Jump to content

Chambersburg Review


Recommended Posts

Brief impressions and opinions of last night's performances. Nice stadium, decent sized crowd despite the pre-show storms. Weather cleared up for a beautiful evening. All shows viewed at a low angle from the 45, with concomitant limits on my ability to read the visual program (or hear a balanced sound mix, for the most part).

Cadets 2 – My first viewing of Cadets 2 (missed them last year). A bit unnerving seeing a Cadets corps this small and young. Nicely written and achievable show that brought back great memories of the 1989 Cadets. Show was mostly complete, sans a bit of guard work. Kids appear to be talented and hard working. Staff has given them a lot of meat, and I think they will cause a stir at DCA Championships.

Raiders – Ambitious program based on Poe's "The Raven", with original music. Show is obviously a work in progress, with some unfinished guard work, props, etc. Much shaping to be done so that the "descent into madness" component of their theme speaks clearly. Obviously talented young group still fighting to master some basic performance issues. They will get there, I think.

Boston Crusaders – Design actually seemed pretty mature to me, with the "Rise" theme speaking pretty clearly. I really enjoyed the musical selections, with some very nice, tuneful moments. Guard work was conspicuously daring with several big "toss" moments. First big ovation of the night.

Bluecoats – Show is a significant departure for them for sure. Some have commented that the are channeling their inner BD, and it is certainly evident in their programming. Crazy quilt of musical selections and styles including classical, symphonic jazz, rock, swing, etc., often in "snippets". Overall thematic approach seems to be the juxtaposition of more formalistic/military (conservative?) idioms with more informal/hip (progressive?) idioms, with a "America is a melting pot...see the conflict/contrast...but in the end, we all fit together" kind of feel. IMO, there is going to need to be some additional work to have this make sense at a level consistent with the talent of the corps.

Phantom Regiment – Enjoyable, but not particularly distinctive musical presentation. Some tuning/performance issues in the brass, perhaps caused by the rapid temperature drop after the rain dissipated. Enjoyed what I could see of the guard program, which is designed and performed with skill and grace. From my low viewing angle, I was not able to make out much of the "story", but I expect this is also evolving in their design and will be much more effective by Finals. Overall, this looks like a solid foundation for a very crowd pleasing and competitive show in the latter half of the season.

Cadets – The Fan Network does not do justice to their musical and visual impact. I was a skeptic walking in, but was just blown away by all that I saw and heard. First rate design that intelligently blends today's "visual first" approach with the Cadet's historic commitment to presenting music that honors the genius of the original composer. Particularly daring to select music that has been well-performed by other corps, with a high level of fan/judge familiarity. The show acts (perhaps unintentionally) as both an homage to past achievements (SCV, Star) and a forward-looking elaboration using new visual tools (mobile color towers, redesigned weapons). There are few of the "physics defying" moments that have characterized recent Cadets shows; instead, there is a focus on creating beginning-to-end flow and an overall artistic experience for the audience. Demands on the members are substantial, but there is potential for this to be executed at a very high level of excellence by Finals. Based on this viewing, I think this show can rival the best the Cadets have ever achieved. It is certainly Championship material.

Other comments

- Bluecoats and Boston visual clarity suffered from dark uniforms, compounded by uneven and less than bright stadium lighting

- All World Class corps made abundant use of synthesized string/vocal/other sounds, as well as bass reinforcement (aka "thunderous goo"). I was right in front of one speaker, so overall balance was hard to discern. Bluecoats seemed to suffer the most balance issues, Cadets seemed to be most on top their balance problems.

