Nashua, NH Review

[GeoSHA]

Here is my Nashua, NH review - a little late but here nontheless and sorta long

1. Patriots - Sorry guys just able to see the last part of your show - and from a really bad angle waiting to get into the stadium. What I did see I liked though - very proficient with brass, drums, and guard - good to see Patriots having strong membership in every section.

Got to my seat - in the back stands and noticed on the front stands that there were at least as many aisles as there were seats - it looked incredibly strange - if they had got rid of half the aisles at this stadium - all of us in the back could have been sitting in the front - but I digress

2. Jersey Surf - Saw them marching on the field - and ughh - I realize what they are trying to do but personally, the shorts and surfing shoes and shirt don't do it for me - but the show was GREAT - really fun and definitely reminded me of VK (of whom I also could never stand the uniform - ok im a purist) I thought the brass was really top notch and they stuck in several horn runs in each section - very impressive - they did sort of lack a cohesive drill and the color guard was struggling at times - but a real fun show and the crowd loved it - something which I think is lacking in Div II right now.

3. East Coast Jazz - Much smaller then the rest of the Div II corps but what is there is quality. Everything is pretty polished for now in the season and the color guard was really strong, and had a fairly aggressive and demanding show. My gripe with this show is the lack of emotion at this point - I'm sure it will get better as the season progresses but they need to sell that show - its Jazz - sell it!!

4. Spartans - Again, really strong in every section - guard is GREAT, but for the last few years watching Spartans - the shows sort of run all together, Holsinger and similar composers make good clean symphonic music - but with utterly no oomph - its enjoyable to watch and appreciate but doesn't truly excite me - like I said with the exception of Jersey Surf (who scored much lower then everyone else tonight which surprised me) I feel the East coast DIV II corps are proficient but continually produce unemotional shows - maybe its a cycle from the DIV I corps 6-8 years ago this is what they were doing - hopefully in a couple of years they will catch on - crowd pleasing is GOOD!!

5. Carolina Crown - Yeah Caroline so glad to see you so good - I was frightened as I think many others were that dropping out of finals would slowly lead to your decay and death but thankfully it lead to your rejuvination. Best show I've seen from them in years - they really showcased the pit and it was huge and really effective (oh by the way - despising my back bleacher seats - before Spartans went on I moved to stand behind the gate on the front sidelines that was in front of the track about at the 40, got to see the performers up close and personnal). Guard was much improved over last year (which I thought was a big mess) and had great flags. Horns were very on. My only gripe with the percussion is that they did indeed not play for large segments of the show, now this is probably for effect but they seemed pretty noticeable in the back corner of the field standing there for several minutes - but anyway great show Carolina and I hope you show everyone - who cares if we don't make finals - and I hope you do but realize it doesn't really mean anything.

6. Glassmen - Again a large pit - maybe it was my vantage point but maybe this pit was a little too large., sometimes distracting in my opinion. Agreeing with most everyone else this show is more enjoyable then past offerings but left me flat compared to everyone else - I thought the horn line was the best part of the corps with a deep rich sound, not much else to say here - very good but just sort of there, but I really did enjoy the show just nothing hugely memorable.

7. Bluecoats - OK to start out this particular review I've got to say I have a long standing beef with the bluuuucoats (<--- which I think is abnoxious). I can't really say when I marched we were rivals with them since we were never actually really that close to them in scores, but many times during retreat we would be flanked on either side by the bluecoats and VK - and sometimes blue devils - can I just say let the candy tossing begin - We're standing there at attention and the circus clowns around us toss candy over our heads - some people may think its fun but I don't so oh well. Well i guess I should just get over it cause WOW they were GREAT - favorite bluecoats show since they started making finals late 80s, great sound, great guard, great crowd pleasing show and they really perform it. I don't know about the difficulty of the actual drill due to my vantage point but it looked hard - at least they were running a lot. Tango was brilliant and the rest of the show just fun and surprisingly sophisticated for I guess what I usually associate as a somewhat less sophisticated drum corps (note personnal bias). WOW

8. Crossmen - When I think of Crossmen's show this year it makes me smile because this kind of show is exactly what I've come to expect from them - a real crowd pleaser and a kind of show that just makes you smile and forget about watching any one thing and just enjoy it all. They seemed like they were really having fun out there - and good for them. Now looking at this show on a more technical level (having to do that after the fact because when your watching it live you just want to have fun) the horns were harsher then bluecoats (albiet possibly louder - but I think many people confuse loud and harsh with being louder then a similar volumed brass line but with real good tone). Everything is great about this show which is very similar to last years show - but I feel the demand may not be there to keep them up with Bluecoats and others in that group. Personnally a liked last years music better but give me a few more reads on this one and I'm sure I'll like it just as much.

9. Boston - (Again note bias) I marched here so obviously my view point is extremely skewed. but I'll try to be objective - but I'm sure I'll fail. Just have to say first - just read GMicheal's review of them and couldn't stop laughing who ever thought we'd all see the day - anyway. First saw this show In Henniker, then Beverly - and now Nashua, greatly improved in all sections and a lot more energy tonight then from the past two performances. I know many people complain about the similar kind of drill and certain moves carried from year to year and some people criticized for it - which is fair. What I think about it is Boston's actually trying to have its own image, style, etc. from year to year - but since they aren't a supposed top corps people balk at this and insist the drill designers are lazy or something, I think its cool to see these moves - think about it - if you switched peoples uniforms and names - you'd still know Boston is Boston and thats what so great about them. I'm still trying to get into the very beginning of the show where they sorta do some body movements then play Bolero (I like the Bolero part not the body movements) then they play loud - really loud - again a harsher tone then Bluecoats (see i can admit that) but it was loud. For now I like the opening song of the 2000 show better then this years but I've seen the 2000 show or heard it 2 zillion times - so I gotta give this a chance - Personnaly from the field they really look like there marching fast and furious - yikes!! its great. The Prayer is great but again needs a little something to get on the same level as Time to SAy Goodbye - so you might be thinking ok the 2000 show was better. Well wait - when Malaguena/My Spanish Fantasy starts Oh MY GOD this is sooo great - its so in your face and high powered and never lets go - by far more exciting then 2000, and much better performed. The snares, the guard (still dirty at this point but improving) and the really loud brass make everyone crazy - better then Cadets arrangment but I'll get there in a sec. Agree with the scoring so far - think they are messier then Blue but come finals and we'll see - should be great - and great great show (end extreme personnal bias now).

10. Cadets - I see no real reason for the no warm up/early show start thing, it doesn't really add anything for me and is sorta annoying, but the show is real fun and the guard is fantastic, I feel they march very fast and have complex drill and the park and blows in Malaguena are completely appropriate. Their version of Malaguena is a lot more layed back and jazzed up then the in your face Boston style - and some may like it others don't - a real highlight is the dancing guard girls in those red dresses - I like that :) Rocky Point Holiday is a bit clipped for my taste but still a great tune. Another great crowd pleasing show from Cadets - but like others have said - It prabably won't win - but maybe - just maybe George doesn't care.

Overall great show from every corps and yikes top twelve is gonna be tough this year - I hope this makes making semis and just being in a drum corps start meaning something again - who really cares about placement anyway with shows like this - does it really matter - like others have said - I really feel like Drumcorps is on the rise maybe we'll never see 3 million corps again but the quality throughout these corps is simply phenominal - so everybody see a drum corps show now!!

GeoSHA

BAC - 93-97