Drums Along the Rockies Review

[08ThunderBass5]

This year, I made the trip down to Denver to visit my brother and we got to spend the last two days getting our nerd on with some corps. We watched SCV and Blue Devils rehearse Friday night although we spent approximately one hour at the BD rehearsal before leaving...more on that later. Today, we watched Crown rehearse all day which was very cool; I'd never seen them rehearse before. Here are my thoughts from the show! Keeping in mind that everything here is opinion based.....and nothing more! Sorry if we disagree!

Venue: I'd never been to this show before. Love the lot setup, love the stadium, it was all great. Wish parking weren't so expensive and difficult to navigate after the show but it's all good. The new big screen in the stadium is quite nice; dug it. Video guys did a great job coming up with recaps to play during intermission/post show. I also appreciated the crowd there. It was the most unbiased crowd I'd ever seen! If they liked something, they cheered for it! If they didn't like it, they didn't cheer! I thought it was going to be a BK-Fest since it was their home show but they actually had a much larger reaction to Vanguard and Troop.

Thunder: As a Thunder alumn, I was happy to see this corps doing well. They had new drums this year which looked great. Show design was appropriate for their level. Drums were a little rough but attempting some pretty aggressive stuff which I liked. Lots of cool visual stuff and the brass was a pleasant surprise. Wish the show as a touch longer but they had a short tour; this was their final show for the season.

Cascades: Definitely not what I expected. I knew they had a rough 2012 season but I thought it would improve a little this year....unfortunately it didn't. The corps was very small; maybe under 100? Can't remember. Drums were definitely the best part of the group. They only had six guard and their brass was outplayed by Thunder (not just my opinion either; that's what everyone around me was saying). Show design was smart and solid but lacked impact I felt. However for now I think cleaning the music and visual should be their focus. I hope the brass can produce some more sound and these guys can step up a little.

Troopers: Wow! LOVED THESE GUYS! Despite the fact that Casper is close to Denver, the crowd still gave these guys a ton of love! They are doing some old school stuff and I loved the use of the American flag throughout the show. The Rennicks wrote the percussion book this year and it is very tasty and very appropriate. Overall, I thought the drums stepped it up a lot this year. Brass was loud and impressive, guard did a few old school tricks I liked and then managed to keep my attention the rest of the show as well. I had no complaints about this show. It was well designed and the execution is coming along nicely. Visual is probably the area I thought they needed the most improvement. I think this show could make top 12 though.......First standing ovation of the night.

Academy; First time seeing Academy since 2010. New uniforms look cool. They have a lot of sparkle/bling on the field this year! Bass drum heads are shiny and catch your attention. Andre is doing a nice job with the brass, drums were a touch rough but coming along. I thought the weak point in this show was the design in between the impact points. They are working the crowd a bit as a pre-show and then recalling it throughout the show (there's a guy on the mic talking to the crowd). It works well for the theme but then in between, they lose me a bit. I guess it's a little flat. Cool show concept though, I just hope they can grab people's attention a little more in between those "wow-moments"

Santa Clara Vanguard; Hands down, my favorite Vanguard show since 2009. This show is simply beautiful. The first time I saw their ballad in rehearsal last night, it almost got me all teared up! So beautiful! They clear the entire horn and drumline from the field and put them behind the props and then the guard does a beautiful dance feature. Too cool; you have to see it! Paul and Sandy Rennick wrote yet another amazing percussion book that was RIDICULOUS clean for early July! These guys appear to be untouchable in drums right now; no one else was even close tonight. The show is beautiful, it's well designed and it entertained the crowd. My only fear is that there's not enough demand and that they will peak early. Also, the brass has a much better blend/tone this year but the technical stuff is getting them and I think that's what's bringing their brass score down. If they can improve the technical side of things, they will be in a great place. LOVED THIS SHOW! Favorite of the night by a lot!

Blue Devils; Okay. I know that DCP is notorious for this but I'm going to vent a little.....BD; please. Stop. People are not buying this weird stuff anymore. The alumni are and the die hards are but I actually felt bad for the corps members tonight. I'm not exaggerating when I say it took 2-3 minutes for them to get any sort of crowd reaction from their show. The show is out there again this year....just like last year. It's kinda clean? But, we spent some time at rehearsal last night and could not believe what we saw. Everything was very sloppy across all captions except guard and the rehearsal was extremely lazy. We spent a little over an hour there before we'd had enough and returned to watch SCV. I'm being impartial here folks; I'm just saying what I saw and what I saw at rehearsal was not good. In the show tonight it was a lot better but the drums had some really rough spots and the brass was very bright with individuals popping out frequently. I was surprised to see they won brass truth be told. The show like I said is very weird. You won't hear any triads in it. Lots of thick/wacky chords and the show ends with improv. Literally everyone playing something different. There was a 2-3 second gap before the audience realized the show was over and started clapping. Like I said, I felt bad for the members as they had to endure pitty applause for 75% of the show. Some positives though were the guard and the props (although they still need some cleaning). They had some cool body visual stuff in the opener I liked too.

