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Lake Erie Fanfare DCI Show


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I had a blast traveling with some alumni from the Warren Jr. Military Band up to Erie, PA to watch the DCI show at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The show featured a good lineup and the weather was nice and cool. Our seats were toward the top, stage right, on the 35.

1. Vanguard Cadets (Santa Clara, CA) - a wonderful show featuring young talent. The show is titled The Art of War. They exhibit great control of their program and the designers have given them something they can master and entertain with in a competitive environment.

Their Rep included:

  • Unto the Breach (Key Poulan)
  • Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky)
  • Elegy for Dunkirk (Marianelli)
  • Hut of the Baby Yaga (from Pictures, Mussorgsky)
  • Adagio for Strings (Barber)
  • The Promise of Living (from Tender Land - Copland)

The corps is large, the music ensemble brings a big sound, and I found their show enjoyable. Will challenge Blue Devils B for the Open title.

2. The Academy (Tempe, AZ) - A large and full-size corps. Clearly these kids can perform and I felt they, as performers, did a good job in the performance department; but I found the content in terms of brass book and show design is holding them back. Show is called Pianoman I've never been a huge fan of Cabaret shows, and this one didn't change my mind (so perhaps it's just me). To be fair, others in the stands did enjoy them, just not the group I was with. The narration at the beginning is fine. The show hasn't started and it does help to set the stage. As the show began I feel there was a gap between what the corps was marching, what we were hearing, and what the guard was doing. It didn't match up. I did enjoy Piano Man (how could you not), and there are some fun musical moments, but the show felt disjointed, convoluted, and they had some marching issues. One tuba went to kneel down during one of the sections in their show and then he fell over and was slow to recover. I do not see them beating Oregon Crusaders from here on out, but you never know.

Rep Included:

  • Willkommen (Cabaret)
  • Alabama Song (Weill)
  • Falling in Love Again (Hollander)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt 1 (Shostakovich)
  • Piano Man (Joel)

3. Oregon Crusaders (Portland, OR) - I was looking forward to seeing Oregon. They are an up-and-comer and there was no doubt their talent was on display last night. They are big, strong, can bring power when they want to, but they also perform in a very refined manner. I felt their performance levels were better than Academy. The design of their show was only slightly better than Academy. The show title is My Heart, My Battle, My Soul. It seems to be a southern, New Orleans-style drama made for field. I had a hard time figuring out the theme from the opening 2 or 3 minutes of the show. The performance was good, but the message is unclear at first. There are 2 coffins in the back of the field (kinda creepy), and fence posts, but I'm not sure what they were trying to say. The middle portion of this show is where is sparkles. The percussion feature was exciting, fast, eye-catching, and well executed. This was all done to Donald Grantham's Southern Harmony (mvt III) which was very effective. The movement after that was also well done and seemed to grab the audience. The closer was a bit of a let down. One of the problems I felt was a construction issue. There are so many music choices that they tried to include that none of them (other than Southern Harmony for the percussion feature) received much attention to detail when it comes to phrasing, builds, development, simply allowing for the melodies to work their magic and draw the fans in.

Rep Included:

  • Going Home (Dvorak)
  • Amy's Lament (Moore)
  • Summertime (Gershwin)
  • Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
  • Don't You See (Grantham)
  • Southern Harmony (Grantham)
  • Rolling in The Deep (Adele)
  • House of the Rising Sun

4. Troopers (Casper, WY) - An excellent show from top to bottom. There is really not much to complain about with TROOP! The show is titled Magnificent 11. The music is melodious and grabs the audience and pulls them in. Magnificent 7 is wonderful and nicely performed. Battle Hymn is one of the highlights of the DCI season and brought tears to the eyes of many in the stands (and a big standing ovation). Troop definitely had some performance issues last night. A few falls, the feet still need cleaned in a big way, and one of the brass players accidentally dropped one of the American flags while trying to pass it off to a guard member. If they clean this show they could truly be in the hunt for that last spot in the top 12 for World Finals in Indianapolis. The drill is well done and not over-written. The music book allows the fans to grab onto the melodies without them disappearing and moving into other source material before the audience can make sense of things. They draw you in emotionally and technically.

Rep Included:

  • Fanfare for the 11th (R.W. Smith)
  • Magnificent 7 (Bernstein, Elmer)
  • John Dunbar Theme (from Dances with Wolves - John Barry)
  • Tribal Spirits (Paul Rennick)
  • Battle Hymn (arr. by R.W. Smith)

5. Blue Stars (La Crosse, WI) - The show is titled Voodoo: I Put a Spell on You. From a performance standpoint the Blue Stars are very talented and march and play the show well. Their drill is over-written (IMO) and it's still quite sloppy. Their percussion was fantastic!!! This was likely the difference between them at Troopers. That and the brass line is good along with their guard. But the music book (brass and percussion) is what holds them back. The musical rep was just unmemorable, not very exciting, and I just felt it lacked thematic development. Voodoo is an odd enough theme to pull off on the field, and on top of that if your music book is disjointed, lacking in GE, lacking in sustained builds that take the themes to a climax, then you're going to struggle. They may make DCI Finals in the 12th slot, but they have the talent to be competing for something much higher. On a year where the Cavaliers have been struggling with brass, Blue Stars could have made a move on them with the right show and design.

