Murfreesboro Night 2

[RBarron10]

Murfreesboro Night 2

Here are my thoughts on Murfreesboro I’ve broken it down into two nights. Enjoy or flame away.

Music City Legend –You gotta love senior corps. Man they had a few wailers – Send in the Clowns brought back some old memories. Great job guys

Music City – This was their 3rd ever field performance in front of a crowd. You can see the confidence building with the corps members this show was better than Thur night’s performance. They are going to do very well for a first year corps.

Cascades – Let’s go back a few years to 2002. First time ever this corps made the Top 12 at finals. Back then they had a full sized corps and a great show. This year I cannot sit here now and tell you what they played, the program was that forgettable. Corps is much smaller than it was in 2002.

Pioneer – Well they’re still playing Celtic music. Guard girls all had smiles on their faces and I bet every one of those kids in that corps knows everyone’s name. I don’t believe Pioneer will finish last this year. I do believe the constant Celtic themed shows have ran there course. Troopers are playing something other than western type music and look at what they’ve discovered. Come on Roman – enough is enough already.

Mandarins – Orange uniforms? Again I know the kids are working their tales off but another forgettable show.

The Academy – strength here is the brass book. Drill needs some work, but for a smaller World Class corps they are putting out solid performance. They WILL make Semi-finals.

Crossmen – They are dressed in all black with some white on the shoulders and a White Iron Cross on the upper right corner of the uniforms. OH and they have these BLACK capes. Ok the capes were a cool effect in the beginning. After about the 3 minute mark the capes had already worn thin. If the Crossmen could loose the capes after the opener I would have like this show a lot more. Crossmen played Media, I kept hearing Star’s version in my head and I was just thinking how hard that piece of music is to play. Crossmen had a very dark theme to their show, but I believe that was what they were wanting. Another Semi-finals corps.

Boston Crusaders – Man that new red and white really does pop on the field. I could hear the fans around me because they noticed the marked improvement in performance from the Crossmen to Boston. Good show, drill has some cleaning work to be done, but they could overtake Phantom if they keep working at it.

Glassmen – Lots of solo performance in this show. I did think that a few of the soloist were tired, because they did not play their solos very well. It was what I call a typical Glassmen show. Not bad, not great, but a solid Top 12 performance.

Holy Name Cadets. A lot of people in the stand were either new to drum corps, but didn’t know who this was. They were going to leave and go to the concession stand. I asked them to stay because I said this was going to be good. AND Cadet’s didn’t disappoint. West Side Story. MY favorite show of the night! The show as clean and I thought very well played. The drill at the end of the show was CRAZY. Talk about a wow moment. It looked like a kaleidoscope making all those different patters at the end. If Carolina Crown would add an ending like this to their show – OH MY. At the end of HNC show the people that were going to the concessions thanked me because they loved it! OH and very little narration – I liked it this way.

Bluecoats – My friends that went to the concessions came back and asked why everyone was booing. I had to explain  . Bluecoats have a nice show this year. They do win the uniform change award this year. It was cool how the uniform change came with the drums first, then some of the horn line and then the rest and finally the drum major. I liked this show it was very visual especially with the cool blue sky type colors of the secondary uniform. I do wish they would have played more of “Image” and let it build from a p to an fff.

Blue Devils – Clean clean clean. You can’t find much flaw with this show. Great horn line, guard is great as always, and the drum line can actually play this year. I did notice a few holes in the show, one tuba and one snare was out. I hope BD doesn’t come down with this bug that is going around this late in the year. The chairs were unique and they were used quite effectively. I did witness the rare rifle drop by a BD guard’s man. BD won tonight’s competition and looks like they are on their way to winning another ring if they don’t peak too soon.

Phantom Regiment – Ok, the fans in my section were new, they thought there was actually a Phantom in this show. Drums were the high light of this show. Lots of white on the field and the one girl in the red really did pop out! I’ve never seen a spinning half red violin to last night but it was done very nicely. Drill doesn’t flow like it should and the guard looks small and a little sloppy. I thought the brass line played very well. The show is currently in 8th place it might be overcome by Boston, but a lot of work has to be done with the drill and guard in order to stay in the Top 8.

Well folks that is it my two night of drum corps in Murfreesboro. My predictions for Finals based on what I see.

18 - Mandarins

17 - Crossmen

16 - Madison

15 - The Academy

14 - Spirit

13 - Colts

12 - Troopers

11 - Glassmen

10 - Blue Knights

9 - Boston

8 - PR

7 - Blue Stars

6 - Bluecoats

5 - Crown

4 - Cavaliers

3 - SCV

2 - Cadets

1 - BD

[friceox]

great read!

[TrumpetVinny]

I also had to explain the bloo. I had a great two nights in Boro though. I try not to be too critical though since I'm just there to have fun and I know 99% of the people on that field would destroy me in an audition so I don't like telling people to do what I can't although I think it was the Crossmen where I noticed a guy out of step.

[OdeToArsenal47]

It looked like a kaleidoscope making all those different patters at the end.

I said the exact same thing last night. That closer was just AWESOME.

[bandbuck]

Thanks for the review!!!!

[SSimpson]

Hey Wayne, Glad you enjoyed our (MCL) show if you live in the area the MCL home show is next Saturday (Aug 1) at Antioch High School. a whole slew of in your face Sr. corps. and a heck of a lot more affordable then the DCI shows. Thanks for listening!