Drum corps' theater solstice

[David Hill]

It was the greatest night of drum corps ever! Never in the history of ... First night of the season ... last year's top eight units. And in movie theaters for everyone to see. What could go wrong with this perfect marketing opportunity for Marching Music's Major League?

"Just imagine you are in hell. This is about several ways to get out." The usually genial, and upbeat Jeff Fiedler (Santa Clara Vanguard) went all sarcastic and snarky in positioning both his corps' performance and the entire Tournament of Champions endeavor.

Let's get this out of the way. It was Texas Toast dry-hot and winds were whipping about at such speeds (Where's a meteorologist when you need one?) that:

-- Many guards opted out of aerial tosses partially or altogether,

-- Flags often wrapped performers like shrouds. NOTE TO PRODUCERS: camera close-ups of any guard other than the Blue Devils cause raucous laughter in movie theatres,

-- The Cadets wore no headgear (Who knew that Shakos were potentially fatal?),

-- Amplified sounds warbled around in the swirling air,

-- The Blue Devils' PVC houses and (are they?)trees looked like they might take flight ... and ...

-- This was just the second night of the season dagnabbit so don't expect too much from the best of the best (Did they really mean that?)!

For months now, the cabal known for wanting to overthrow drum corps' government -- Khadafi is available, if you can find him -- has touted, teased, and taunted that its now-five-night tour will be the best thing since ... electronics, B-flat tuning, assymetrical drill, bolting the strict regimen of the VFW (take your pick). Just not yet, not this early, not for everyone's eyes, and certainly, not to get you excited about the possibility of it all, either.

Mr. Fiedler again: "I don't want to give away too many secrets ...." Secrets? That all eight corps will perform en masse: fans love to hear banks of brass! What's the secret here? Buzz kill is what it was. Honestly. Oh well, by the time I see boastful brigade in its August finale, word (and music) will have slipped out.

But to the Vanguard show and performance: I loved that Mr. Fiedler reminded viewers that Santa Clara has, over its history, introduced lots of new music to the idiom. This year is no exception; three of its four pieces in "The Devil's Staircase" have not been performed in this brass and percusssion medium.

More familiar Samuel Barber was enhanced by works of Avner Dorman and Gyorgy Ligeti effectively. The how-do-I-get-out-of-here "plot," in all its familiarity, was made interestingly new as dense, closed, and constricting early visuals expanded to more spacial, open configurations, making way for the show-ending dual escape.

How did the other seven corps capitalize on this perfect marketing opportunity?

Rewinding the tape: When did you last see the BLUE DEVILS perform first? (Could announcers, and Hall of Fame members both, Steve Rondinaro and Dennis DeLucia acted more stricken?)

It was swell, really. The daylight fit the mood of the sunny Burt Bachrach tuned show. And is this show chocked full of tunes. "A House Is Not A Home" was a warm, melodious welcome mat of an opening. It also punctuated the clever visual ending, which will undoubtedly have changes throughout the season.

The 60s playlist only lacked one thing: Dionne Warwick's voice. Intricate in both musical and visual design, the Devils always belie common perception. Percussion and brass wove in and out of songs, just as the performers and color guard careened around and constructed with the eye-popping white PVC props. This show will be an eight-week "build-to-championships" for sure.

Here's my single, solitary beef with the Cavaliers: You have used the same format for the last 45 seconds of your show for almost a decade! Please shuffle your iPod. From the sound of your standing-arc ending, along with the over-long discussion/rationalization of 250 pages of drill to be learned, it will be the same this year.

Not that it won't work. "XtraordinarY" is pretty darned cool! What other units attempt to do with props, the Green Machine does with its members. The Cirque de Soleil "touch" was a great surprise and delight, and the upside-down tenors -- well, they have already gone viral!

Is there nothing that visual designer Michael Gaines -- long overdue for his year's Hall of Fame induction -- can't bring to life? His artistry is such a perfect match for the fraternity of The Cavaliers, it is uncanny: subtlety and bombast burst forth in equal measure, and in harmony, with the show theme every year! With the strength and power of both brass and percussion, and what may the year's most unusual color guard -- stilts? Super! -- there's some heavy "medal" angling going on right up in here.

