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SCVsopAaron's blunt review of SA...


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Ladies and Gentlemen, the yearly tradition of the blunt review continues.

Glassmen - There was a line to get in the stadium, so I blame DCI for making me miss them.

Colts - Welcome back red team. Solid show, lots of room to improve, of course, but one of my fav corps is back in the top 12, and this former Colt couldn't be more proud...

The Academy - Welcome to the big show. Good corps, theme was sorta there, good, not great, I guess, they deserv the placement.

Blue Knights - I like htis corps more every year. They do their own thing, and the "dirge" mvmt. (I guess) was pretty tight.

SCV - YAY! Visually - awesome. Musically - they have some potential and can grow a lot. From 7th on up it could be anyone. Honestly.

Boston - Meh. Recycled material? I think yes....

Crown - HOLY AWESOMENESSSSS!!! Favorite corps of the night. I swear people. Freakin' ya. Hornline, you are ny heroes... The only corps of the night I jumped up for! William Tell = BIG grin...

Bluecoats - Another solid show. I see them peaking and not a ton of room to grow, but I could be totally wrong. I enjoyed this show. New unis = good.

Phantom - Opener and 2nd mvmt. were great. Good hornline. Everything else was mediocre and I got bored. Good corps, not great, but ok design.

The Cadets - As much as I support the use of narration, they took it too far and ruined parts of what could be an otherwise stellar show... I was distracted from their awesome hornline by emoness.

Blue Devils - How did this show win? I mean, I see why, but I really didn't like it that much. It's not bad, but I just zoned out a few times... I dunno.

Cavaliers - This corps I think will win, because of a few things. They are dirty, hornline is a little rough, and they have more room to improve than any other corps, IMO. With approx. 75% new guys, I see the as cleaning it up over the next few weeks and taking it in Pasadena, with the competition coming from Cadets and BD, but Crown and Bluecoats could be in the mix as well as everyone down to SCV... We'll see... neat-o

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Crown - HOLY AWESOMENESSSSS!!! Favorite corps of the night. I swear people. Freakin' ya. Hornline, you are ny heroes... The only corps of the night I jumped up for! William Tell = BIG grin...

Absolutely, they were one of the few corps of the night to make me smile.

Thanks for the review!

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Blue Devils - How did this show win?

Exactly what I was thinking... After the opener the show goes nowhere and completely loses my interest. I honestly think Cadets should be winning (even with all the talking) more than BD, for sure.

Cavaliers - This corps I think will win

I'd love to believe that they will win, but with the championship being in Cali, that should be tough. Especially since BD has been winning regionals in the midwest with most people thinking "Huh? How did they win?" If the Cavies could pull it out I'd certainly be a happy camper.

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--->Rather than write my own review of these groups, I'm going to piggy-back off of this one....

Ladies and Gentlemen, the yearly tradition of the blunt review continues.

Glassmen - There was a line to get in the stadium, so I blame DCI for making me miss them.

---> You missed a pretty decent group. They are much improved from last year's corps, but the hsow is relatively confusing. What is it? Gypsies, Pirate women? Before the show start s they have two guard people get into a mock fight, but they act it out much like a modern day gang fight. I don't get it.....

Colts - Welcome back red team. Solid show, lots of room to improve, of course, but one of my fav corps is back in the top 12, and this former Colt couldn't be more proud...

---> I've always liked the Colts, but this year has to be my favorite yet for them. I've never seen this group with such an aggressive package. They're doing excellent work. I hope this trend continues for them.

The Academy - Welcome to the big show. Good corps, theme was sorta there, good, not great, I guess, they deserv the placement.

---> It seems to be the same issue as last year with them. They've got the talent, the numbers, and the instructional staff. Where they're being let down is on the design end. Regardless, it's exciting to see a new face sitting in that top twelve neighborhood. From day one, they've run their organization very effctively and with great patience. This is not a fluke, and I believe this group will be around for a long time.

Blue Knights - I like htis corps more every year. They do their own thing, and the "dirge" mvmt. (I guess) was pretty tight.

---> For some reason, I can never remember a Blue Knights show for more than ten minutes after I've seen it. I do remember bits of this one. I really think they performed this better in 1998.

SCV - YAY! Visually - awesome. Musically - they have some potential and can grow a lot. From 7th on up it could be anyone. Honestly.

--->SCV seems to be doing very well this year, but the truth is that I can't remember their show at all.

Boston - Meh. Recycled material? I think yes....

---> This is true, but for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed Boston this year. The easles were distracting, but the corps played well. It seems as if this group may finally be getting a personality, something they haven't had since before they first made top 12 back in 1999.

Crown - HOLY AWESOMENESSSSS!!! Favorite corps of the night. I swear people. Freakin' ya. Hornline, you are ny heroes... The only corps of the night I jumped up for! William Tell = BIG grin...

