Jump to content

Omaha 2013


Recommended Posts

The weather decided to hold up for Omaha. We have had some nasty storms roll through in the past here in Nebraska. Luckily there was only some spritzing rain during the first few corps.

Cascades - While their show needs a lot of work, they have a good foundation established. They look to be pretty solid in the battery and guard but they are small in the hornline. This made it hard to hear the horns at times as they were covered up. Their uniforms are really sharp looking. The neon green plumes really pop out against the field.

Troopers - Great field entrance. Wow, what a sound. They pack a punch and march with pride. I'm always impressed by Troopers. I found this show to be very enjoyable. I had my reservations as it was another Western themed show but they changed my mind right away. Overall this is a very classy show. There are a lot of tributes to the Troopers of old in this show including a starburst and the old Trooper guard uniform. Their show concept is coming along well. Hints of "11" are being put nicely into the drill and the guard. Maybe they can throw in some Spinal Tap references too? JK

Academy - Very long "pre-show". There is an "MC" at the beginning that tries to pump up the crowd. I bought into it for the first 15 seconds and then got annoyed with it. Let's start the show, I want to hear some horns! There are some entertaining moments of the show but I think it's a little cluttered with the drill and guard. The chairs are somewhat effective but I think they would be better served in the cafeteria. They didn't pack nearly as much punch as the Troopers, which was disappointing. The Piano Man closer is entertaining and encourages an audience sing-a-long. To me, this show screams BOA.

BK - This show has me disappointed. The show concept is so cool and there are some big GE moments but it really lacks something. The first half is more enjoyable than the second. I feel like the show looses steam when they go into First Circle. The big gigantic blue ball is pretty dumb imo. Bigger isn't always better. The gigantic tarp near the sideline is neat to look at but it also scrams indoor guard. It's hard to like this show. I think BK was onto something a few years ago but they seem to have ventured off into the abstract world. They were not a crowd favorite in Omaha. They only got tepid applause and a few standing ovations. Yikes, even the crowd stood for Cascades.

SCV - Wow, what a great show. This was the crowd favorite by far. I think the popularity of the music and the excitement of the drill really connects with the average audience member. This might be the crowd favorite of DCI '13, it is for me. Probably the coolest part of the show is when the corps plays backfield behind the panels. Sadly, that will probably not sound as cool in Lucas Oil. I think it SCV can pop some more vis GE in to the show they can gun for 4th.

Crown - They blew the walls down. Very cool moments laced throughout the show. The crowd was starting to dig it by the end. I think there is some turn off by the vocals (me included) but that hornline melts your face. It's hard not to like Crown. This show is innovative without being extremely obscure like BD. I was able to watch these guys rehearse in the afternoon and it really helped to get a sense of what is going on. To the average fan, they might be turned off by this show. The ballad is pretty cheesy. I haven't hear such poor dialogue since Sara Jones told us her life story in '08. I'm not sure that Crown had their best run though. There were some sloppy moments in the hornline that I didn't hear in the afternoon.

BD - Wow...that is a lot of poles. There is a lot of stuff going on in this show. I feel like I've just contracted ADHD after watching it. I think the first 2 minutes are pretty dang clever and effective, after that I'm lost. I was really hoping to like this show more. I haven't like a BD show in years. They are back to being "cutting edge". I don't think they were a crowd favorite. I actually thought some of the drill was sloppy. There is a lot of scatter drill stuff but the stuff that is suppose to pop out didn't really for me. I heard a lot of talk about how "clean" BD is already but I didn't see it.

Encore: Crown performed a couple of pieces (Brass only). The first was a march (Rolling Thunder?). My friend said it made his night because that is his favorite circus march. I'm not sure what the 2nd piece was but it was more contemporary. Then the treat of the night was a joint encore! BD hornline came out and joined with Crown for another piece. The announcer came on to say that this was a special tribute to Jim Ott. It happened to be the anniversary of Jim Ott's tragic death. Both hornlines combined to perform Jim's arrangement of the Naval Hymn. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! It was such a classy tribute to one of the greats of DCI. This was one of the highlights of the night!!

In the end, Crown took honors. They almost beat BD by a point. It was a great show. Really nice to see some western corps take on Crown.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crown - They blew the walls down. Very cool moments laced throughout the show...The ballad is pretty cheesy. I haven't hear such poor dialogue since Sara Jones told us her life story in '08.

Nice review, guy. I appreciate your taking the time to share.

Musically, I believe that the ballad is the emotional climax of the show, and it might prove to be one of the most beautiful moments of this drum corps season. As far as the dialogue, it's straight out of the source material; Phillip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach".

Enjoy the rest of the season!

Edited by sddolfan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice review, guy. I appreciate your taking the time to share.

Musically, I believe that the ballad is the emotional climax of the show, and it might prove to be one of the most beautiful moments of this drum corps season. As far as the dialogue, it's straight out of the source material; Phillip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach".

Enjoy the rest of the season!

...thanks for the link, very enlightening. To clarify, of course Glass wrote the original score; Samual Johnson is responsible for the words used in the ballad, if I read the reference material correctly...a few people made contributions to the scripted part of the *5 hour* opera...

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...