skywhopper Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 First up, the weather was perfect. Low 80s to start the show and then down into the 70s. The stands faced away from the sun, and the assignment of seat numbers on the bleachers gave everyone plenty of room. The stadium grounds were nicely laid out with plenty of room for the souvie booths and the concession stand all to be placed between the entrance and the stands with plenty of room to maneuver. No hidden souvie booths at this show. Saw a Boston shirt I wanted, but they were out of my size. Dropped five bucks in their gas fund anyway. The field is artificial turf and there is, unfortunately, a track between the stands and the field. 25 rows of seats total, so you can't get too high, but the top rows are a good balance of visual and sound, IMO. One bad thing about sitting up top: you can hear the judges' chatter occasionally. Don't know if the show was technically sold out but the stands seemed to be very nearly full as soon as the show started. Overall this is a great venue to see drum corps, and if you're within range next year I highly recommend attending. --- First up, Colt Cadets. I have a soft spot for this group because they provide a great opportunity for younger kids often with little to no marching experience--and because my daughter has expressed interest in starting out with them to give drum corps a try when she's old enough--but they are big enough and well designed enough to put on a seriously entertaining show, too. This year is no exception, with a good brass sound considering their ~20 member line--some tuning issues, but that's to be expected from a young and small group. Some impressive guard work, though some of the younger guard had a few apparent minor struggles with their flags thanks to the wind. The pit was not miked, and I thought there was no synth, but at some point during a percussion feature, I realized there was at least one pit player with some electronic drum pads who was featured. His speakers were on his cart, so the sound was directional, which is something that pit amping and synths had mostly eliminated from the front ensemble sound, so that was interesting and refreshing. Also the fact that the kid was displaying some actual percussion technique in performing the electronic instrument makes it a lot more fun to watch and hear than doubled bass lines or single-keystroke samples. The battery was the strongest part of the group, but of course the real standout of the show is the cymbal line, which appears in five different solid-color bodysuits, and who serve a dual role as part-guard, part-cymbals. The Colts proper came out on the track to support the Colt Cadets, so that was great to see, and the kids got some good audience response from several well-designed impact moments throughout the show. The music seemed well arranged, though I'm not thoroughly familiar with all of the source material. -- Moving to World Class, Cascades came next. They were smaller than I remember them being last year. Not much bigger than Colt Cadets. Love the neon plumes, and I think they have new uniforms this year, with much darker colors. Overall from a standstill visual point of view, Cascades had, IMO, the sharpest look of the night. The marchers' uniforms were really snappy and had good colors and contrast. The guard, particularly the guys' outfits, coordinated with the marchers colorwise but had a very different look--more of a Kung Fu type of outfit, maybe? The pit wore something more like a kimono with neon green trim. The pit unis were the least effective for most of the show, but they worked better when the pit was doing their own dance feature later on. Since this show was completely new to me, I'm already fuzzy on the details, but there were lots of things to like. They framed the field with small vertical banners on ~10 foot tall posts that ran around the backfield line and down each 10 yard line (or maybe it was the 15...). This worked well to make the corps feel bigger while not cramping them into too small a space. They used the entire field well, and had some good staging for several moments revolving around the midfield point where various single-member features took place throughout the show. Given their single drum major, I liked that they had the lead snare take backfield drum major responsibilities for part of the show when the brass was playing to the backfield. My favorite part of the show was when the pit all formed up in the middle of the pit area, did a dance to the battery feature, and then broke out to their individual taiko-style drums and played their own drum feature. Very effective! I didn't catch the rep in the program and I didn't recognize the music, but it was Asian-themed and represented an unusual but effective musical program. There were tuning issues in the brass, but their volume was impressive for their size. Like I said they were very small. Not sure if they have room on their buses for more members or if it'd be possible to integrate them into the show at this point, but if any Teal members are looking for another World Class corps to hop to, Cascades would be a great choice. Very well designed show, and it