'm going to have to start calling him something cute, like Deep Bore or something like that) at DCI. 14,000 "extra" votes were detected before the voting was shut down. The web folks there do have ways to increase the validation on each ballot for future rounds of voting; I don't know if it'll ever be foolproof, but it'll be more difficult to cheat, at least. And DCI plans *more* fan interaction for the future, not less, so don't worry too much about this one. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't that big of a deal - it's just performance order; it's not like we were voting on the actual lineup of corps, you know? Mike

Hey, I was in the SA audience, and yes - it seemed like everyone "got" what they were doing. Earlier when it was said, "some shows are for the music, some for the story" (I'm paraphrasing), I think that's pretty well dead-on. In this case, the story is the big thing - the music isn't meant to stand as a complete work on its own - it's supporting the story. It's not what they do every year, but this year, it works. <shrug> To each their own, I guess, but I really liked it much more than I ever expected to. (Get rid of the opening narration and Bjork-speak - leave the drumspeak - and I'll call it one of the shows we'll talk about forever. (In a good way.) :) ) Mike

Thanks for the review - you cracked me up. :) Mike

http://www.dci.org/news/news.cfm?news_id=1...8f-a549f35b9dea Mike

Information issues aside, this isn't a forum to attack other members. This thread is being closed for that reason. Thanks, Mike

My top five: Phantom Regiment Blue Knights Blue Stars The Academy Boston Crusaders Mike

SCV (scvanguard.org), Crown (carolinacrown.org) and Buccaneers (see above post) are the only ones this year. Mike

