My $.02 on the state of drum corps after Murfreesboro

[atlvalet]

So, I flew out from Cali to see this show with an old drum corps friend/drummer.

First off, this was a great show top to bottom. A very solid group of 8 corps. We were 12 rows from the front, just to the right of the 50. So, whatever top-level drill stuff was going on, I haven't a clue. A few thoughts...

Specific Corps:

1) LOVED Boston. I was like OMG, a real drum corps show (take that with a grain of salt..just my opinion). Strong brass, enjoyable show. Seemed to lose some steam around the middle, but picked up nicely at the end. I would have applauded even more if they were last on the field...it would have given me more context. They kinda caught me off guard going on first (after the Open class corps).

2) BD is clearly the most superior drum corps out there...technically. I thought the mirrors were kind of cool. But if you want to connect with the audience, those music choices ain't going to do it. And I am someone who has loved BD shows in the past. 1990. 1994. There are others too. But, it looked like the kids were expecting a bigger crowd reaction after playing, and they seemed to have a "That's it?" look about them when they received a polite golf clap from the audience. Also, with regards to percussion staging, whoever is writing the drill has no idea (or doesn't care..or doesn't know) when the drumline is playing some good stuff. If I hadn't seen the videos online, I would have never known where the cool parts of their book was. They are playing all these notes at the shows open, and if you didn't know what and where to look for it, you would totally miss it.

3) Why do the Cavaliers seem to have a monopoly on arresting rifle/flag tosses? It adds such a cool effect to shows, and no one else seems to do it. Regarding Cavies show, a lot of people talk about show concept/themes nowadays. I work in a concept heavy business (advertising). Now, that being said, what the heck was the concept for their show? Was it anger? Was it a Full Metal Jacket homage? It seemed hackneyed conceptually. Especially with the "Mad World" pop song being thrown in there....Maybe it was madness, but just because a song has the word "mad" in it, doesn't mean it's going to flow together. I give this show concept a "WTF?" Especially with the masks at the end in the guard. What the heck was that anyway?

4) Cadets. When did the Cadets get cheesy? I am a Cadet homer, and it just hurts to watch them nowadays. It's like, someone took your favorite corps and did horrible, unspeakable things to them. Jeffery is like the Jar-Jar Binks of drum corps. It's not really that funny, and distracts from the Toy Soldier aspect of the show. "Oh, I get it, he BECOMES a soldier at the end of the show. How wonderful. Barf." Also, the staging of the drumline was weird for what they played. Cadets played this awesomely tough flam pattern thingy, but they were walking up the left-side of the field. Again, I wouldn't have known what was going on if I didn't seem them play it in the lot.

5) Santa Clara. Really liked the show. At the same time, WHY that show? In advertising, you are warned (as a student) not to do Nike ads. Why, because you can't beat a Nike ad, and if you do a Nike ad, your Nike ad will be compared to real Nike ads and immediately not look as good. Star '93 is a Nike ad, and this show (as good as it was) made me want to hear Star '93 CD and not SCV '10. I don't think most corps should do similar shows to all-time greats like Star '93. It will draw immediate comparisons, and usually not favorable. And like I said, I liked this show a lot.

6) Crown. Really liked they used brass colored instruments to match their uniforms. It was interesting. THat being said, I still prefer silver instruments (tuned to G ;) ). Crown has a really nice sound. Nothing too memorable about this show, but it left me with a positive vibe.

7) Phantom. Really liked the opening and closing statements. Brilliant. Everything else in the middle, I kinda don't remember.

8) Bluecoats. Really good. Proficient. Terrible idea to mic the solos. I know some people like it, but the sound production from the mics is sub-par at best and terrible at worst...especially when combined with the speakers.

Overall:

1a) Please stop mic'ing brass solos. OMG. You're ruining the sound of the instruments. Unless you like reproducing the sound in a worse way. If that's your goal, you've done a masterful job.

1b) DCI corps use CRAPPY, CRAPPY, HORRIBLE speakers. Audiophiles spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to REPLICATE LIVE SOUND. Here we have DCI corps, taking a LIVE instrument, and broadcasting through horrible, junky speakers. The sound from those speakers is thin at best. It ruins the sound of the performance in my opinion. Some corps seemed to try an compensate for this with more speaker. Too bad, they were more mediocre speakers.

2) Some of the "new" stuff is interesting. I liked the pit walking like toy soldiers in Cadets show. It worked well. I am not against "new" stuff, as long as it works. Unfortunately, it seems many corps seem unable, or unwilling to change what doesn't work or isn't effective.