looks like a lot of fun to perform. --- Last before INT, The Academy with Left of Spring. Compared to the first two corps, Academy is big. I don't think they are 150-strong but they're over 100 for sure. Uniforms look great, very snappy as usual. I'm not sure how I feel about the guard uniforms. Hot pink, skin tight pants and zip-up jacket over a white tank top, with pink helmets with pink mohawks on them? I guess? Anyway, regardless of the color choice, they use the uniforms well, taking off the hat at some point, then the jacket, then putting the hat only back on, so they get some visual variety out of a few simple pieces. My only complaint was that when they took off the jackets, it appeared they were hard to get out of... or maybe that was intentional to take them off one sleeve at a time, I couldn't tell, but it looked a little clumsy compared to the rest of the transitions. Musically, I love Rite of Spring so I was worried I wouldn't like the show if they chopped it up too badly. And they do chop it up. It's not played remotely in sequence. They start out with a good bari solo of the bassoon opener, but everything else about the piece is cut up out of sequence from the original. However, I ended up really enjoying the show musically. I think that they arranged the music very well: it sounded true to the original while still being idiomatically drum corps. And so even though it was cut up sequentially, each section they chose to use was very well arranged and orchestrated. There were some major tuning issues in the brass, unfortunately. Most of the big impact moments in the music were, thanks to being harmonically complex to begin with, muddied sometimes beyond recognition by the tuning problems. I think they'd be better served to try to maximize tuning at the expense of volume at this point. It'd be better to hit the chords right on than to hit them loud. There were also major phasing issues in one section when the brass is widely split into two groups across the field from each other. The mix of the pit was really good, but the synth part muddied up some quiet moments in the brass. Until the brass are cleanly tuned, I think the synth backing is counterproductive and makes it sound muddier still. Those complaints out of the way, the design of this show is really impressive. Great staging, good use of the guard at various points, and good integration with the corps. They had one of the coolest moves of the night with the brass marching in a circle around (if this makes sense) an axis at their bells. Looked great and definitely surprising, got some good audience reactions ("oooh, that was a cool move"). And when the tenors go pick up bass drums to do a 10-bass feature up front, that is a great moment. The closing sequence where they coil up (and almost crushed the percussion judge hilariously) and again when they close in tight on the left side of the field in a star formation which they then leave on the field with flags and shakos while they form a trail to the far right backfield for a quiet backfield closing worked really well for me. *If* they could get the brass and visual really clean, this show has the design to be a finalist show. That said, they have a *lot* of work to do to get this show clean, and given the strength of other corps in the 9-15 zone, I don't think that's a likely outcome, alas. But keep working, because finals or not, this show is going to impress a lot of people come August. --- INT's show was ruined by the announcer who kept talking over it. Lots of people got up and left because of it, but impressively they came back just in time for the next corps. --- Boston Crusaders came out with a great clean loud sound. It's amazing how much of a different sound you can hear depending on the mikes recording it. They sounded kind of messy on the DATR standstill stream, IMO, but live the music was awesome. Lots of people have questioned the wisdom of programming possibly the most famous piece ever performed by Star of Indiana, but they're getting it clean. They've simplified a few bits, and they stand still for the most complex runs, but it sounds really great. My one complaint about this show as that the pit was turned up way too loud many times, and overpowered the brass when it shouldn't have. As I've come to expect from Boston in the past few years, they put a great visual program on the field as well. Three company fronts all coming out of nowhere. The first one was made really impressive thanks to the guard. They had brightly colored long narrow flags that faded in color from some purple hue to some pink hue across the field, and that looked great, and then the brass runs up to the sideline and they pull out the flip side of their flag which are the same color, but HUGE rectangle silks. Looks awesome. The guard unis, Roman gladiator-ish themed, looked really good, if not super memorable. Most impressive was the extensive rifle work in the last third of the show. They had all the guard on rifles for some time, which looked great. They were hitting all of their catches that I noticed, and they had some really well timed throws and cross-field tosses that hit brass impacts right on. A lot of fun to watch. The