Quick Allentown Saturday Review

[ScribeToo]

Oh and I nearly forgot.. THANK YOU to those of you who took time to write a review -- good, bad or indifferent -- even if I disagree with you.. the more reviews we see, the more there is for those of us whose show attendance opportunities are limited to talk about.

Thank you again!

Stef

[CadetsFan08]

Allentown Night one – short review

A few words of intro.

1. I was seated on the 45, but not seated high enough to get a good view of drill so I won’t make any drill comments.

2. Its still early in the season so there were lots of phasing problems and many instances of single players sticking out.

3. My comments will be basically on overall show design and any elements that IMHO deserve attention/praise. Etc.

Crossmen Extreme played the national anthem. Sorry to be harsh here, but the quality was not much better than your average high school band. In fact, I felt embarrassed for them.

Reading Buccaneers – Nice show design and great to see some major movement from a DCA corps. Right now its very rough, but this could be a repeat title for Reading.

Jersey Surf – 73.075 - Very hard to tell what’s going on musically right now. Nice show design and interesting background props. Can’t wait to see this later in the season.

Troopers – 68.1 – WOW – what an improvement – very nice brass sound. Loved the “costume malfunction”. But what the heck was going on in the guard. I thought they should have placed above Southwind and Madison.

Pacific Crest – 72.85 – Nice concept and an excellent soloist. The few bits of narration were perfectly timed and sometimes even funny. I would like to see more Vegas Showgirl costumes for the guard.

Southwind – 69.750 – hmmmm….. much ado about nothing – and the show just stops. Not sure what the concept was supposed to be.

Spirit from JSU – 73.750 – very rough – when they finished the only comment I had was “what?” Again not sure what is supposed to be going on here.

Boston Crusaders – 77.4 – Boston seems to have created a template for their shows over the last few years. This one isn’t much different. Good Guard work. The brass was blatty tonight.

Madison Scouts – 70.050 – Is this corps going to make it semis in August? Weak show design, seems to be no center to the show. Madison seems have a testosterone deficit.

Carolina Crown – 83.125 - Nice sounds, but lots of phasing. The horse theme is cool. What is holding them back is a total lack of subtlety and nuance. They play at two volumes right now – mezzo forte and blast.

SCV – 83.425 – subtlety and nuance in spades – beautiful scoring of the Ravel. Lots of beautiful sounds. The guard dance is weak and detracts from the mood.

Phantom Regiment – 83.950 – Gorgeous sounds from the low brass in the opening. For me, the Delibes is too fast. The duet needs to flow, not saunter. The Firebird works well.

Cadets – 85.70 – People actually got up in the middle of the show and left in disgust. The corps may be playing very well, but the narration is so amateurish, condescending, self-promoting, poorly written and embarrassingly enunciated – SHUT UP! One line stuck in my head – “athletes of God.” I wanted to vomit. I have never hated a show concept before - I hate this show. George – when the result of your show is people actually getting up in the middle of the performance and leaving because they hate the show, you are doing no favors to the members of the Cadets and Drum Corps in general. My heart goes out to the poor kids that have to endure the hatred this show seems to instill. People hated this show because of the narration.

"Athlete of God" is the phrase Martha Graham used in her essay for the This I Believe Program. She is one of the greatest dancers in history.

And please, don't speak for everyone. You hated this show, not everyone.

[scott414]

or - maybe - they put them on first so they wouldn't have to perform directly after the last four - Regiment, SCV, Crown & Cadets?

Thinking it has to do with the 27th Lancers alumni corps going on after all the "competing" corps in the 94 finals and getting a better and longer crowd response than the DCI corps.....

[knightsbari]

oh brother!

When are you guys going to get the idea that DCI does what they do to SLIGHT NO ONE. Really the conspiracy theorists are growing tiresome.

Exhibitions go on whenever there is reasonable time to have them. That is USUALLY at the beginning of the show.

