Blue Devils 2014 Thread

[Cappybara]

I posted this in the Glendora thread, and thought I'd give it a shot here!

To start off, I have enjoyed the brass book played by BD for the past decade! They play so well with how abstract the themes and how dissonant the music! The second movement of their show this year is by far one of the most beautiful they've fielded in years. It is so smooth and luscious that I can listen to it over and over and never get tired of it.

That being said, there are some visual things coming from the color guard while moving those stages into a "run way" on the 45 yard line. So mind you while this amazing piece of music is taking place, there is a male color guard member so awkwardly walking on this stage that it completely took ruins this piece. What is this? Is there a reason this drunkard is on the stage? What are they going for? Is it some nuance to one of Fellini's movies? All I see is a person who just suffered a stroke stumbling from back hash to the front sideline over 60 seconds.

The thing that kept going through my head was this and only this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRtlkcQ6brE

First of all it's a show about Fellini... Eccentricism is a given. 2nd of all, a colorguard member is performing it. Did you expect normal from a colorguard member? Lol.

[tja273]

This performerlooks like a marionette to me. This would explain the awkward movemont. I have not looked up any Fellini movies to see if this comes from any of them.

I am not sure how this takes away from the music. There is little else going on on the field. This is meant to be the focal point. It also appears to be an emotional moment at the end as another member stands behind them and holds an umbrella over them, treating them with the respect and compassion of an ordinary human being. Again, there is probably some meaning from one of Fellini's movies, but I am not privy to it. I don't find it "distracting", as it seems to be intended to draw your focus away from everything else.

[BDguard92]

I'm not sure if it's a Fellini reference, but the juxtaposition between the music and one guard member is really cool and emotional at the end.

[DcFr3aK]

First of all it's a show about Fellini... Eccentricism is a given. 2nd of all, a colorguard member is performing it. Did you expect normal from a colorguard member? Lol.

My qualm isn't about eccentrics or normalities. I did not have the greatest of seats for the Glendora show, I was sitting at about the 40 just in front of this long line of stages. My eye was drawn to this color guard member for what reason? there are beautiful lines being draw just to the left and I couldn't take my eyes off this stumbling person.

All I am asking is for some sort of reason. I noticed the grasp of another color guard member at the very end of the number, but it gave me nothing but confusion rather than resolution.

So I ask again, is there anyone out there who knows what this signifies before I go on an all day binge fest of Fellini movies?

[flammaster]

La Strada means "the road". Go watch it. it's a great movie.

[Brutus]

Clearly the Blue Devils can hear the difference in the crowd reaction this year. And that crowd reaction puts last year's five tab of acid jazz interpretation of The Rite of Spring on the endangered species list.

This year’s exquisite production is decidedly more focused, more era-specific, and a hell of a lot more fun. With Felliniesque, the Blue Devils have finally found a subject matter that justifies their recent jonesing for abstract design and absurd imagery. The Devils’ design team has either sobered, or matured—maybe both. With their 2014 show, they’ve turned down the volume knob on the inexplicable randomness, from eleven to about six, and this year cleverly grounded their show with just enough exposition to keep audiences tethered by their feet, like Guido as a runaway kite in 8 1/2.

Underneath the surface, this year’s Blue Devils show admits that last year's show topic was hampered by a lack of narrative platform. Here are the expository elements that ground BD’s current offering:

Where: Backstage dressing room, bar, movie theater seating

Who: Cabaret tamborine performers, Claudia Cardinale, the lady in black

What: Making movies, changing costumes, cabaret dancing

These simple expository elements subtly assure the audience that the field action is real world. The exposition brings the audience into a narrative comfort zone, and allows for leeway into the absurd. Without those elements, however, any show becomes a schmear of self-indulgent finger painting. The narrative “who/what/where” platform helps ground the audience in the story- who the characters are, where they are, and what activity they're engaged in. Without these simple narrative elements, shows seem decidedly flat and without the ability to captivate our sense of story. And yes, of course, not all shows need narrative elements, but this proves that it sure helps.

But let’s get real. It’s not that hard. Anyone can create a performance art montage based on imagery from Fellini’s films. A couple of clowns, a few fedoras and a descending chandelier, and you’re legit. After all, who’s going to argue with you? No one’s really sat through more than two Fellini films before realizing that it’s an abyss of artistic argument. You soon realize that discussing the themes of Fellini is really good for nothing more than getting farther than usual on a first date in college.

