Southwest Corps Connection

[wesleyrp]

Some quick thoughts while it's still fairly fresh:

Revolution: Great to see you guys making an effort to get out on the road and tour! Now where were the West Coast open class corps? Had some interesting choices in repertoire. Using Turbine as a percussion break, then eventually full corps musical ensemble was cool. I like the large silver flags in the guard. High brass was pretty confident and putting out some nice sounds overall. Keep up the effort!

Troopers: First look at the new uniforms in person, and it's not working for me. Having the yellow piping and two tone colors on the jacket offset from the pants makes the members look imbalanced from the stands. Perhaps it would work with a belt? On to the show, the solo development of the Wanted theme into the first corps hit was solid. Decent power from the hornline at this point. The guard looked small to me, and it seems they have a few holes or members sitting out? Quite a bit of upper body control issues on jazz running technique. The Troopers had a pretty confident performance, but the drill just doesn't excite me a whole lot.

INT: Grabbed a bottle of water, as it was very warm out.

Blue Knights: They are utilizing a straight leg technique this year, which makes them a much cleaner visual ensemble. I liked the guard costumes and the orange rifles really popped out. The beginning development of Farandole was very tasteful. Drill is being performed well at this point in the season. The climax of Nimrod was beautiful, very well balanced and lush sound. This was one of the first BK shows that I have enjoyed in a long time. My one concern is that the drill may not have enough demand to compete with the next tier of corps. Very enjoyable performance tonight!

The Academy: The design of this show from top to bottom is the most thought out and integrated show The Academy has put out to date. As a music ensemble they are pretty tight. The percussion section is very strong this year. The brass is putting out a full and powerful sound. Still some issues with individuals being overzealous on louder dynamics, but it'll correct itself. The drill has many high impact GE moments. I was impressed with the visuals and bodywork already in place. I know that the show was just finished on Friday, so stamina and performance quality are still issues at the end of the closer, but those will be worked out with time. The guard didn't have costumes yet, or show flags but hopefully soon. I see a lot of potential for this show to build and grow into something very cool.

The results weren't surprising to me at all. It'll be great to see this lineup mixed in with BD and SCV in SoCal.

Thanks for the great review.... Glad to hear you enjoyed the eveing and BK. I also thought from the video I saw that the drill is not super crazy hard ala '09, but it seems as though they are starting with a very solid drill product to gain consistency and technique control and would not be a bit surprised to see changes come as they acheive it well. Boston had this formula a year ago, they played amazing, the theme was cool but the drill was meh... Didn't matter though as they cooked by the end, and made some nice additions as they got farther down the road. I think BK sees that is going for that approach!! I have no inside knowledge, just an observation. I love the show and can't wait to see it live!!!

Wes P