Akron Alehouse

[gak27]

No it was a back hand. This was after they both got back up, and the one was backwards marching trying to correct himself but ended up in the others spot again and the trumpet player literally fully extended their arm and it was a distinct backhand. I would not make something up that nasty about my own corps.

TubaJon is right - after the first player fell and the second tripped over them, they got back up and attempted to rejoin the form. One of the players was late on a direction shift, bumped into the other player, and that player "threw an elbow" to/at the 'bumper'...it was a little disconcerting

[SynthLine09]

No it was a back hand. This was after they both got back up, and the one was backwards marching trying to correct himself but ended up in the others spot again and the trumpet player literally fully extended their arm and it was a distinct backhand. I would not make something up that nasty about my own corps.

Surprising, given that don't seem to have many positive things to say about them ever!

Its the first show of the season - I'm sure it wasn't assault or attempted murder.

[Schickmeister]

[wvu80]

The rest of the story:

I just got back and it's after midnight. 300 mile round trip and I'm tired, so this will be a quicky review, I'll fill in more tomorrow. BTW I have not read anybody else's review yet. In order of appearance:

Stadium: GREAT, first time I've been at UA stadium. One of the best venue's I've seen for corps, fully enclosed, great backside sound (right, Phantom Regiment?) and everybody sits right on TOP of the field.

The stadium was easy to find, 5 minutes off Interstate 77. I was happy to pay my $5 parking, as it went to BLUECOATS PARKING! And how cool was it to tune into FM station 93.5 and find DRUM CORPS playing on the radio? No commentary, just vintage finals shows complete.

The souvie area was very intimate, maybe too intimate. DCI had a small tent area set up with a LARGE sound system and TV. It was right beside the Cavie's souvie stand, and they played their small TV as loud as it would go, but the DCI system blew it away. That must have irritated the Cavie people.

Best Shirts: Blue Stars had all kinds of cool shirts, and many colors. Cadets had an inflatable 6 foot tall Christmas tree, and their usual well designed T-shirts. I wanted to buy a Cadets shirt with "Drum Corps International" on it like all the other corps had, but I couldn't find one. Hmmm.

Weather: Perfect, 74 degrees, slight breeze. Just perfect.

Fans: Great midwest fans, very knowledgeable, very appreciative of drum corps, very well behaved. It was a BLUECOATS crowd, man they were everywhere, and 100% supportive of their team.

Blue Stars: No timps, a bit unusual.The hornline was loud, maybe 3rd loudest of the night. The guard was not blended into the show very well. The horn line was very musical, good attention to detail and dynamics.

I complimented Cavies on the best design of uniform (most were great) but Blue Stars, with that gray you just blend into the back ground. And the guard wearing brown had the same (negative) effect.

This was the only corps which had staff UN-necessarily wandering the field just before the show. Walk AROUND the field, like all the other professional corps do. I know it's a small thing, but the show starts once the audience sees you entering the field. More on that later with regards to the Cavaliers (bad) and the Bluecoats (good).

Phantom: Looked like a million bucks, beautiful white unis, while the guard was beautiful, wore red outfits and gold masks. The best guard of the night. Phantom's horns were not as loud as I might have thought they might be, but they had wonderful pitch and blend. The drill was incredibly effective, nice job by staff. If you heard the Concert in the Park on Youtube, you ain't heard nothin' yet. This is 100% better with the drill. Nesson Dorma brought a goosebump. The ending chord brought the 2nd goosebump and the first standing 'O of the night.

Phantom had a very cool setup. They came in sections, set up in chuncks, then moved to another setup, just like a drill. It was very interesting, and you could tell they spent some time thinking about how to make a good first impression on the audience. This is a corps which knows how to win championships because they attend to ALL the details.

This isn't a criticism, but the solist (trumpet? flugal?) in Nesson Dorma who played beautifully, didn't project all that well to the upper deck. Later in the season this will be stronger. The use of a single horn guy as guard actors was well done, with the actor being obviously visible when needed, then blending back into the ensemble.

Crown: They are running FAST (dead sprint at one point without the horns) all over the place in the opener. Fantastic job on Fanfare for the Common Man played in the middle of the show. They spread the corps out sideline to sideline, and front side to back side. It sounded like the whole football field was a giant speaker. In a major surprise, it was close, but I think this was the SECOND loudest corps of the night. Crown and Cadets were very close in sheer power, but I think Cadets played better tonight. The brass will contend for the Jim Ott this year, but they had some articulation problems tonight in the trumpets due to playing some really tough runs. At the end of the show, standing O.

I don't know if it was the new contact lenses I was wearing or the lighting on the field, but I swear the Crown unis were almost a luminous, light green. I do know they are using bright white plumes instead of the awful green ones of the past. It gives the corps a taller, more visible presence.

Crown was using two synths. Three timps were staged in each endzone, and directly backfield. The front right pit had 5 timps

Cavaliers: As usual, great unis, they do the best job IMO. They look totally black from the back, and have good color and contrast when they turn around. I thought the guard was a notch down (maybe the design?) from years past. Cavies had the least power tonight, but did let loose at the end. Cavies was the only corps of the night to do an on-field brass warm up to the back side, similar to BD's famous F tuning, with drums. Cavs did not have any "big" moments like the other corps did, but still got a solid response from the crowd and a standing 'O at the end.

Sorry to bring in a negative, but when Crown was on the field and moving, Cavies decided that was the best time to ride their motorized cart with pit equipment onto the scoreboard side of the field. It was a distraction, because I saw several heads in front of me look towards them. Cavies are smart, I'm sure a word to the wise is sufficient and they won't do that again.

