Portland, Oregon

[rainhead]

What a beautiful day, typical portland summer, 80's no humidity. Sorry Phantom about 2005, sucky weather.

I read in an Idaho review their concern about DCI and Indy. I completely feel your pain. Such a wonderful treat to have a great variety of corps in Oregon, we will never see the likes of it again. The Oregon/Washington fans loved seeing all the corps from across the country and the stands were packed! My guess is around 3,000 people?

MANDARINS:

Very tasty, as should be expected. The group was polished and healthy, but as been said by other reviewers, not very memorable. I too was concerned as to the use of the poles. I mean, it worked as an element to run around, but it should have had a conclusive gimmick behind why they brought them out at all. They need to wrap this show up with a bow and part of that would be figuring out a finale with the inclusion of a cool idea with the poles.

CASCADES:

Hometown crowd loved them, brilliant guard! Hate the black shoes though, tan would be much better. The music is nice, not memorable at all, upper voices have some rough moments. The music seems more exposed to error than the pay off for doing it well. Perc seemed like an after thought and wasn't very inclusive. Why is the Perc standing in a silly line in the back during the ballad, the corps isn't good enough to not have them contribute visually somehow. Drill was the worst part of the production, made them look small and weak. Marching is VERY decent. Overall, they seem much healthier and I'm very excited for them, GO GUARD!

CROSSMEN:

<EDITED for a Crossmen Fan> Marc wrote the drill, it must be brilliant! <END EDIT>

GLASSMEN:

They have a real presence about their theme. The guard interpretation and visual structure is very healthy. I also did enjoy that I heard hints of melody during the show. The Glassmen-wedge-icon-drill moments were lost on the NW crowd (as we don't ever see the Gmen in these parts) but I certainly enjoyed it! Great job, clean and professional.

BLUE KNIGHTS:

FABOO! Loved it loved it...... This is true Blue Knights. Very strong program. Great music with kickin' brass, so many lovely moments musically and blended into the structure of the program with ease, Great pacing, sophisicated, elegant, I was enthralled. One of the best guards from them to date. The brass movement is spectacular! The trumpets with the barrel turn into the ground, FABOO! You are smokin' hott.

VANGUARD:

I about peed myself as the guard was sinking on the poles during the first impact, Brilliant idea! I completely dug the show. I was hoping for more from the cymbals, I mean, the audience is set up with so much tension with the whole cymbal entrance, don't we deserve some relief with the cymbal "V"? Give it up! I'm always amazed that the SCV themes get a bit vague, but they consistently have such excellence, charm and bright micro concepts that move so elegantly through the production. Another endearing show, great job!

CADETS:

Perfection is entertainment. They are so clean that you cannot deny them their glory. Great entertainment by the performers. The narration is not a problem for me. I'm only bothered later when it gets really loud, building tension, complicated, loud and then we CAN'T hear the words. The "I'm a band geek" section: I can totally see what they are going for, but it's not pulling on my heartstrings just yet. I wanted them to take me there, hmmmmm, what's missing? How about bringing us back to the "one-person-flag" from the beginning and a soloist who isn't part of the "community" and then we accept them during the finale. A real emotional reason for the celebration. Nice stuff, performed amazingly well, but the intellectual design is not finished.

I really enjoyed all the corps even though I am offering a critical critique. I will treasure seeing these great corps in my hometown forever. I never thought I see the day that Hopkins was walking across Portland, Oregon turf.

Alright P-town, feel free to contribute........

Edited August 3, 2007 by rainhead

[NeutralNovice]

Great review, thanks!

[PeeWee]

Yes, thanks for the review!

[CrossmenAlumni]

CROSSMEN:

eh, sure the cape effect is an "ahhhhh" moment, but other than that? eh. Does anyone else think that the first time they come out with the lavendar butterfly flags and sabres - that this was the end of the show? Or should be? Then the show goes on with a new butterfly flag with rifles blended in, not much different from where we just were design-wise. The perc break is visual blah, nobody on the design staff was inspired when they created this. Perc beats written too late? No communication between perc staff and vis staff? What's up? I wanted to like it all, but, eh.

I'm sorry you didn't care too much for the show, but the bolded comment is pretty unnecessary and, well, ignorant. If the show or that part of the show didn't reach you, fine. Such is life. But to question the motivation or work ethic of the design team because of it is just over the line to me. Hope you enjoy the rest of the season, and thanks for the review.

[emtbill]

Ever since moving to the Northwest, I can only get my drum corps fix about once or twice a year. I was spoiled living in WI with so many shows around and so many great corps to see. So this was the first of this season to see drum corps. My next time will be in the theater at Lloyd Center watching quarters.

I had gone to Century High School and watched Vanguard rehearse for a couple hours, so I had a little more time invested in getting to know their show.

Mandarins 77.150: Or as I should say "The Marauders" as the announcer said while introducing the drum majors before reading the scores.

I liked the setting sun shining off the orange of the uniforms. The bamboo poles were a nice added visual that don't overtake the field or take away the focus of the corps. Thanks for bringing back the taiko drums. It would be cool to see the entire pit on 10 of those. Or even some bigger sized taikos. My main complaint is that the taikos didn't project into the stands well. Good use of costume changes in the guard. The dragons at the end was a nice touch, but they could have done a little more with them. Instead of two people per dragon, why not 4-5. If you're going to go for it, go for it. I was a good "entire package" moment when they came out to all the drums, china cymbals. When I say "entire Package", I mean when the music fits the visual, and the visual fits the music. Nice pseudo yin/yang ending set.

