CrownLeadSop Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 IMO the only thing "avant garde" about Crown's show this year is their uniform and the ballad vocals. It does not in any way compare to anything Blue Devils have done in the past 3-4 years from that perspective. Reminds me a bit of both 2010 and 2012. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tja273 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 If I or anyone else couldn't stand Cadets 07/08 or the recorded nonsense from BD 2012, that has nothing to do with how well Crown handles voice in its program in 2013. Actually, the counting portion of the narration I find very similar to the narration in the Blue Devils' show last year. It is mostly just adds to the texture of the sounds coming from the field. It isn't really meant for you to listen or even understand. I know they are counting, but I am not listening to the pattern at all. In the Blue Devils's show, it was a voice in a different language. Again, you were not intended to understand what was being said. It just crept in and out of the audio as the horn line got softer or louder. I am not big on the love story told during the ballad, but I expect I'll get used to it (I did with Cadets in 2007). I just prefer voices to be a part of the music or overall sound coming from the field...not the focal point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted July 12, 2013 Author Share Posted July 12, 2013 IMO the only thing "avant garde" about Crown's show this year is their uniform and the ballad vocals. It does not in any way compare to anything Blue Devils have done in the past 3-4 years from that perspective. Reminds me a bit of both 2010 and 2012. so much of it is recycled... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 eehh... 0.2 back from BD and 0.5 back from Cadets. I would hardly say it's a fleshwound. If those gaps increase over the rest of the month to maybe a point, I think we have a problem. Otherwise, the other captions will ease that deficit. I think Crown has a good percussion section finally, which is why their scores are competitive. That's all they really need...to stay competitive. I'll be interested to see if Cadets beef up their visual package a bit. They are crawling IMO, I think they could be in more toruble when you add more corps to shows......as neighborhoods develop, those scores lastnight put them in a league with corps say 6th place, and 9 on down ( yes, minor dig at Cavies LOL). that could be troublesome, especially if it bleeds over to ensemble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 One of the head guys at Crown's battery was our indoor instructor this year. He was a really cool guy and let me say he really knew what he was talking about. Crown's percussion is more ticks than it is the staff imo. I know some of them too. day to day staff, IMO, isn't the issue. Wasn't last year either. Ya can't fix what you aren't allowed to change Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 (edited) Finally got a chance to watch the Warrensburg stream this morning. A few thoughts: Bluecoats - I love the opener, particularly the drill, which is outright amazing stuff. Love their props, too--used very well throughout the show in various ways. However, it felt like (whether it's the case or not) their brass played very little overall. They had the most section features, and overall just a lot of moving without playing. I'm not crazy about the guard "uniforms", but I do like the new corps uni. The worst part for me was just the overreliance on synth features. The voice in particular, I don't like, but clearly the Bluecoats staff does because it's very common in their programs. When the brass was playing, they sounded great. There's a distinctive Bluecoats sound that I love to hear. Give us some more of it! Blue Devils - I'm pretty sure they added some musical difficulty to this show, but even on stuff that's been in the program all season, the brass was dirty and out of tune. The mike situation was bad throughout the show, but the Devils were definitely having issues with range and tuning, particularly in the sops, to my ear. Anyway, I do love the brass arrangement in this show, and when these guys are on, their brass has an incredibly tight, crunchy sound that no other corps can duplicate. But that just wasn't there in this performance. I would have put them 5th in brass for this outing even though they're capable of much more. I like the variety of guard equipment. Dunno that the balls were super effective at distance, and I'd like to see them do more with the hoops, but the half-circles are well used. I think the poles are really noisy, visually, and that the brass spends too much time moving them. But they are used effectively in several sections. The drill is way more impressive and challenging this year, but as has been observed they look sloppy a lot of the time, even on stuff that's been in there all season. Still, kudos for upping the drill challenge. Similar to the Bluecoats, I didn't like the extended synth-and-trapset breaks. Feels like