Part I of the review can be found here. Sorry - this part's a little shorter - only 4,500 words this time! Intermission – Hey, I was happy to be indoors in the air conditioning and sitting in one place. I wasn’t particularly interested in going out and confronting the masses – over 14,000 strong (a San Antonio record!) – on the concourse. Bluecoats (6th, 87.350) led off the second set of the evening show. You’ll have to bear with me here – there is no APD of the performance (licensing issues, I’m guessing with their closer), so I’m doing this one exclusively from memory. The Bluecoats’ program is called Caravan, and includes Caravan (obviously), Incantation (Cirque du Soleil – Madison also played this in 2003), Ombra (also from Cirque du Soleil) and Hajj (Stephen Melillo). The corps is dressed in the same uniforms as last year – blue coats (ha!) and white pants, while the guard is wearing white tops / brown pants with a teal sash around the waist. Only hints of the full melody to Caravan are played throughout the show – it’s mainly used as a framing device to tie the pieces together. The real opening number to the show is Incantation, which while Madison used it as a ballad in 2003, becomes a high energy Middle-Eastern jazz opener for 2005. And you know what? It works. It’s got an easy to follow melody, lots of passages to show off different sections, and they’ve put some great triangular drill moves in it, including a full corps wedge that reverses in on itself and straightens out backwards. The ballad, Ombra, feels like it takes up the longest portion of the show. The closer, Hajj, comes off as slightly rushed into the music, and has the least definable melodies of the show. That said, it still fits right in to the mood, keeping things jazzy, fast, and slightly Eastern. Visually, there is an amazing guard solo near the finish where the entire unit performs a flag routine with no musical / drill accompaniment. There’s an audible “swish-snap” as they all throw their flags in the air together, and they left just enough of a break after it (split-second) before the corps reenters, that the crowd goes nuts right with the music coming back in – nicely done! What the Bluecoats have going for them this year is an insanely good drumline (challenging for top honors) and a GE laden musical production that keeps you involved the whole time. The only thing I think that’s keeping them from a top four finish right now is that the brass and guard are a little ragged at times. It’s still the best corps to ever come out of Canton, but it’s not *quite* as razor-sharp as the next two corps. That said, they could still make a push – little execution things like that are fixable. If I had to predict this very second, I’d estimate they’re going to finish 6th, which would make them and the 98-99 Glassmen the only corps in recent memory to break into the top 6 in consecutive years. Not shabby at all! Phantom Regiment (5th, 87.800) was received warmly as they came out of the tunnel and set up for their 2005 program, Rhapsody. The show consists of only two pieces, Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. The corps is dressed the same as they have been since 2003 – all-white uniforms with black baldric. The guard uniforms are discussed below, but mostly blue. The show this year is a little unusual in that there’s no clearly defined opener / ballad / feature / closer as we’re used to them. Instead, they work sections of the two pieces together in broad groupings, each group containing several different themes. The second group includes the slow intro to An American in Paris, while the third contains the legato (think United Airlines) section from Rhapsody in Blue, but those groups also include other parts of each piece. A little unorthodox, but it works. I’m going to have to alter my format a little here, and talk less about what they did visually, and more about my reaction. Mainly because watching this show live, the undisputed star of the corps is the lone male guard member. The show is built visually around him, and for long stretches it doesn’t even *matter* what drill the corps is doing because of what *he’s* doing – I’m obviously not a guard person, but he showed off an amazing array of dance moves and equipment tosses. And even better, he nailed every one of them, which makes some of the more cheesy moves he does okay. :) I ended up focusing on him (and the guard members he interacts with) so much, a lot of the rest of the visual program was lost on me. (Oh yeah, and that brass line is a *beast.* The contra solo in a part from Rhapsody in Blue got a huge response from the crowd.) Since the corps is dressed in white / black, the guard is what gives the show its color. The guard begins in dark blue flapper-style outfits, and then later sheds those for a lighter blue-slightly purple dress (though I’d politely call it a “slip” :)), later adds pants to the ensemble (unless I have it backwards) and then adds orange to it. (A combination that left my wife kind of aghast.) Again, you just have to see it, but on the field, it works. Phantom has three advantages going for it this year – they’re playing a well-known set of melodies, so the audience is already engaged; they’re playing a tremendously energetic program with an amazing amount of enthusiasm (and the lighthearted nature of the music keeps things going), and their guard soloist is absolutely stealing the show. They had by far the loudest ovation of the night (and not even because Texas is full of Regiment fans), and my whole row agreed that they were absolutely the best corps of the night. Even writing this after the fact, I won’t change my mind on that. After their performance, I felt very much like I did in 2003 after seeing them live – that I was very lucky to be able to experience the show in person, and I’ll have a hard time in the next few years putting into words why it worked so well. Bravo, Phantom – I think this one will be remembered as one of your best shows. Madison Scouts (4th, 88.550) came in seeded slightly ahead of Phantom, and thus performed after. One of two all-male groups remaining (Cavaliers are the other), Madison makes that statement slightly exaggerated this year with the addition of a lone female member. Their program, The Carmen Project, has much more visually to do with West Side Story than it does Carmen. Musically, though, it’s all Carmen, though run through a latin jazz machine. All of the familiar melodies are there, but they’re in forms you may not recognize immediately. The corps has altered their uniform design slightly for 2005, with a silver half fleur-de-lis on the jacket, silver citation cord, silver hat band and silver gauntlet edging. Basically, all of the red has been removed from the uniform. They still have the white pants, so they really give off a clean look from the stands. The guard is wearing track suits – half in blue, half in green. I don’t remember which – one of them has an M on the back, the other has a FDL. They remove the jackets later to reveal blue/green tank tops to go with the black pants. After the initial statement from Carmen, the opener is a fast paced, tight medley of various latin-influenced melodies from the opera. I have to say, though, that I never could pick out any particular tune to run with – very much like Spirit’s opener way back at the beginning – it was very cut-and-paste arranging. Very well played, obviously, but still hard to follow. Once you picked out a tune, it would change to something else. The second tune (beginning with Habanera, done in a vaguely stripper-lounge-act sort of way) begins with the introduction of the female member. Wearing a (slightly revealing) red and gold sparkle outfit, she created an ovation from the crowd just by her entrance. My wife even knew it was coming and didn’t see how they got her to midfield. Since I’d seen a video on Season Pass with that moment, I knew which guard members to watch, and it looks like they had her crouching with either a flag or a jacket over her so you couldn’t see the red. (Prior to that, she got to hang out during the whole opener under the backfield podium, which was covered in black. Regardless of how it was done, it was a great entrance – one of those “oooh” moments and one that I’m sure is going to be remembered forever by Madison