Cascades 80.350 Good use of "Three" Threes all over in the music and drill. I didn't write any notes on Cascades, forgive me. I know that there was a pretty big home crowd for them. If my memory serves me right, they had the quickest .05 second costume change in the ballad when the members yanked a guard members over-costume off revealing a blue uniform. I think I got into their encore performance more than their show. Noticing their pit had all females on mallets, with two guys on rack and one on timpani. The drum major conducted encore right next to us. My girlfriend was worried she would get whopped in the head when she was conducting. If I remember more I'll post.

Crossmen 81.800 Best part was the beginning. Capes are cool, Bones was cool. If only there was someway to have the member that does Bones, undress out of Bones more discretely so I can't tell who it was... preserve the mystery. I too was frustrated with just little snippets of First Circle and Birdland and Russian Christmas Music. And that was the most interesting version of Symphonic Metamorphosis I've heard. The whole show just seemed a little disjointed. Cool beats, loud brass and good visuals don't necessarily entertain. But I was. I was just hoping for more.

Glassmen 84.750 Loved the guard. My friend was able to follow the story that was played along in the gypsy guard, but I didn't play close enough attention. Liked the use of tamborine rifles. I seemed to catch a lot of rifle/sabre drops though. Thank you to the pit and guard for doing stuff before the announcer. Got me into their show a little bit better. I should have paid more attention to the cymbal line, but thank you for having one.

Blue Knights: 89.450 Great build up and visual in the intro. Good used of body movement throughout the corps. I could feel the energy in this corps. I said it last year, but I like the dark theme. They had the first standing ovation of the night. The energy in the closer was tremendous, and we couldn't help but give it up. Well, at least I did. I saw some others who didn't stand. Oh well, to each his own. I like the fact that their style of marching is different. But while watching the drum majors march to their spot for the medals ceremony I watched their technique. I wonder how many corps members hyperextend their knees or at least tweak their knees while marching that way. That style requires good quad strength and control to avoid hyperextending the knee. The nurse in me worries about that.

Vanguard: 91.70 I'll say that I think that some of the things they worked on in rehearsal that day worked in the show that night, but I was too far away to pick out the details, in the music at least. Entertaining show. Not many fans knew when to shout. I was not sold on color guard uni's. I liked the guard sliding down the poles, then later extending flags out of the poles. Good overall package. Thank you for having a cymbal line. One of the cymbal players was not able to use his cymbals during rehearsal. I'm thinking of a rib, or muscle injury in that area since they had a binder wrapped around his lower chest. But he must have taken some pain pills and sucked it up, cuz he was in the performance. I felt that they could have given more volume at the last push to the end. It was a great show and I love the music, but give me more.

Cadets: 94.850 Great talent in this corps. I wanted to give it up for the sop soloist in Blue Shades, but the show didn't give me opportunity without being rude to fans around me. Thank you Cadets for being the only ones there that night to wear a bright uniform. Thanks for having the visual balls to do so. I don't think any corps should pick the color of the pants uniform based on the worry of how dirty the footwork of the corps might be. Maybe if you don't have footwork down, you don't have the basics down? They've cut a bit of the narration and I liked the part, "We'll do this part without narration" I wanted to give it up for the sops extended, extended double-tonguing sequence also, but the show wouldn't let me. And this corps was nice and loud! Like it should be. Very clean drill and clean company fronts. Someone should count how many they have. I wish I could see this corps live again up close. The people I was with didn't like the narration. I could have gone without it, but it does compliment the show and does help explain what its like in drum corps and practicing and what music can be to people.

I'm a big fan of the "entire package" as I've said above. I have a friend that works at Walt Disney World in Florida. We talk all the time whether an attraction has the right stuff to be excellent. The visual, audio, lighting, special effects all have to be well tuned and spot on in order for the audience to believe it, and like it, and even be amazed by it. And if you can provide an emotional connection, even better. Give me a show that I can throw a baby at. That's all I ask.

[Lancerlady]

My brother lives in the Bend area and I just love Oregon. It's so beautiful. I envy you getting to see drum corps in low humidity weather! :)

Thanks for the reviews.

[Zeke]

Mandarins 77.150: Or as I should say "The Marauders" as the announcer said while introducing the drum majors before reading the scores.

.

I do miss and wish they were still around..but nonetheless that is funny though

[LAMystreaux]

Crossmen have some of the most creative people in drum corps on their staff. Thanks for your review, but I think saying Marc Sylvester was not inspired when creating the visual for Crossmen is pretty much absurd.

[Guizeppe]

Nice reviews. Thank you.

[rainhead]

Crossmen have some of the most creative people in drum corps on their staff. Thanks for your review, but I think saying Marc Sylvester was not inspired when creating the visual for Crossmen is pretty much absurd.

Yuppers, not inspired, and have you seen Marc's Seattle drill? Not inspired either.

Please people, just because he is Joe Blow, doesn't mean everything he does is brilliant.

Marc, if you're reading this, you still owe me a hamburger!

Edited August 3, 2007 by rainhead