Stanford Review

[westcoastblue]

Was great to be back in California. Saw lots of friends and of course, a great drum corps show. My Mid-West drum corps pals say there is nothing like an early season show in the Mid-West. I would say the same about an early show in California. Having BAC and Phantom both out here was a real treat.

I am a pretty well rounded guy regarding both musical and visual aspects of drum corps, but I will admit to being more of a music expert.

I am trying to report things as they affected me and have no agenda to slam anyone.

Freelancers Alumni.

It was good to see them perform. I do miss some old Freelancers shows and what they added to the California drum corps mix. Good job. Lots of appreciative

fans in the stands tonight.

Renegades.

Lots if senior corps umph and attitude. They seem to have a lot of holes which made viewing a little difficult. The show was OK and had a few moments of solid GE.

BDC.

To say they are cute is perhaps a bit demeaning, but they are. I was impressed by the discipline they showed when there was a huge delay to start their show once they we in place. Crowd gave it up for them.

SCV Cadets.

This group has a ton of potential. The brass were the real stand out and the show has some really well coordinated impact points. The visual program is behind BDB, but not too far behind that they cannot catch up. Percussion seemed rough, but working hard.

BDB.

They deserved to win tonight, but think they have room to grow, especially in the brass section. Solid visual and percussion.

Mandarins.

The show has a friendly and energetic tribal theme. They started off much more polished than they finished. That will get better over time. They seem smaller and lots of the show is not filled. The percussion section was the highlight of this show for me.

Pacific Crest.

The show started with a big impact. I was pretty impressed, though the show never got back to that level. I am not sure I got the show concept clearly. Could have been me. They were better than Mandarins, but both corps seem to off to a bit of a slow start. Time will tell.

Blue Knights.

I had heard things about them and saw a few video clips. I kept my earlier impressions in check and wanted them to be good. There were BK fans around me including a few parents. I asked what exactly their show was about. I was told it was about a firebird or phoenix, but from space. Could be they got it wrong or misunderstood their kid, but it did seem to be what I saw tonight. There was a lot of running around and arm flapping at first (pre-show). It seemed to go on forever. The corps ended up in the back right corner and then slowly moved toward the left side. The drums started it off and sounded pretty good, but the music seemed to have nothing to do with Firebird at all. The brass were extremely rough. They simply cannot play a lot of their book right now, and it is not too difficult when compared to all other corps tonight. The brass arrangements are pretty much just straight up transcriptions, but watered down and with much of the writing in the middle of the staff for all voices. Though we got familiar themes from the original, like I stated earlier, there was nothing necessarily interesting about the brass parts. It seemed to me odd that if the brass parts are so transcribed that they are mixed with weird, not related electronic sounds, blips, blurbs, smears. etc. The drum writing was very disjunct from the brass parts, though pretty well coordinated with the front ensemble, who carried must of the melodic material, especially those moments from the original that require some technique. The guard spun pretty well and their weird lime green uniform seemed to fit the birds from space theme to a tee. There were some interesting long visual developments, but so much of the show drill is extremely dirty and they seem to have quite a few brass holes. I appreciate trying new things and pushing the envelope, but I struggled to appreciate much beyond some good drumming, albeit a-musical and not related to the brass parts, and some good spinning by the guard. I did try to see and hear the good that was there and to read into the show any intent or development that would pay off in a few weeks. I found myself just plain questioning the design and wondering if there was a mass brass exodus. Sorry BK fans. I had them behind Boston by a lot and getting beat by PC in a few subcaptions.

Boston.

It was great to see BAC in California. They are extremely well prepared for this time of the year. They and Phantom seemed to be on the same page of being clean and polished early. There music arrangements of Respighi were pretty much straight up transcriptions. Unlike BK however, there is lots of thoughtful weaving of the percussion parts and changes in voicings, colors, and textures throughout. The guard was extremely good and also seemed very prepared. The percussion are strong, though maybe not quite up to last year's section. The brass make great sounds and are well staged throughout the show, though I kept waiting for a big impact from them but never got it. Clean drill that fits the music pretty well and good control to tempi. All that said, they seemed flat tonight. With so much of the show learned, cleaned, and detailed, I wonder how this will do down the road competitively. They are very good, maybe the best they have been since getting back into finals. It just seemed to me that they set out to be really clean and tidy, not that there is anything wrong with that. Well deserved fourth place tonight. I had them extremely close to SCV and beating them in a few captions.

