Blue Devils on top...really?

[En929]

I just got back from Rockford. It was a great show, but the lowlight for me was the Blue Devils show. In my opinion, it was by far the least audience engaging show of the night. They went on first, and I liked all the shows that followed better. And the the judges put them in first by a comfortable margin? I understand they are an extremely talented group of kids, but aren't the new scoring sheets supposed to reward entertaining and engaging the audience? They sounded like they were back to bleeps and blops which the judges apparently still eat up. Play a frickin melody that will leave me humming to myself after the show.

My only other gripe is that there were no 'instant encores' this year at this TOC event. Disappointing. Guess the corps wanted to get out of there. Long drive ahead of them.

Otherwise, the show was great. Great venue. Nice summer evening. Phantom was great. Also enjoyed the Cadets much more than I thought I would.

Blue Devils probably will win it again this year just like they did in 2009 (sadly). And I WILL be back to say something about it if they do win as I mentioned in my threads below this one.

[84BDsop]

Pretty much, and that' why I didn't march there. Winning was the end all/be all for me. Still won once, but that was more of a happy accident

I new sheets do say audience engagement, and given the length and content of this thread, they are engaging perfectly. There's nothing that says engagement with the fans needs to be screaming and cheering, it can be stunned silence and headaches. I wish "throwing babies" was on the judges sheets. that would really make the shows fun, trying to see who can throw them the farthest, and who gets the most. I assume they would use a big scale, or would they just count them out individually?

Look for System Blue trebuchets on sale at the souvie trailer!

[cixelsyd]

With all the talk about the "lack of" physical demand in BD's show and the gripes over it, why is it that no one really complains about a lack of physical demand in Phantoms show?

People have complained about that already - now you have, too.

Admittedly, not as many are lodging that complaint against Phantom Regiment compared to Blue Devils. But if Phantom Regiment was winning with a show that was lacking in some fundamental characteristic, the complaints would fly as readily as they do in this thread. It makes no difference which corps is the offender, or how many titles they have won in the past. Star of Indiana had just one title on their resume, and you should have heard the ruckus over their 1993 show.

[Jeff Ream]

Wait .. why am I being quoted here? I was making fun of the picture.

I could say tons of things I like and dislike about this show .. and I'll leave it (mostly)at that. But in regards to your last few sentences ... I know where you're at. I've been there myself. I didn't get 86 BD until I was about 25 years old. I had no appreciation for what's considered "modern jazz" at that point in my life. I can say the same for a few other shows that caught me off guard .. yet slowly worked their way into my psyche and eventually clicked in my brain.

That said, I still think the visual design of this years show is highly symmetrical, oversimplified, lacking velocity and requires a ton of individual focus rather than ensemble marching technique (with demand). This all fits into BD's formula ... so I'm not really griping. I dig the overall show .. I like the music being played (I loved it the first time around) ... and now .. I need to contradict myself:

I have often complained in years past about MOST, if not ALL, corps not using a slower movement in a lateral fashion that shows off superior marching technique. This is something I felt had been thrown out the window in fear of actually having to show technical excellence in exchange for velocity demand. Corps blow thru sets .... lean into everything .. afraid of doing a stop and go and lock into a set for fear it might not be "clean". Well, BD has so much of it in this show I have to eat my words .. I just wish they had a healthier mix of both. I fear with it .. they will be in the same boat that SCV was in Ballet for Martha (Not enough velocity or ensemble demand). In the end, I think this will come back to bite them ... or maybe Not.

It seems these days that BD has a side bet going amongst themselves to see how little conventionality they can get away with and still win. This is why ppl complain about chairs and mirrors and coat racks and whatever other kitchen sink they throw out there. Doesn't bother me a bit. I get why they do what they do.... I have little to object about. Doesn't mean I always like it or support it .. but I do respect them for their choices and the results that come from it. I'm just waiting for Moxley, Gibbs, Downey, Smith, Karlin and the rest of the gang to come out with a book in 20 years about how they gamed DCI year after year and still wound up with more Titles than any other corps in drum corps history. Should make for a great read and I want an advanced copy right now

I wouldnt exactly call Channel One modern jazz. it had been around for a while by the time they played in 76 let alone 86

[Jeff Ream]

