A Div. III Member's Perspective of Div II/III Comps

[crashhelmi36]

There seems to be a significant lack of Division II/III Prelims/Semifinals reviews (and considering the attendance there, I'm not completely surprised <**>), so I think I'll chime in on what I thought. Obviously, since I was performing, I missed a bunch of Division III corps, but I did see all of Division II corps and a few of the Division IIIs. This will be a combined review of the two Pasadena shows so far (obviously I'm not at finals right now), as well as the two Arizona shows (Tuscon and Lake Havasu).

DISCLAIMER - These are solely MY opinions, NOT my corps, or even the opinions of my friends in my corps. In fact, a lot of the time I was sitting by myself (instead of roaming the stadium or going to Burger King or whatnot), so opinions were formed exclusively with me. If I'm getting an opinion from a friend, I'll say its from a friend, but for the most part, if I say I hate your corps, take it up with me, not my director. ^0^

OK, here goes:

DIVISION III

REVOLUTION - "Tres Maestros"

Seen - Lake Havasu (8/3)

I'm kind of cheating on this one; I only saw this in Arizona, and I saw it like right after I entered the stadium (so basically, a crappy vantage point). From what I saw, though, I really liked. Solid brassline.

FEVER - "Ride"

Seen - Semifinals (8/10)

Very good show. Loved the closer especially. A friend said he heard a tear in the opener, but I didn't think it was that bad. Great work from a smaller guard, and awesome energy from the hornline. I came in with high expectations (all of those FEVER IS ON FIRE! posts), and they were quite sated.

MEMPHIS SOUND - "Harmonic Voices"

Seen - Semifinals (8/10)

WOW. They were very late to the gate, which may have cost them a few points (didn't look for it in the recap), but considering that I heard that because of the tardiness, they didn't have a warmup, they were incredible. Opening solfege voice from the brassline was chilling (though maybe a bit out of harmony), and the brassline was very clean, very balanced. Drill was also top-notch. Felt to me like a mini-Cadets (minus lame narration), which is meant only as the highest complement.

DIVISION II

RAIDERS - "West Side Story"

Seen - Tuscon (8/2), Lake Havasu (8/3), Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

Eh. Maybe I'm spoiled by my love for '84 Cadets, but this show just did not do it for me. The music book felt really disconnected, like they were trying to throw in every song from WSS in there. Drill and visual package was also basic, at best, though I will say it was somewhat clean. Coarse sound from the hornline. Percussion seemed good to my eyes at least, but I am not a drumline guy at all.

VANGUARD CADETS - "Ascension"

Seen - Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

What can I say? They were basically a mini-Vanguard, though they were noticeably lacking the big corps' huge volume, but then again, who isn't? They had a great concept, and they were pretty clean, though I did notice some dirt in the feet at times. Also, it may have helped them to move some out of the huge trumpet section (like 15 or so) into the tiny mellophone line (4), but I can understand where they are coming from. Solid show. Cymbal line was incredible.

BLUE DEVILS B - "Trilogy"

Seen - Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

Might have been because I don't know the source music (or musicians, really), but I just couldn't get into this show. They were loud, they were clean, but they were kind of boring. The BDC kids cheering in the stands for them at prelims were cute, though.

TEAL SOUND - "Voices of the Sun"

Seen - Tuscon (8/2), Lake Havasu (8/3), Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

As I said on the Teal Sound thread, I really loved this show. The music was really great, and the visual was outstanding. They seemed really tired at semifinals, though, hard rehearsal? That was the only show where I didn't really enjoy them. Probably my favorite DII/III show of the year, though Surf would be a close second.

JERSEY SURF - "An American Journey"

Seen - Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

Another WOW here. Killer hornline, awesome guard. I decided to move from my rather good seats off to side 1 to sitting two rows behind the 50 for Surf's show last night (after the Spartan moms left and a family decided to set up a large parasol right in front of me), and well, that may have been a mistake. My ears are still ringing the morning after. I loved EVERY minute of it, though. They did have some trainwrecks last night, however, the barn backdrop kept moving so the guard girl assigned to it had to stay there adjusting it instead of marching her show. Somewhat distracting.

SPARTANS - "Tarot"

Seen - Prelims (8/7), Semifinals (8/10)

Pretty much the other end of the spectrum from Surf. I don't mean good-bad, far from it, but more like where Surf was a really enjoyable show that drew you in, you kind of had to sit back and look at Spartans from afar. Also, its like where Surf had a tendency of being a little dirty at times, visually, Spartans were squeaky clean. Not a huge fan of Poulan's music here, but it worked for what it was. Guard was incredible.

Ok, that's all. I really enjoyed the week. Next year, if you're going to finals, GO WATCH DIVISION II/III!!!!!! You won't be disappointed.

Edited August 11, 2007 by crashhelmi36

[ruag8tr2]

Thanks for the review. We need more drum corps members like yourself. Keep up the good work.

D

[84BDsop]

To clarify on Memphis sound...they avoided a penalty (according to a member I spoke with after div I semis)...they cleared the field with 5 seconds left on the clock...that's why the pit started leaving almost as soon as the last note hit!

I'll write a (late) review after i recover from the weekend.

[flashofthunder]

22 seconds to spare, actually. Cutting it close.

[Mersinger3]

thanks for the compliment . yeah semis was eh, but still . the whole summer esp finals week is just a blur to me now.