Crown; I spent the day checking this show out. Brass was simply gorgeous in rehearsal but got a little bright in the show tonight which is probably why they didn't take it. If they played like they did in rehearsal, it would have been no contest. The show is really cool if you are familiar with Einstein on the Beach. If you aren't, it's going to get confusing! Drums are definitely the weak section but truth be told the show as a whole might be a touch over written. If they can pull all this stuff off, this is a championship show no doubt. But, I'm not sure if they can handle the drum or the visual book. Brass will get their book I think; they are sounding great as always! New uniforms are cool! They look good on the field and it's something different. The rolling bass drums are really cool but underused in my opinion. I LOVED the gongs, timpani and bells surrounding the field; really cool touch! The ballad had a huge bit of narration which I didn't mind for some reason...I usually hate it. I liked the show but I did spend all day with it. I can see why some people are confused by it and not liking it as much.

Blue Knights; They made the switch to Mapex drums this year which was interesting. Lower basses were cranked way too high for me, tenors had scoops which was interesting and snares were very wet. Brass was very very pleasantly surprising! I loved their sound. It was big and full and usually in control. The biggest flaw with BK this year is the design I think. They have great people designing the show but it was really flat to me. It just didn't seem to go anywhere and the hometown crowd didn't not give them much love. They had a sweet tambourine feature which I liked! Yeah, this corps is pretty solid this year but I'm worried that their show will hold them back. We'll see what happens.

I'm really glad I made it out this year; I'll probably be back in future years! Thanks to the organizational staff for DATR for putting on a great event. Can't wait to see what happens for the rest of the season!

[somerville]

Excellent review, thanks!

[DCfan76]

Excellent review, thanks! :thumbup:/>

Thanks! Great review.

BTW - I was very impressed with Thunder. A good group - hope they can tour more next year.

[shaners]

Thanks!

[N.E. Brigand]

Blue Devils: okay. I know that DCP is notorious for this, but I'm going to vent a little: BD, please. Stop. People are not buying this weird stuff anymore. The alumni are, and the die hards are, but I actually felt bad for the corps members tonight. I'm not exaggerating when I say it took two to three minutes for them to get any sort of crowd reaction from their show. The show is out there again this year, just like last year. It's kinda clean? But we spent some time at rehearsal last night and could not believe what we saw. Everything was very sloppy across all captions except guard, and the rehearsal was extremely lazy. We spent a little over an hour there before we'd had enough and returned to watch SCV. I'm being impartial here, folks; I'm just saying what I saw, and what I saw at rehearsal was not good. In the show tonight, it was a lot better, but the drums had some really rough spots, and the brass was very bright with individuals popping out frequently. I was surprised to see they won brass, truth be told. The show, like I said, is very weird. You won't hear any triads in it. Lots of thick/wacky chords and the show ends with improv. Literally everyone playing something different. There was a two to three second gap before the audience realized the show was over and started clapping. Like I said, I felt bad for the members, as they had to endure pity applause for 75% of the show. Some positives, though, were the guard and the props (although they still need some cleaning). They had some cool body visual stuff in the opener I liked too.

Thanks for a thorough report.

However BD conducts their rehearsals, it seems to work very well for them most of the time. I think Plan9 would say they work smarter rather than harder.

[euphononium]

This is a great review for a great event. I was going to attempt one of my own, but I can second most of what you've said after seeing 3 different shows with most of these corps this week.

Cascades: Definitely not what I expected. I knew they had a rough 2012 season but I thought it would improve a little this year....unfortunately it didn't. The corps was very small; maybe under 100? Can't remember. Drums were definitely the best part of the group. They only had six guard and their brass was outplayed by Thunder (not just my opinion either; that's what everyone around me was saying). Show design was smart and solid but lacked impact I felt. However for now I think cleaning the music and visual should be their focus. I hope the brass can produce some more sound and these guys can step up a little.