There is perhaps some validity to this, "daring the judges/drum corps system," so to speak. Perhaps BD is taking an "anti-drum corps" stance, applying the anti-art, or anti-beauty, revolt of the original Dadaists of 1916-1923. For them, that entailed an absolute negation of not just notions of beauty in art (clarity, order, proportionality, harmony), but also the institutions that supported art and art history--ie, art museums, art academies, art criticism (reception of art). In so doing, their radical skepticism asked the ultimate question: "what IS art?" In that regard, they were similar to the Italian Futurists of the pre-World War One years (1909-1914). That is, negate the past--ie, destroy classical beauty, museums, glorify violence and dissonance, strive for Nietzsche's idea of "creation through destruction." Only open-ended anarchy of the future existed for the Futurists. The Dadaists, by contrast, not only negated the past and present social order, but also the future. They were borderline nihilists, echoing the existential mood in Europe during the 1920s and 30s. Interestingly, Marcel Duchamp took his anti-art stance to its logical conclusion: he stopped making art all together, taking up chess in the mid-1920s.

Applying Dada conceptual art to BD, perhaps BD is interrogating, or "daring," the drum corps activity in an aggressive way, including the judges or "art critics," to ask, "what is drum corps?" For BD's sake, hopefully they'll avoid Duchamp's negation of art making all together.

As for me, I learn more about Dada by going to art museums (Dada is now mainstream--post-modernism), lectures, and reading books about the movement in order to teach it to my students. Drum corps isn't educational in that regard.

I'm just wondering if at some point they will add in "daaa da da da, dooo do do do"

well, of course after getting the clearances from the Police

[supersop]

I wouldnt exactly call Channel One modern jazz. it had been around for a while by the time they played in 76 let alone 86

Couldn't think of a better term at the time .... it wasn't fusion .. bebop ... swing .. it was bigband .. but not classic bigband. Let's just say .. "THAT STYLE OF JAZZ". Add in the Maynard tunes and Modern kinda fit for me.

Edited July 16, 2012 by supersop

[soccerguy315]

This is my favorite BD show in quite a few years.

[GMichael1230]

Here's the thing:

The Blue Devils play to win the game. The are the masters of maxing out the sheets. The sheets include criteria about engaging the audience, and the Blue Devils do that VERY well. They say nothing about "entertainment". In fact, the word entertainment does not appear on any of the current sheets in any caption.

The second the DCI sheets include entertainment or "throwing babies" as criteria, you can bet your sweet arse that the Blue Devils will make you throw your baby faster, farther, and with greater accuracy than any other corps.

Why? Because they play to win the game.

Brilliant, true, and to the point. case closed.

G

[olddawg]

I know my post total is low, but I gotta say that I'm diggin' this year's BD. I somewhat enjoyed 07 and 08. Didn't care for 09-11 or much of anything prior to 07 going back to 93. There's a ton of demand if people let themselves see it. The battery, as usual, is playing a ton of notes that I hope to see get cleaned instead of hosed. The narration doesn't really bother me in the show, although I certainly think it is not necessary in drum corps.

It's a good production that is deisgned very well. It's absolutely not the disconnected design that has hampered Rosemont this year (hopefully getting fixed, fingers crossed). Will they end up on top in August? Who knows, holmes. Just enjoy the show.

[kardy66]

I just got back from Rockford. It was a great show, but the lowlight for me was the Blue Devils show. In my opinion, it was by far the least audience engaging show of the night. They went on first, and I liked all the shows that followed better. And the the judges put them in first by a comfortable margin? I understand they are an extremely talented group of kids, but aren't the new scoring sheets supposed to reward entertaining and engaging the audience? They sounded like they were back to bleeps and blops which the judges apparently still eat up. Play a frickin melody that will leave me humming to myself after the show.

My only other gripe is that there were no 'instant encores' this year at this TOC event. Disappointing. Guess the corps wanted to get out of there. Long drive ahead of them.

Otherwise, the show was great. Great venue. Nice summer evening. Phantom was great. Also enjoyed the Cadets much more than I thought I would.

I was at the show in rockford and I was very disapointed with the blue devils as well as the cavaliers. the blue devils are incredibly talented and are trained very well. execution in all captions. but their show totally lacks in drill. virtually NO interesting FORM DEVELOPMENT. infact it frequently lacks in form all together. coordination must not be on the GE sheet anymore. are we trending toward a circus act? WGI judges on all 3 visual captions has resulted in shows with an overkill by color guards. the guards now are working a hundred miles an hour through the entire program. how can you support music development that grows and build to creating a strong climax. Oh, I forgot. we now longer have musical development, builds and climaxes. now we have a phrase or strain of something. it sounds like a bunch of etudes. Phantom had a very coordinated and tastefull program.