DCI Atlanta

[hardlyworking]

I don't think I've posted a show review since 2007 (account that I don't use anymore), but this year was also the first time since then that I've gone to a regional and watched every single corps...well, almost every single one. The train was running a bit late, so we missed CorpsVets and showed up halfway through Pioneer's show. I'm going to start my review with the Colts, since up to that point, we were sitting in a spot where we really couldn't hear much at all. We moved down to a lower level during that first intermission. Anyway, here we go:

Colts: We were still trying to find seats while you guys were performing, but I definitely liked what I heard. "All By Myself"/Rach 2 at the end was great - digging the trumpet soloist! It would be nice to see them back in Finals, but unfortunately there are more than 12 corps that deserve to be in the Top 12 this year (though that definitely says something about the quality of performances we're getting this year!).

Troopers: This show just didn't do much for me. I thought the opening infinity chord moment was pretty cool, but nothing really stood out to me after that.

The Academy: The pink and purple took a second to adjust to, but I'm fine with it. The music? Not so much. That's a hard thing for me to say, because I love the Rite of Spring (seeing the ASO perform it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to). I just don't think the music does what the designers intended for it to do. This show is supposed to be Stravinsky "revisited," right? It just sounds like Stravinsky "arranged for drum corps." I don't know. It's a good show, but it could be better.

(I should add that because of where we were sitting during these corps - right near the concessions - we could not hear ANY quiet moments in any of these shows whatsoever. That changed when we moved again for the last portion of the show, starting with Boston.)

Glassmen: They sounded better live than on the San Antonio webcast, I'll give them that. I don't really understand the concept, but the music is good. The "Organ Symphony" part at the end sounds a lot better, too (on the webcast, it sounded like majority electronic organ, which I was definitely not a fan of). I don't really have much else to say about this show.

Crossmen: This was the first show that really stuck out to me. A strong show that really grooves in a lot of places. Wish I could have heard the soloists more than I did (but it wasn't their fault - just the fault of where I happened to be sitting). I would really love to see this show in Finals. This show really seems to encompass their identity more so than in years past.

Blue Stars: A show with a very easy theme. Water. Okay, we get it...kind of. Is there something I'm missing? Is it about exploring the ocean to find new lands or something? It just didn't seem very clear to me. I really enjoyed their treatment of Dvorak 9, though. A lot of corps have done that piece over the years, but the last time I enjoyed it this much was whenever I would watch Phantom 1989 (not live, unfortunately - too busy being born and stuff).

Blue Knights: Your color choice is weird. Not bad, just...weird. However, that's really the only complaint I have about this show. LOVE the source music, they play it very well, and I like the dancing, too! I've always liked the dancing...hell, I almost marched there because of it! To go back to the colors for a second, I understand why you add the red and everything, but...I figure this probably would have been way too hard to pull off successfully, but wouldn't it have been cool if you could have found a way for the hornline and drumline to change their uniforms to all red, too (similar to SCV with the pants-changing tunnel)? Again, probably too hard to pull off, but I think that would definitely bump them up a point or two.

Spirit of Atlanta: They got the biggest reaction of the night so far...before playing even a single note! I really like this show. Like Blue Stars, it has a theme that's easy to understand from the get-go...but I feel like Spirit pulls their concept off just a little better. The Latin arrangement of "Luck Be A Lady" is my favorite part of the show by far. It felt very 90's to me. Not a huge fan of the voiceovers in the closer. Overall, glad to see this corps continue to work their way up. Definitely looking forward to whatever they have in store for us next year!

Madison Scouts: This show presents a problem for me - I want to love it, and yet I can't until the very end. Everything that leads up to that rotating company front just isn't as exciting as the company front itself. It's like they suddenly turn on a switch and say "Okay guys, NOW we're gonna be awesome." Just be awesome the whole time! That's why I love old-school Madison so much. This show is almost there. Almost.

