warsawstory Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 (edited) Yes, 1989 was 1989. 6 or 7 years prior to that, they were hardly doing curvilinear drill...Dvorak's New World Symphony hadn't been rehashed umpteen million different times prior to that, like it has in our era, in the last 23 years. Please read what I said in context of that, like you should have, instead of leaving a rude comment about my disclaimer. At least I wasn't intentionally being rude. I believe I did read it in context but thanks for adding what you really meant in your response. As to your disclaimer, I was playing along with that. I apologize for putting you on the defensive. I'm curious how you feel about other corps rehashing music that has been done umpteen million different times? Take for instance Malaga and Malaguena which we will also be hearing this Summer. (edit for Dvorak rep) Top twelve corps that have played New World since 1989 Blue Knights 1998 - Largo Glassmen 2005 Edited June 19, 2012 by warsawstory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I remember Capital Regiment doing this music a few years back. Pity they aren't still around. :-( Being a big Blue Star fan, I guess I can reserve my judgement until finals weekend, and I think they have a really excellent drill, but musically it just seems the show isn't going anywhere special like it did with Houdini in 2010, and even Factory in 2009. Those shows were incredible. I was expecting a big rebound for them this year, but will have to wait and see. Competition should still be very stiff with Blue Knights, SCV, Boston and Scouts, and let's even throw Glassmen and Spirit into that mix. In defense, I still liked the Blue Stars' music more than the Cavaliers :-P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmo Blatch Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 In defense, I still liked the Blue Stars' music more than the Cavaliers :-P Agreed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08ThunderBass5 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Enjoyed the show tonight. Brief frustration at the beginning of the show; we got two minutes into Blue Stars and the whole audio/video just quit working. Got it working again for about 15 seconds and it quit working again. Theater was cool though and got it fixed and restarted it again from the beginning. Even turned up the sound for us! If you want to read them, I was taking notes of my thoughts/opinions as I watched. Here they are. Blue Stars I liked this show a lot! I've been enjoying Frank Sullivan's arrangements/compositions the past few years and I liked this one too. Especially this year's ballad- beautiful. My biggest complaint was the modern/hipster use of New World Symphony. Maybe I've just watched Phantom 1989 too many times, but I'm not a huge fan of when drum corps take classic literature and do weird things with it. Just my opinion but I wish it was a little more straight ahead. Horns were loud and awesome! Visual was well designed but a little dirty but hey- it's June. Drums sounded AWESOME! Tom Aungst is the MAN! Great writing and great execution by the battery. I must confess I failed at taking any notes on the Pit but my brother said the pit was not as strong as the battery. There was some phasing as with most of the groups but nothing to freak out about. I did like the point when the trumpets spread from the 20 to the 20 and unleashed; pretty cool. Overall nice show. Phantom I LIKE the guard uniforms! The red against the white is really COOL! I liked that they had red throughout the field too including in the pit on random stuff- nice touch. I liked the beheading- a little reminiscent of 2008......There was also a really nice peni$ set in the middle that they parked in :thumbup: (I'm so mature). I really liked the drum feature- I was kinda surprised by their low placement in drums but their demand is pretty high from what I remember. Phantom also had some phasing in their show but again- nothing terrible. The new brass arranger is very very noticeable. I'm going to be the guy to say it; Phantom's horn sound is DIFFERENT this year! (heaven forbid). But it's not a bad thing. Overall, I loved this show a lot. Very emotional as always with Phantom and this is going to be a crowd favorite all year. I don't think it is a gold medal show necessarily but you never know and like I said earlier- it's June! Crown FAVORITE SHOW OF THE NIGHT! Holy crap Crown; WOW! Okay. I must say I didn't like the guard uniforms. They blend in too much for me and I think they need more contrast. Overall- Brass is loud, they have an extremely demanding book, and once they get tidied up- they are going to have a real shot at caption this year no doubt. Drums? In my opinion; dirty. Let me say- I'm a huge crown fan but to be completely honest/impartial, I thought that they weren't second place clean...Pretty nice book though. Okay and also, if I hear one more person slam on Crown's Mello section this season- I'm going to rage on them. They had an AWESOME sound and got shown off multiple times throughout the show. VERY IMPRESSED. Fanfare for the Common Man was really cool on the football field. The "surround sound pit" was extremely effective and gave me chills. Brass arrangements were fantastic for this throughout the show. There was some phasing but nothing terrible. I was slightly confused about the whistle sounds coming from the pit in the drum feature...anyone know what this is? This show is AWESOME!!!!!! My favorite of the night by a landslide. This show is very well designed and very very demanding and I love it. If Crown can clean this show up (which I'm sure they can) I have no doubt they will be looking at a championship. Cavies Sorry it's getting late so my reviews will be getting shorter here... Drums, both battery and pit sounded great. I liked the 6 basses; I used to think it was stupid but now I think it's awesome and it makes me want to get out one of the old bass drums and march 6 at the school I teach at Guard uniforms were....interesting. I didn't think the drill was as demanding as past years; this makes sense with the staff change. The brass wasn't nearly as bad as people made it sound on these forums from what I saw. I heard some individuals sticking out in the low brass during ballad and there were cleanliness issues but it wasn't the train wreck some people were making it seem. Overall, I thought the show was a bit flat. It was a little out there and it had trouble holding my attention. Cavies are my second favorite corps so it's hard for me to say that but I hope they can spice this show up a bit soon. Cadets Okay, I'm really going to start condensing my thoughts here. I love the white uniforms- they work great. Guard