St. Cuthbert

Alea iacta est

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree with everything

As I also was in attendance I couldn't help but notice the shocked/stunned faces during Cadets / lots of "OMGs" and heads shaking in disbelief

Their show works overall flow-wise very well, and the individual demand is incredible / guard, brass & percussion just stunning. The front ensemble ie: pit is just over the top good

Talk about a mind-blowing performance this early - and potential is incredible

George.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cadets 2 – My first viewing of Cadets 2 (missed them last year). A bit unnerving seeing a Cadets corps this small and young. Nicely written and achievable show that brought back great memories of the 1989 Cadets. Show was mostly complete, sans a bit of guard work. Kids appear to be talented and hard working. Staff has given them a lot of meat, and I think they will cause a stir at DCA Championships.

Interesting that Cadets2 appeared younger than Cadets. Perhaps they will be feeeding into Cadets instead of a place to go after aging out as some posted last year. Will be interesting to see how this works out.

Only saw them at Finals but very good job for a first year corps, even a YEA first year corps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting that Cadets2 appeared younger than Cadets. Perhaps they will be feeeding into Cadets instead of a place to go after aging out as some posted last year. Will be interesting to see how this works out.

If you look at the stated age range, I don't think YEA! ever made any bones about the purpose ofC2 being primarily for HS kids within shouting distance of the Lehigh Valley, to provide them a weekend-only non-touring drum corps experience.

They did expand their age range at the top end a bit to fill some holes, and a few Cadets and at least one other WC corps member filled a few blanks after DCI champs last year in time for DCA champs (another age-old DCA-thing that used to happen a lot more back in the day).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look at the stated age range, I don't think YEA! ever made any bones about the purpose ofC2 being primarily for HS kids within shouting distance of the Lehigh Valley, to provide them a weekend-only non-touring drum corps experience.

Well if you pay attention to YEA releases... :devil::tongue:

True, guess I was fixating on the upper age limit that has some folks grumpin'.

They did expand their age range at the top end a bit to fill some holes, and a few Cadets and at least one other WC corps member filled a few blanks after DCI champs last year in time for DCA champs (another age-old DCA-thing that used to happen a lot more back in the day).

Never heard of it..... :devil::devil::devil: Shades of 1985 when a certain corps I was in at the time had a pair of Cadet fill ins as we were trying to come back during another rebuilding year. After a season of hard nosed DC, it was a shock for them to come into our loosy goosy group. (Hey, we just wanted to survive another year and get stronger and that was looking pretty good.)

Best line (which showed the difference): How does it feel to win DCI one weekend and not even make DCA Finals another. :tongue:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree with everything

As I also was in attendance I couldn't help but notice the shocked/stunned faces during Cadets / lots of "OMGs" and heads shaking in disbelief

Their show works overall flow-wise very well, and the individual demand is incredible / guard, brass & percussion just stunning. The front ensemble ie: pit is just over the top good

Talk about a mind-blowing performance this early - and potential is incredible

George.

Yes! It has been a long time since I have seen an audience react that way to a corps, particularly at an early season show. There were a couple points (end of opener, end of Medea) where it seemed like the stadium was rocked back on their heels by what the Cadets were doing. Not jumping out of their seats with excitement over a hype moment. Not intellectual appreciation of something abstract. Not appreciation for a particular moment of DC bad-assery. Something else...real impact? It was rare and unexpected, at least to me.

Been going to corps shows since 1977, seen a lot of incredible stuff. I am always on the look out for the rare show that I can file in my personal pantheon of greatness. This version of the Cadets may or may not make it, but they surprised me last night. Of course, all this is highly subjective...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3.5 minutes of the latter part of the show. Incredible stuff -- the change they made to the Media impact is SPOT ON, chills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3.5 minutes of the latter part of the show. Incredible stuff -- the change they made to the Media impact is SPOT ON, chills.

Thanks for taking the time during the show to vid it. Cadets are a powerhouse this year. Far cry from jingle bells.

Edited by newjerseycorpguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for taking the time during the show to vid it. Cadets are a powerhouse this year. Far cry from jingle bells.

Oh, that's not mine. Thank the person on YouTube.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, that's not mine. Thank the person on YouTube.

Thanks for finding it..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...