Intermission: Delicious! Instead of buying the ridiculously overpriced personal pans that Papa John's sells at the Dome, my friend just ordered pizza on his phone and we walked over to the Papa John's by the Dome and just picked that up...got WAY more pizza (and breadsticks) for just a few bucks more.

Boston Crusaders: I haven't liked Boston the past few years. Why? Not because of what they're playing, but because of how they're playing it. I don't like their arrangements. Something about them...it's just never clicked with me. This year, however, was better. Still not great, but definitely better. Also, now that I've finally heard him live, and assuming that it's the same guy from 2011 - that baritone soloist is fantastic! What a sound! Overall, this corps is gradually working its way back into my favorites. I may have to listen to this show a few more times.

Cavaliers: Okay...this was probably the clearest this show concept has been to me so far. It's still not that great. They sound a lot better (it really is nice to be getting some volume from the Cavies after those years of mezzo-forte hornlines). The ballad was probably my favorite part of the show. I do not understand the dance section at the end AT ALL. To me, it is the textbook definition of "tacked on for no reason." Yeah, it got the crowd off their feet, but it doesn't add anything to the show.

Cadets: Overall, this is a great show. I really like it. Hornline sounded weak from where I was, but that probably had less to do with them and more with my location. Cadets shows are always lots of fun to watch. Like most people on here, I feel like the Jingle Bells section needs to be just a bit longer and not end so abruptly (a screamer might be nice, too...just sayin'). However, this was also the first time I've ever heard that mellophone soloist...bravo! Such an exposed part and he/she handles it beautifully! The ending is your typical breakneck, in-your-face Cadets ending...but I feel like there's something missing. Maybe. I definitely like it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw even more changes with that ending over these next two weeks.

Bluecoats: I saw a lot more things happening in the show this time, but frankly, it just made me understand the show less. I didn't get the random words being spoken over the music (somebody listed "rape" as one of the words...did they really say that? I never heard it). Hornline sounds fantastic as usual. Would have liked to have heard that tuba feature a little better, but I couldn't because of my location/people cheering at something before that covered it up. I want to see this show again. I liked it before, but after seeing it live, I'm surprisingly back on the fence.

Santa Clara Vanguard: These guys have always been my favorite from year to year, and it's hard to see any reason for that not being the case this year. This is the SCV that I love (though there was definitely nothing wrong with last year's SCV, either)! I'm okay with them using John Mackey's music in their show. I don't like his stuff at all, but SCV definitely played "Hymn To A Blue Hour" very well. The hornline has power this year, but they're dirty. Every time I've seen them, I always wind up placing them lower than they actually score. Maybe it's just because they're my favorites and I'm being too hard on them.

(I have a lot to say about BD, so I'll save them for the end)

Phantom Regiment: This show reminds me so much of 2006 and 2008, which is always a good thing! I know there's a story, but I'm not gonna lie - I just wasn't paying attention to it. I was taking in all of the great music that Phantom was giving me, as they're always known to do. I would have loved to have heard the soloist in "Nessun Dorma" a bit more. Would he have been easier to hear if I were sitting closer to the center? If not, and I know this is blasphemous talk around here, but he might need to be mic'd. I just couldn't hear him over the hornline's backfield chords. Other than this, this is another great year for Phantom. I had them above Cadets, honestly.

Crown: This is definitely the best show they have ever put out. This is definitely the closest they have ever been to winning. Do I think they can win it all? Based on what I saw in Atlanta...no. My overall problem with this show is that a lot of it is just difficult for the sake of being difficult, and they're not pulling all of it off successfully. The timpani/bass drum thing during "Fanfare For The Common Man" NEEDS TO CHANGE. It's still not clean, and it was even worse in the Dome with the echo. If they can find a way to make it work, great...but, there's less than two weeks left in the summer, and it's still not working. Either fix it or scrap it entirely. Also, I get that Crown's tuning during "Fanfare" is great, but the hornline's attacks were only together about 70% of the time (and I definitely didn't make that statistic up on the spot right now). It's great what they're trying to do, but the exposed parts are SO exposed and SO not 100% clean yet, and it's really holding them back. I would love for them to fix it in what little time is left in the season (and if they do fix it, I think they could definitely win), but I just don't know if they can...

