Carolina Crown 2014

[N.E. Brigand]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjJBY8EqKYU [Crown performing at Takasaki, Gunma prefecture, Japan on Oct. 12, 2014]

And to give us some context about what the audience there might be used to, see this performance by one of the Japanese corps at that same show (actually they appear to be the marching band of Shonondai high school--but I don't see any woodwinds, so they might as well be called a drum corps). How well do people think this White Shooting Stars performance would do in DCI? Good enough to medal in Open Class? Their major limitation would seem to be the small field coverage (because of the small field)--is that why they lost the world marching band association championships last year to Canada's Calgary Stampede Showband? (Whom I'd also never heard of before now.)

Edited October 17, 2014 by N.E. Brigand

[Lincoln]

And to give us some context about what the audience there might be used to, see this performance by one of the Japanese corps at that same show (actually they appear to be the marching band of Shonondai high school--but I don't see any woodwinds, so they might as well be called a drum corps). How well do people think this White Shooting Stars performance would do in DCI? Good enough to medal in Open Class? Their major limitation would seem to be the small field coverage (because of the small field)--is that why they lost the world marching band association championships last year to Canada's Calgary Stampede Showband? (Whom I'd also never heard of before now.)

I think this is the show you are talking about (Edit - posted wrong band - correct one now posted)

http://youtu.be/15XCQcEy02c

Here is a list of their Creative Design Team/Consultants - lots of familiar names:

http://www.stampedeshowband.com/showband/staff.html

Edited October 18, 2014 by Lincoln

[flammaster]

That is great! I am glad they came to Japan. I like seeing as many drum corps as possible exposing others.

[corpsband]

I think this is the show you are talking about.

http://youtu.be/gpol707araQ

Here is a list of their Creative Design Team/Consultants - lots of familiar names:

http://www.stampedeshowband.com/showband/staff.html

What a crappy staff! Where'd they find those people ??

[Lincoln]

What a crappy staff! Where'd they find those people ??

I made a mistake with the video posted above. That is actually the Calgary Stetson Show Band and not the Calgary Stampede Show Band.

Here is the Stampede's performance at the WMASB Championships.

http://youtu.be/15XCQcEy02c

[corpsband]

I made a mistake with the video posted above. That is actually the Calgary Stetson Show Band and not the Calgary Stampede Show Band.

Here is the Stampede's performance at the WMASB Championships.

http://youtu.be/15XCQcEy02c

Well since (jimlad the sarcastic pirate) was in my post, I wasn't being serious abou the crappy thing :-\

[Lincoln]

Well since (jimlad the sarcastic pirate) was in my post, I wasn't being serious abou the crappy thing :-\

Aye Aye!

[N.E. Brigand]

I made a mistake with the video posted above. That is actually the Calgary Stetson Show Band and not the Calgary Stampede Show Band.

Right: it appears the Calgary Stetston Show Band merely placed second at this year's WAMSB championships in Brazil, while the Calgary Stampede Show Band placed first both at that event and at last year's competition, which was held in Japan. That make them five-time world champions, by the way. The Brazil competition was held outdoors; the Japan competition was held indoors. At the 2013 competition, Shonondai High School's "White Shooting Stars" marching band placed second. Here is the Stampede's world championship show for 2013 (I note that the stupid "bug squish" has even made its way to Canada.) I'm not quite sure, but I think this is the White Shooting Stars' 2013 show, although from a week earlier than the WAMSB championships.

And that returns me to the topic at hand. I think it's wonderful that Crown went to Japan, and it's really cool to see their show re-imagined to accommodate fewer members, a smaller performance space, and no props. (It's sort of like drum corps of old, when a corps might present the same concept or musical selections two years in a row.) However, given the high quality of the WSS performance contrasted with the reduced effects of mini-Crown, I wonder if the audience was as wowed as Crown perhaps had hoped they would be. I daresay people might lay the same charge against this Crown performance--which, again, I enjoyed very much--as has been laid against some of Crown's competitors the past two years: the brass doesn't play enough, and they stand still too much.