fans. The next piece (again, clips from Carmen with hints of other latin jazz they’ve played before – Malaguena and Bolero both make it in to the show) involves Carmen alternately tempting, teasing and frustrating the two “gangs” until they fight over her. Clips from West Side Story work into the music, and the drum feature involves the entire hornline blowing whistles, which in the Alamodome created a really cool ringing affect that I imagine won’t resonate the same in Foxboro’s open stadium. Obviously, in the course of the show, she dies (You did read this is *Carmen*, right?) and that’s that for her. All told, she gets about 6 minutes of field time. It’s a gimmick for the show, sure, but it’s well done, and it works. Hey, if the members don’t mind it, I don’t mind it. :) The show closes with a reprise of the initial Carmen fanfare, another quote from Bolero and then back to Carmen to finish. Much like Phantom and Crown earlier, Madison’s brass section is amazing this year, especially their upper brass – they play a lot of exposed passages with a lot of notes darned near perfectly. And what they bring to the table is velocity – lots and lots of speed. I don’t know if they played the whole show as fast as the Blue Devils – I didn’t exactly sit there with a metronome – it *felt* like they outran them. (And I mean that in a good way.) Jenna felt their guard wasn’t as strong as Bluecoats and Phantom, and Bruce felt that their brass, while better than Bluecoats and below Phantom, didn’t have the same flowing arrangements that the other two did. Both agreed that of the three corps in this pack, they would have ranked them Phantom, Bluecoats/Madison. While I agree that Phantom simply amazed and entertained, I couldn’t flip a coin at this point between Bluecoats and Madison. I think both are *very* fun shows and will end up enjoying them for a long time no matter which one of them ends up on top. Blue Devils (3rd, 89.775) were on as the 3rd seed, which was a little unusual – I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show with them where they weren’t first or second. Regardless, they’re still the Blue Devils – they have that air about them. Even the newbies on our row felt it – not exactly a swagger, but that movement of a professional. The corps is wearing the same uniform as last year – blue / silver jackets and black pinstriped pants. The guard is wearing various versions of beige, each person with a sign with a number on it pinned to them. Their show, Dance Derby of the Century (hence the numbers on the guard – they’re contestants), is a mix of a number of tunes, including “Redline Tango”, “On the Town”, “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” “In Wartime” and a number of other clips. It is one seamless production, without a break during the performance. It’s either 5 or six times during the show, the narrator breaks in to set the stage. It starts from the “end” of the derby and works its way back to the beginning, though if you didn’t know that ahead of time...well, the narrator pretty well tells you as you go along – it’s not difficult to figure out. The corps does a pretty good job of setting it up so the narrator isn’t covering any interesting music up, but that approach also segments the show into a whole bunch of musical / visual vignettes. Folks who already didn’t like cut-and-paste clips from the Blue Devils *really* aren’t going to like this show – it’s a cleverer way of doing it, but it’s still the same thing. As individual sections and performers, they are simply incredible. The snare drummers have a lot of exposed sections during the show and make the most of it – more backsticking than I’ve seen in all of drum corps lately! And they deploy a huge number of horn soloists, each one with a buttery smooth tone and seemingly playing higher than the last. The guard really sells the performance and keeps the visual flow going, including a great deal of equipment work (though it does seem like they do less flag work than any other top corps). I think I’m in the minority – I think the narration works for this show. It keeps you involved with what’s going on, and with a show that’s depicting an event *backwards* - I’m not sure how else you can do it. And the guy’s voice is perfect for the role. All of that said, though, after seeing it, I’m not sure it’s a championship performance. First off, the drill was slightly off tonight – straight lines were consistently bent – just enough to get you to notice, and after a while, the lack of a developed musical theme starts to make the show feel like it has a nervous tick. If anything, it seems like a vehicle for individual talent, not group talent, if that makes sense. They display a lot of amazing skills, but not really in the context of a cohesive whole. I’d have had them behind Phantom tonight – I think Phantom connected with the audience on an extended level where BD showed flashes of it. Even so, though, I think it’s a good show – just not as good as the ones above them. The Cadets (2nd, 91.150) were on next. Sorry for the length – this one is going to take a while to write about, and it needs the exposition! :) There’s been so much written already about this show, and I had to do a lot of quick explaining to my row about where this was going once they saw the corps and guard appear. The corps is wearing the red cadet-style jackets, as always, only this time they’ve added a white reverse-image of the front buttons/sash on the *back.* The pants as well are double-sided, white on the front, red on the back. The corps is dressed in cream tops/pants with many panels / hoods to be removed as the show goes on. (They also had gold-sparkle drums, and from a distance, they didn’t do a whole lot for me.) Oh yeah, and a giant door on the 50 on the front hash, with a giant black frame around it. Get used to the door – it’s not going anywhere. Boy, this show tells a story, so the description of what they do on the field is going to take me a while. :) First off, the music played was Bernard Hermann’s “Twisted Nerve”, an original piece by Jay Bocook, the Overture from “Dancer in the Dark” by Bjork, “Cvalda” from “Dancer in the Dark” again by Bjork, and an original piece again by Jay Bocook. During the time that the corps are allotted to play their warmup, the Cadets are already moving. They don’t get judged for it, but it does help set the mood. For us old-hat fans, this isn’t anything new, but the first timers were really thrown off their groove by it – it confused them. (Did they already start? Did I miss the announcement?) The intro ends with the girl going through the door (and a neat amped doorbell that got the crowd laughing.) The story as it comes across on the field (whatever the intent) is this – girl is looking for an address – turns out to be a door to the Twilight Zone – girl gets thrown into a trio of “episodes” with some different thing happening to her in each – and in the last movement, the original girl (as well as the “her” from each episode) all run into each other – chaos ensues – girl gets away from that friggin’ door. :) Um... yeah, that about sums it up. The first episode involves water – the guard has blue flags, the drill has a lot of wave motions to it, and the girl comes out of the door with a raincoat and umbrella. Yep – seems like water to me. :) Musically, it’s very much like their opener in 2000 (Millenium Celebration) – very frenetic – very Cadets. The second episode (my goosebump moment, BTW) involves her coming out in a princess hat, and getting involved in a chess match with life-sized pieces. The guard removes the front of their jackets to reveal black chess pieces outlined on them, and the flags have checkerboard patterns. The first few seconds set the stage for the whole piece, and they’re what made the whole song for me. She comes out of the door, and two chess pieces are standing there and start doing a rifle routine, marching next to her but kind of oblivious. She appears scared for a second, then starts getting more and more confident as the song goes on, dancing with the pieces. Musically, the Overture from “Dancer in the Dark” is similar to the Bluecoats’ version from 2002, with the addition of a techno-sounding drum beat between it, first with the snares clicking their sticks together, then playing a friggin’ amazing