Blue Devils: Okay. This show. This ####### show. I'll be the first person to admit that I don't understand it...but that hasn't stopped me from loving it. I'll get into the Dada business in just a second, but what I saw Saturday night proved to me that the Blue Devils deserve to win this year. They're not totally clean yet, but they are definitely cleaner than every other corps that I saw that day. Yes, I know, everybody and their mother has been saying that BD's only cleaner because their show is easier. Allow me to argue against that. Crown's show is blatantly difficult. Every section is hauling ### around the field playing runs upon runs upon runs. BD does plenty of difficult things in their show...only difference is that it doesn't look difficult to us. Getting louder while moving backfield, moving in unison while alternating between straight eighth-notes and quintuplets, crazy chromatic runs (not like the accelerating line that Crown's mellos have...the majority of that part can be played by pushing down only the first valve). Since it's not blatantly difficult, we make the mistake of assuming that it must be easy.

Now, as for the Dada stuff...I've talked to many people that haven't liked this show, and they all have one thing in common...they don't know what Dada is. However, that's the beauty of the internet - one can just go to Wikipedia, click on the search bar, press D-A-D-A, then Enter, and there you have it! More information about Dada than one would probably ever need. However, it's still worth reading, because it really does help the show make a lot more sense. For instance, did you know that "Dada" in French means "hobbyhorse?" A hobbyhorse, just in case you don't know, is an old toy where it's just a stick with a horse head on the end. The term could also apply to a rocking horse, and the uniform racks in the show sure do look like rocking horses...but I really think that's as deep as that meaning goes. Now let's talk less about the literal translation of Dada, and more about the meaning of the movement.

According to Wikipedia, Dadaism is supposed to represent everything that art did not. To directly quote the article, "Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics."

I feel like the part that I bolded sums up BD's show better than anything else I've read...after all, the show is supposed to be an example of Dadaism. If you don't like it, then congratulations, you're just like all the other people in the early 1900's that also didn't like it. I mean, this stuff pretty much laid the groundwork for surrealism - I don't think BD ever intended for this to be easily accessible. It's something new. I've never seen a drum corps show like this before, and will most likely never see one like this ever again. All this "out there" music isn't bad. It's just different. You can't expect to listen to something like this and walk away feeling fulfilled, like you had just listened to a Beethoven symphony or something. Music/art/shows that intend to be outside of the norm should never be viewed as "bad." Different does not equal bad. Sometimes, we have to listen to it more than once. You don't need to be a genius to understand it.

NOTE: I'm not saying that all the BD haters are wrong - if you don't like it, you don't like it. But, I encourage you, don't automatically dismiss it as bad just because it's not designed like Crown's show. It's not a traditional drum corps show, just like Dadaism is not traditional art.

Okay...wow, I think I rambled enough. That's my review/dissertation. Hope you enjoyed it!

[jwillis35]

Excellent review!!

[wesleyrp]

Great Review

[DDFIddle]

You missed the best show of the day. Jersey Surf tribute to the Bridgemen. Too bad they were on so early---- you would have gotten your money's worth if you just saw this performance.

I don't think I've posted a show review since 2007 (account that I don't use anymore), but this year was also the first time since then that I've gone to a regional and watched every single corps...well, almost every single one. The train was running a bit late, so we missed CorpsVets and showed up halfway through Pioneer's show. I'm going to start my review with the Colts, since up to that point, we were sitting in a spot where we really couldn't hear much at all. We moved down to a lower level during that first intermission. Anyway, here we go:

Colts: We were still trying to find seats while you guys were performing, but I definitely liked what I heard. "All By Myself"/Rach 2 at the end was great - digging the trumpet soloist! It would be nice to see them back in Finals, but unfortunately there are more than 12 corps that deserve to be in the Top 12 this year (though that definitely says something about the quality of performances we're getting this year!).