---> First of all, I've got make one thing clear. I've never, NEVER liked Carolina Crown. This year I was blown away. I first saw them in the Georgia Dome last week, and I felt that they were the best brassline of the evening. They had the most even and uniform sound, of any group in DCI. If Cadets weren't using the speakers to amplify their brass ### well as front ensemble, Crown easily would have been the loudest of the night. They were already the fullest. That brings me to my next point. I have a fair amount of education and professional experience in all things brass, and I have to say this - there is a consistent lack of integrity with these brass judges night after night. The fact that Crown is sitting in 6th from a brass performance standpoint is absurd. I know I was mentioning ensemble qualities before, but you can tell that mature things are happening on the individual level that aren't happening with other top 6 brasslines. Particularly in William Tell. Again, I've never liked Crown....=)

Bluecoats - Another solid show. I see them peaking and not a ton of room to grow, but I could be totally wrong. I enjoyed this show. New unis = good.

---> I thought that this design was well thought out and very clever. I don't think that their brassline is as good as Crowns fundamentally, but there is so much clarity to what they are playing that their brass scores are certainly justifiable.

Phantom - Opener and 2nd mvmt. were great. Good hornline. Everything else was mediocre and I got bored. Good corps, not great, but ok design.

---> agreed.

The Cadets - As much as I support the use of narration, they took it too far and ruined parts of what could be an otherwise stellar show... I was distracted from their awesome hornline by emoness.

---> The disappointing thing about this show is that the book, the playing, and the marching are all fantastic, yet I laughed at them. The narration wasn't too hilarious until that Napolean Dynamite kid came out and started talking about not fitting in. Calling themselves "athletes of god" was a little wierd too. Here's a disappointing thought about cadets. An acquaintance of mine is a brass caption head for a top 6 corps. He was explaining to me that the Cadets never turn off the microphones that their members speak into, then place those members throughout the forms so a good portion of the brassline gets picked up through the sound system. There's nothing technically wrong with that, but until the revelation, I was scratching my head and wondering how the loudest brassline of the evening could have that much edge and brightness in their sound. Answer...they weren't really the loudest....err...fullest brassline.

Blue Devils - How did this show win? I mean, I see why, but I really didn't like it that much. It's not bad, but I just zoned out a few times... I dunno.

---> I was in for the first half, but then I just wandered off mentally. This was the most disappointing BD brassline I've ever heard. I get the whole darkness to light theme, but they started out like mid-90's Blue Devils, which was exciting, but ended up playing a Cadets-type book. It works for Cadets, but it was just....disappointing.

Cavaliers - This corps I think will win, because of a few things. They are dirty, hornline is a little rough, and they have more room to improve than any other corps, IMO. With approx. 75% new guys, I see the as cleaning it up over the next few weeks and taking it in Pasadena, with the competition coming from Cadets and BD, but Crown and Bluecoats could be in the mix as well as everyone down to SCV... We'll see... neat-o

---> I seriously hope Cavies don't win. People keep sayin that Cavies are having a down year, which simply isn't true. This is just the first year in a long time that rather than doing a total effect show, they've relied more heavily on the music end. That's all well and good, but let's face it - the Cavies' brassline has never played well! Even in the past several years where they've won brass, couldn't you think of at least two brassline that should have been over them? (Judging integrity, anyone?) The Cavies are a perennial visual and general effect powerhouse, and should ride that out as long as they can. No one ever goes to a show saying, "man, I can't wait to hear that Cavies brassline!"

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Here's a disappointing thought about cadets. An acquaintance of mine is a brass caption head for a top 6 corps. He was explaining to me that the Cadets never turn off the microphones that their members speak into, then place those members throughout the forms so a good portion of the brassline gets picked up through the sound system. There's nothing technically wrong with that, but until the revelation, I was scratching my head and wondering how the loudest brassline of the evening could have that much edge and brightness in their sound. Answer...they weren't really the loudest....err...fullest brassline.

Ummm, I don't think so. I would think something like that would be very obvious. Don't you think we would also hear the member's breathing? When they were playing their horn, we would be able to hear them take their breath to play the next phrase, and when they weren't playing, we would hear heavy breathing as they moved through the drill. Nah, I don't think so.

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Go watch Crown and Cadets warm up in the lot and tell me which one is fuller and louder.

And wouldn't you think that with the supposed mics on the members that they would run the risk of picking up individual soudns through the speakers? If anyone asks me about Crown, of course they're hornline sounds awesome. However, they are falling behind because of clarity, not the fullness of sound. That seems pretty obvious.

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Absolutely, they were one of the few corps of the night to make me smile.

Thanks for the review!

same here. I have no connetion to Carolina at all.

This was absolutely the only corps that caused a spontaneous standing 'o' in my section (214) all night long. The hornline is amazing! The Guard rocked. I am now a Crown fan.

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