Stanford Live!

[Madera Dons]

Vanguard has some huge, glaring visual dirt. If they can clean it, their show should do okay. I think the Vanguard colorguard pajamas may be intentional - starry night = bedtime = pajamas.

I am not fond of the pajamas but feel I have the concept of the show. A major problem for me is that they seem to get lost on the field. I guess the saving grace is they chose blue and white rather than shades of green which would have made them invisible.

Edited June 24, 2012 by Madera Dons

[JayM]

Disappointed with Vanguard. Mars is just weird.

I like more of BK's show than most, I think, including some of the Firebird electronic stuff, but man is the brass weak. Especially the mellos.

Not thrilled with BD but you can't argue with their performance level.

Pleasantly surprised by Boston. If they can clean it they'll do very well.

[drummer5485]

I agree - the Cavaliers of the early-mid 2000's did march quite a bit. However, the amount and quality of body movement/dance that BD brings to the table today is really astounding. In some ways, it is more difficult to achieve than traditional geometric or curvilinear drill, imo. Quite difficult to clean from individual to individual.

And they do "march" quite a bit too, I think sometimes people get so caught up in pointing out the places where BD stands still that they miss the extremely difficult, high speed maneuvers throughout the show.

I also agree, heck I remember how much time Visual spent cleaning the "dance" portion of Machine. But there comes a point when throwing down some awesome drill is overtaken by standing in one spot and doing ballet (and believe me, I've been critical when Cavaliers did it in the past, even when I marched). I'd much rather see someone kill amazing drill (Cadets last year) than spend half the show posing (Crown, the last 10 years except for this one).

[Lincoln]

I don't hate BD. I find their show boring. It isn't art for me - it is everything I have seen from them for a number of years. Nothing is new (unless horse clothes hangers are new). I think its quite impressive that so many alumni are impressed - I am not.

[flammaster]

The beautiful thing about this show and their staff is they don't care if you like it or not. This is a show that is appreciated immensely by people like myself who have been waiting for something like this to come along. Yet your regular type show will still be there. This is something new and fresh. I like that I got to see a whole bunch of different styles last night.

[fsubone]

The beautiful thing about this show and their staff is they don't care if you like it or not.

Shouldn't they care though? Have that design staff's ego grown so much that they only care about doing what they and a small portion of other people want?

I could have sworn all of the talk about the new judging sheets, and Michael Cesario's constant involvement was to include sections about "engaging the audience" in the GE section? Could have sworn that's what they have been telling us since last season ended....

[Kamarag]

Shouldn't they care though? Have that design staff's ego grown so much that they only care about doing what they and a small portion of other people want?

I could have sworn all of the talk about the new judging sheets, and Michael Cesario's constant involvement was to include sections about "engaging the audience" in the GE section? Could have sworn that's what they have been telling us since last season ended....

People do care. Devils attract fans and critics everywhere they go. They generate tremendous reactions all over the country, year after year. Shows are better attended when they are on the program. When the Blue Devuils take the field, you know two things: It's going to be different, and it's going to be performed well.

You also know it's going to score well because the Blue Devils, better than any other corps, know how to design shows that will resonate not only with fans, but with judges. None of that has changed since they first won the championship in 1976.

The Blue Devils do engage the audience. They just don't engage everyone the same way. And at the end of the day, that's pretty darned successful.

[Lincoln]

When the Blue Devils take the field, you know two things: It's going to be different, and it's going to be performed well.

I think Blue Devils rely just a bit too much on the "different" adjective. After all, after a certain amount of time, "different" becomes "expected" becomes "boring" becomes "here we go again with the same old thing."

[mobrien]

The problem isn't the Devils. They're doing what they want to do and they do it extremely well, God love 'em.

The problem is that there's no one in the judging community who has the ability or courage to call them on thematic inconsistencies, and that the new sheets don't do anything to force judges into moving in that direction. If corps had to pay a price for announcing that their show was 'about' something when the real product turned out to be a failure in actually achieving its thematic intent, you'd force the design teams into making sure that conceptual clarity was key to what they're doing, rather than having this little incestuous world where the designers tell the judges what they're doing to achieve the concept, and the judges just buy into it.

Oh, re; last night, props to BAC and Vanguard for major moves up from last year in terms of program design, to Regiment for looking this good this early, and to BD for again being so well-prepared to open the season. Should be interesting to see how these shows develop over the summer.

Edited June 24, 2012 by mobrien

[Lincoln]

The problem isn't the Devils.

It never is. They are never responsible for anything they do.

Take all the talent in the world that you can gather and then create a "paint by number" show because you can and after all, someone will like it.

Edited June 24, 2012 by LincolnV