a cop-out transition to me. And if you're going to put electric guitar and bass guitar sounds in your show, get an electric guitar and a bass guitar and use them. Going with the synth feels like a cheat. Finally, the very ending... I don't understand what they're going for with the unison brass... Rite of Spring has a fantastic ending that's been interpreted all kinds of ways. Don't throw it away! Cavaliers - I really like the show this year, but it's dirty has hell. I was surprised at how little they seem to have cleaned the visual since the early shows. Still, lots of great moments, and I even like the robes and all. As someone else said, why use samples for the grunting sounds? You have the whole corps there running around with their horns down. I am surprised they scored as highly as they did. This show was not nearly as polished as Bloo's, although if it were clean, it would be in contention for top 5 for sure. Still, I don't think the Cavies will be able to pull that off. Phantom - Sounded great, looked great. I love the sword drill at the end. With the guard overlaid on the sword form, all rotating in unison it looks really awesome. Overall I was impressed with the visuals and the brass more than I expected after reading various comments. The show does feel a little lacking in energy at certain times. I love Nimrod, but this isn't my favorite take on it. Still they did it justice. Crown - After getting a fresh take on the first four corps' drill, Crown's is really very impressive. I do think the new unis make it a little hard to see what's going on drill-wise against the green of the field, but that could be my color-blindness causing problems, and I'm sure it looks different in person versus on video. The rotating prism is still causing problems, but otherwise I didn't notice any major issues with the drill. Crown's brass seemed on more than any other corps at this show other than Cadets. Brass-wise Crown clearly has both the most challenge and the most achievement, so I'm glad to see them 0.4 up from Cadets and 0.6 over Devils. I find myself in awe of what they're managing to put out on the field and how rapidly they (and all the other top corps) are improving in brass. I don't think I would have believed this level of achievement was even possible in 2009 or 2010. The closer has got to be changing. I hope they do it for Minneapolis. Cadets - Wowee, the brass are amazing! The drill is thrilling. Their battery and Vanguard's were the clear top achievers at this show. I have no clue how to judge percussion, but they were pulling of some really incredible stuff. Arrangement wise I felt they leaned too heavily on Adagio. Yes, it's a great piece, but you don't want to overuse it. Felt like I was watching Platoon. :tongue:/> But, the brass book is fantastic and they're knocking it out of the park. Definitely a strong second place brassline after Crown. The boxes... those have to be hurting them in the visual scores, because they are sloppy. Particularly when they set them up in groups of four, there's inevitably one out of place, usually just a little, sometimes a lot. And they appear to be really heavy because getting them going seems to cause some of the members issues. My biggest complaint with this show is the synth overruns after huge brass impacts. A few seconds of silence in your show *is* allowed. Especially after the big release in the closer, the synth just ruins that moment. Oh, and I really like the quiet ending. It totally works. Vanguard - This is an amazing show. I think the play "At the End of the Day" too fast, and I could do with finishing the phrase for "Do You Hear the People Sing" in the finale, but otherwise, I love the music. The battery is obviously amazing. The brass were great. I would have them a close third between Cadets and Phantom. There's some serious challenge in the brass book and they pull it off. The use of the backdrops to hide the brass and then the guard is an incredible addition to the show. I felt the visuals were very well executed as well. If Devils have trouble cleaning their show and Vanguard keeps adding, I think they have a real chance at a medal! Edited July 12, 2013 by skywhopper 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Actually, the counting portion of the narration I find very similar to the narration in the Blue Devils' show last year. It is mostly just adds to the texture of the sounds coming from the field. It isn't really meant for you to listen or even understand. I know they are counting, but I am not listening to the pattern at all. In the Blue Devils's show, it was a voice in a different language. Again, you were not intended to understand what was being said. It just crept in and out of the audio as the horn line got softer or louder. Yeah, my problem with the Devil's recorded stuff was that it wasn't integrated with the music. And so it was just noise that muddied up the music instead of reinforcing it, as Crown's counting does. Maybe this doesn't happen to everyone, but a human voice grabs my attention and if it's in a different language, that's