Cavies marched 16 tubas. || I'm sure I will need this explained to me, but the guard looked kind of silly in those outfits and sunglasses, and spent a lot of time with their arms folded trying to look cool. I didn't get it.

Cadets: For those of you who don't like the idea of Christmas music, too bad. This show MAKES you like it, and you'll whistle it all the way to the car, and all the way home, just like I did. I wasn't crazy about the Christmas music either, until I saw it live. It's incredible what Cadets do with it. The snare drums have a fantastic sound, and the whole drum line was crazy good, again, good writing played well. The horn line was a shock; this is not your grandfather's Cadets, this is a POWER corps! Of course they also play good, the two trumpet soloists are screamers and immediately you think "Blue Devils class screamers." The whole corps is incredibly in tune, and the tunes are arranged great. There was a slight breakdown in brass timing once, but the two sides caught up with each other. This might have been the best executed show on the field tonight.

Request to Hoppy: The ballad "Do you hear what I hear" at one point is played to the left side end zone. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE turn your corps around and play that luscious sound to the audience. All that great sound is lost to us by playing only to the DM in the end zone. I GUARANTEE you'll get a standing O everytime if you turn your guys around. I'm not wrong about this.

The pictures previously listed are worth 1,000 words, so you can see the guard was much more colorful than in years past. I'm not a big fan of prior Cadets "earth tones" and the guard dressed in brightly colored skirts and contrasting tops looking like Christmas wrapping, was clever. The were a great contrast to the all-white with maroon cumber buns of the musicians.

There were isosceles triangles made into 5 large blocks in the left endzone which were brought in by volunteers, not corps members. They weren't used tonight, but you can see there are stars to be made sometime in the future.

I'm not saying this was the Cadets staff, but I didn't like this: When the corps were led in a giant column down the 50 for pre-show set up, there was a guy with a 2-way radio leading the drum major! He was wearing a maroon and white shirt which had a "1" on the back. Now, it could have been someone with DCI or a show setup guy, I don't know so I'm not going to blame. In any case, GET OFF THE FIELD! We want to see the corps, not the staff on the field! He was 100% not needed for the setup, the drum major seemed entirely capable of leading the corps on the field. Sheesh. I want to note for the record, Cadets staff were otherwise totally professional. Good stuff.

Bluecoats: Power horn line, louder already than last year. Like Cadets they are also incredibly in tune and they have a fantastic sound. This might have been the best executed show, along with Cadets.

CLASSY MOVE: I picked on the Cavaliers for their lack of class running a loud cart and being distracting during another corps performance. I want to equally praise Bluecoats for their TOTALLY CLASSY leadership. As Cadets were performing, Bluecoats were coming out of the tunnel right front of the field. The drum major kept the entire corps lined up at the entrance, and the corps stood at attention until Cadets were done. Bluecoats were conspicuous by their totally professional respect for a competitor. This is the stuff champions are made of.

Bluecoats, you have my respect. Well done.

I've got:

1. Cadets

2. Crown

3. Bluecoats

4. Phantom

5. Cavies

6. Blue Stars

Notes: All of the corps had flaws tonight, all have elements to add to their shows, so the results will NOT be an accurate reflection of who will win it all this year. But it also would not surprise me if the winner came out of this group.

More tomorrow.

Tomorrow is here.

[/quote

Edited June 17, 2012 by wvu80

[soccerguy315]

wvu - sometimes I feel like there is a secret checkbox on the DCI sheets that corps need to check. The label for the box is "corps plays really well, but doesn't face the audience while they do so"

[BRASSO]

Thanks to all that go to these shows and give their reviews ( good, bad, or indifferent ). You are the eyes and ears for those of us that wern't there, and its appreciated.

[wesleyrp]

Yes mega kudos!!! It sounds like 2012 is going to be a crazy good season!!

[Stu]

> WVU80: This show MAKES you like it, and you'll whistle it all the way to the car, and all the way home...

Maybe, just maybe, with West Side, Angels-Demons, and now Christmas, Hop is realizing the way to increase the fan base is to connect with the audience with great entertainment instead of trying to educate them with esoteric ideas!!!!

> WVU80: The ballad "Do you hear what I hear" at one point is played to the left side end zone. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE turn your corps around and play that luscious sound to the audience. All that great sound is lost to us by playing only to the DM in the end zone. I GUARANTEE you'll get a standing O everytime if you turn your guys around. I'm not wrong about this.

My guess is that playing toward the endzone is designed for the reverb-echo effect inside the Lucas Oil Stadium.; however I agree with you on playing it toward the audience at all outdoor shows.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Stu

[spatula67]

Talked to my son on the phone last night who is a Blue Star trumpet. He said yes their were a few collisions but their is NO off the field drama going on. In fact most of them were laughing it up at the Subway restaurant near the stadium when I called. Sounds to me like a certain "Alum" has some sour grapes going on and is trying to stir up trouble where there is none.

Edited June 17, 2012 by spatula67

[TubaJon]

Talked to my son on the phone last night who is a Blue Star trumpet. He said yes their were a few collisions but their is NO off the field drama going on. In fact most of them were laughing it up at the Subway restaurant near the stadium when I called. Sounds to me like a certain "Alum" has some sour grapes going on and is trying to stir up trouble were this is none.

Well clearly I wasn't the only one who saw it since someone just posted about it as well. And the group behind me also saw it. Lol I'm never giving a review about my blue stars again, good or bad. I've taken so much heat for this. Oh well if nothing else, hopefully they channel their aggression towards me and get out there on the practice field and kick some ###.