3) Most, if not all, the sound effects to me, sounded artificial...especially when matched with an accoustical performance. There were some talking parts, but they were recorded...which, going back to my original point, doesn't sound good through crap speakers. I was wondering why the corps didn't have members just do it vocally..then Cavaliers did it and I was like "OMG, thank you!"

4) I think that most of the things done electronically could be done accoustically...better. But hey, that's just me. I am glad Santa Clara did Miss Saigon in 1991. Today, that show wouldn't be nearly as cool because corps would use the easy way out to produce those effects (gunfire, helicopter, marching soldier) and it wouldn't have been done as well.

5) DCI seems to have no idea what Box 5 actually is. I mean, the quality of the speakers corps use are anything but Box 5, yet it doesn't seem to be reflected in the scores. I don't think "bad" cheesy should qualify as Box 5, but the narration didn't seem to hurt Cadets when they were using it. The whole scoring system now seems to baffle me...but at least you have judges like J.J. P, who actually know what the heck is going on. I won't relay my horrible experience of a DCWest show in '93, where the judge didn't even know when the drumline was playing paradiddles.

6) Most drum solos have gotten derivative. Ok, so here's the drum solo. We're going to dance around in a pod and play long, uninteresting roll/diddle/single patterns. You could have swapped the drum breaks between BD and Cadets (and one or two others, who I forget). Yes, they were a little different...but they were essentially the same. And those long patterns are relatively uninteresting. Not like the licks from the "old days." Short, tasty and sweet those were.

And, that's it. It scares me that DCI, in some regards, seems to have embraced cheese. And not even good cheesy. It's bad cheesy. But hey, they can do what they want. But, it's not going to get me to go to more shows.

Overall an enjoyable experience. I just think DCI is going (generally) in the wrong direction. These sound effects are like when computers first hit the graphic design field. It just allowed people to do bad art faster. It didn't improve the product. And I don't think these recorded sounds are improving the product. It's just a new toy. Boston did the best job of preserving what drum corps is in my opinion.

Edited August 3, 2010 by atlvalet

[SFZFAN]

"Oh, I get it, he BECOMES a soldier at the end of the show. How wonderful. Barf." AWESOME!!!

[garfield]

"It just allowed people to do bad art faster." Classic line.

In drum corps it seems it just requires corps to play "keep up with the Jones"

[TAFL]

Welcome to the Loyal Order of Drum Corps Dinosaurs!

Your membership patch and Sekrit Dekoder Ring are in the mail.

The "bad art faster" line is spot on!

[Tyler C.]

1) LOVED Boston. I was like OMG, a real drum corps show (take that with a grain of salt..just my opinion). Strong brass, enjoyable show. Seamed to lose some steam around the middle, but picked up nicely at the end. I would have applauded even more if they were last on the field...it would have given me more context.

Boston did the best job of preserving what drum corps is in my opinion.

I strongly suggest that you make another flight out to any show that the Madison Scouts are attending. They have the most genuine "old school" drum corps show out there this year.

[GMichael1230]

Great point of view on things.......

Thanks

G

[Jeff Ream]

on #6, you forgot every drum break must end with unison slams played from above the head.

[PepsiTwist]

1a) Please stop mic'ing brass solos. OMG. You're ruining the sound of the instruments. Unless you like reproducing the sound in a worse way. If that's your goal, you've done a masterful job.

1b) DCI corps use CRAPPY, CRAPPY, HORRIBLE speakers. Audiophiles spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to REPLICATE LIVE SOUND. Here we have DCI corps, taking a LIVE instrument, and broadcasting through horrible, junky speakers. The sound from those speakers is thin at best. It ruins the sound of the performance in my opinion. Some corps seemed to try an compensate for this with more speaker. Too bad, they were more mediocre speakers.

I couldn't agree with you more on both of these statements. Understanding that this is all non-profit and many corps may not have the money to get the latest and greatest equipment, I say "why bother?" if it's not going to help. I don't know what they spend on their equipment, but cavies should be able to do without the mic's on the trumpet trio. if they could play any louder than 'mf' then they wouldn't need to use mics in the first place. in the 80's, you could hear the scouts' screamers just fine when they were sitting in the middle of the field and unmic'd. those guys at cavies are on the front sideline and using mics? hmm... what happened to drum corps.

[Jeff Ream]

Jar Jar Binks of drum corps. classic

[atlvalet]

I strongly suggest that you make another flight out to any show that the Madison Scouts are attending. They have the most genuine "old school" drum corps show out there this year.

I have heard many positive things about Madison. Unfortunately, they weren't at Murfreesboro.