Troopers: This show just didn't do much for me. I thought the opening infinity chord moment was pretty cool, but nothing really stood out to me after that.

The Academy: The pink and purple took a second to adjust to, but I'm fine with it. The music? Not so much. That's a hard thing for me to say, because I love the Rite of Spring (seeing the ASO perform it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to). I just don't think the music does what the designers intended for it to do. This show is supposed to be Stravinsky "revisited," right? It just sounds like Stravinsky "arranged for drum corps." I don't know. It's a good show, but it could be better.

(I should add that because of where we were sitting during these corps - right near the concessions - we could not hear ANY quiet moments in any of these shows whatsoever. That changed when we moved again for the last portion of the show, starting with Boston.)

Glassmen: They sounded better live than on the San Antonio webcast, I'll give them that. I don't really understand the concept, but the music is good. The "Organ Symphony" part at the end sounds a lot better, too (on the webcast, it sounded like majority electronic organ, which I was definitely not a fan of). I don't really have much else to say about this show.

Crossmen: This was the first show that really stuck out to me. A strong show that really grooves in a lot of places. Wish I could have heard the soloists more than I did (but it wasn't their fault - just the fault of where I happened to be sitting). I would really love to see this show in Finals. This show really seems to encompass their identity more so than in years past.

Blue Stars: A show with a very easy theme. Water. Okay, we get it...kind of. Is there something I'm missing? Is it about exploring the ocean to find new lands or something? It just didn't seem very clear to me. I really enjoyed their treatment of Dvorak 9, though. A lot of corps have done that piece over the years, but the last time I enjoyed it this much was whenever I would watch Phantom 1989 (not live, unfortunately - too busy being born and stuff).

Blue Knights: Your color choice is weird. Not bad, just...weird. However, that's really the only complaint I have about this show. LOVE the source music, they play it very well, and I like the dancing, too! I've always liked the dancing...hell, I almost marched there because of it! To go back to the colors for a second, I understand why you add the red and everything, but...I figure this probably would have been way too hard to pull off successfully, but wouldn't it have been cool if you could have found a way for the hornline and drumline to change their uniforms to all red, too (similar to SCV with the pants-changing tunnel)? Again, probably too hard to pull off, but I think that would definitely bump them up a point or two.

Spirit of Atlanta: They got the biggest reaction of the night so far...before playing even a single note! I really like this show. Like Blue Stars, it has a theme that's easy to understand from the get-go...but I feel like Spirit pulls their concept off just a little better. The Latin arrangement of "Luck Be A Lady" is my favorite part of the show by far. It felt very 90's to me. Not a huge fan of the voiceovers in the closer. Overall, glad to see this corps continue to work their way up. Definitely looking forward to whatever they have in store for us next year!

Madison Scouts: This show presents a problem for me - I want to love it, and yet I can't until the very end. Everything that leads up to that rotating company front just isn't as exciting as the company front itself. It's like they suddenly turn on a switch and say "Okay guys, NOW we're gonna be awesome." Just be awesome the whole time! That's why I love old-school Madison so much. This show is almost there. Almost.

Intermission: Delicious! Instead of buying the ridiculously overpriced personal pans that Papa John's sells at the Dome, my friend just ordered pizza on his phone and we walked over to the Papa John's by the Dome and just picked that up...got WAY more pizza (and breadsticks) for just a few bucks more.

Boston Crusaders: I haven't liked Boston the past few years. Why? Not because of what they're playing, but because of how they're playing it. I don't like their arrangements. Something about them...it's just never clicked with me. This year, however, was better. Still not great, but definitely better. Also, now that I've finally heard him live, and assuming that it's the same guy from 2011 - that baritone soloist is fantastic! What a sound! Overall, this corps is gradually working its way back into my favorites. I may have to listen to this show a few more times.

