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Hi, folks. I was lucky enough to have attended the show last night and thoroughly enjoyed it--here's some of my thoughts and observations.

Music City—BIG SOUND for a small corps. This was the first time I’d seen this group, and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought they were pretty well balanced in most areas except for the contras, and their programming was at just the right level for the ability of the corps. The guard was outstanding, and I counted 4 costume changes.

Cascades—their show theme of “The Forest” was creative and staged fairly well. Again, a strong guard and they cleverly used branches at one point for visual effect, and have a good rifle line. Their drill was dirty in a few spots, but overall an enjoyable show. “Not While I’m Around” seemed to get the biggest crowd response.

Pacific Crest—this was the first time I’d seen this corps as well. Good balance among sections, especially the drum line. I thought their guard was good as well, although I wasn’t crazy about their uniforms. I was a little confused with their theme—with a show title like “El Corazon de la Gente” I was expecting to hear more Spanish-styled music (which would have accounted in part for the guard costuming), but after I found out that they were performing music by a Hispanic composer it made sense. I look forward to seeing them again next year.

Academy—another interesting theme, this one of “ascent”. A strong color guard helped to sell the show, though I wasn’t too crazy about the rope they used to divide the field at the beginning and at the end. The hornline featured several good soloists. I loved the effect they created with the white bands that physically connected groups of guard members (a la mountain climbers) in the fast section—very difficult to choreograph but they pulled it off well. Here’s hoping this group continues to move up.

Blue Stars—for me, the surprise of the evening. When I first saw the 36 tables (half with sewing machines attached) being drug out onto the field, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Blue Stars made up for the loss of 1/3 of the field with a good drill (although it still needs cleaning, particularly in the opening sets), great horn impacts, and a kick-a** colorguard and drum line. One striking feature about this show was the heavy use of equipment work in the ballad section rather than falling back on mere interpretive dance--Blue Star’s equipment work was a nice change of pace.

Blue Knights—their winter-themed show has lots of potential but still needs a lot of cleaning. The hornline was decent but seemed a little tired tonight. The drum feature definitely a high point of the show. I’d have to say that BK’s Achilles heel is their guard—it appeared as though some of the work of was over the heads of the performers, and there were spots that definitely needed additional choreography. Hopefully they can get some work done before Indianapolis.

Santa Clara—SVC’s “Ballet for Martha” was the musical highlight of the evening. My musician friend David pointed out that the long phrasing used by the hornline throughout much of the book gives a degree of difficulty that’s very different from the stop-and-blast impacts we saw from many of the other groups tonight. SVC is strong in all captions, and the drill design and the guard helped put the show over the top; although the show is at times more than just reminiscent of the 1987 Garfield Cadets version of “Appalachian Spring,” it’s still different enough for SCV to put their own signature on the score.

Thanks for letting me share, and good luck to all these corps as they make their way to finals.

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I think this show is just further proof that you can never accurately compare scores show-to-show. There's just too many variables.

I think about the best you can hope for is looking at spreads, and even that is an inexact science.

What gets me is that whenever there is a significant drop in a corps' score, the judges are automatically wrong, but whenever there is a significant increase, the judges are automatically right. How about we accept the scores the judges give and move on?

True to both comments. Also, I know that we look for consistency in scoring from one night to the next, but we need to be careful with that expectation. It's reasonable to expect that a judge who had previously judged a corps in a given caption will know what s/he scored and move that score up or down relative to the last score assigned. But if we actually expect that of different judges, then what we are really expecting is a form of collusion: in other words, judges getting together to ensure a certain score. It may not be the same as the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics figure skating fiasco, but the end result is that it's still collusion. I think what we really want is for judges to judge independently. If a score is deemed to inaccurately reflect what happened, then that's what peer review is for. But we can't always assume that it's an inaccurate reflection of the corps' performance.

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Santa Clara—SVC’s “Ballet for Martha” was the musical highlight of the evening. My musician friend David pointed out that the long phrasing used by the hornline throughout much of the book gives a degree of difficulty that’s very different from the stop-and-blast impacts we saw from many of the other groups tonight. SVC is strong in all captions, and the drill design and the guard helped put the show over the top; although the show is at times more than just reminiscent of the 1987 Garfield Cadets version of “Appalachian Spring,” it’s still different enough for SCV to put their own signature on the score.

Thanks for this wonderful review! Hubby and I are heading to Buffalo this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Santa Clara. FWIW, everyone remembers Garfield's take on "Appalachian Spring" back in '87, but Santa Clara played it in '83, also with a quiet ending. So really, they've had their own signature on this piece for many years now. This year is simply a strong affirmation of that!

