Ed Boxer Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Just got home from Allentown so a few quick comments (my first show of the season): Overall - I hate Synths. Individual comments below. Cascades - the first with the hideous overloud synth and pit - you could not hear there brass most of the show. I love Sondheim's "Not while I'm around" but the arrangement is pure exposure. Pioneer - why have a synth playing a bass line instead of having the contras playing. Again - over loud pit and synth Mandarians - Pit was so loud you could barely hear the soloists and brass. Pacific Crest - drill is too easy and still not clean. Lose the white sheets - they add nothing. Academy - It was loud and dirty. A much ado about nothing show. Troopers - from the hype I expected to like this more. Some interesting concepts. One hand one heart - my favorite moment of the evening. Glassmen - missed them - due to the delay they eliminated intermission - but didn't annouce that fact. Bluecoast - some serious brass sound coming from them again this year. Show doesn't do much for me. Cavaliers - sorry but this is a colorguard show with Belwin Band Bulider accompaniment. Cavies make some nice brass sounds - when they are standing still. Most of the show is gimmick after gimmick, with sound effects. HNC - Drill was dirty in places - but the best brass sound so far. Could have done without the sythed dialogue. Multiple Standing Os. BD - they played, they sat, it was almost all clean, but did nothing for me. Got golf applause. Some overall comments - 1. Whatever happened to playing a melody and developing it to a climax? These shows were almost all snippets strung together for effect. 2. Why use a synth to double or replace a brass part? 3. And once again, Allentown struck with the double-wide couple sitting next to me taking up 4 seats. If your ### doesn't fit in one seat - buy two tickets!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Some overall comments - 1. Whatever happened to playing a melody and developing it to a climax? These shows were almost all snippets strung together for effect. Go back tomorrow and watch Vanguard. You won't be disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaglebac Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Wow, did you like anything about the show tonight?? I don't mean to offend after you took the time to write a review, but a bunch of negative comments about each corps is just ridiculous to read. If you dislike every performance as much as you indicate, maybe you should stop going to the shows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaglebac Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Wow, did you like anything about the show tonight?? I don't mean to offend after you took the time to write a review, but a bunch of negative comments about each corps is just ridiculous to read. If you dislike every performance as much as you indicate, maybe you should stop going to the shows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbandguy Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Some overall comments - 1. Whatever happened to playing a melody and developing it to a climax? These shows were almost all snippets strung together for effect. I now have to wonder if you actually watched the Bluecoats show? You seem so disturbed by the use of electronics that you missed a lot of the great things that were happening tonight with all of the corps. (And that is certainly your right) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tja273 Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Go back tomorrow and watch Vanguard. You won't be disappointed. Based on the comments made for EVERY other corps, I am gonna bet he WILL be disappointed...about SOMETHING...just sayin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Boxer Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 Wow, rereading this after few hours sleep, this came off really bad. I fully appreciate all the hard work that all the corps are putting into their shows, as always. Further explanations added. Just got home from Allentown so a few quick comments (my first show of the season):Overall - I hated the way synths were used in most of the shows. In almost every case, the synths didn't really add anything to the shows. In many cases, it seemed like they were using the synths to water down the brass book. Cascades - the first with the hideous overloud synth and pit - you could not hear their brass most of the show. I love Sondheim's "Not while I'm around" but the arrangement is pure exposure. - the arrangement of "Not while I'm around" is full of very exposed brass lines that need a few more weeks of work. It was very hard to get into their show when they were being drowned out by the pit and synth. Pioneer - why have a synth playing a bass line instead of having the contras playing. Again - over loud pit and synth - this seems to be a step up for Pioneer in design, they were somewhat cleaner and had a better brass sound than in previous years. Nice use of soloist field spacing Mandarians - Pit was so loud you could barely hear the soloists and brass. - Sorry, but again, hard to get into a show you can't hear. I felt really bad for the soloists who could barely be heard at all. I actually wonder if the pit being so loud was causing some of the phasing problems. Pacific Crest - drill is too easy and still not clean. Lose the white sheets - they add nothing. - They were selling it hard. I can appreciate the use of the white sheets as part of the "Mass" scene, but they need to do something more with them. When they first put them on, it looked like they were about to do a "Casper the Friendly Ghost" scene. Academy - It was loud and dirty. A much ado about nothing show. - very big brass sound but the show seems to be effect over substance. They are trying very hard, maybe too hard. Troopers - from the hype I expected to like this more. Some interesting concepts. One hand one heart - my favorite moment of the evening. - Great to see Troopers this size again with a substantial guard and playing very well. Nice show concept with some really nice brass arrangements. Somehow, the double sunburst was lost on me. Glassmen - missed them - due to the delay they eliminated intermission - but didn't annouce that fact. Bluecoats - some serious brass sound coming from them again this year. Show doesn't do much for me. - Great jazz brass sound coming from them with some killer sops and great contras. But I never got the connection of "Imagination" from the lead character. Cavaliers - sorry but this is a colorguard show with Belwin Band Bulider accompaniment. Cavies make some nice brass sounds - when they are standing still. Most of the show is gimmick after gimmick, with sound effects. - Some really cool effects/gimmicks from the guard and guard/corps interactions. The brass sounds better then they have in a few years because they actually get to play some. But they don't really play and march/drill much at the same time. When I first saw the guird uniforms, I thought to myself, how cool Cavies could pull off a comic take on "the Lonely goat herder". The few comic synth touches were the first to actually add something to the show. HNC - Drill was dirty in places - but the best brass sound so far. Could have done without the sythed dialogue. Multiple Standing Os. - They are playing and marching the hell out of this show. There is still some cleaning that needs to be done. Loved the guard costume change towards the end when they put on the stylized 80s guard skirts. The whistling syth opening was good, but somewhat too loud. For me, the synth dialogue was really unnecessary. This show/movie/music is so familiar i think most of us already have those lines memorized. But would love to see the corps split over the 50 and have the guard come through doing the cool group dance where they all hunch and jump as one (you know the movie). BD - they played, they sat, it was almost all clean, but did nothing for me. Got golf applause. - It seems like they designed the show around the chair gimmick rather than adding the chairs as a necessary part of the show. Something I don't understand, if visual scores are partly based on demand, how can you get such high scores when you are on a chair for a good part of the show?? Synth piano was too loud and took away from the overall effect. Some overall comments - 1. Whatever happened to playing a melody and developing it to a climax? These shows were almost all snippets strung together for effect. 2. Why use a synth to double or replace a brass part? For me, that seems to be counter productive on many levels: it lowers the demand (and should lower the score) and it says to the kids - you can't cut it so we'll drown you out. Prime example was the very basic simple bass line in Pioneer that was played but the synth rather than the contras. 3. And once again, Allentown struck with the double-wide couple sitting next to me taking up 4 seats. If your ### doesn't fit in one seat - buy two tickets!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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