shaners

Scores?!?!?!?

Great review, thanks! Where are you sitting for the Denton show? (I live down the street from CH Collins stadium)

couldn't agree more

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks for the updates. I hope to see a review tonight.

I understand that a show announcement has very little to do with the outcome of a corps season and I truly want to see BK succeed... but am I the only one who thinks that the announcement was poorly written, generic, and off-putting? I hope that their written prose is not an early sign of their show design.

Totally agree with the original poster. Interesting story... When I began marching drum corps, I always had a difficult time in show-shoes because they were terrible compared to my expensive athletic trail shoes... zero traction, zero support, too heavy. After trying out different approaches throughout my marching years, I finally settled on having a athletic rehearsal pair, and two pairs of show-shoes... one to switch into at rehearsal for the last block of a show day, and one for the actual show. If I could have used the same shoes (different pairs, obv.) for rehearsal and in uniform, it would have saved me a lot of headache. All that being said, it's strange how marchers seem to get along fine, despite having high demands.

ER. MA. GERD.

Very impressive! Finally a concert ensemble composer taking on the drum corps idiom head on. While there might be a learning curve, I can see this going great places.

Bluecoats. Most definitely Bluecoats. Saw them live twice this past season, both times I was astonished at how much more blend, intonation, and low power they had over every other corps.

If Fred wants to stick with neutral colors; - grey pants - white jacket - white aussie & plume - black/chrome accents If the corps was in the top 6, I'd say white pants. But to wear all white you really need to march top 6 caliber.

Cue the Crossmen! In any case, I'm hoping for something innovative from Madison. The whole 'traditional / classic' show from 'X' corps is cool, but I don't like how corps can become reliant on their 'stock' style to play it safe. As much as I disliked BD's show this year, what I did like about it was how innovative it was.

Seeing that in order to win you gotta play with the big bad BD early on, Crown.

Lol. At the very least, there are definitely some DarkHorse shots going round...

Bones.

Seriously. If Bones pulls it off tomorrow I'm gonna jump through the roof!

Wow! Only .35 separating the Crossmen from finals! Come one Bones, you got this!

http://www.crossmenalumni.org/

It's not that I don't "get" BD's show, I just flat out don't like it and become bored within minutes of it starting. I think it's a shame that a show so brilliantly designed and challenging as Crown's is losing to BD.

thanks boo!

Thankfully the Crossmen are right before their direct competition for finals night.

All I know is that I completely lose interest in the show every time I hear the Star Trek and Jetson's sound effects.

I'll be blunt, based off seeing them live once and observing a 3 hour ensemble rehearsal from a high vantage point (both yesterday); I'll start with the negatives and end with the positives... Cons: - very poor upper brass tone quality with many individual stick outs. - intonation issues in the high brass when playing above forte. - many timing issues in the low brass, particularly with entrances. - die at the end of phrases - uneven crescendo/diminuendo rates - general lack of balance across the horn line when playing forte+ Pros: - gorgeous tone quality across the line, below forte - great blend, below forte - basically, the opposite of the cons when playing below forte Here is an excerpt from my review of last night's Dallas show: Vanguard - 86.60 I wanted to like this show more than I did. It was by no means bad, it just never clicked for me. I want more out of the music arrangements, they just didn't satisfy. Furthermore, I was not happy with the brass sound beyond 'mf / f ' dynamics. The trumpets and mellos sounded tin-canny and unbalanced throughout. There were obvious timing issues. During loud phrases I could hear that 'swiss cheese effect' when you get pockets in the sound. There was one mellophone player shredding metal the entire show. I was literally able to point out the kid doing it. I really don't mean to bash the kid, because it's the staff's fault for letting it slide, but if that kid was not playing, the entire horn line would have sounded better; infact, if I wasn't distracted by that one mello player I probably would have liked the show better as a whole. Aside from those issues, they play with beautiful qualities in the piano and mezzo dynamics, lets carry that into the loud, eh. The drill design is great; I like all of the little details within drill, things that most corps would not attempt, and/or accomplish. the members do a great job marching challenging drill. Best part of the show is definitely the drumline. Holy cow are they clean. Textbook example of perfect stick heights. Not only that, the battery book is incredible; I never felt like it was cliche or overpowering. like most shows that bore me musically, I followed that drum line, not a bad decision. Overall a classic vanguard-esque show. I personally felt that Crossmen, BK, and Boston should have beat SCV in brass.

Yup, great observation. These inaccurate judging jumps apply to all the corps of the night compared to San Antonio.