set of riffs. I know what they were intending to do here – I’ve heard the show before – but over on our end of the field, since the drums are on the back right *really* far away from the horns, a horrible case of phasing developed between the two – they didn’t line up at all. I assume if you’re in the middle of the audience, it comes off better, but for anyone outside of the 40’s, look out. The third episode involves the girl in a construction hat, with a metallic jazz piece (and the girl basically getting into the spirit of things). The clanks and clangs of various implements is voiced over with a female narrator doing her best Bjork “Clatter, clank, clash. Rocket fun song. Wheee!” (My personal comment, echoed by just about everyone on our side of the dome: “Ummmm...”) The staple of the Cadets shows – the insane tenor drum feature – is back (thank goodness!) and yes – insane. They also add a segment (only about 30 seconds really) with various corps members singing drum-speak (“rattadiggada” – stuff like that) before the full corps / battery comes back in. On paper, it sounds kind of strange – on the field, it works, especially right after the drum feature. In the final movement, based on Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, the four different “versions” of the girl all run into each other, with the chaotic music swirling around, and each tries to escape. In the end, the original girl comes flying out of the door to close the show and run away. I’d read a lot prior to the show about how difficult it was to understand – heck, even their director has said in his blog that folks weren’t getting it – but to tell you the truth, I didn’t really have much of a problem with it at all, and neither did anyone with me. We all compared notes afterwards, and we all got pretty much the same thing out of it. Well, the Clifton and Nicole spent some time speculating about what was in the girl’s suitcase, but that’s ‘cause they’re dorks. :) For me, the show is a championship-caliber show, no question. The brass, drums and guard are simply top-notch, and the corps should be challenging for the top honors in each performance caption without difficulty. For me, though, there’s only a small number of changes I would make that would move it from “championship-caliber” to “genre-changing.” First, I would remove the opening narration – the Twilight Zone theme is just fine in expressing what’s going on here, and the narrator’s voice doesn’t fit, especially when we’re going to be comparing it to the actual TV show’s voiceover. Second – I would remove the Bjork-speak at the beginning of the drum feature. Yes, I know it was in the original, but it’s not adding *anything* to the music, and unless you know Bjork already, it’s just... well, kind of random things said in a funny voice that’s making people laugh. Third – I would play up the part where the four mirror girls disappear into the door in the closer, before the very end. Right now, they just work their way behind there as the drill is going on, and you don’t really get any sense of climax other than they were all there and ... hey, now they’re not? The only reason I caught it was I was watching them do their thing in a group of horns – nothing about the moment draws your attention. I’d leave the drum-speak – the crowd really seemed to appreciate it, and it – to my great surprise - came off pretty cool! :) Like I said – it’s already a championship-quality show, but it could be even more than that with a few changes. The Cavaliers (1st, 91.775) were the clear favorite going in – I don’t think anyone really expected an upset tonight. And once again, they performed with that machine-like execution that they’ve become famous for in the past half-decade. Their visual program is still an absolute delight to behold – every move they do has a purpose – every drill form leads to the next. It took me until tonight to realize that the continuity is what sets them apart from almost every other corps out there – the drill is an organic creation that grows and evolves during the show, and it never breaks apart or loses the flow. The corps is still dressed in the familiar green/white/black, while the guard is dressed in black one-armed bodysuits with ribbony outlines of buildings across them. The guard uniforms did not receive a favorable response from our row, despite the technical excellence of what they do. As incredible as the visual program is, the musical program this year just doesn’t do it for me. The corps is playing an original opener based on “My Kind of Town”, “Rainbow Body”, an (I think?) original ballad depicting the Great Chicago Fire and Sweet Home Chicago. The original opener is very much Saucedo-Cavaliers. If you like that, you’ll be fine, if not, you won’t change your mind. The second piece, Rainbow Body, is a tribute to baseball with several baseball themes (Take Me Out to the Ballgame, organ music) worked into it. I know a lot of folks thought this piece was the highlight of the show, but it didn’t really connect so well with me. It was cute, sure, when the assistant DM went chasing the fly ball as it “left the park,” but it wasn’t a make-or-break sort of deal for the show. The ballad works several melodies together as the guard brings out a dozen or so ladders into a large circle formation on the field. This comes back later. They use the ladders – and fireman hats – to depict the Great Chicago Fire. After the guard uses them, the mellophone section climbs up and works in strains of “Amazing Grace” into the number – very nice effect. The closer is about as anti-Cavaliers as you’d ever come up with. The corps plays “Sweet Home Chicago” – yes, the jazz piece. It starts with the walking bass line and includes soprano screamers, an extended jazzy drum solo and a park-and-blow segment from the entire hornline. The ladders – still on the field – are used in the drill as they bisect the field into the “circle” segment and “everything else.” They also help the corps as a guide when doing a great deal of intricate circle-related drill inside of their area. Yes, they’re right up there, and yes, they deserve to be, but I think this year the Cadets might actually catch them. While the Cavaliers’ visual program is still unparalleled - though slightly missing this year are the extended “wow” moves – the Cadets are to me slightly ahead musically. In the GE department, I would right now give a slight edge to the Cadets. But then again, at this top level, it’s often a case of six of one, 1/2 dozen of the other, and either would be a valid choice. After the Cavaliers, when questioning the other folks in my group, they all had the same basic reaction – while you could tell the top 3 were *technically* excellent, none of the shows had the same entertainment value as Bluecoats, Phantom Regiment and Madison did. In fact, Clifton and Nicole felt that the Cavies, Blue Devils and Cadets should have been the 4-5-6 cluster rather than the top three. All of them felt – emphatically – that Phantom Regiment was far and away the best total package of the night. They didn’t feel that anyone was actually even close to them. Bruce and Karen (band director and his wife) felt that Phantom and Carolina Crown were the two standouts of the night, bar none. As for me, I would have ranked the corps in this order: Cadets Cavaliers Phantom Regiment Blue Devils Bluecoats Madison Scouts Carolina Crown Boston Crusaders Blue Knights Santa Clara Vanguard Glassmen Spirit And while on one hand, it felt like the overall entertainment values of the combined corps took a step back this year, I also felt like there wasn’t a bad or even “blah” show in the bunch. Normally I find one or two to at least be ambivalent about, and that wasn’t the case here. The corps are all executing at a higher and higher level each year – heck, ten years ago Spirit would have been a 6th-7th place corps with this show. And in a most welcome sight, it seems that drumlines are starting to abandon the “drum solo on the run” approach for more flashy (and demanding) features. All in all, a quite enjoyable time, and one that made me realize that even with the amplified sound effects, voices, props and doorbells, good drum corps is still good drum corps. And for the record, Maddy liked the Boston Crusaders best. Thank you Gordon Goodwin! :) Mike

