Toledo Review

[LAMystreaux]

1) The drill may in fact the the most technically challenging ever for all I know, but it did not, as evidenced by the crowd, have the WOW affect like last year. I remember being in the stands during one of the 1st Cavies shows last year and heard people

The problem might be that this isn't last year. They don't want it to be. Their show doesn't have built in applause breaks. It's a cerebral show. Like Jackson Pollock said, "You don't look at a bed of flowers and tear your hair out over the meaning of it all. That's how my art is." In a similar vein, you shouldn't have to look at a drum corps show and stack it up to other examples and try to fit it all into a category. Cavaliers aren't doing anything like those other experiences, so if you judge them into a context they're going to fall up short. Because this show has little in common with the other shows we have seen in the past. Where as Phantom has plenty in common with what we are used to, doesn't make Phantom wrong, or right. Just different. It's fine with me if people don't like what Cavies are doing, and I'm sure it's fine with them. Because this is the type of show I only dreamed of marching and never did. We came close, but not anywhere near this. I know that if they weren't trying these new things I wouldn't even be going to drum corps competitions because there's not much else there I can get into, because my musical background has nothing to do with what other corps are doing, except SCV sometimes. But when I just put my s--- aside, I can enjoy what most of them are doing. Especially from a performance standpoint. I just wish people would put their s--- aside and enjoy Cavies. Hopefully I don't sound mean or ###### or anything. I'm horrible at communicating anything on paper or pixels. Neil Cavie 97-01

off topic really quick, I think some people don't understand or like Cavies the same way people don't like Radiohead. One person says Kid A is the finest piece of music since The Birth of Cool. Another says it is trash, not entertaining, and can't understand why anyone would ever listen to it.

I have a few big problems here. . .

First off, I don't agree with you saying they are trying to do something different, and that this year's show is not supposed to be like anything they have done before. I have not even seen this year's show yet, but I have heard some sound clips from camps. About 10 seconds into listening to the clip I knew exactly who I was listening to (the person who shared it would not tell me who it was). The music sounded very formulaic as compared to last years. You can't tell me that a corps with basically the same staff from top to bottom, especially in the design area, which scored amazingly high, is not gonna stick with the same kind of stuff. I don't buy that at all.

My other big beef is the whining that some of you do. Quit trying to convince everyone that we need to love everything the Cavies do. If someone says they don't like it, then let it be. Believe it or not, we are entitled to not enjoy the Cavies. . .even if it is the most amazing thing ever put on the field.

[debgibble]

Mr. Bodine,

I for one couldn't agree with your comments more than if I had made them myself. I for one do not care for the direction the Cavies are trying to take DCI. When I go to any entertainment venue whether it be a movie, a musical, or a drum corps show, I go for entertainment value and entertainment value to me is not thinking to myself at the end of the performance, what did I just see?? I can say that the Cavies are the masters of execution and for that I most certainly give credit and I also applaud them for their success. I however will stop going to DCI shows if every corps on the field goes in the same direction as the Cavies. To say that the Cavies are going in a completely different direction with the same staff after winning three championships seems a little unrealistic, to say the least. I expect the Cavies to be incredibly clean once again this year, there would be no reason for them not to be. I perfer the direction the Cadets and Blue Devils have taken, entertaining. I suppose entertainment value is in the eye of the beholder, this beholder will take Cadets and Blue Devils anyday.

Deb