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Lake Erie Fanfare - Reader's Digest version


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Since JWillis wrote such a detailed review (and one that mirrors almost all of my thoughts about each corps), my review will be much shorter...

Venue and weather were perfect. Veterans Stadium isn't big, and the audience is tight on the field, so big and loud was the name of the game for the spectators. The forecasted rain was scared away and the evening was perfect: cool and little breeze to affect equipment. I got lucky and met someone selling tickets outside and I wound up just off the 50 a few rows below the press box... :thumbup:/>

(My topic description refers to the fact that everyone had at least one equipment drop or person fall - Blue Knights had two people trip/stumble on their tarp thingy and one girl in Spirit had two drops within a minute of each other...)

SCV Cadets: Loved their show, and were a perfect start to the evening. "Tender Land" was especially enjoyable, given the A corps' history with it...

Oregon Crusaders: Loved the sound. Hate the unis. Got a kick out of "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" since I've sung a mens' quartet version of it - I liked their take on it.

Troopers: Wonderfully enjoyable show! Felt like the parts of the middle third lost steam/focus a little, but great to see a show like this from them.

Academy: For the most part really liked their sound, but agree with Jwillis that parts of the show seem disconnected and sections of the drill seem to suffer from the "let's run just to run" mentality.

Great show from INT tonight.

Blue Stars/Blue Knights: I combined them here because, honestly, if you switched shows between the two corps, they would have been no more or less enjoyable or memorable to me. The horn and drum lines are definitely the highlights - the show themes and overall construction left me wanting something else, unfortunately.

Spirit: Yay! Screamers in the house! And well done, too. Portrayed the speakeasy theme quite well without overdoing it.

SCV: Thank you. Really. This show just dares you to not be drawn in in the first 30 seconds and just holds you in its grasp. The mello line is phenomenal and the entire corps is absolutely selling this for all its worth.

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Venue and weather were perfect. Veterans Stadium isn't big, and the audience is tight on the field, so big and loud was the name of the game for the spectators. The forecasted rain was scared away and the evening was perfect: cool and little breeze to affect equipment.

we are very happy to be back at Vet's Stadium,................best drum corps performance facility in the region IMO,.........too me, seeing the performers faces last night as they finished their shows to thunderous applause was fun to watch, as the crowd is just as much in the face of the performers as they shows they projected,...........biggest crowd we have had in years,............ :thumbup:

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Nice review! You're right on about OC's unis. They need something that says "Top 12." And with BK and Blue Stars, when you're staff and design team give you lemons, you have to sell lemons, even though those two groups are good enough to sell Mercedes Benz.

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Academy: For the most part really liked their sound, but agree with Jwillis that parts of the show seem disconnected and sections of the drill seem to suffer from the "let's run just to run" mentality.

Great show from INT tonight.

Thanks for posting this review. INT was, as the saying goes, my hot dog corps, and my nacho corps as well, since I was able to get quickly to the concession stand for some dinner, and then carried it with me as I visited the corps souvenir trailers outside. (As I did again after the show.) Based on my enjoyment of the shows, I would have bought an Academy or Spirit shirt, but I didn't care for the design on the shirts themselves. Vanguard's show is superb, and their shirt looks good, but the line to buy was long. So I settled for dropping some money in the various fuel support cans.

I hadn't seen Academy's show before, and after all the complaints here about the emcee, I was surprised that he didn't bother me at all. (Although I understand he has less schtick than he did earlier in the season.) His interaction with the audience, apart from being in character, isn't so different from what the Govenaires' drum major regularly does. However, having established himself in that role, his voice absolutely should not be heard prerecorded at other points in the show. He must only speak live.

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Nice review! You're right on about OC's unis. They need something that says "Top 12." And with BK and Blue Stars, when you're staff and design team give you lemons, you have to sell lemons, even though those two groups are good enough to sell Mercedes Benz.

It's interesting how we can watch the same shows but see/feel such different things. I think BK's show is a really interesting direction for them, and one I hope they continue to explore with their new staff. I also think BS are much improved on last year and a few tweaks here and there will secure them back in finals and make their VooDoo theme even more clear

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Thanks for posting this review. INT was, as the saying goes, my hot dog corps, and my nacho corps as well, since I was able to get quickly to the concession stand for some dinner, and then carried it with me as I visited the corps souvenir trailers outside. (As I did again after the show.) Based on my enjoyment of the shows, I would have bought an Academy or Spirit shirt, but I didn't care for the design on the shirts themselves. Vanguard's show is superb, and their shirt looks good, but the line to buy was long. So I settled for dropping some money in the various fuel support cans.

The nicest shirt I saw and bought, is the blue Troopers shirt with the red and white bars and the crossed sabres in the blue upper corner, same flag carried in the sunburst........now that is a shirt I can wear that doesn't look nascar-esque. (plus I gotta support the Troop as Fred Morris is an old T-Bird who has made drum corps his life)

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For anyone that needs a couple of 30 second fixes, I put a couple of links to clips in the SCV 2013 thread...

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For anyone that needs a couple of 30 second fixes, I put a couple of links to clips in the SCV 2013 thread...

I will say, I am a huge fan of the broadway show (the movie?, not so much),...........SCV does superb job of not only capturing the true essence of the show, but the excerpts chosen and sequencing, were both paid very close attension,..........one of the best shows I have seen live in some time,.........

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