I can second your comment about the brass. Everyone around us shared the same sentiment. Thunder's hornline filled that large stadium MUCH better! Cascades drum line really was doing a good job, I hope that their horns and guard can catch up at some point in the season.

Troopers really were WOW! So glad they made it out west for a couple days.

Academy, very surprisingly dirty. I know it was their first show, but it was so disappointing after the last 2-3 years. I really dislike their show...seems out of place and they aren't performing it well enough yet to sell it.

Vanguard.. I can't even put into words how truly beautiful this show is. You need to see it live. They have a lot of cleaning to do on the visual side of things, but the guard is stellar - they really make this show sparkle. I can't say enough about the sound and the composition of the horn line. The Rennick/Shaw team has really hit a home run this year. Kudos to you, SCV.

Blue Devils; Okay. I know that DCP is notorious for this but I'm going to vent a little.....BD; please. Stop. People are not buying this weird stuff anymore." ... " the drums had some really rough spots and the brass was very bright with individuals popping out frequently"..."Literally everyone playing something different." ... "Some positives though were the guard and the props (although they still need some cleaning)."

Some great points. I especially dislike the show this year...it seems at times they said to all 150 members "Do whatever you want for the next 40 seconds of the show". I CANNOT disagree with you more on the guard or the props. The guard had more drops than I have ever noticed (I know there are a lot of "organized chaos" moments where they quite obviously drop/throw their equipment on purpose, but even outside of those moments the guard had an awful night). The props... Distracting. Ineffective. I saw them 2 nights this week and both crowds seemed unsure of what to do until the end of the show. I mean, almost no crowd reaction at all until about 10 seconds after the show was over. The worst part for me? I am not even sold on the fact that they are actually that clean anymore. I have been told for years now "Whether or not you like the show, you can't deny the fact that they're cleaner than everyone else." Well, sure, I can get on board with that, especially the last 2 years. But on Saturday, feet were all over the place, guard had an "off" night, and horn line had people popping out all over the place. The drum line... really pretty rough at times. Overall, they were not the Blue Devils I have come to expect. So very disappointed.

Crown was quite refreshing after the Blue Devils. Not in love with the show, yet, but wow, what a horn line. My second viewing had me liking it more than the first, so I am hopeful. Guard was great, drum line playing very well. I did think they were better than the Blue Devils. The orange line that runs down from the plume to the L foot is very interesting, and they do some cool things with it. I had awful seats for this show, which meant I heard less of the singing and talking. I really quite liked the show with it barely audible - and not because I am against that sort of thing, but because it was a texture in the sound rather than being forced over top of the corps' sound.

Blue Knights; They made the switch to Mapex drums this year which was interesting. Lower basses were cranked way too high for me, tenors had scoops which was interesting and snares were very wet. Brass was very very pleasantly surprising! I loved their sound. It was big and full and usually in control. The biggest flaw with BK this year is the design I think. They have great people designing the show but it was really flat to me. It just didn't seem to go anywhere and the hometown crowd didn't not give them much love.

I personally like their drum sound aside from the bass drum tuning...at this point, I think they're sacrificing cleanliness for sound quality. Front ensemble design seems to be over the group's ability, at least at this point in the season. I like the show quite a bit, but I agree that it felt flat. I have heard that they are working on a different ending (or maybe an actual ending, it seems the show wasn't really done). Some of their staff alluded to the fact that the show we saw was incomplete, and it seems pretty obvious to me. The horn line was good, but the show is designed to never stop which means they really run out of steam for the last 90 seconds or so. I am sure that will get better as the season progresses.

Overall, I loved DATR and Denver! I am disappointed that I have never been there before. Great review, it isn't often that I can mostly agree with someone!

Edited July 8, 2013 by euphononium

[PeeWee]

Thank you for posting a review. I won't get to see any corps until Indianapolis next month.

I'm so very proud of the Vanguard! They're pouring all they can into their show and are getting the reaction only Vanguard (or perhaps Phantom Regiment or Carolina Crown) could get.

I also LOVE Crowns hornline and have for years! Their pure/hollow tone quality is unmatched in DCI.

I also don't get where Blue Devils are going. Their shows have been very abstract lately and I don't enjoy abstract shows. If DCI wants to grow its fan base, especially to include the average American population, abstract shows aren't going to do it.

[TexasPRfan]

Thanks for the review. I was at the show too, and it sounds like we agreed on a lot of things. I like how straight forward and honest you were with your opinions.

Harvey