Giants Stadium Show

[jaypet]

these reviews are only good for 24 hours I guess so let me toss in my thoughts before it's too late :)

RAIDERS: these guys played Carmina Burana. It's actually a pretty good rep for DC, I don't recall now ever hearing it done before. Anyway, it's a pretty tough rep music wise for Raiders to do but they handled it well considering the young season. Drumline was really driving hard in the background, almost overpowering horns at times I thought. But Raiders put a smile on my face by the end, I think they did a fine job.

CAROLINA CROWN: From a distance, it looked like the ghost of Star 1993 coming on the field in their new duds. LOL Anyway...total surprise by me how well they did! I guess I'm fickle, seeing them in 16th last year I was expecting them not to be *up to standard* but WRONG. All the bells and chimes start the show, then with balls they hit a company front as the opening hit and everyone in the audience around me went nuts! Jersey loved them! And this audience reaction sustained thru the whole show too. Maybe this pumped up the corps, had to. But really great overall job. Guard too was awesome. Their second piece was interesting, seemed driven entirely by the pit, and the guard dancing along with rifles/sabres (not sure which) interpreting the bells. All very effective. Closer had very familiar sounding theme...again, pit given a lot of work, these guys are NOT just background players in this show. Interested to see if they can push it back to Finals now!

BLUE COATS: thought Crown out-GE'd them actually, but that's IMO. Show was better executed visually perhaps. The whole capture/escape theme was very intriguing to me, especially in the opener, all the drill sequences illustrating this really pulled me in. But then, I don't know, they moved on to a whole tango sequence, which is fine on its own but it lost me in what that had to do with capture/escape. Maybe next time I see them it'll make more sense, who knows? Musically, parts reminded me of Spirit last year, sinister sounding symphonic music. Guard red looked good contrasted to the rest of corps

CROSSMEN: this was a pretty entertaining show musically. I think their strength in the end will come to points they build up in performance and generating response. They look like they're out there to make people feel *happy.* Good thing I say! Yes, a fair amount of park/blow moments, maybe one too many, but audience enjoys this so in that sense it works. IMO they aren't really selling those moments fully yet, but in time I expect that will change. Corps charges the stands in the end (similar to BD96) and then throw down (similar to Cadets Boogie). It's a feel good show, ultimately don't think they'll do much climbing in the standings in the end, but most likely right about even with last year

BOSTON: called out sick

CAVALIERS: audience around me REALLY acted like they did not want to give it up to this corps (it's Jersey after all)...but as the show progressed, they couldn't help themselves and response got better. All the spinning, very interesting stuff and the varienty of ways its done (drill, two doing it together, individuals doing it by themselves, spinnig around people). Guard, well, I'll say this, their outfits probably aren't met to be viewed from up close...but from my place in the stands, it was fine and not an issue for me. Their packages are not evident from the stands LOL so it's safe to bring your kids! Colorwise they work well in the overall show. Thought the hornline sounded the best of the night, though perhaps not the *loudest.* The set where they spin to a seating position is outrageous. Even the jersey audience had to give it up for that! Current ending not terribly effective, but I expect given the theme, they will do some spin move to take it home. Hate to say it for 4 years, but it definitely looked title worthy to me. I don't think it will overwhelm scorewise like last year, though, should this end up on top, to me they did not *blow away* the Cadets quite like they were doing a year ago.

CADETS: did not expect to be confused by the warmup show, but I was. Maybe the timing was off. But after the 'you may take the field' I swear they continued for 20-30 seconds before officially starting. So I presume all that ended up judged? Not sure if that was intended to be that way, so I'll assume it was a timing issue with the announcer. Showise, thought this one was darn good. Corps is marching hard and fast this year, thank you. Rep reminds one of 2001, BUT this year I thought the 3 pieces fit together very well...2001 Moondance stuck out badly like it didn't belong...not so this year. End of opener drill I think was taken from end of Young Persons 01. Malaguena sold well to audience. Liked the guard skirt thing in Malaguena, reminded me of Garfield 87/88, maybe this is meant as a favorite thing too LOL. The *stolen* Madison scouts rotating front I've been reading about, well, looked more like the rotating front from Cadets own 1997 show to me! LOL Didn't think Maleguena flowed into closer though, almost feel like need a brief interlude before Rocky Point fanfare begins. Just IMO. 83 RPH of course better (classic!) but this is good too. Drill compaints: liked the "G" but wish the set stopped to react to it. It just appeared for a bit and evolved to something else. Same with Z pull, thanks, this is the great "Z" from 1983, a *true* z pull live before my eyes, the audience stood up around me as it got going, but it never finished! Show ended with some other drill frenzy, so audience sat down. Frankly, zpull would have sufficed for me as a stronger finish--after all, there is no more *favorite thing* for the 80s era Garfield fan than that, right?! Overall, think this show will be competitive, it's quite good. At the very least, it has serious GE potential, looks like a potential 39+ pointer if done right. We'll see.

Hope this review was of some value to someone out there. I know a lot of you will never see ANY of these shows live, so thought I'd share my impressions.

Bye!

JP

[David Hill]

Value for me, JP. Thanks. It will be a while before I go to a show, so I'm reading the reviews like crazy. Yours, in my opinion, is in the early season running for review of the year!

Descriptions were specific, opinions were offered with no caveats making them stronger.

What other shows will I read about from you?