kadune Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 So I started the show thread for Broken Arrow, and I left Stillwater today before noon to catch some of the Madison Scouts and Bluecoats' rehearsals. Turns out Madison does their run through at the beginning of ensemble, so I stayed longer than I thought I would and got nice and tan, and lightly burned... not that any of you care about that. Anyway, most of this will be brief and I'm doing it purely from memory. Music City I saw these guys last year, but don't remember much. Having marched Div 2 back in the day, I can appreciate Open Class corps... but holy cow, they really delivered tonight. Some rough patches in the brass (I'm a brass guy, this review will be brass centric). The show was something about dancing -- I got distracted by three of the guard members wearing tutus, which made sense given the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker piece. Awesome tidbit of the night: during the Nutcracker, the drum major conducts with his right hand in 3, and a waltz-one with his left hand. I barely caught it. Show also featured an Indian. I was laughing -- Oklahoma, stereotypical Native American music. I think my personal favorite was the corps member who did a bunch of Michael Jackson style dancing at the beginning of the closer. Very cool. Entertaining show. Crossmen It's been a couple of years since I got to watch the Crossmen (09? 07?). My friend from OSU marched there, and I saw him at the Madison rehearsal -- he said they were better than last year. I definitely thought they were better than the three corps that followed; they were definitely louder. Maybe that's why I was biased towards them. Also -- sick trumpet player. Feel like they wrote the show around him -- lots of solos and a lot of lead lines where I heard him playing stuff 8va. Very nice. Troopers I didn't have a program, so I didn't know what their title was. I did not understand why there was a giant tarp going down 55 yards of the field. It wasn't till my neighbor told me it was the Road Home. Made a bit more sense than the muddy river I thought it would have. Effectively -- I thought they could have incorporated it more into the show, other than in the finale when the hornline lined up and went to the endzone to finish the show -- I think Glassmen ended in the endzone, too. Not sure I'm a fan of that. Hornline definitely played smaller than the Crossmen; thought they were dirtier than Crossmen. Nothing really stuck out. Colts I had some friends teching here from my marching year. That being said, again, not much stuck out. I don't know if it was my trumpet playing biases, but I still thought Crossmen should have placed higher. Sorry Red Team, I wish I had more to say. Glassmen I enjoyed the show. Performance level was stepped up a bit from the Colts and Troopers. Intermission Fantastic outing. Got some much needed Powerade, went to the rest room, ran into my ex-girlfriend who I quickly retreated from thanks to my seat-neighbor wanting me to hold her food and take it to our seats. Madison had been in the waiting area since the beginning. Madison Scouts They stole the show. Broken Arrow is a highly Cavalier-prone crowd, but Madison got the longest and loudest ovation. Empire is a beast of burden. That being said, I watched them rehearse in Sand Springs, which was a bit hectic. I got there in time for sectionals. I got up to the high field and the Hornline was circled up. Then they moved to subs, as I found out there was a funeral going on at the church across the street. They got about 5 minutes of warm-ups in subs, then they went back to the field; the funeral wasn't until 2-2:30. They did some brief play on your own, then rehearsed some of the finger stuff in the opener and a phrase in Empire. It was sounding okay, but you could tell they didn't warm up. They went to subs to work on Empire. Apparently they had a pretty good show in Van Buren. The staff was talking about practicing at that level. They weren't. It was like they were hung over. immediately after their run through, the horn caption head made the horns rehearse something again before water. I left then to get lost in Tulsa construction on my way to go see the Bluecoats. At the show they were a lot better. Hornline was crisper, louder, etc. The soloists absolutely nailed it during the performance (some youtube videos have shown them to be inconsistent). The 9/11 moment made a lot more sense in uniform. They really sold it. Crowd was on their feet before the final chord. Santa Clara Vanguard The girl sitting next to me on my right marched Santa Clara Vanguard in '08. She wanted me to talk trash, but I'm not kind of guy... but I did reminder her who got 6th and 7th on finals night. She was shaking her head a lot with the hornline -- dirty visually, sloppy on visuals, and inconsistent playing. There were moments the hornline was projecting to the box. The rest of the time it seemed they were projecting to the fence at the bottom of the stands. I hadn't heard a lot of good things about the hornline coming in (my only corps experience this summer is the broadcast from a month ago). They had good moments. I think the hornline will make better progress to have a decent showing in Indianapolis. I'm a horn guy. I know zilch about drum lines. Holy cow their drumline is good. As my drummer friend texted back to me "uh, duh" Cadets I have enjoyed what I saw of them before night. I enjoyed tonight. I was watching George Hopkins communicate with Tony DiCarlo with the timing of the announcements. Very well performed. Love the split corps concept. Ballad is a nice touch. Cavaliers Crowd ate them up. Loved the upside down tenor players and trumpet players in the closer. No surprise there. I was being a nerd and recorded the opening trumpet duet on my phone. I needed a new alarm clock. My old one (until my phone fell into a toilet) was Bobby Shew playing a like that went up to double G and C... Cavaliers played well. They were probably the cleneast corps visually, which is why they won, I think (I haven't looked at recaps). Also very entertaining. Bluecoats Another corps that performed better than they rehearsed, mostly. I got to their rehearsal site at Union just in time for the start of the ensemble. They spent it working on the ballad, a bit of the closer and a bit of movement 2. The biggest difference: volume. I think they were the loudest corps of the night (vying with Cadets and Madison). During the rehearsal the trumpet duets in the ballad were not playing in tune with each other (in unison). They didn't during the show either. That bugged me (and D-Mac) both times. LOVE the contras in the closer. Ridiculous. One of my friends said apparently the contras have an Eb above their staff. I know jack about contras, but they were good. They were messing with a mic during ensemble to get the volume and distortion right... but it didn't come through at the show. Very fun show. Creep is awesome. The show has grown far more cohesive than what they shelled out in June. As they were getting off the field, I huried back to my car, because I had to get to Stillwater by midnight to get to work. With stopping at my room to wash up, I made it with 3 minutes to spare--without speeding down the turnpike. Great show, and I'm looking forward to seeing the top guys go at it again next week in OKC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris ncsu Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schickmeister Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 (And D-Mac) lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandbuck Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Thanks for the review!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasgroh Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 As they were getting off the field, I huried back to my car, because I had to get to Stillwater by midnight to get to work. With stopping at my room to wash up, I made it with 3 minutes to spare--without speeding down the turnpike. Great show, and I'm looking forward to seeing the top guys go at it again next week in OKC. ...so, does Eskimo Joe's stay open all nite? Heh... cg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kadune Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 ...so, does Eskimo Joe's stay open all nite? Heh... cg Bars close at 2 in Stillwater. And it was a Wednesday night, $5 dollar bottomless is Thursday night at Joe's... My job is far less exciting: sit at a desk and watch Hulu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasgroh Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Bars close at 2 in Stillwater. And it was a Wednesday night, $5 dollar bottomless is Thursday night at Joe's... My job is far less exciting: sit at a desk and watch Hulu. Haha...knew that...Stillwater is family, spent some time there on a few occasions. Regret not going to OSU...Cal State Fullerton just lacks the feel, if you know what I mean... cg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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