I've got to learn to be more concise - I just wrote 1200 words on the Cadets alone. :) Mike

You can view Part II here. Okay, first my sad tale of the afternoon show. If you want to get straight to the meat of the review, skip down until you see EVENING SHOW. We were supposed to meet Cathy Benford (former Revolution staffer) to get our tickets – we’d gone in with the group she was bringing – at 11am in front of the Alamodome. However, I managed to lose her cell phone number, and I wasn’t able to reach anyone else in the group! Thusly, I was reduced to wandering around the concrete plaza in the horrible heat and humidity, hoping I could spot them. After an hour, and no sign of the group, my daughter was darned near heatstroke, so we called it a loss and went to lunch instead. I was very disappointed, obviously – I have *still* now never seen the Mandarins live! – but these things happen. Instead we went to lunch, to the museum over by the dome (Institute of Texan Culture – very hands on stuff – very cool) then to a little hole-in-the-wall diner for dinner (where they did manage to forget that I ordered a meal, and we ran out of time for them to fix one – man, this was not turning into my day) and a frantic cab ride once I finally heard from the folks in my group on where to meet for the night show! By the time we got there, we were tired, hot and sticky, and the show hadn’t even begun yet! EVENING SHOW The lineup of viewers who contributed to this review: - Me. (Drummer for 20 years, never marched DCI, but I challenge you to find a more rabid fan. :)) - My wife, Jenna. (been going to shows with me since ’96 – she’s worked as an actress and stage manager, so she’s very guard oriented) - My daughter, Maddy. (3 years old – first show she’s ever been to.) - My brother-in-law, Clifton. (not a musician – first show he’s ever been to.) - My brother-in-law’s girlfriend, Nicole. (did drill team in HS, first show for her, too.) - My fellow pipe band drummer, Bruce. (middle school band teacher and composer, very brass/wind-oriented, hasn’t seen DCI for many moons.) - My fellow drummer’s wife, Karen. (very GE oriented – not a musician – she was there for the overall pictures. :)) As you can see, we got most of our bases covered. The Souvenier area had some neat exhibitors this year – the UT Longhorn Band had a table right up near the front, as well as the Marines. The Xymox (drum pad) table was crammed all night with teenaged drummers trying to show off how good they were; the old man running the booth had a look on his face like, “Oh, I’ve seen all of *this* before...” WGI had a table, but I couldn’t get over there to see if the DVD’s were still on sale, and when the show ended, they’d already packed up and left. Overall, corps are getting much better about putting all of their stuff online so there’s not so many “surprises” in the merchandise when you see them live. Santa Clara has another *awesome* show poster this year, and Boston won the Souvie of the Night Award for their “Vote for Waldo” handmade-looking shirts (and apparently sold out of them, too!). Our group – Napoleon Dynamite fans all – found those hilarious. I think my favorite tour shirt this year is the Glassmen’s – it’s a neat shade of green. Surprisingly, aside from the DCI booth (always jam-packed), the booth with the most traffic this year wasn’t Cavaliers. It was Phantom Regiment – you couldn’t even get near their table to buy anything. I finally managed to push my way through to ask about a small rainstick, but they told me they were $20! A little much for us to spend for pre-show effect, so we instead headed over to the Capital Regiment table, where we bought Maddy a 2 foot flagpole with a flag – I gave her a choice between that and a pair of drumsticks, and she took the flag. <sigh> I’m losing my little drummer girl to the guard – help! She spent most of the night in her seat trying to do the moves with the flags that she saw on the field. (She was right between Jenna and I – luckily we escaped with only minor injuries.) Our seats were in section 115, which put us on the left 20-25 yard line on the lower deck. Surprisingly, those were actually pretty good – you could still see / hear everything, though some of the nuances (especially when played towards the right side of the field) were lost in the echoes. The Star-Spangled Banner was performed by the BOA band group there for the Cavaliers clinic – they’d learned the Saucedo arrangement the day before. As far as band arrangements go, it was nice, reflective and well-written. As our nation’s anthem to open an event in a 68,000 seat dome, it was too quiet, had a confusing introduction and nobody really could sing along with it. (And as an aside, one of the benefits of modern technology as I write this review is that I can stream the shows on Season Pass (www.dci.org) while I write the reviews, thus making sure I’m not missing anything!) Spirit from JSU (12th, 80.000) opened the performance tonight with their program “The Spirit of Broadway.” The corps is still in the baby blue, but with a navy blue delta on the front. The guard is wearing what looks like a stylized usher’s outfit in black and white, though I could be wrong on that. :) After an opening fanfare to “New York, New York”, the corps’ opener to me is the weakest part of the production. It’s very cut-and-paste musically, and doesn’t really develop a full musical theme. It’s much more “mood” music, really – setting a bright tone for the rest of the production. The ballad, for me, is the entire centerpiece of the show. Much like 2003’s “October”, the mix of “Pie Jesu” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye” contains a number of musical quotes within it, in this case, of past Broadway shows. The guard sets up a number of giant Playbill programs along the back sideline, all from Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. As the ballad reaches the climax, all but the Phantom of the Opera program are turned around to show “closed” written across the back. While I got it – Phantom’s the only show still open on Broadway – it didn’t make musical sense – they weren’t playing a clip from Phantom at the time. Unless you know what’s on Broadway right now, that might get a little confusing. The drum feature is “Luck Be a Lady” from Guys and Dolls. You know, it’s drum corps that introduced me to that piece, back when Dutch Boy played it in ’93 with that friggin’ *awesome* drum solo. Spirit’s drum feature doesn’t go on quite as long, but they still get out front and throw down, something that’s becoming a rarity these days. The closer is a medley from “Wicked”, and the folks around us seemed split. Those that had heard the musical before thought it was pretty cool, while those who hadn’t were kind of looking around. The horns playing the melodies in there get kind of hidden by the harmonies at points – they don’t stand out as much as they should, I think. I’m familiar with the musical, so I was grooving along, but not everyone was. Visually, I though the color guard was pretty good, and I didn’t see any obvious flaws in the marching (we were so low, though, it’d be hard to tell you for sure). We could see individual techniques quite well, but the overall drill was sometimes harder to follow. (Luckily, DCI had the video feed from their cameramen going on the jumbotrons, and much of the time they were showing the high-cam view.) I’ve only heard Crossmen to date, not seen them, but right now I think Spirit has a solid handle on the 12th position. Their production is very friendly, energetic and they obviously enjoy playing it. They seem fairly even in all captions, and it’s one of those that folks will like listening/watching when the CD’s and DVD’s come out. Hey, what more can you ask? Bruce (the band director) thought the brass had a lovely tone, and he and Karen both watched the show, nodded, said “nicely done” and settled in for the next corps. Glassmen (11th, 80.575) were on next. The corps is wearing the same uniforms as last year – cream shoulders / top sides of arms, black everything else. The guard, though – wow. I didn’t see them very up close, but from where we were sitting, it looked like a Latin American festival. Everyone was wearing a patchwork of bright colors and patterns, and for at least the beginning of the show (while I was still noticing), the flags had the same fabric patterns on them. Lots and lots of orange, blue and purple – very