I saw NO ONE complaining that DCI is trying to destroy new corps and keep them from getting better by putting Legends (a new DII/III corps in the midwest) on before the competition began this season.. I don't see how putting any OTHER exhibition corps on first "means" anything other than that's where they put exhibition groups.

Maybe DCI thought the members of the exhibition corps might also like to get out of uniform and enjoy the show (a competition in which they do not contend..) since they might just be *gasp* drum corps fans as well as senior corps members?

Comments like yours do more damage to your fan base than good. It wasn't too long ago that I was becoming quite a DCA enthusiast but in all honesty, it's comments like these that I read here and heard at DCA finals (at random.. not just once or twice.. but REGULARLY) when I made the trip out to attend that REALLY turned me off. DCA may not miss it but they won't be seeing ANY of my money until attitudes like yours are the exception, not the rule.

Stef

Disappointed EX-DCA fan <**>

Actually since DCI is turring into marching band ... why not do what all the HS band shows Ive been to do ... put the exhibition group on after the last competing group goes on so theres some entertianment while scores are being calculated and such, that way your entertained while your waiting.

[ajedrummer]

I heard amps live for the first time last year in Madison and was surprised that I liked them on the pit. They allow the players to play the instruments in the dynamic range for which they are designed...not pound the crap out of them to be heard. I even tolerated the vocalist in the Cadets show and liked the 'vocal drumming' that I heard in the movie theater the year before. I had not seen junior corps for a number of years before that.

Last night I did not walk out on the Cadets, but I did wish they would SHUT UP and let the show play. I agree...the intro was fine, but most of the rest was just stupid.

The comments about the sound engineer are right on....trying to fill a stadium with the speakers and amps they are using is silly. Boost the pit - fine, but not talk over 64 horns and 30 drums! In a similar vein, the sound system at that stadium is totally inadequate! But that is a different issue from the corps.

[Toby]

Back to reviews please?

[Tone Quality Matters]

Carolina Crown – 83.125 - Nice sounds, but lots of phasing. The horse theme is cool. What is holding them back is a total lack of subtlety and nuance. They play at two volumes right now – mezzo forte and blast.

Really, I was down on the field and heard no phasing. Crown wasn't playing dynamically? Wrong there. They play very dynamically, but agree there is room for more

As far as subtlety and nuance, I turned and checked the fan reaction at various times as Crown performed their program and subtlety and nuance were exactly why the fans in the stands were quiet and focused during the heart of Crown's program.

Edited July 8, 2007 by Tone Quality Matters

[DCI_Dadx2]

"Athlete of God" is the phrase Martha Graham used in her essay for the This I Believe Program. She is one of the greatest dancers in history.

And please, don't speak for everyone. You hated this show, not everyone.

Saw Lots of "I"s and a "My" and a reference to acts the author saw other people do ("people left"). Nowhere did I see the author attempt to speak for someone else. He did say "People hated the show", but like it or not this is a true statement. Certainly not all people, and it is impossible to say how many, but a simple perusal of the opinions shared here that there is a large enough group of people that hate it to make the statement true (and that people left during the show). You disagree with his opinion. Cool. You're absolutely allowed to, and it doesn't make you a "Cadets Borg" or anything like that. It makes you a person with a different opinion of this show, but given the polarizing effect Hopkins has had on the fan base of DCI for the past few years, if you lash out at everyone who doesn't care for an element of a Cadets show you'll be too distracted by that to actually enjoy the season.

The Cadets know that some of the elements they use won't be embraced by all, so it stands to reason that they won't be embraced by all reviewers. That opens up some great discussion, which is what a forum is for. This is a place for facts and opinions. Go ahead and join the discussion, but accusing the author of trying to speak for everyone when he clearly didn't attempt to adds little.

[DCI_Dadx2]

Back to reviews please?

Really? It is improper to discuss a review and it's elements?

[Toby]

Really? It is improper to discuss a review and it's elements?

I see plenty of Cadets narration gripe posts from shows that aren't in Allentown, PA.