even worse, because my mind gets distracted by the words it can tell are words, but can't understand. I am not big on the love story told during the ballad, but I expect I'll get used to it (I did with Cadets in 2007). I just prefer voices to be a part of the music or overall sound coming from the field...not the focal point. Yeah, I fully expect most of the audience to feel this way. I'm okay with this narration since I'm a fanboy of the source material, and I've got an emotional attachment to the text, which I realize is overearnest to the point of self-parody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 a review of the DCP fan reactions so far this season and last night from this show: Obviously, you love or hate BD. of course if you hate them, you're a hater, ABBD, regionally biased neanderthal Crown, the interwebs darling the last few years isn't as loved. As such, some of their fan base reacts with great indignation, and will tell you to go research the show to get it, and get over the vocals in the ballad even people who worshipped Crown the last few years hate. This is the most funniest group to watch because after being the darlings, seeing them get some BD style "love" has them very confuzzled and hurt. Cadets......one of DCP's usual whipping boys getting mostly love, though the ending is unpopular. it's still early, so give Hop time to say something to set us all off SCV....loved for being viewed as old school, loved for that reason but wanting more story, or disliked for being old school Phantom.....liked, not loved, missing something Bluecoats....loved by a small minority, liked but in a "meh" kind of way by many, other going "wtf" Cavies.....true greenies have ready made excuses for where they are, many fans think the world is ending because they aren't in the hunt, many others saying "um, yeah ok" and of course, the TOC format is either god and should be used to the advantage of these corps regardless if the top or not, or hated for all of the reasons ever listed....and lame filler material too. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickhaltsforlife Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 I'm sorry.. call me crazy, but I am not backing down on my Cavaliers' comments. They are one of the dirtiest corps I have seen this year. They basically aren't achieving anything. The show is hard to watch... I'm not seeing the good design... probably because it's so dirty.. but I just don't like anything about the show. And I love the source music... I still think they shouldn't be in finals.. or should be struggling to stay in finals at this point. And I do believe there is some politics at play. A lot of benefit of the doubt... they are a major face of DCI. Cadets/BD/Cavies.. they have been the face of DCI for over two decades. For them not to make finals probably isn't the best for the activity because of their huge following. But I feel if they were judged honestly they would be struggling quite a bit more. Maybe not out of finals.. but they should be competing with that group of corps fight for those final spot in the big show. It's a long season... maybe they can clean it up, but I have not seen any progress since the first show I saw. Maybe I'm just losing my touch with what is considered good performance? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plan9 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 a review of the DCP fan reactions so far this season and last night from this show: Obviously, you love or hate BD. of course if you hate them, you're a hater, ABBD, regionally biased neanderthal Crown, the interwebs darling the last few years isn't as loved. As such, some of their fan base reacts with great indignation, and will tell you to go research the show to get it, and get over the vocals in the ballad even people who worshipped Crown the last few years hate. This is the most funniest group to watch because after being the darlings, seeing them get some BD style "love" has them very confuzzled and hurt. Cadets......one of DCP's usual whipping boys getting mostly love, though the ending is unpopular. it's still early, so give Hop time to say something to set us all off SCV....loved for being viewed as old school, loved for that reason but wanting more story, or disliked for being old school Phantom.....liked, not loved, missing something Bluecoats....loved by a small minority, liked but in a "meh" kind of way by many, other going "wtf" Cavies.....true greenies have ready made excuses for where they are, many fans think the world is ending because they aren't in the hunt, many others saying "um, yeah ok" and of course, the TOC format is either god and should be used to the advantage of these corps regardless if the top or not, or hated for all of the reasons ever listed....and lame filler material too. Holy crap.......who is this person?? :blink:/> And what have you done with Jeff Ream....where are you holding him?? This is so spot on that I'm weak at the knees. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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