Hostrauser's wholly unpopular QF review

[hostrauser]

First off, the camera work and video quality was atrocious. DCI showed a complete inability to filter out excess light from the setting sun. The first few corps suffered from tremendous glare off the backfield stands, and members that were in the pressbox shadow on the front sideline were completely invisible. Come on DCI, you're supposed to be a professional operation, hire a film crew (or get better cameras) that can handle the sun. But that wasn't all: the video feed was poor, too. There was ghosting throughout on the high angle shots, and most of the close-up/field-level shots were fuzzy and not completely in focus.

Thankfully, the audio was fine.

My theater (AMC La Jolla Village Square, San Diego, CA) had 12 people. Yep, 12. It was wonderful. Didn't have to deal with 150 non-stop chatterbox high school marchers like I did last year at the Edwards Mira Mesa cinema. Audience roll call: four FMMs, eight "just fans"; four fans of Phantom, two of SCV, two of the Blue Devils, three of the Cavaliers and one of Spirit.

Here's my review/comments. I've already got my asbestos suit on.

Spirit - Pretty bland and uninteresting show for me, except for the "Batman Begins" selections that transferred to the field better than I expected. The drumline is a joy.

Colts - Pretty good, but... Nice to see a corps that still respects the power of a melody.

Madison Scouts - First "sit up and take notice" show of the night for me. Madison is performing with an attitude I haven't seen since 1999 (even their 6th place "Carmen" show didn't have the same fire). Definitely deserving of a Finals spot, first big thumbs-up of the night.

Crossmen - When I first heard Aaron Guidry's musical book back in May, I thought this corps was destined for great things. Seeing their show in the theater, there's almost nothing of that original book left. The Crossmen's show was surprisingly dull, and I don't expect them to leap back in front of Madison again this season.

Glassmen - The Visual program is carrying this show. Musical arrangements (especially the subdued and lifeless arrangement of "The Breakfast Machine") were a huge disappointment to me.

Blue Stars - Fabulous show. Brilliant concept, brilliant design, fabulous execution. Loved the bicycle at the end of the show. They should finish 8th on Saturday night.

Boston Crusaders - Everyone's in love with "Kingfishers Catch Fire," both in drum corps and in the concert hall, and I can't see why. I don't think it's one of Mackey's better pieces. The "Burly Brawl" was terrific.

Blue Knights - I'm normally a fan of BK's dark, brooding shows, but this one didn't do it for me at all. I couldn't find any emotional arc to the show at all: it was soft, soft, LOUD, soft, LOUD, etc. but both the soft and loud passages provoked the same feelings. I love their body movement, but in the past it seemed like the body movement was done in between the musical selections. This year it felt like their musical selections were done in between their body movement sections.

Bluecoats - Much like last year, I feel this show concept is a little too "gimmicky" and really didn't leave the corps much room to move above the 6th/7th spots. It's okay, not great. Nice drumline, and loved the full corps pounding away on "The Boxer" on the front sideline. Speaking of boxers, I wouldn't be afraid to get in the ring with EITHER of those two guys, even if they are younger and in better shape. Couldn't they have spent a day or two with an actually boxing coach to help shape their technique a bit better? It would've helped sell the show more if the two boxers weren't just laughable pantomimes of real boxers.

Santa Clara Vanguard - Loved it. Relentless show that surprised me with its intensity. I really have no idea why SCV isn't far, far ahead of the Bluecoats. Yep, it's got some dirt (a whole lot of it) and isn't a threat for a Top 3 spot, but it's a well-designed, well-performed show.

The Cadets - Surprisingly, the narration didn't bother me as much as I expected it to. But it doesn't work at all with this show (what does the show lose if the narration is removed?), and I was puzzled as to why the actors on the stage weren't doing the actual narration. Seriously, why do we need two mimes on the field? Musical performance was pretty good, but visually I thought they were lacking (at least by their standards).

Phantom Regiment - Best show of the year. Possibly the best Phantom show of all time. There were no babies in the theater, so when the show was over I just grabbed whatever was near me and threw it at the screen. The old lady I threw is a little bruised, but mostly okay, and she agreed that it was a reasonable reaction to Phantom's performance. Easily the favorite of everyone in the theater. I think Phantom's visual scores should be a touch higher. They aren't as clean as the corps above them, but they're trying more than I've seen from Phantom in a long while. I know I'm an unabashed Phantom homer, but there's something wrong with the judging system if a show like this can't win.

Carolina Crown - Good show, great hornline, though I'm not as blown away with this show as many others. The first few minutes of the show don't quite work for me. The finales are crafted towards a specific, pinnacle finsh. In the first movement they just kind of morphed into one another, leaving the music before it feeling somewhat incomplete. This wasn't a problem in the closer.

Humor me for a minute...

1989 Star of Indiana = first Top 6 appearance, coming-of-age as a major DCI power.

1990 Star of Indiana = first time as a legitimate championship contender.

1991 Star of Indiana = Championship.

2007 Carolina Crown = first Top 6 appearance, coming-of-age as a major DCI power.

2008 Carolina Crown = first time as a legitimate championship contender.

2009 Carolina Crown = ?

The Cavaliers - Standard Cavaliers formula: great drumline, great visual, tepid brass. No way they should be ahead of Phantom. Call me a hater all you want, I won't try to deny it, but I think Richard Saucedo is the most over-rated arranger in DCI. I was listening to the 2002 Cavaliers recently and time has not been favorable to that show. The first big sixteenth note run that I can recall hearing happened EIGHT MINUTES into the show. Sure, the Cavaliers execute amazingly, but Saucedo's books are not that impressive. And again in 2008, I can't recall a single difficult brass passage performed when the corps is moving at decent speed. Musically (specifically, brass) I think the Cavaliers have the easiest show of the Top 6. Visually, their shows are wonderful and, hey, the formula works for them. But I can't say I agree with it.