ballad, too, was very impressive. It builds beautifully and slowly and comes to a great emotional climax. And when Boston closes a show they close it down. The crowd was on its feet, no doubt where that show ended. They definitely impressed a lot of people, including me. Here's hoping they score strongly going into regionals and ToC shows. --- Santa Clara Vanguard has been hit or miss for me lately. I loved the music and design of last year's show but seeing it live was a giant letdown because there was no volume to back it up. Well, they've changed their ways this year. My biases come through here, because I'm clearly a sound fanatic. The design this year is not as coherent, and I don't care for the arrangements. But they pump out the volume and sound fantastic doing so, and I loved every minute of this show. Again, the pit was sometimes mixed too loud, but it was less noticeable than with Boston. Some folks have complained about the guard uniforms looking like pajamas. I can see that... they are cut tighter than pajamas, but they have some version of Van Gogh's Starry Night printed on them with a background color of pale blue, which I think contributes to the "pajama" look, but from far away they just look noisy, and the colors clash terribly (to my half-colorblind eyes anyway) with the snappy corps unis. The guard did have several good moments, although the specifics are hazy to me now. I did like the giant half-circle equipment they used very effectively through the middle of the show, both as equipment as as field decoration. Obviously the drum line is out of this world. I'm not a drummer, so I generally don't pick up on the variations in performance level between corps that account for scoring differences. But I made an extra effort to watch out for them and it paid off. They were well staged to be featured more than once and they just pulled out some amazing moves, and played it tighter than I realized was possible. I don't know how to describe any of the details, but suffice it to say, if you see Vanguard live, be sure you keep an eye on the battery. They are amazing. Plenty of great drill, though I think you need to be higher up than was possible at this venue to appreciate it. This was one corps where I didn't enjoy the arrangement. They changed and simplified harmonies all over the place, stripped the music of its own natural development, and even blended Mars and Jupiter at one point, which just didn't work for me. I think some of the harmonic changes were done for volume's sake. Some of their biggest hits were on power chords, or resolved to power chords. Vanguard also brought the first real goo (that I noticed) of the night, alas. Still, even though the music was not all it could have been, they executed the hell out of their program, and I enjoyed every second of the show just on that basis. They ought to score very well this year, and I will root for them all the way, even though this show might not end up on my DCI playlist in the end. --- Next up, Blue Devils. I have been a major critic of these guys of late. 2010 had about five minutes of great show, followed by seven minutes of pain for me. I just can't enjoy that show beyond "Laura", though I've tried (to be fair I never saw their 2010 show live). And then last year I mainly felt their show was boring and cluttered, and that they took source material that ought to have allowed for some emotionally cathartic moments and chopped it up into technical showpieces that were impressive but no real fun. And then I see on the VODs a show that looks intentionally unjudgeable visually (you can't obviously miss your spot in a non-linear blob formation, or be out of step when each member of the corps is doing different moves intentionally off-beat) and smeared with pre-recorded audio and sliced up source material AGAIN, a nice rest period for the brass while they put on their uniforms halfway in, and just a general we're-being-weird-on-purpose-so-you-can't-criticize-it kind of design. However, sitting there in the audience, I was totally mesmerized. The guard is seriously talented, and despite one or two drops, they totally deserved their 8.8 content score last night. When the entire guard does a toss in perfect sync with the music while spread out in an oval around the entire field, that just looks amazing in person. The opening brass statement sounds great, and when they march in a block diagonally towards backfield left, and each line rolls on the ground in sequence, you know these guys are serious. What looked like just madness on the videos comes off much better live and up closer, when you are just getting a visual feast from every angle. And when the brass would kick in and really play they are tighter and louder than I thought possible. Now, part of this is the design. They don't spend a lot of time playing all out, corps-wide, and with one exception that I recall they aren't playing loud while spreading the entire field. But when they kick in, it's impressive. Other visual stuff: the hula hoops for the guard are genius. They look great on the field, the long tosses are great, the roll-out-and-back-and-swap move they wrap up the hoops with all look great. Also, the