Crown is... just okay.

[the lone ranger]

Holy crap..... I guess that's it folks. BD bought up all the pink, yellow, and stripes in the world and Crown was left without COLOR! They lose!

It's a drumcorps show. Who gives crap what color drapes are on the windows. This isn't freaking Project Runway... IT'S DRUMCORPS!

I thought it was about marching, and playing, and spinning, not what costume you choose out of the FJM catalog.

I feel like I just ate the best #### steak ever and someone just told me that Applebees has better steaks because their forks are shinier.

Good point

[the lone ranger]

And a color guards purpose is the visually interpret the music within the show. That requires changes in the color palette .... usually a visual contrast between the corps and the guard. If we can't FIND the color guard .. we can't see what they're spinning. IE, it isn't adding to the effect of the program .... in fact it's not adding very much at all in those terms.

Nobody is trying to ruin your steak dinner .... not by any means. We're just implying to you that there's no desert.

I guess if your colorblind, you can't enjoy the music in motion that is drum corps! If you can't see crowns guard, you are blind. Obviously the judges don't mind. With crown being .2 behind devils guard of every color in the spectrum. The judges must like the design choices crown is making. The desert to me is the extreme range of difficulty of long connected phrases over time and the musicality of the book. Things crown is just flat out better at than blue devils. IMHO

The risks crown takes as it relates to guard and effect are some all or nothing sit on the edge of your seat moments and lose your mind when it's nailed. I just don't see those moments ever in bd. they don't ever even face the same way when they take minimal risk!

[CrownBadger]

And a color guards purpose is the visually interpret the music within the show. That requires changes in the color palette .... usually a visual contrast between the corps and the guard. If we can't FIND the color guard .. we can't see what they're spinning. IE, it isn't adding to the effect of the program .... in fact it's not adding very much at all in those terms.

Nobody is trying to ruin your steak dinner .... not by any means. We're just implying to you that there's no desert.

The color guard is going farther than just interpreting the music...they're interpreting THE SHOW THEME!!! As stated earlier in the season, the first half of the show is set to demonstrate individual achievement. Thus the reason you have the solos and segmented difficulty. The second half of the show is suppose to combine everyone together to show what can be accomplished as a group. Therefore, the brass line, percussion, and color guard uniforms ALL LOOK THE SAME. When people say they only see an ocean of cream on the field I have to restrain myself from hitting my head against the table because that's suppose to be the point of that segment! To say that there needs to be more color here, not seeing the color guard here, and comments like that is overlooking the overall point.

I'm not particularly calling you out for this because there are a lot of others, but it's just interesting to see people complain about not getting BD's show and all the drama with that when people don't take the time to get Crown's show and all it offers.

[Sideways]

The lovefest for Crown is truly based on the quality of brass sound and approach to the instrument. They really can't be touched in this area.

We all know they are dirty, although I seeing the dots clean up on the whiplash jazzrunning sets. They still need to clean from dot to dot. Lots of control issues. If they square their shoulders better ... it will at least clean the top half of the corps and make things more readable while they're in transition. It's getting there.... so I see the light at the end of the tunnel potentially.

Percussion did some hosing and even that was really bad tonight. I'd like to offer that the battery had a sub-par run by their current standards last night. I still don't see them getting higher than 5th in percussion by finals ... but corps have won with 5th place drumlines in the past.

The big Fanfare section that is extended ... what I asked for in June is now becoming more clear. The body work on the ground is not effective ... or not as effective as they had hoped .. and for the hardliners .. it's offensive (not even borderline). This chunk of the show could really go places if they marched about 10 more sets and stayed off the ground ... keeping it classic drum corps for a classic drum corps moment. It's not bad by any means .. but it could definitely be much better.

They still have the big issue of visual variety. Too much big spacing and block/grid sets in this show. The field coverage is massive .. they win the trophy for super flight ..... but it's missing the mark.

I won't comment on guard ... I never really see them in this show due to the heavy integration and lack of color change from the corps proper. They just blend too well. The cube section (where the brass are mostly on the ground) takes way too long to develop .. and the message gets lost.

Just some key points and thoughts on what the staff can do to tweak the show (not that they'll ever read this). But those are my thoughts on how to make this show a winner and a classic. Either way ... I'm in awe of this brass line .. they're velocity while playing ... and the total musical package.

cliff notes: Make the visual compensate for the slower paced music .. and this show will cook. And clean it up!

That about sums up my feelings. Visually there is a ton going but to what effect? They are really missing the mark in communication, mostly for all of Dan's reason above and personally I just cannot get past the lack of color. Even the big switch from black to silver I did not see till my 4-5 viewing on the Fan Network (I am sure would have seen that live though).

If they don't make some of the above changes they may end up being caught by Phantom or Cadets, my money is on Cadets since they have way more room to clean and have a solid edge in percussion.