Cavaliers: Okay...this was probably the clearest this show concept has been to me so far. It's still not that great. They sound a lot better (it really is nice to be getting some volume from the Cavies after those years of mezzo-forte hornlines). The ballad was probably my favorite part of the show. I do not understand the dance section at the end AT ALL. To me, it is the textbook definition of "tacked on for no reason." Yeah, it got the crowd off their feet, but it doesn't add anything to the show.

Cadets: Overall, this is a great show. I really like it. Hornline sounded weak from where I was, but that probably had less to do with them and more with my location. Cadets shows are always lots of fun to watch. Like most people on here, I feel like the Jingle Bells section needs to be just a bit longer and not end so abruptly (a screamer might be nice, too...just sayin'). However, this was also the first time I've ever heard that mellophone soloist...bravo! Such an exposed part and he/she handles it beautifully! The ending is your typical breakneck, in-your-face Cadets ending...but I feel like there's something missing. Maybe. I definitely like it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw even more changes with that ending over these next two weeks.

Bluecoats: I saw a lot more things happening in the show this time, but frankly, it just made me understand the show less. I didn't get the random words being spoken over the music (somebody listed "rape" as one of the words...did they really say that? I never heard it). Hornline sounds fantastic as usual. Would have liked to have heard that tuba feature a little better, but I couldn't because of my location/people cheering at something before that covered it up. I want to see this show again. I liked it before, but after seeing it live, I'm surprisingly back on the fence.

Santa Clara Vanguard: These guys have always been my favorite from year to year, and it's hard to see any reason for that not being the case this year. This is the SCV that I love (though there was definitely nothing wrong with last year's SCV, either)! I'm okay with them using John Mackey's music in their show. I don't like his stuff at all, but SCV definitely played "Hymn To A Blue Hour" very well. The hornline has power this year, but they're dirty. Every time I've seen them, I always wind up placing them lower than they actually score. Maybe it's just because they're my favorites and I'm being too hard on them.

(I have a lot to say about BD, so I'll save them for the end)

Phantom Regiment: This show reminds me so much of 2006 and 2008, which is always a good thing! I know there's a story, but I'm not gonna lie - I just wasn't paying attention to it. I was taking in all of the great music that Phantom was giving me, as they're always known to do. I would have loved to have heard the soloist in "Nessun Dorma" a bit more. Would he have been easier to hear if I were sitting closer to the center? If not, and I know this is blasphemous talk around here, but he might need to be mic'd. I just couldn't hear him over the hornline's backfield chords. Other than this, this is another great year for Phantom. I had them above Cadets, honestly.

Crown: This is definitely the best show they have ever put out. This is definitely the closest they have ever been to winning. Do I think they can win it all? Based on what I saw in Atlanta...no. My overall problem with this show is that a lot of it is just difficult for the sake of being difficult, and they're not pulling all of it off successfully. The timpani/bass drum thing during "Fanfare For The Common Man" NEEDS TO CHANGE. It's still not clean, and it was even worse in the Dome with the echo. If they can find a way to make it work, great...but, there's less than two weeks left in the summer, and it's still not working. Either fix it or scrap it entirely. Also, I get that Crown's tuning during "Fanfare" is great, but the hornline's attacks were only together about 70% of the time (and I definitely didn't make that statistic up on the spot right now). It's great what they're trying to do, but the exposed parts are SO exposed and SO not 100% clean yet, and it's really holding them back. I would love for them to fix it in what little time is left in the season (and if they do fix it, I think they could definitely win), but I just don't know if they can...