But the Blue Devils capture Fellini so artfully, and in such detail, from Claudia Cardinale’s flowing white scarves to the circus like absurdity of Satyricon, from the hornline’s matching the step of the slow motion lady in black, to the bawdy tamborine dance of the showgirls, this show could be one of the greatest drum corps shows ever. The film score grandeur of the beginning and end make for a moving, triumphant bookends to this work—a clear apology from the design team for last year’s lack of showmanship and accessibility.

The drill has the most astounding moment where the entire hornline forms a massive diagonal line, rotating for a glorious five seconds before morphing into camera lenses. It’s so breathtaking, so impossible, so perfectly executed, and harkens back so strongly to bygone eras of exposed drill elements that it makes you wish there were more cut throat maneuvers like this. But, alas, there are very few.

The Blue Devils have captured the essence of Fellini’s style, and brought their whole approach back down to earth from last year, and for that they should be rewarded with a championship. Fellini peppered his films with beautifully rendered fantasy sequences based on subconscious imagery, and that’s a perfect stylistic match for BD’s penchant for the abstract, and a perfect match for today’s montage-like drill style. Bravissimo.

Recommended revisions:

1) Can you better define the row of movie audience? Maybe it should have some couples with one arm wrapped around the other, in typical date night fashion. Maybe one should whisper another or snuggle. Perhaps one person can be late and holding popcorn, and forcing all the people in his row to stand as he takes his seat. Otherwise they look like marchers taking a break on folding chairs.

2) Clean up the “lets drag a chair over to the drum solo platform” section. It looks like the start of a PTA meeting.

3) Drum major, when you bow, put your feet together. Otherwise it looks like sodomy.

4) Opening featured dancer although evocative in her movement looks like she wandered over from the musical Hair. Shouldn’t she look more like Claudia or Fellini’s other coiffed beauties? What Fellini ingenue is this referring to? We can’t tell. Even pulling back the hair and wearing a designer hat would be more evocative in the important first moments of the piece.

5) The background backstage area almost seems too cluttered. Are all those costumes used? Can it be more streamlined?

6) Who is the hornline member who is GLARING at the judges box when he finishes a particularly difficult passage before turning away? It’s really mean-spirited and unsportsmanlike. Apparently he’s angry about last year’s best hornline prize. Why should you care? Where’s the Italian insouciance?

7) Can the streamers be unfurled lengths of 35 milimeter film instead of red silk? Strips of film are more absurd than red silk, and funnier, especially if you've ever edited 35 mm film. (At times when you're editing, it feels like you're in a sea of cellulose acetate packing material!)

8) In the final moment, who are these four presenting the Fellini director’s chair? (Not to mention why one of the people walks directly in front of the chair.) Why not replace these four with the featured characters that you’ve already set up? This may offer more resonance in the final moments.

Questions:

Is the limping man preceding the lady with the black umbrella from La Strada? Can you make the reference more clear? Help us out.

What is the Fellini reference, if any, to the guard seated around the square platform where the drums play? Or is it a simple generic pub or cabaret?

Edited July 1, 2014 by Brutus

[flammaster]

Oh brother. Can't believe I read that missive.

[Cappybara]

Oh brother. Can't believe I read that missive.

He has a habit for nitpicking on things people dont give a crap about. He did it to the Cadets too. Atleast he's consistent. I cant wait to read his take on Crown. It'll be comedy gold.

[Photographer Jim]

... You soon realize that discussing the themes of Fellini is really good for nothing more than getting farther than usual on a first date in college. ...

NOW I learn this! Great, just great!

[91FSU08]

Someone please explain to me what is so great about this show... I'm really having a difficult time finding a melody. And if they decide to march instead of jazz step and walk everywhere, that's would be great too.

Another year, more disappointment.

I'm still not getting into their program yet either and feel disappointed. Maybe because of only high-box views from the Fan Network? Either way IMO Crown & Cadets are a point better than BD right now (I'd even throw Bluecoats ahead as well), maybe that will change. I just don't think they are playing the horn at the level that Crown is. For example, their one technical passage at the end of the trumpet feature before low brass enter for the first time phases like crazy side to side and the articulation is muddy at best. Visually they do not march nearly as well as Crown, Cadets & BCoats. The drill is not hard and reminds me of the 1980's Blue Devils from a form and velocity standpoint, however the straight line and rotation in the closer is quite cool and amazingly clean. I was hoping they were going to bring back something like 2011, the Mel Torme stuff works for them! Just expected more from the west coast blue team by now.