SCV.

Though a BD homer, I have always respected SCV and was excited to see them and the changes new staff members had made. I must admit I was somewhat disappointed.

The show certainly has potential, a lot more than last year or the year before. As has been the case for several years, the drill is the real stand out of the production. Very musical and always something interesting to look at. The percussion section is of course smoking and deserved to win drums hands down. The brass are making better sounds, but there seems to be a wide diversity in talent level in that there just isn't a unified core of sound and there were lots of stick outs and cracked notes. The guard was at times very good and at times it looked as though they had just put work into the show. I do like the guard uniform a lot. Everyone has been curious as to how JD Shaw's writing would affect their sound. After several years of rough brass lines, I don't think it really matters as long as the arranging is solid. I liked much of the arrangements and respect that he is trying some new ideas with some old standards. I am not sure all of the planets stuff is working yet, but it may take some time and tweaking to get it there. The ballad is the best writing in the show to my ears. It will be a very nice moment for them. Though maybe a year or two away from getting the old SCV back, this does show improvement and will be a good show by season's end. I had them just behind Boston tonight, largely due to Boston's polish and SCVs lack thereof.

Phantom.

Like I have already reported, they are clean, polished, and in control. Similar to last year, the presentation overall is just beautiful. The drill and guard are very captivating and I do not find myself wanting more difficult drill to fit this music book. The Turandot theme is plainly stated and as clear as it needs to be. I was worried that the big black circle on their chest would be a drill cleaning distraction, but not so regarding how clean they are already. A few members still need to work on covering down and getting into diags, but the drill looks really good. The brass sound great and sound like Phantom to me. There are parts of the arrangements I thought were a bit sterile, but well executed throughout. I did expect them to be louder (BD was clearly the loudest line of the evening). The red guard costume is stunning and they are extremely well trained and very expressive. The pit was very good but a bit a-musical. The drum line had some good and some rough moments. I can't say I am a fan of the drum writing overall as too much of it did not seem to fit the brass book. Like others who have seen them, I found Nessun Dorma to be a let down. As to not beat a dead horse,

I assume they know it is a let down and they will fix it. I get trying to not repeat one's self, but some times the original works no matter how long ago it was performed.

I had them in second, but not by much.

BD.

I love my corps, but always try to stay as unbiased as possible. I will first say that they continue to be themselves, year after year. No one moves like them, sounds like them, nor performs like them. The cool confidence they bring to the field is pretty #### impressive. The brass sound amazing, and were clearly the loudest of the evening, something I did not expect. The guard is again stunning but do not have their show filled. The drum line was great as was the pit, though there is some work to do there

with cleaning and musicality. There is already a lot going on visually. The concept of putting the uniform on over the course of the show is interesting, but at times distracting. I will need to see it several times to try to get into what they are saying with the concept. Yes, the audience does not always know how to react. The show music is more classically driven than what I was expecting. I did enjoy the variety visually and musically. I am eager to see it again. I had them up tonight simply because of the sheer performance quality and finesse with which they approach everything. Phantom cleaner, BD better brass and percussion.

[jwillis35]

Great review! I really enjoyed that and you were very objective and honest. Bravo!!!

[BRASSO]

You are from BD, but you had very fair, balanced and even handed approach all around in this review I thought. Where you might have been critical in parts of the review it seemed that it came from a sense of disappointment than anything mean spirited about it. That was also commendable, imo...Good review, and thanks for sharing your take on the Corps you saw at this show !

Edited June 25, 2012 by BRASSO

[PeeWee]

Thanks for the reviews. For a BD alum, you did much better than I expected ;-)