So you won't forget: The Bluecoats are presenting art. That, from soon-to-be legendary designer Michael Gray, who reminded us of the fact when asked if the corps is feeling additional pressure this season, after winning its first medal last year. Blank canvas. Endless possibilities.

Creepy, really. So the Radiohead song "Creep" was the by-default song-of-the-year in Winter Guard International this season, but amped up via brass and percussion, it makes for a terrific opening to "Brave New World." ("What the hell am I doing?" voiceover notwithstanding.)

Mr. Gray and the rest of the creative team at Bluecoats have developed a crisp template from which the corps presents its into-the-future shows that incorporate sampled electronic sound into the precision of classic drum corps. It is a fresh take, and a highly competitive approach.

Of all the very likeable moments in Carolina Crown's "Rach Star," my favorite, oddly for the non-percussion guy I am, is "Paint it Black." I think that's partially because the show needs some more black. Literally. Black leather, black flags, rock concert black. Black lights! That's it ... by season's end, bring in some black lights!

So nice to see Crown ratchet back the nuance, dig into the music, and stage a concert that everyone is gonna dig. The corps is kinda king of the music-morph, and the head-bobbing delight of Queen-to-Rachmaninoff is kinda the bomb!

Add in that Box 5 color guard (even in the wind), and here's a show that needs neither greener pastures nor a second chance to RACH/ROCK the drum corps world.

Straight from George Hopkins: the Cadets are as ready this season as they were in 1983! And that, for both long-time and new viewers, was a very very good year for the corps. Just like 1983, "Between Angels and Demons" showcases what the corps does best, when it is at its best: aggressive marching and playing at dizzying speeds, only to be interrupted by a gorgeous ballad. This one packs some more emotional wallop!

But Mr. Hopkins is focused on beats-per-minute as general effect. Are BPM on the judging sheets? Or is his notion that speed should equal numbers an effect of his own making? Granted, I grab my chest for air when The Cadets whiplash through a drill set. My heart races at the same BPM as does the corps, I think. This year is no exception, and grabbing that mantle out of the gate is some more accomplishment, particularly when it comes with the terrific color delineation of the drill writing. Just wow!

This year, though, I'll take the ballad home with me (as I did two years ago with "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love" from the anniversary show). Just may become the best two minutes in drum corps this season.

Phantom Regiment's "Juliet" is an unexpected, but lush, recitation of the Shakespearean tale, as musically "told" and visually "dramatized" from the view of Miss Capulet (the very beautiful women of the color guard.) Nice to see an all-female guard again.

It is also more than a bit revival in its feel; what with charts from the ages -- "Elsa's Procession" be still our drum corps hearts, marching drill as opposed to choreographic visuals, even a splendid nod to a 70's version of the guard -- down the 50 -- in the famous "Rockford File."

Here's the revival I felt: pulsing drive, desire, and despair from the echoing horns and thunderous percussion. Now that is the kind of stamp any Regiment show can use.

In the final spot, the Blue Stars continue to defy definition and convention, with the riveting, action-adventure "Rebourne." Trying to capture the mood, the textures, and the feel of the Jason Bourne movie trilogy, the Stars appropriated music from that movie franchise, and from "The Matrix" movies, to mount an elevated, 11-minute chase.

This kind of bold programming demands a bold presence; Blue's brass is stellar in cranking up the volume, and drama. Its color guard, always an asset to the corps' storytelling, provides the sweep and "characters" needed to flesh out the plot.

From the scaffolding to the velocity, this 3D tale will expand over time, leaving audiences, by season's end, likely clamoring for a sequel.

To a clamor of sequels: do this again! It was a perfect marketing opportunity, and if the crowd in the theater I was in is any barometer of interest -- my eyes said there were as many fans as there are for the mid-August Quarterfinals -- then this curtain raiser is worth the effort.

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MY 35-YEAR AFFAIR WITH DCI (from 2007)

[Schickmeister]

Excellent review! Thanks!