I proposed above that the Shooting Stars, if competing with their 2014 show in DCI Open Class, might have earned a medal. Most amusingly, I note that one wag in the comments beneath Crown's video wrote, "Looks like Open Class will be really tough this year": the presumed implication being that the top of Open Class is about the level at which Crown-reduced might place. (The contrast between the two makes me think, just a little, of enormous North Royalton beating sprightly Brunswick (relatively speaking: 280 vs. 192 members) in G.E. at a marching band show I attended last week, although Brunswick won all performance categories: it seemed to me that while Brunswick was clearly superior in all the technical details, NR was good enough that they could bring their sheer numbers to bear in generating effect.)

On a side note: as the only commenter on the WSS video says, mixing together Mission: Impossible and The Barber of Seville works surprisingly well. (And there is at least one bit of drill in the WSS show that probably derives from Crown 2008! Did anyone else notice?)

A final detail: you can see Crown in the background for about the first three minutes of the WSS performance.

[jjeffeory]

Right: it appears the Calgary Stetston Show Band merely placed second at this year's WAMSB championships in Brazil, while the Calgary Stampede Show Band placed first both at that event and at last year's competition, which was held in Japan. That make them five-time world champions, by the way. The Brazil competition was held outdoors; the Japan competition was held indoors. At the 2013 competition, Shonondai High School's "White Shooting Stars" marching band placed second. Here is the Stampede's world championship show for 2013 (I note that the stupid "bug squish" has even made its way to Canada.) I'm not quite sure, but I think this is the White Shooting Stars' 2013 show, although from a week earlier than the WAMSB championships.

And that returns me to the topic at hand. I think it's wonderful that Crown went to Japan, and it's really cool to see their show re-imagined to accommodate fewer members, a smaller performance space, and no props. (It's sort of like drum corps of old, when a corps might present the same concept or musical selections two years in a row.) However, given the high quality of the WSS performance contrasted with the reduced effects of mini-Crown, I wonder if the audience was as wowed as Crown perhaps had hoped they would be. I daresay people might lay the same charge against this Crown performance--which, again, I enjoyed very much--as has been laid against some of Crown's competitors the past two years: the brass doesn't play enough, and they stand still too much.

I proposed above that the Shooting Stars, if competing with their 2014 show in DCI Open Class, might have earned a medal. Most amusingly, I note that one wag in the comments beneath Crown's video wrote, "Looks like Open Class will be really tough this year": the presumed implication being that the top of Open Class is about the level at which Crown-reduced might place. (The contrast between the two makes me think, just a little, of enormous North Royalton beating sprightly Brunswick (relatively speaking: 280 vs. 192 members) in G.E. at a marching band show I attended last week, although Brunswick won all performance categories: it seemed to me that while Brunswick was clearly superior in all the technical details, NR was good enough that they could bring their sheer numbers to bear in generating effect.)

On a side note: as the only commenter on the WSS video says, mixing together Mission: Impossible and The Barber of Seville works surprisingly well. (And there is at least one bit of drill in the WSS show that probably derives from Crown 2008! Did anyone else notice?)

A final detail: you can see Crown in the background for about the first three minutes of the WSS performance.

I wonder how those people would have reacted to a full strength Crown, or any other corps?

Cavaliers went to Japan in 2004 (http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=2d813457-ab1c-4bf9-bbe2-8db3d6a65a44) and 2010, but weren't full.

Blue Devils went to Japan in 1996 and 2002 ( and Europe several times)

Blue Knights took a group abroad too, but I don't think a whole corps has travel to Asia anywhere.

Madison took the whole corps to Europe in 1988

Glassmen went to France and Europe in 2006.

Blue Devils took the full corps to Europe in 2005 (Yowza!)

It seems like these Japanese groups are some of the better marching units in the world, only second to the US and maybe Canada. Wonder how the Japanese would appreciate a full US corps?

Edited October 18, 2014 by jjeffeory

[lindap]

Please stay on topic gentlemen (I presume ;) Carolina Crown`s Space Odyssey is awesome :)