uniforms were crazy bright and flashy and pretty cool! Pit was oddly condensed and looked cluttered (40 to 40 I think but MASSIVE). I noticed that their dinkels were white while their uniforms were more cream and that bugged me... The show was clean! I liked it! Drumline sounded awesome as always and were very tight for June. One brass arranging thing I noticed twice was that twice, the hornline had an impact chord that was on some unusual chords. First was A Major and second was G Major. It's not that it's actually that unusual but it was just weird because it felt like everyone else is always doing Bb, Eb and F it seems. Nice to hear Cadets mixing it up. Anyway, that's way too detailed- sorry. There was a small brass ensemble that was cool but the Pit was a little overpowering and it was tough to hear. Cadets actually did have some phasing. The screamers were sweet but when they first started playing I couldn't hear them. Second movement was a lot of fun and enjoyable. Also, transition from mvt. 2-3 was sweet. Okay, someone else said it- Do you hear what I hear was entirely to the endzone; I didn't like it either. I wanted my face melted! Very beautiful though. The narration was....ehh...okay I won't go on about that. The drill was not as demanding as I remember from last year. Overall, the show was cool but I do hope it doesn't peak early. Bluecoats The brass sounded really nice tonight. Drum finish- dead sexy. I enjoyed hearing the bluecoats play some jazz again-pretty cool! Also, I know groups have been doing this for a while but it's always weird to see a laptop in the pit. I saw someone lost a shoe on side 1 early on-must have been a fun show for them. There was also a brass run in the closer that was pretty rough. Additionally, these guys had the worse timing issues of the night. There was one moment in the closer I think that made me squirm in my seat because it felt so out of control. But hey it's June. I didn't take too many notes on the show or anything but I thought it felt like a bluecoats show. It wasn't my favorite show of the night but not my least favorite. It was a little obscure but had its moments. It was pretty clean I thought. So after the show, I had this order picked. 1. Cadets 2. Bluecoats 3. Crown 4. Phantom 5. Cavies 6. Blue Stars I was pretty close except I had coats and phantom backwards; oops! Anyway, hope you enjoyed my thoughts/comments. Keep in mind they are just thoughts and comments- I mean no offense by any of this and as always; it's way easier to sit behind your computer and critique then it is to spend 12 hours out in the sun getting your butt kicked. :) Cheers, Jeff 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barifonium Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I'm watching them on the VOD now. I think their show has a lot of room to grow! There are a lot of performance issues which is holding back what I think is actually a really good design. I do think the uniforms need to go though. The Blue Stars, doing a show called Blue World about water, in predominantly gray uniforms? Whales and fish scales are gray, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris ncsu Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Cadets Okay, I'm really going to start condensing my thoughts here. I love the white uniforms- they work great. Guard uniforms were crazy bright and flashy and pretty cool! Pit was oddly condensed and looked cluttered (40 to 40 I think but MASSIVE). I noticed that their dinkels were white while their uniforms were more cream and that bugged me... The show was clean! I liked it! Drumline sounded awesome as always and were very tight for June. One brass arranging thing I noticed twice was that twice, the hornline had an impact chord that was on some unusual chords. First was A Major and second was G Major. It's not that it's actually that unusual but it was just weird because it felt like everyone else is always doing Bb, Eb and F it seems. Nice to hear Cadets mixing it up. Anyway, that's way too detailed- sorry. There was a small brass ensemble that was cool but the Pit was a little overpowering and it was tough to hear. Cadets actually did have some phasing. The screamers were sweet but when they first started playing I couldn't hear them. Second movement was a lot of fun and enjoyable. Also, transition from mvt. 2-3 was sweet. Okay, someone else said it- Do you hear what I hear was entirely to the endzone; I didn't like it either. I wanted my face melted! Very beautiful though. The narration was....ehh...okay I won't go on about that. The drill was not as demanding as I remember from last year. Overall, the show was cool but I do hope it doesn't peak early. First I've heard of that, I think -- what narration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilme861 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 First I've heard of that, I think -- what narration? There's a quick 5-10 second saying in the transition from the ballad to the closer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08ThunderBass5 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 First I've heard of that, I think -- what narration? Yeah it's in the closer. Imho- it was just kinda there for the sake of being there and I could have lived without it. But considering all the drama narration has brought up in the past, I figured I probably shouldn't dig into it too much haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifer Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Phantom – Rewrite Nessum Dorma (too square, man). Rewrite drum feature. Nesson Dorma brought the house down in Akron and I had two goosebump moments. Pretty good for the first show of the year when usually corps only get polite applause. Nesson Doruma is one of the greatest songs of all time, and you want it re-written? Man, you have high standards! Cut me a little slack for having some fun with you. It's early in the season and I'm having fun! Sure I'll cut you some slack because you probably never got to experience Phantom '91 live doing Nessum Dorma. Now THAT was an arrangement with heart and passion. I sure don't want to hear 2012 Phantom do the same arrangement, but this one is very much a poor second cousin of 1991!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomVV Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Blue Stars live >>>>>>Blue Stars in the theater. The brass are very well staged for the arrangement. The melodies are passed from section to section all over the field. This is one of frank sullivan's most clever arrangements and should be heard more than once live to appreciate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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