vibrant! The Glassmen’s program this year is “New World Symphony” by Dvorak, and while they do present all four movements (again, a rarity in drum corps, I think!), they’re given with a twist. The Glassmen approached the symphony with the idea of: what would happen had Dvorak visited America in the 20th century instead of the 19th? The first movement (to me made famous by the 1989 Phantom Regiment) is done as a bright, jazzy swing tune, with walking bass lines and high soprano riffs. I think depending on how you feel about Dvorak (and remixes), you won’t change your mind based on the Glassmen. To me, it was a hugely entertaining and innovative gamble that paid off, but my wife thought it kind of took already powerful music and watered it down. The second (largo) movement (“Going Home” – everyone’s heard this one) is presented in a kind of floaty fashion. It’s hard for me to describe – it felt almost like one of those cartoons or films where they show the Native American tribes in their village, or rowing down the river at peace. Lots of up and down vibraphone runs over the horn solos. Speaking of which, the horns all lay down at the beginning of the song (and at one point make carpet angels) and then stand up and play in solos and groups as the melody builds. I thought that was a very nice effect. The third movement (the waltz movement) is the one rarely seen in drum corps. The Glassmen still give it to you in a 6/8 form, and they’ve added a very industrial feel to it – the horn fanfares are harsher, and there’s a lot of metallic effects over the top of the drum solo. It’s a really short interlude in the show, mainly due to time, and serves as a transition to the finale. The final movement is the one that everyone’s been talking about this year – Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, Mvt. 4 has gone tango. The opening Jaws-like fanfare is played by two horn blocks 30 yards apart, striking tango poses as they play, interspersed with a pretty cool timpani solo. Much like the first movement, how you feel about this depends on how you feel about Dvorak and remixes in general, and again for me, I thought it was great! Near the end (and the recap of the melody), there’s an extended 90’s dance-music interlude that the guard goes wild to – it got everyone in my section cheering for them. Tonight they finished half a point ahead of Spirit, but honestly, I think they were farther ahead than that. The show has a higher degree of difficulty / sophistication than Spirit’s. That said, though, Bruce detected some major problems in horn tuning and tone tonight, and Jenna thought the guard seemed to completely overpower the horns visually. Whether that was due to the staging or just that the Glassmen had a smaller hornline, I don’t know, but she thought that the drill was getting hidden at points. Even with all of that, though, I think they’ve done a great job this year – this was one of the shows I was most hoping to see live, and I’m glad I got to! Blue Knights (10th, 82.025) were on next, performing “A Midsummer Knight’s Dream.” According to what I read, this is supposed to be a show about a day in the life of a drum corps. Honestly, I don’t think *anyone* on my row got that from the show, and I was even looking for it specifically. Programming-wise, this is a very-much-sister show to the 2004 production. They are still wearing the same uniforms they have since 2000, with the guard in a lighter-blue bodysuit. I assume they’re still getting the flags painted by their Denver artist – they’re very much in line with their previous shows, if a touch darker this year. In fact, the whole production has a dark feel to it, from the costuming (the light blue of the guard is kind of muted against the dark blue / black of the corps) to the music (very medieval-sounding) to the darker flags. The opener does have strains of Trittico from years past in it, but not nearly as obvious as last year. The second “movement” – again like last year – is broken into a 90 second musical passage then the drum feature. Intended or not, this segment is the show-stopper of their program. The drum feature (by the way, the drums this year are metallic blue, and look *really* cool) includes what is supposed to be a stylized “basics” block / warmup. There’s a number of really cool drill moves – my favorite was the snares circling around a lone guard member doing rifle tosses. As they circled him, various snares would point at him – it just created a very neat effect. Also like 2004, the ballad is not original, but the darker presentation of it is. The corps plays “Some Enchanted Evening” and I thought they really got the crowd going at that point – it gave everyone something familiar to latch on to. Unfortunately, though, the way the show is programmed, it’s over all too quickly. (If they’d just legalize 15 minute shows... :)) Their closer recaps the melody from the opening piece, and I think they do a good job musically of tying the whole production together. They still have the bendy-knee marching style, and it looks like this year they’ve really gotten into it – I didn’t see anyone having trouble with it at all. (And the high-mark time as they turned to leave got appreciative applause from our section.) Based on the early season recording I’ve heard, as well as comments from previous reviews, it seems like they had a pretty good night performance. I know fatigue can be a factor with the corps from the afternoon (Madison in 2001 at the Alamodome is a prime example) shows who advance, but they (actually, all of the first three corps) seemed to handle it pretty well, and put out the energy to make sure that the evening show had some spark to it as well. I think depending on how they keep cleaning, and more importantly – selling, this program, they’ll pass SCV for 9th. This show still has a lot of room to grow, and while the various sections are all performing very well, it’s the GE (musical and visual) that’s going to cause this show to rise or fall. Santa Clara Vanguard (9th, 82.425) entered in an unfamiliar spot – having to qualify for the evening program as well as looking up at a number of corps. The corps uniforms have been redesigned this year, with an all-red jacket and white pants, though it has the same basic cut / design as last year’s. The white really gives them an old-school SCV look from afar that was really neat to see. The guard is costumed in black, with the women wearing black and gold tops and the men black pants, white shirts and an open black jacket. The program “Russia: Revolution – Evolution (1917-1991)” centers in very broad strokes about the rise and fall of Communism, told through the restrictions (and reinstatement) of freedom of religion. Honestly, you’d have to be familiar with the music to get that – the visual *kind* of sells it, but none of the first-timers around us had any clue what was going on in the show. The show is broken into two major parts, with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 (In the Year 1917) as the first segment. All four parts of the symphony are presented in a opener-ballad-feature-closer form, and to me, that’s part of the problem – they’ve presented an established show format (one that every listener is used to) then tack an extra song on the end in Russian Christmas Music. But I digress – back to the explanation of the show. The opening strains of Russian Christmas music suddenly get overpowered by a bold, discordant brass fanfare, and I have to give SCV credit – year in and year out, they are one of the *loudest* corps on the field. Usually, seeing them at the ends of shows, they’re slightly louder than the corps around them. This group’s brass volume-wise simply overpowered the other corps in the early group – even Crown’s. Each of the movements from Sym. No 12 get about a minute and a half treatment. Honestly, if you remember Phantom’s 1993 Estancia opener, it feels very much the same way – very quick development / transition / finish to each piece. Also to SCV’s credit, though – they do make the pieces (which could fill out an entire show on their own) *not* feel rushed. The drums this year are using matched grip, and sound-wise, it didn’t make a lick of difference. Just listening to the show, you never would have known. Visually, however, I found it to be a bit of a distraction, but I’ve never really liked match grip. But, hey, if it floats their boat, more power to them, though I never saw the integrated visuals with the tenor line that they said would be easier due to everyone having the same grip. (Oh, and for those interested – the techno-double-beat is their on-field warmup this year.) I’ve already read reviews of this show that have said the guard had lots of issues tonight – all I can say about it (and Jenna as well) is that they were kind of... nondescript. They didn’t really stand out at all. The drill, though, is sorely lacking in the velocity of the other top corps. It works with the music, but up against the other corps, they come off as really slow. Russian Christmas Music (in an abbreviated form from the 1987 version) ends the show, and I’m still having trouble with the placement of the piece as a closer. The way it’s presented, the program feels like <_< where they build to a finish and then start again halfway through. Then again, it could be to the big finish that’s on the Symphony No. 12 causing that rather than RCM right after. Okay, I know I’ve gotten on them about show design, average guard and slow drill. Even after all of that, though, I’d still say this is a good show from SCV, and they have nothing to be ashamed of. Why? Because they can flat-out *play.