Your Theater Experience

[skywhopper]

The event was pretty well attended in Peoria. 50-80 people, I'd say. A mix of middle age folks with kids in tow and high school-age kids, presumably mostly from Metamora where the Blue Stars run a show every year. Definitely a Blue Stars home crowd, with a few Cavies homers. My daughter is obsessed with Crown, but I felt like she was the only one other than me who was a fan at all of Crown. The crowd kind of grudgingly clapped for Crown's performance, whereas they responded well to most of the rest save for SCV.

Personally I enjoyed every show. I was most impressed by The Cadets, who I've been depressed about since 2005. They put on a classic Cadets show that is already my favorite since at least 2000. I was most disappointed in the Blue Stars, who overdid the synths, despite having a killer horn line. I was most underwhelmed by Blue Devils, who I was really hoping to love this year with the Bacharach, but although I can't argue with the lushness of the arrangements, they don't really capture the song-ness of the songs. I had major hopes for Say a Little Prayer, but I can't say I love where that ended up. I was most pleasantly surprised by SCV who I was expecting to be terrible based on the reviews, but who I really enjoyed, musically and visually. Go Vanguard!

Also, I just want to say, I love Crown's show concept this year and don't find it cheesy at all. Still, if Cadets can keep themselves from adding some movie sound samples in the middle of their show and just clean and polish what's there, they are almost certainly going to be my favorite this year, hands down.