DCI West -- Stanford Review

[bgg80]

Simply wonderful to see many of the top corps here in California one week before finals! Here is my review -- I was sitting at the 45, about 15 rows up from the field. Not a good vantage point for drill. Great for sound!

This review will cover the final 5 -- and before any starts with me on disrespecting the other corps .. we couldn't get a babysitter to our house until 8 pm!

SCV

GREAT: GREAT brass sound. Deep and rich. A lot of nice impact moments in this show. A nicely marched drill. Loved the cymbol line.

NOT SO GREAT: Guard uniforms were almost distracting. Looked like a bunch of extras from one of those 60s dance scences in an Austin Powers movie. Their weapons were ON tonight -- very clean. Music was actually disjointed to me. Can't remember a thing the played.

FINALS PREDICTION: They seem to be surging -- good for 6th, maybe 5th

Blue Knights

GREAT: Nice dark music. Interesting drill, if not too demanding. Nice, intense percussion.

NOT SO GREAT: Horn player attempting ballet. Angry guard faces -- they were actually growling. Doesn't work.

FINALS PREDICTION: 9th or so...

Bluecoats

GREAT: BRASS line is off the hook good. Just a wonderful sound. Great theme -- fun watching the guard do their thing. They really take the criminal theme and take advantage of it. "You have the right to remain silent" section.

NOT SO GREAT: Visual/Drill isn't outstanding. Good, but not great. Marching technique not quite up there with the top corps. Ok .. I have to say this one -- the Drum Major looks completely disinterested while conducting. She looked like she could barely raise her hands above her waist -- very casual, and no energy. It was distracting at times.

PREDICTION: 4th

Cadets

GREAT: AMAZING horn line. Excellent drum line. Guard was clean (but I'm not sure about best of the night). Wonderfully talented kids. I do think they deserved to win tonight, as I think BD was a bit off.

SIMPLY HORRIBLE: Narration was worse than I thought. "Athletes of God". Last guy sounded EXACTLY like Napolean Dynamite. And what he was saying was beyond cheesy. The musical book seems rather choppy -- the only thing I really remember was the big impact moment where they rocked out -- I think SCV played a few years back? Narration -- I can't say this enough -- what a COMPLETE distraction and way to overshadow what is an amazingly talented corps. God .. the talking was AWFUL. Worse than BD Yowza 2005. Lots of eyerolling in my section. What a shame -- while people were looking at each other saying "did she say athlete of God?!?!" they should have been enjoying the great playing and marching. Oh -- and why do the Cadets bounce so much when they march. They all do it the same way -- so I suppose it is their particular technique.

PREDICTION: 2nd, maybe 1st, but starting next year, BAN narration, or accept 2 point penatly (5 points for HORRIBLE cheese factor)

BD

GREAT: Opening six minutes is simply the best, most bad ### drum corps I think I've ever seen (been following since 1982) Just commanding. Guard's black wings are cool (except for one part, see below). The drill move when they wrap around the guard member is awesome. The ballad was beautiful. Very rich. Closer -- starts blah, and then picks up steam. Yet another new ending from what I saw in Indy webcast. And it works -- gave me chills at the end (only of the night). Drum line was amazing. Pit was amazing. Drill was beautiful, and demanding. They spread things out, and are running all over the place. They attempt to play with elements ALL OVER the field. It usually works (see below). I didn't see anything harder from that standpoint. Marching technique is simply the best. The last 20% of the show has much greater impact than I saw earlier in the season. But it still, and will never, measure up to the first 6 minutes.

NOT SO GREAT: Guard was off. Tosses looked a bit dirty. In the opener, after the corps winds through the guard with black wings, they kick into Pegasus. Guard fans out, but it muddies the drills until they clear. Brass had an off night. Heard a few exposures/fracks. They had some minor phasing as well in the opener and near the end. I will say though, when they had phasing, they had the drum line running backwards towards the one 20, with the brass spread out from 20 to 20 running backwards in the other direction. It seems incredibly demanding, and they had a few issues tonight.

PREDICTION: 1st if they execute. The content, the GE, the drill, the music are all there to win it. Guard needs to clean up some more. Brass needs to clean up. Everything else is off the hook great.