* The brass and percussion make the show just drip with energy – they sell it so it always feels like they’re leaning forward, about to sprint off again. (And the drum book is – as always – impeccably tied to the horn book in ways that few corps can manage.) We all enjoyed their show, thought it was quite nice, and all agreed, though, that they’re right where they should be, score-wise. Earlier in the summer I had a gut feeling they’d sneak into 7th, but I now think 9th is more likely. Even then, though, I still think it’s a good show, and one that a lot of folks are going to like to watch and listen to in the years to come. Carolina Crown (7th, 84.500) came out next. Due to the way DCI seeded the show, the shows from two weeks ago were averaged to determine the show order. The only corps this really affected was Crown and Boston, as Crown in the past week had surged ahead of the Crusaders. The corps is using the same uniforms as they have from 2003 on – light cream colored, with the purple stripes and offset white plume. The guard was dressed in black, with what looked like little white wings on one leg. Their show is called “Angelus” and the angel theme is readily apparent throughout. In fact, the visual program ties the various (and very distinct) musical styles together into a cohesive whole. What I’m trying to say is, if all you’ve been able to do is buy the APD, you need to *see* this show as well – it really makes a *lot* more sense live than it does audio-only. The introduction to the show is from Rutter’s Gloria (complete with the Cavaliers-esque spinaround at the big hit), and the opening is a compilation of two hymns – The Reason and A Mighty Fortress. It takes about 30 seconds to realize that the horns are by far the strongest suit of the corps, and the scores to date have borne out that this is a top 6, if not top 4, hornline. The ballad is Sarah MacLachlan’s “Angel” and the guard then removes the black tops to reveal... well, more black tops, but with white angel wings on the back. The corps uses a lot of body movement to symbolize angels carrying folks, and a lone guard member carries a pair of giant white flags as a lone angel. Every single person I asked for this review cited this song as the far-and-away best moment of the first 6 corps. Every one of them. Both Clifton and Nicole (first time viewers) had goosebump moments during it, as well as Bruce and Karen. Maybe it’s my advanced age now (turned 30 as we were driving home from the show), but I was able to resist it. :) The rest of the show (as I remember it) is taken from Joesph Curiale’s “Gates of Gold” (also played by the Troopers this year), and just listening to the show, you get a great sense of disconnect due to the very apparent “western” nature of the piece. Live, however, the guard is using the number to depict the conflict between a number of light and dark angels, and it *really* works well. It doesn’t hurt that the horn fanfare that begins the piece was so tight that the echoes resonated off the dome and right back on to the crowd, giving it an eerily otherworld-like effect. The closer – also from Gates of Gold – includes the entire guard bringing the large “wing” flags onto the field, and along with the light-colored corps uniforms, really give the field a white-out effect that is quite nifty to see. Musically, the show ends with a recap from the opening hymns and a giant major chord that had the crowd on its feet before they’d finished – and for some reason, at this show such a reaction was a rarity. (Believe me, I was watching the crowd as the night went on, and from one end is actually a pretty good place to do it since the stands curve around.) My whole row thought this was one of the top four shows of the night (can’t tell you the other three yet). For me, I think they’re pretty well stuck in the 7th spot. I can’t see anyone behind them catching them, but I also can’t see them passing Bluecoats, Phantom or Madison for 6th. While the horns are superb, the guard (technically, not GE) and the drums aren’t quite up there with the others. I will, however go out on a limb and say that this 7th place show is head-and-shoulders better than their 6th place show from last year! Boston Crusaders (8th, 83.550) ended the first part of the show with their production “The Promise of Living.” The corps is wearing the familiar red/black cadet-style uniforms, and the guard is wearing... well, white tops, pink cinch-sashes and pink pants. Before you cringe and start invoking the spirit of the 2002 Carolina Crown (pink togas) on me, with the red corps uniforms, and the various shades of red on the flags throughout, it actually works just fine. The opening drill is a sight to behold – giant concentric circles of corps and guard spinning as they play “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” I have no idea how they can clean such a drill move, but they absolutely nailed it for this performance. After a recap of the main melody of the piece, the full opener is the Overture from Candide. The corps does put a unique twist on it, moving a phrase here, a measure there, a passage here and there – enough to make sure it’s not the same version you’ve heard a million times before. (And thankfully, it sounded like they took out the West Side Story passages from the piece.) The ballad is from Tender Land – specifically, well... “The Promise of Living.” :) Honestly, this is probably the one piece I don’t have a lot to say about – it is what it is, they play it the way you’d expect them to, and it has the effect you’d expect it to. That’s about it. The third pieces is by far their show-stopper. After a quiet pit groove off of the end of Promise of Living, the drummers put on various parts of drum set drums and cymbals and move out onto the field for Gordon Goodwin’s “Sing Sang Sung.” It’s an old-school throw down and jam session, and the crowd responded quicker to it than any other individual song of the entire night save the Cavaliers’ “Sweet Home Chicago.” Even my daughter – 3 years old and honestly, kind of bored at this point – started jumping up and down and clapping as they were playing this. Naturally, the reaction that this (and the Cavies’ piece) provokes is: well for goodness’ sake, why don’t *more* corps play swing / jazz? The crowd wanted it, the crowd *loved* it, and if done well, the judges will still reward it. The closer is Ode to Joy, and as bright and energetic as it was, it didn’t capture the crowd like the jazz did. The hits from Conquest again find their way into the show, right before the closing chord. While I think Crown will stay ahead of Boston for 8th, I think that first, Boston very well could stay ahead of SCV for the rest of the season, and second, this is a *great* Boston show. They have good drill, good music, a great visual design, and they connect with the audience *very* well. After asking each person their thoughts on the first half, all of them - from the folks at their first show to the band director to my wife who’s seen 10 years of shows - agreed that Carolina Crown was the hands-down winner of the first half of the show. The emotion they generated was something that the other corps simply didn’t do. You can view Part II here. Mike