Blue Devils: Okay. This show. This ####### show. I'll be the first person to admit that I don't understand it...but that hasn't stopped me from loving it. I'll get into the Dada business in just a second, but what I saw Saturday night proved to me that the Blue Devils deserve to win this year. They're not totally clean yet, but they are definitely cleaner than every other corps that I saw that day. Yes, I know, everybody and their mother has been saying that BD's only cleaner because their show is easier. Allow me to argue against that. Crown's show is blatantly difficult. Every section is hauling ### around the field playing runs upon runs upon runs. BD does plenty of difficult things in their show...only difference is that it doesn't look difficult to us. Getting louder while moving backfield, moving in unison while alternating between straight eighth-notes and quintuplets, crazy chromatic runs (not like the accelerating line that Crown's mellos have...the majority of that part can be played by pushing down only the first valve). Since it's not blatantly difficult, we make the mistake of assuming that it must be easy.

Now, as for the Dada stuff...I've talked to many people that haven't liked this show, and they all have one thing in common...they don't know what Dada is. However, that's the beauty of the internet - one can just go to Wikipedia, click on the search bar, press D-A-D-A, then Enter, and there you have it! More information about Dada than one would probably ever need. However, it's still worth reading, because it really does help the show make a lot more sense. For instance, did you know that "Dada" in French means "hobbyhorse?" A hobbyhorse, just in case you don't know, is an old toy where it's just a stick with a horse head on the end. The term could also apply to a rocking horse, and the uniform racks in the show sure do look like rocking horses...but I really think that's as deep as that meaning goes. Now let's talk less about the literal translation of Dada, and more about the meaning of the movement.

According to Wikipedia, Dadaism is supposed to represent everything that art did not. To directly quote the article, "Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics."

I feel like the part that I bolded sums up BD's show better than anything else I've read...after all, the show is supposed to be an example of Dadaism. If you don't like it, then congratulations, you're just like all the other people in the early 1900's that also didn't like it. I mean, this stuff pretty much laid the groundwork for surrealism - I don't think BD ever intended for this to be easily accessible. It's something new. I've never seen a drum corps show like this before, and will most likely never see one like this ever again. All this "out there" music isn't bad. It's just different. You can't expect to listen to something like this and walk away feeling fulfilled, like you had just listened to a Beethoven symphony or something. Music/art/shows that intend to be outside of the norm should never be viewed as "bad." Different does not equal bad. Sometimes, we have to listen to it more than once. You don't need to be a genius to understand it.

NOTE: I'm not saying that all the BD haters are wrong - if you don't like it, you don't like it. But, I encourage you, don't automatically dismiss it as bad just because it's not designed like Crown's show. It's not a traditional drum corps show, just like Dadaism is not traditional art.

Okay...wow, I think I rambled enough. That's my review/dissertation. Hope you enjoyed it!

[hardlyworking]

You missed the best show of the day. Jersey Surf tribute to the Bridgemen. Too bad they were on so early---- you would have gotten your money's worth if you just saw this performance.

And you clearly missed the first part of my review, which you quoted btw, where I said I DID see every corps that day (aside from CorpsVets and half of Pioneer). The only reason I didn't give reviews of any of the corps before Colts was because I wasn't sitting in a good enough place to judge their sound. However, to please you, I will say that Jersey Surf had a great show.

Also, my ticket was free, so I got my money's worth no matter what!

Edited July 30, 2012 by hardlyworking

[pnmtech]

And you clearly missed the first part of my review, which you quoted btw, where I said I DID see every corps that day (aside from CorpsVets and half of Pioneer). The only reason I didn't give reviews of any of the corps before Colts was because I wasn't sitting in a good enough place to judge their sound. However, to please you, I will say that Jersey Surf had a great show.

Also, my ticket was free, so I got my money's worth no matter what!

Love the review, Thanks! All my wife did was talk about Jersey Serf all night! lol I wish i'd seen it live!

[PeeWee]

Thank you for your review.

I believe the asynchronous bass drums in Crowns show are very much intentional. If you listen to an orchestra recording of Fanfare for the Common Man you should hear exactly the same thing.

And thanks for enlightening us on BDs show. I don't like it necessarily because it's different. I don't like it because it's more like a WGI show (pre-recorded voices, guard staging) and I don't feel soloists need to use microphones, esp. BD soloists.

Thanks again