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I disagree. Granted, I wasn't there at the show, so it's completely hypothetical, but corps have off nights for all sorts of reasons. It happens. Did it happen last night? Only the people who were there know. But to completely dismiss it as impossible is, IMO, not realistic.

I agree it is not impossible, but what is? It is not "impossible" that I will be the democratic nominee for president in 2012. Is it super duper highly improbable? Of course it is. When a corps sees a significant drop in score after a series of score increases, and it is due to a poor performance, you typically see a number of small decreases in several captions. When a significant score drop happens primarily as a result of ONE caption taking a HUGE hit, that constitutes a DUMP. It is not the same as saying different judges see the shows differently, UNLESS it is clear that all of the corps seemed to score less in that particular caption. This is true for my corps, your corps and everyone's corps. I agree that the tendency is to think negatively about the judges when scores drop, but for you to imply that dumping NEVER happens is naive. Also, the arguments about always thinking the judges are wrong when the score drops goes both ways. If your corps jumps the competition due a seemingly odd major increase in one caption, it's just as hard to tell yourself it is an anomaly that is not likely to last.

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I agree that the tendency is to think negatively about the judges when scores drop, but for you to imply that dumping NEVER happens is naive. Also, the arguments about always thinking the judges are wrong when the score drops goes both ways. If your corps jumps the competition due a seemingly odd major increase in one caption, it's just as hard to tell yourself it is an anomaly that is not likely to last.

I never say never. But, by the same token, I also think it is way too easy to blame scoring on politics, or whatever excuse of the week you want to use. Trust me, I heard plenty of claims along those lines in the corps I marched with, and I never really trusted them then, either. Can't be proved, so what's the point? Move on to the next show.

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I am late to this discussion and do not have the time to read 13 pages but will give my take on the 4 corps that I saw... It was also my girlfriends first drum corps show and she really had a good time..

Pacific Crest... I thought they had some good moments but as said above we could not figure out the guard uniforms. I didn't think the show flowed very well and was quite chunky but there were some moments that were really good. Looks like they have a group of people to work with going forward as they seemed young.

Blue Stars...I was very impressed with their brass sound and their overall show concept. Think they still have cleaning to do in all areas and are in no danger of peaking prior to next week. From a brass standpoint they had some WOW moments and then later had a few moments where they seemed fatigued and you could hear some individuals here and there. They have come a long way in each of the last two seasons. Can still tell they are a young group.

SCV... After all of the hype I had heard and my love for '87 Cadets I was highly anticipating their show. Well I was disappointed. I do think they drum and play well but I felt like it was the '87 Cadets with a less meat in the book. I didn't feel any moments that made me want to jump out of my seat as a major impact. I also didn't feel there were any of the kind that are so technically cool that they made me want to jump out of my seat. I did feel like they were on their way to being the old Vanguard again which I was glad. Very clean at this point and I will say again they can drum!! Maybe I caught them on a night where they were lacking energy as some of the youtube parking lot stuff I had seen was much more powerful from a hornline perspective.

Blue Knights... liked the show and they had some moments that had great effect!! We didn't get to see it all as when it started raining we moved down into the cover which was not a very good vantage point. Even from there I did like the flow of their show.

JMO

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Thanks for this wonderful review! Hubby and I are heading to Buffalo this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Santa Clara. FWIW, everyone remembers Garfield's take on "Appalachian Spring" back in '87, but Santa Clara played it in '83, also with a quiet ending. So really, they've had their own signature on this piece for many years now. This year is simply a strong affirmation of that!

You're very welcome, and enjoy the Buffalo show!

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SCV... After all of the hype I had heard and my love for '87 Cadets I was highly anticipating their show. Well I was disappointed. I do think they drum and play well but I felt like it was the '87 Cadets with a less meat in the book. I didn't feel any moments that made me want to jump out of my seat as a major impact. I also didn't feel there were any of the kind that are so technically cool that they made me want to jump out of my seat. I did feel like they were on their way to being the old Vanguard again which I was glad. Very clean at this point and I will say again they can drum!! Maybe I caught them on a night where they were lacking energy as some of the youtube parking lot stuff I had seen was much more powerful from a hornline perspective.

Most everyone had that opinion after seeing it the first time. This is a show that you appreciate more and more with repeated viewings.

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Most everyone had that opinion after seeing it the first time. This is a show that you appreciate more and more with repeated viewings.

One thing this show has on Garfield '87 is subtlety. Take time to look for the not so obvious relationships within the show and a 'lack of meat in the book' becomes irrelevant.

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