Best of luck to everyone next week in Pasadena. May narration be banished forever. It was simply cheesey, and detracted from what was otherwise a great performance. "Athelete of God"..... "In high school I always felt like I was different" AAAAAAAH! Give me freaking Rocky Point Holiday

[wolf1]

Troopers battery impressed me............ And so did the remodel of Stanford Stadium, haven't been there since the World Cup was in the US, 1994.......

Last time I saw drum corps one week before finals was 83 and 84 in Cary, NC............. Garfield blew me away back then and would have done so tonight if it weren't for that redundant narration..........

Edited August 5, 2007 by wolf1

[DCIHasBeen]

Great review.

I'll also agree that Bluecoats are totally off-the-hook. The show is seriously sick, and they perform the crap out of it ... It's one show I am really looking forward to seeing three more times next week. I think they should be scoring higher and would not have had a problem if they had beaten the Devils tonight.

As far as Cadets go, they are by far the best thing on the field. The problem is that they are getting rewarded for annoying the #### out of everyone with the blasted narration. I don't care how good the corps and musical book are, they deserve to get less credit because the narration is obnoxious, instead they are winning in spite of a serious flaw in their program. The narration distracts and detracts from the corps performance and this needs to be reflected in the scoring.

I thoroughly agree with the t-shirt: This I believe ... SHUT UP AND PLAY!

Lots of good performances to talk about ... Troopers are much better than the numbers they are pulling. Santa Clara has some real rough spots in their show that are holding back an otherwise exceptional corps. BD needs to do something with the end of their show if they want to be in the hunt next week.

The alumni/BD/SCV ensemble:

The Stanford stadium is awesome and should be THE drum corps venue for major shows on the West Coast (if there ever are any more, seems like we need a yearly regional now that DCI is settling into Indiana for 10 years.)

SoCal, hide the women and the the breakables ... DCI Finals is coming your way!

Edited August 5, 2007 by DCIHasBeen

[NeutralNovice]

Great review, THANKS!

[ItsOnTheField]

Blue Knights

GREAT: Nice dark music. Interesting drill, if not too demanding. Nice, intense percussion.

NOT SO GREAT: Horn player attempting ballet. Angry guard faces -- they were actually growling. Doesn't work.

Good Review...just a question for you...

You say the ballet in the hornline is 'not so great'...is this because they did not execute well, or you do not like the fact that they are doing it?

Also, what about the guard faces and the growling does not work? The music is dark, as you mention, so would you say the guard is over doing the darkness or something else?

It's been a few weeks since I've seen BK live, curious if things have changed.

[bgg80]

Good Review...just a question for you...

You say the ballet in the hornline is 'not so great'...is this because they did not execute well, or you do not like the fact that they are doing it?

Also, what about the guard faces and the growling does not work? The music is dark, as you mention, so would you say the guard is over doing the darkness or something else?

It's been a few weeks since I've seen BK live, curious if things have changed.

re: Hornline -- it looked awkward .. so then I suppose the answer is both: didn't like execution, nor the fact they were doing it

re: Guard -- it just seemed overdone. I was rather close to the field though, so maybe it's a matter of overdoing it to project up high. Honestly it was campy up close.

[Laurakemb]

Thanks for the review!

[bayareafan]

You know when reading the forums I figured that people were just over reacting to the Cadets naration. Hop is always a controversial guy after all. But then after seeing them on Saturday night I totally agree. The naration is just awful. And it's a shame because truthfully without the naration I think they'd be almost assured of a championship this year. They really execute well - better than anyone else I saw last night. And their show is hard. They move a lot and their horn book is wicked. But for some reason they talk over the top of the horm section almost continually throughout the show. I couldn't understand most of the naration. I did get the "athletes of God" line. Give me break!!! I agree with the poster that they are winning in spite of a huge flaw in their show design. I hope that Hop (who in most respects I happen to think is a great corps director) gets this naration thing out of his system and that next year they go back to the basics of being a great drumcorps. The kids deserve it. They have phenominal talent.

On other topics, SCV was my favorite of the night. Love that corps. What class. Great show design and I find the music quite engaging though some others don't. Also loved the Bluecoats. BD had an off night (if you can call a night scoring 94.825 an off night).

Finally, they need to have more than one concession stand for a major event like this. DCI should know better.