Twenty-four years ago, DCI moved away from the tick system. The rationale was that the tick system was only about ERROR, not achievement or accomplishment, and the corps that were trying a lot were getting beat down by other corps with easier, but cleaner shows. Today, is the system really all that different? The judges still seem to look for cleanliness above all else, and reward it at a proportionally higher rate than difficulty or programming ambition.

Blue Devils - I think BD is the only legitimate contender other than Phantom. This won't ever be my favorite BD show, but the design works well and is performed at a high level. Still, 29.90 visually is laughable (particularly the perfect 20.0 in visual ensemble from high-on-crack judge Tim Ochran); this corps has the potential to be that good, but they certainly weren't last night (I saw plenty of fuzzy forms).

**********************

One final note: just off the top of your head, in the past 20 years (1988-2007) what percentage of DCI Champions do you think won High Music (Music Ensemble + Brass + Percussion)? 90%? 80%? 75%?

Try 56.5%. Yes. Barely HALF of the DCI Champions of the past 20 years have won high music. A great visual program can make up for musical deficiencies, but a great musical program hardly ever seems to make up for visual deficiencies. Does that seem right to you? Because it sure doesn't seem right to me.

Won DCI Title without winning High Music:

2006 Cavaliers

2004 Cavaliers

2001 Cavaliers

2000 Cavaliers

1999 Blue Devils

1998 Cadets

1996 Phantom Regiment

1994 Blue Devils

1993 Cadets

1988 Madison Scouts

**********************

My Quarterfinals scores:

98.0 Phantom Regiment

97.5 Blue Devils

97.0 Carolina Crown

96.5 Cavaliers

94.5 The Cadets

94.0 Santa Clara Vanguard

92.0 Bluecoats

90.0 Blue Stars

88.5 Boston Crusaders

88.0 Blue Knights

87.5 Glassmen

87.0 Madison Scouts

86.0 Colts

85.7 Crossmen

84.0 Spirit

(edited to fix BBCode foul-ups)

Edited August 8, 2008 by hostrauser

[Ryan H. Turner]

My idol. I bow.

[hostrauser]

I'm not worthy and you know it.

Quick Addendum: There have only been a handful of shows in DCI history to provoke such an emotional response from me that I was nearly in tears upon the first viewing: 1989 Phantom, 1993 Star, 1999 Vanguard... and 2008 Phantom.

Edited August 8, 2008 by hostrauser

[ChrisVT2003]

Best review of the year, thank you for knowing the truth and not being afraid of putting it out there. I was laughing uncontrollably about the grandmother and PR, great stuff!

Edited August 8, 2008 by ChrisVT2003

[bluecoats88]

I'm not worthy and you know it.

Quick Addendum: There have only been a handful of shows in DCI history to provoke such an emotional response from me that I was nearly in tears upon the first viewing: 1989 Phantom, 1993 Star, 1999 Vanguard... and 2008 Phantom.

you must not have seen 1984 suncoast Sound live then

[Ryan H. Turner]

you must not have seen 1984 suncoast Sound live then

He was only 7 then. Cut him some slack Phil.

(i kid, I kid...)

[#1PhantomPhan]

Thank you for the honesty, and for putting it all out there. Totally agree on everything! I think people were ready to tear those interviewed judges at the end a new one. Each time they said they had BD on top, I think more old ladies went flying at the screen! It was def. a Phantom crowd. Myself included, of course!

And how about that three way tie in GE? Really?

[LAMystreaux]

As much as we disagree on other things, I agreed with just about all of your review.

[Medeabrass]

One final note: just off the top of your head, in the past 20 years (1988-2007) what percentage of DCI Champions do you think won High Music (Music Ensemble + Brass + Percussion)? 90%? 80%? 75%?

Try 56.5%. Yes. Barely HALF of the DCI Champions of the past 20 years have won high music. A great visual program can make up for musical deficiencies, but a great musical program hardly ever seems to make up for visual deficiencies. Does that seem right to you? Because it sure doesn't seem right to me.

Won DCI Title without winning High Music:

2006 Cavaliers

2004 Cavaliers

2001 Cavaliers

2000 Cavaliers

1999 Blue Devils

1998 Cadets

1996 Phantom Regiment

1994 Blue Devils

1993 Cadets

1988 Madison Scouts

(edited to fix BBCode foul-ups)

Unfortunately, this is even more true today now that colorguard is counted as it's own caption and is atleast partially responsible for all 3 visual subcaptions. Compare this to brass and percussion who are each only responsible or partially responsible for 2/3 of the music subcaptions. Let's face it folks, colorguard is the most important caption in drum corps for better or worse music is not that important to this activity.

Cadets '90 and Cavies '92 didn't win high brass...were their drum scores significantly high enough to give them the "brass + percussion title?"

edit for clarity

Edited August 8, 2008 by Medeabrass

[cjw5168]

Phantom Regiment - Best show of the year. Possibly the best Phantom show of all time. There were no babies in the theater, so when the show was over I just grabbed whatever was near me and threw it at the screen. The old lady I threw is a little bruised, but mostly okay, and she agreed that it was a reasonable reaction to Phantom's performance.

That is just plain awesome. I'm sure I would have done the same if I could have made it to a theater yesterday =/