Late Saginaw REVIEW

[Cardman]

Okay, so here are my brief thoughts from the Saginaw show:

SCV:

Wow, I was really disappointed with this show. I had read all of the bad stuff on here about their "doom" this year, and thought that I would love the show because I loved their show last year. Nope. It was a total mess, and I (like many others, apparently) cannot figure out for the life of me why the judges scored them above the Blue Stars. I thought their drill shows some potential if they clean it up, and percussion is good, but the music is just awful, in my opinion.

Blue Stars:

I really liked this show a LOT! I read all the stuff on here about how they had WAY too much synth and was really worried. I actually liked all of the synth in their show, even the "bassoon" sounds. I was a little skeptical when they started the "techno-ish beat" in a later piece, but I thought they made it work and it actually stuck in my head and I was humming this part later! Their drill is great, their percussion kicks butt like last year, and they have an engaging "presence". I will say that the scaffolding was pretty distracting and I really didn't see the point of it, but overall, I really, really liked this show.

BlueCoats:

I really enjoyed this show a lot. The "Where the hell am I?" section was just stupid and unnecessary. It should have said, "Why the hell are we playing stupid synthesized sound effects in this show?" Anyway, that aside, I really enjoyed this show. I loved the opening with "Creep" by Radiohead. Very cool. Also liked body movements in the form during this opening section. Too bad you can't see much of the drill for the ballad on the fan network due to the positioning of the camera...I do think their drill (that I DID see) needs a lot of work. It is too simplistic, and there are a couple of points in the show where they park and bark for too long. As for this show being the "same" as last year's show? There are some obvious similarities/repeats of moves, and some of them work (side to side step used in the end of the opener/show last year during the big chord) and some don't (whole corps floating the large formation quickly as used last year in the closer.) One thing is for sure: This corps is nice and solid and should be a joy to see come finals.

Phantom Regiment:

Well, what can I say? I loved Phantom's show last year, but this year, so far, it just doesn't really do it for me. I do really enjoy much of it, especially the second piece. The sections where the hornline is doing the call and answer back and forth is really great, in my opinion. It just feels like their drill has gone down quite a bit in intricacy since last year. Of course, with the beast of a drill they had last year, that is to be expected. Plus, that frenetic of a drill probably would not fit very well with most of the show. The piece right after the ballad does not seem to fit with the "feel" of the rest of the show. It is "fun" and I like it, but it doesn't seem to fit. Plus, the ending of this piece is almost exactly like the ending to their 2008 ballad (not that that's necessarily a bad thing.) Overall, I really enjoyed this show and hope they do very well. That ending will most certainly change, and hopefully they will have a more competitive product. It just seems like they have been out-done in the drill department this year by far too many.

The Cadets:

Okay. Again, I had read all the WOWZ! TEH CADETS ARE TOTALLY GONNA PWN THIS YEAR! posts on here, so I expected to have my socks knocked off. I have to say that most of the hype is justified for this show. A really great show for the cream/burgundy team. Some things of note: They are almost the opposite of Phantom in regards to drill. Lots and lots of fast movement with cool effects and such. The opening statement does a lot to build the excitement, and I wasn't at all bothered by the "singing" in the beginning, to my huge surprise. They obviously have a lot of demand in their program and are executing pretty well for this time of year (especially for the Cadets.) The drum battle is cool, and they pull a Phantom 96 with the metal poles, a very nice effect although I think it goes on for just a little bit too long. After this section, when the corps goes into the block, and right after the "angels" point into the sky, it sounds like they are playing the opener from Bluecoats' show last year (nothing necessarily bad about that.) Also, listen in the pit when the guard is just about finished spinning these poles, and you will hear the same cymbal crash phrase they used in their 1998 show, "Stonehenge" at least, that's what I heard... The ballad confused me. For one, the "demons" are playing the doxology, or "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" or "Awake, my soul, and with the sun" if you want to be technical. The problem? The lyrics to this are as follows:

"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

So, I was wondering why "demons" would be playing this since they are against God. Then I heard a "wrong" note, exaggeratedly wrong, in fact. Was this supposed to be the "demons" trying to mock God? At any rate, I didn't get it. If the "angels" and "demons" were supposed to be switching roles for this section, the "angels" would have played something "evil", like Iron Maiden or at least Justin Beiber Instead, they play "Amazing grace" of which I did not really care for due to the arrangement. It wasn't bad, I just didn't really care for it that much. From this point, things seem to lose steam for a bit, and it all seems a little jumbled. The ending is way cool though, with the integrated wave drill and such. I thought the girl in the long white flowy robe was overly cheesy, and this is from high cam only. I mean, what kind of a roundhouse kick was that? If Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the devil, the devil would instantly be destroyed. Maybe that's what they need, is for Chuck Norris to come in at the end and fight the devil. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a fight, and would thus be anti-climatic. And no, I don't care if you are tired of Chuck Norris jokes. This show may win it all come finals. Who knows? (except Chuck Norris, of course.)