Rep Includes:

  • Voodoo (Mapes & Grom)
  • I Put A Spell On You (Hawkins)
  • At Last (Gordon & Warren)
  • One Speed (Revell)

6. Spirit of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) - An absolutely wonderful show from top to bottom. The show is titled Speakeasy. Spirit is still quite rough and dirty in the areas of marching. They need to clean. If this show were to fully clean I think they could push corps like Cavaliers, Madison, and BK. They have excellent design, but they also have some clutter. There is one portion of the show, near the end, when they do a silent drill move then finish the show. That section causes the ending to lose steam. I'd get rid of it. That said, there's not much to complain about with this show. The brass is powerful, fun, with some big hits and screaming trumpet solos. The guard is wonderful, well staged, and I love the constant uniform changes. They seem to have the talent to make a run at top 7, but they just haven't cleaned and perhaps tweaked those few little GE moments to ensure higher numbers.

Rep Included:

  • Overture (from the musical Chicago - Kander)
  • Concerto in F (Gershwin)
  • Symphony No. 2 (Creston)
  • Songs for Simon (Psathas)
  • Crazy World (Mancini)
  • Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie and Pinkard)
  • All That Jazz (Kander)

7. Blue Knights (Denver, CO) - The show is titled NoBeginningNoEnd. The "camel-casing" is used to suggest no end, and the show seems to utilize a poem about things being ROUND. It seems that all things round are explored. There is a giant blue ball that is dragged all over the field representing both round and the color blue. Honestly, the narrated poem that was read at points of the show just threw me off, the blue ball on the field did nothing for me. The show music itself is not bad, and at times it's excellent. The Blue Knights definitely bring a "big-boy" class horn line and drum line to the field. They sounded wonderful, although I heard lots of timing issues and some balance problems. All that said, they definitely have the musicians to be performing this kind of music but to perhaps a better thematic show idea. With the talent they have they SHOULD be sitting right behind the Bluecoats and Phantom. The demand, the music book, and the drill are there. The show theme and the GE are sadly not.

Rep Included:

  • This Bitter Earth (Otis)
  • Circle One (Bocook & Hardimon)
  • First Circle (Metheny)

8. Santa Clara Vanguard (Santa Clara, CA -- that's Silicon Valley to you and me) - So YEAH...to say I was excited to see the Vanguard is an understatement. Did they live up to the billing? OH, you bet they did. IN A BIG WAY!!!! This show is just flat out GE through the roof, pure entertainment, performance excellence, class and old-school drum corps merged with sophistication and new-art design. The show is titled Les Misérables. This Broadway musical brings a plethora of melodies to chose from, and SCV did a superb job of using just enough well-known themes so they could truly build each to musical climaxes or to create the right effect at the right time. They have a mellophone section from Heaven above, their overall brass sound was refined and powerful when needed. The percussion section was amazing in every aspect, and the guard was lovely, classy, and spot on -- especially the high rifle tosses that were nearly perfect. On any other year had I seen something this good I would have walked out and said in my review "I think we have a dark horse." It's been a while since I've seen Cadets live, and I have yet to see Crown and BD live. Once I do I'll have a better idea; but my initial read is this: objects in the rear-view mirror appear closer than they are, and for good reason because the Santa Clara Vanguard, in my opinion, will begin to jump a few folks. My guess is that SCV takes down Cadets and BD on their way to Silver at World Finals in Indianapolis. I still think Carolina Crown wins the Gold, but I would not rule this show out. Very clearly the "dream staff" that SCV has acquired is paying off. The crowd was on their feet once they hit the company front at the end.

Rep Included:

  • Selections from Les Misérables (Schonberg & Boubil)

Here is my big takeaway from last night: Sometimes when arrangers try to get overly creative and/or cute they tend to lose the fans.

The music becomes a bunch of "chop, chop, chop...CHORD, snip, CHORD, snip, chop, fake chord, CHORD." I hear so much of this that I want to get up and leave sometimes. Very little musical development in some of the shows, often trying to cram too much music into 12 minutes instead of giving us phrases that move, build, climax, fall, and end with grace or power. Many of the corps seem intent on surprising the fans with quick hits or lots of material in a short period of time. Look, it's not fast food..."we give you more for less." I don't want you to super-size it and I don't want to go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. I want quality. Less is better, with more quality put into thematic development. Phrases that take 1 theme and build for maximum effect while utilizing bridges and extensions for visual impact always work better. It's always sad to see talented performers given material that does not give them a chance to entertain and compete with better quality.

Overall I still enjoyed the show and I love DCI and Drum Corps. The friends I traveled with all felt about the same way. They liked Troopers and SCV the best. All agreed that Spirit has a good show top to bottom, and we all were very impressed with SCV Cadets. As for the others, they all seemed to be missing something and not engaging the audience.

Edited by jwillis35
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Well, that makes at least four DCP members at the Erie show who didn't meet each other (even though Gary apparently sold me my ticket). Will you be at either Avon Lake or Massillon?

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I'll be at Massillon.

Edited by jwillis35
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as always a great review, and your takeaway is spot on

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Outstanding review, as always. Maybe the best of the year.

My sentiments couldn't be articulated better on each of those shows & the problems with current musical arrangement problems with many corps.

Harvey

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Thank you for your very thorough review. The more I see on the Fan Network, and the more I read online, the less I care about placements. If BD has what it takes to impress the judges that's fine. I definitely feel Carolina Crown and Vanguard have what it takes to impress, or rather leave an impression on, the crowd. I'd rather be impressed than impress the judges at this point.

Can't wait to see the corps in Indy next week!

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