Many thanks! (You're helping me organize my review, too. :) ) Mike

Update - $1870 raised, $6630 still needed! I'm finishing up my personal thank-you letters today - if you have donated and haven't received one by tomorrow, please let me know! Thanks! :) Mike

Good point. Mike

BD didn't sound like a 6th place in brass to me - I thought they had a pretty solid performance, even up against the other corps. Mike

Though she was on the field for less than half of the show, I thought the whole thing worked. While she doesn't do any equipment work like Phantom's guy, she still pulls the whole guard production together. Bottom line - it just works for them. Mike

I really liked the show - I didn't find it hard to follow at all. Honestly, the opening narration isn't needed - the twilight zone theme pretty well sets it all up, I think. And the Bjork narration really needs to go. The drum singing was actually pretty cool (though got less of an ovation than the tenor solo prior - I was paying close attention to see how each segment of that song was received), but that voiceover at the beginning of the song - yikes. Really, though, you need to see the show rather than just listen to the music - it makes a *lot* more sense as a total package (one of several shows this year that are like that - seems like more than in recent memory). Mike

Wow - more than a little venom there.

Spirit - nice show - got the crowd going Glassmen - huge guard - didn't fill up the space as well as I'd hoped BK - great music - fun visuals after the opener to the end SCV - awesome music + not-awesome drill Crown - clear winner of the pre-intermission group, from everyone I talked to - you have to see the visual for the musical choices to make sense. Boston - fun, warm and engaging show - good drill Intermission - 14,000 folks there last night! Bluecoats - ay, caramba, what a great show. Guard "solo" in closer was the highlight of the guards. Phantom - Also has to be seen, not just heard. Unusually "loose" and fun show for them - their guard dude friggin' *rocks.* Madison - Didn't do it for most of the older fans as it did for the younger ones - interesting disconnect. Tight and energetic, scoring where they deserve, to be sure. Blue Devils - technically excellent, as always - something's just kind of "off" about this show - can't quite put my finger on it. Cadets - Again, you have to see the show for the visual to make sense. Show made a *lot* more sense, though, than I was led to believe it would - wasn't hard to follow at all. Cavaliers - still the masters of drill/marching - incredibly clean, but their music leaves me a bit flat. All in all, a wonderful time - I truly enjoyed every corps I saw (a rarity for me - usually there's one or two I'm "eh" about). Obviously, a longer review is coming. I would have scored it: Cadets Cavaliers Phantom Regiment Blue Devils Bluecoats Madison Crown Boston BK SCV Glassmen Spirit Good thing I'm not a judge, no?

Sorry - was supposed to be Friday, will instead be tomorrow. :) Thanks! Mike

I realize it takes longer than one day for them to react, but it's really funny to see that today this appeared in my inbox:

For me, the show starts and pretty much ends with the program they played. Aside from Wild Nights (which was kind of eh for me), the rest of the show was brilliantly written. Got to see them live in Leander, TX that year (and down against the track for the standstill after), and I'll always be glad that I did get to see that show in person. :) Mike

Heh - one advantage to the not-everyone-there format: shorter reviews! :) (I think last year's only topped out at like 4,000 words...) Mike

If you're going to the show tomorrow, I'd love to meet you! I'll be (likely, anyways) the only person there in a DCP T-shirt. :) DCI/Alamodome willing, I'll have my camera as well, so my review will have pictures of the event, too. Mike