Blue Devils:

The phrase, "Man, they can really rotate a block!" takes on new meaning as the 3 bazillion time champions take the field. Okay, so they are rotating "cubes", but I couldn't resist the joke. I was excited to hear that Blue Devils were deciding to play actual melody this year. I was not excited to hear that it was Burt Bachrach. Too bad...Anywho, I don't hate this show, which is a big step up from my opinion of last year's show. Okay, I am going to try my best to love this show. I am going to watch it as many times I can on fan network to become familiar with the music. But for now, I have to say the following: They have too many stinking props on the field. When did this activity turn into BOA for the Devils? Where are the Blue Devils that played actual exciting tunes like "Johnny one note" and "Ya gotta try"? I will take what I can get in the music department for now, since this is a big step up from last year. The problem? Visually they look very cluttered and un-Blue Devil-ish. It's a far cry from the clean precision we are used to from them. The props don't help any. I was pretty bored throughout this show, and that makes me sad. I was really wanting to like this show, and I will keep trying throughout the season, as I mentioned earlier, but right now this is all just "meh" for me. The "house" they build at the end looked terrible. I think this was due to wind conditions and hopefully will not continue to be a problem. If Chuck Norris were in the Blue Devils, he could just carry an actual house onto the field at the end. Another show made better by Chuck Norris.

Cavaliers:

A lot of people on here were going nuts for this show also, and I think most of that was probably justified as well. I don't love this show, but it is very well done. I have to say that I HATE the electronic voice samples that are played throughout the show. They sound like garbage, and they do absolutely nothing to add to the program (other than adding garbage.) In fact, the synthesized voice recording, when it is played after the drum feature piece is very, very distracting and completely throws you (me) out of the "mood" of the show. And just what IS the theme of this show, anyway? What is the "story" or "concept"? I know it's "eXtraordinarY", but why? The stilt walker was weird, but not really cool. All he does is walk around. ZZZ... When I read about the upside-down tenor feature, I thought Cavies had bought those old racks from Les Etoiles and were gonna use those. I actually think the way the Cavaliers do it is cooler. A very awesome moment, indeed. In one part of the show (second piece, I believe), the corps plays and then there is silence and they "whoop" like monkeys, or something. I thought this was pretty funny and I liked it. I don't know what music they are playing, but in several parts of the show, it sounded like they were playing bits from past Cavies shows. That being said, I enjoy the music this year a lot more than I did last year. I thought that the screamers sounded terrible at this show, both in the opening statement, and the climax of the third piece (the one where they basically do the same thing they did with the 3 screamers last year, except no mics as far as I could see/hear.) But hey, it's VERY early and I'm sure they will have it together by August. Their ending piece sounds like Glassmen's opener from back in 1995 at points. They stand for WAY too long at the end of their show and just play. It's almost as if they hadn't learned the ending drill yet. I'm kidding. I know they hadn't. Anyway, Cavaliers have a real shot (again) to take the title. I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if they did, either.

Carolina Crown:

WOW! I absolutely loved this show, from the pre-show right down to the very end! This is by far my favorite show of the year. I truly came in expecting it to be awful, especially when I read all the posts on here about how "cheesy" the show was. I thought it was extremely enjoyable, both musically and visually. I'm not a big fan of the props on the field, but I guess it helps to portray the theme although that's a pretty weak excuse. There was one point in the opener where I could hear an "electric guitar" playing under the corps, and it just didn't seem to fit or sound right. Other than that, I can't think of any moments where I wasn't transfixed by the music and how cleverly arranged it was, intermixing classical and rock. I actually got a huge grin on my face when they came back with the bohemian rhapsody at the end of their ballad, rhapsody on a theme of paganinininininininini <---I wasn't sure how to spell it and was too lazy to look it up, so there's that. Anyway, it made me smile because I loved how they integrated the two. I also heard a bit of "Ironman" in there somewhere (not in the ballad), which was nice. And who's picture is that in the form at the beginning of "Paint it black"? Could it be...satan? ($1.00 to Dana Carvey) I thought paint it black was awesome, synthesized music and all. Although, the ensemble wasn't quite together at the big entrance after the piano "solo", it was still amazing, in my opinion. I liked the "guitar" formation here as well, though I thought they parked there for way too long (although they were playing some incredibly tough stuff.) The horn movements on their knees was great also, giving much GE. I do kind of wish they had decided to open with "Eruption" and close with "Bohemian Rhapsody", but I did appreciate the bits of "Kashmere" (spelling?) in "Eruption" (assuming that was intended.) Anyway, I will be shocked if they don't place in the top two this year, but I don't really care either way because I just love this show! Can't wait to watch it on bluray!

Final notes:

We seem to have Hell as a theme throughout the corps this year. You have SCV with "The devil's staircase", you have Cadets with "Angels and DEMONS", Bluecoats "Where the hell am I?", and you have Crown with flames on their drums and they make "satan" in their drill. I thought it would be funny if during SCV's show Crown's basses somehow got stuck in their drill. I can hear them now: "Dude...this is NOT righteous..."

Edited June 24, 2011 by Cardman