Angry Pit Girl who's beating the hell out of the weird pole thing with various percussive items mounted on it on the left of the pit is hilarious, and worth looking out for (it's towards the beginning of the show). And there's a moment towards the end where the corps is marching across field at different speeds. It's one of those visually random moments that ends up looking great in person. As for the source material, it's chopped up but feels a lot more true than last year's. They linger more on the melodies than they did last year, and I thank them for it. Oh, and don't let me leave out the battery which I think is definitely giving Vanguard a run for their money. The one handed snare feature, very slick. I think Vanguard featured their battery a little more, and I wasn't paying as much attention to them for the Devils, but what I saw was equally impressive. So, with everything I've just laid out, it would be my favorite show of the year hands down. Even surpassing Crown's show. While BD doesn't make me cry like Crown does, they're just so #### clean and this year's show does a good job of showing that off. The design works really well and the execution is flawless. BUT, then there's the little matter of the electronics. Their goo was definitely there consistently with every big brass statement, but it did blend better than, say, SCV's. There were noises and sound effects here and there to create a mood, which I could do without but whatever. The opening trumpet solos were played mf and then miked with echoes added, unnecessarily I felt. Give us a screaming tone like Spirit instead, or just play to the stands and we'll probably hear you fine. The echoes just made it sound like we were in a big empty stadium... so it should sound just the same unmiked in Lucas Oil is what I'm saying. But really what literally ruined the show for me was the pre-recorded "narration". Starting out with the French babble for about a minute or ninety seconds after the opening statement by the corps. That just creates noise that covers up the brass and percussion. Then in the middle there's the voice, in English, explaining that "the artist must necessarily add elements of irony to his work" etc etc, YES, WE UNDERSTAND that you are really clever and are doing some of this for fun, silliness, to reference old shows, to goof on the very idea of drum corps, etc, etc. Look, the show is clever, but self-referential metashows are not a new concept. They've been around for decades if not always. The Bridgemen were spoofing drum corps when BD was winning its first championship. I'm sure such shows weren't entirely new even then. How about giving the audience some credit and just letting us enjoy your clever show instead of pounding into our heads how you are really clever because you included an old recording of some guy explaining the theme of your show and your design approach from before competitive drum corps existed. That goes on for a minute or so, and then AT THE END, they bring the guy speaking English back. blah blah blah "that is the essence of Da. Da." Covering up their awesome snare solos. Why do you want to ruin those kids' feature? Sorry for the rant, but really, what is the argument in favor of that narration? It's not being performed by anyone, it's just noise that covers up what the actual kids on the field are doing so amazingly well. I have no idea who is supposed to judge such parts of the show. But I believe they ought to be getting marked down for Music Effect and Music Analysis. They don't seem to be, but they ought to. They're sabotaging their own show. If they had a single contra player up front blaring noise at the audience and covering up the rest of the corps' sound during quiet moments, shouldn't that count against them somehow? But at least that could be considered a "solo". This isn't even something a member is creating in any sense of the word. Sigh, okay, I'll stop now. Suffice it to say, they ruined the show. Not as bad as the Cavies are ruining their show with electronics... But, the Devils are ruining it in a way that makes less sense. --- Finally, Colts! It's a home show for them. I was worried they would sound extra weak after Boston, Vanguard, and Devils, but they came out strong and were very impressive. I'm sorry to say that I can't remember as much of this show as I do the others. But, their brass sounded good, if not peel-your-face-off amazing. Their closer is going to be one of the highlights of the year though, once it's nice and clean. Great arrangement and great choice of music. And then at the very end, one of the drum majors picks up a trumpet and starts playing his solo backfield, and then turns around, on the track, now, and gives the audience an up-close solo. He wasn't hitting the high notes I expected, but it sounds like something that will be great once he's gotten it under control. In any case, the audience loved it, and then the corps backs him up and it's a great way to end the show. Really impressive. --- So that's the show. I think the scores came out about right, though I haven't looked closely at the recaps yet. I figured BD would score a little higher actually. They're just incredibly clean. I will not be surprised if they come out and trounce everyone this year. I had thought it was Crown's year, and I would prefer that they win (owing to my judgment of the negative design value of the pre-recorded narration in BD's show), but BD is going to be really tough to beat. Crown will have to be rock solid with their drill and get rid of their phasing issues in Fanfare. Good luck to everyone! This is another great year of drum corps!! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catan Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Great review! I really enjoyed your details. I agree about SCV's arranging - not doing it for me right now. I respectfully disagree with your point about BD's narration - for me it enhances the music program and adds to the show. Unlike The Cadets shows or really any show that has utilized voiceovers in the past, these voiceovers are music, or at least that's the way I perceive them. The show reminds me a lot of the music of the Dutch composer Jacob TV. Again, thanks for the review! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeeWee Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Thanks for the review! I always appreciate others sharing their perspectives on the corps shows. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmit26 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Totally agree about BD. Everyone around me wanted to love the show, but the narration completely ruined it. 9 of us all had the same impression. It gets in the way. It made some people feel like they weren't "in" on the story. Making your audience feel dumb isn't a way to increase enjoyment. After their show, we were musing on what the French guy was saying. Most of our theories were not flattering. If I watched the same show again with no narration I'd be a fan. but, as it stands, it just gets in the way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Thanks for the review. 'Very much enjoyed reading it and your personal take on all the Corps.... Great job ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I respectfully disagree with your point about BD's narration - for me it enhances the music program and adds to the show. Unlike The Cadets shows or really any show that has utilized voiceovers in the past, these voiceovers are music Well, I do agree with your point here. I guess for me it's as if they turned three minutes of their show over to a really really bad solo. I've mentioned elsewhere on DCP that using voice as music is something that I think is possible. Check out Kronos Quartet recordings of How it Happens and Different Trains, which build off the rhythms and pitches of the recorded voice to construct the musical elements. If a corps could pull *that* kind of thing off live (based, I'd presume, on recorded voice that was triggered by the synth player), that would be impressive. (Couldn't find a good recording you YouTube, but this WGI performance uses the Kronos "How it Happens" for the music: Or Different Trains (the voice doesn't come in till 40 seconds in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYnAQ-lK74A ) Even as the Cadets used it in 07 and 08, they punctuated the narration with performance. For BD, it's literally just background noise. I'm glad to know someone enjoys it, but I feel like it kills the effectiveness of the show. People around me I talked to were really impressed with various moments of the show (lots of "Wows" etc), but they were baffled by the narration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 Totally agree about BD. Everyone around me wanted to love the show, but the narration completely ruined it. 9 of us all had the same impression. It gets in the way. It made some people feel like they weren't "in" on the story. Making your audience feel dumb isn't a way to increase enjoyment. After their show, we were musing on what the French guy was saying. Most of our theories were not flattering. If I watched the same show again with no narration I'd be a fan. but, as it stands, it just gets in the way. Thanks for the comment! Yes, I felt the people around me had the same impression. The old timers behind me said, "well, that had a... variety of music". To be fair, BD got a strong standing ovation at the end of their performance, but the chatter afterwards was a lot of "uhhh... whahuh?". And like you, I think that subtract the narration and I'd be an unabashed fanboy of this show. It breaks my heart to think that I won't be able to enjoy it because of this one element. Maybe I'll get over it by the end of the season... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 A most enjoyable review. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Wow, fantastic review! I really enjoyed your insight, especially on BD's show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexL Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) Completely agree on BD's narration (was also there in waukee last night). Really distracts rather than adds to the show. Aside from that there's a lot i really liked about their show. Edited July 11, 2012 by AlexL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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