steeldrum Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Great show last night, some pleasant surprises from corps I had heard not so great things about. My rankings from a drummers perspective: Best overall show (enjoyment and execution) 1) Phantom 2) Cavies 3) scouts 4) crown 5) troopers 6) spirit 7) blue Stars 8) Pioneer Brass 1) Crown 2) cavies 3) Scouts 4) phantom 5) Spirit 6) Troopers 7) blue Stars 8) Pioneer Percussion (execution and clean) 1) cavies, featured pit on the field, love it! Very solid battery. 2) scouts, playing great 3) troopers, beautiful pit playing, battery cleaner than many others tonight 4) phantom, better than last year 5) crown, much better than last year. More technical exposure and not just playing backup for the hornline. Still some exposed dirt to clean. 6) blue stars, rough night. Need to do a lot of cleaning. 7) Spirit, very rough night. Lots of omg did I just hear that moments. Hopefully the line catches up to where I think the hornline is playing. 8) pioneer, making progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueByYou2000 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I was at the show last night and have just a few thoughts on the Madison discussion. This show is awesome and definitely got the biggest cheers throughout. It is packed with energy, come mid July they will be peeling paint. Drums, coming from a drum guy were in my estimation the best at the show, much cleaner than everyone. Horns sounded cleaner. Musically, Madison's Brass/Percussion/Battery were more in time than anyone else. Best first show I've seen from then since I can remember. The biggest thing I came away with was how much this show can grow compared to other years. I'm telling you, this show is vastly different than the prior 3-4 years. I didn't come away saying, you know, I love the first few minutes and the last few minutes. The show is musically great throughout. They look great in white, but it's too much white. Pants need a stripe or something to separate themselves from the jacket. It looks like they are not very well fitted, especially the pants. Whatever material Crown has with their space pants would look much better. I look forward to where this show will go this summer. Cavaliers also have a vastly improved show. They are looking like the Cavies of old. This show is also going places. Guard looked great, marching looked great and horns sounded great. They have the best Pit feature I've ever seen and won't ruin it for those that haven't seen it, but it was freaking awesome. Glad to see Cavies this strong, this early. They have a ton of content to work with. I enjoyed this show much more than anything they have had recently. I see them easily passing Phantom. Crown. Yep, horns are the strength again and drums need big work. A lot going on visually and the trampolines, at least from my field perspective got lost. First percussion feature with the mufflers is better in person than the broadcast from GW the other night. I would love to play Mellophone for this corps, wow that section rips. Like the blue pants, it shows well on the field. Horn book is very good but not at the same level as last year. Drums were very sloppy. Phantom. Those dangly things need to go. Brass, especially Baritones sounded great and guard commanded your attention. It was a home show for Phantom and judging by crowd reaction you would have thought differently. Madison and Crown had people on there feet much faster. This show is ok for me, but not as memorable as the 3 above. Stars, Troop, Spirit and Pioneer were enjoyable. And will try adding something on them when I have more time. Glad I drove the 2 hours to see the show last night. Very enjoyable. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highwaydude Posted June 21, 2014 Author Share Posted June 21, 2014 Not the best at reviews but here is my summary from last night in Rockford: Troopers - Enjoyable show. I think they have the vehicle to push them into finals night. BlueStars - "Where the Heart is".. in the beginning when the guard was wheeling in a few other guard members on wheeled carts my first thought that came to mind was the scene from Silence of Lambs when they have Hannibal all tied up on the wheeled cart. I don't know..it was the first thing the came to my mind. LOL Have always enjoyed BlueStars, I think if cleaned up better they as well should squeak into finals night. Spirit of Atlanta - Love the new uniforms. Brass was very good. Interesting flag the color guard uses this year. I think Troopers, BlueStars and SOA will be battling it back and forth all season. Madison - again Love the Uniforms. Music is enjoyable as always. I was expecting the trombone section with 8 members playing trombones to be longer and really show off the sound better with them. Overall a great enjoyable show. Cavaliers - The building continues and it shows. The show was much more enjoyable in person then watching it on the fan network. That applies to all the corps shows. I miss the days when the color guard had such a huge presence on the field. I think Cavies will be battling Phantom all season and will probably be battling for the 4-6th place by finals. Crown - Yes I am Crown fan. LOL The acapella singing in the intro just shows how deep the talent is within this group. And then you have the Brass. Boy can they play those notes. I really think it will come down to Crown and BD for battling for 1 & 2 again. I'll have to wait for Dekalb show to see BD's in person, but Crown is definitely in it to win it again. If i could pick one thing out to complain about, it would be those trampolines. There was so much going on and keeping up with the brass/percussion and guard, you kind of forget they are there in the show. I think Crown heard the complaints out the percussion last year because they sure have a huge presence this year. I'm no percussion pro, but they sure sounded good and impressive to me. After the show I turned around and asked this couple what they thought of it and they both said could they please do that again! Awesome show! Phantom - The field of swans. LOL Really enjoyed the show. The uniform change from white to black is very effective for the show. Depending on what SCV and Bluecoats do, I think Phantom will be right there near 4th or 5th place in finals and who knows.. maybe 3rd? Hmmm... need to see SCV first =) Overall was a great show. Can't wait till the Dekalb show in July. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91FSU08 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I was at the show last night and have just a few thoughts on the Madison discussion. This show is awesome and definitely got the biggest cheers throughout. It is packed with energy, come mid July they will be peeling paint. Drums, coming from a drum guy were in my estimation the best at the show, much cleaner than everyone. Horns sounded cleaner. Musically, Madison's Brass/Percussion/Battery were more in time than anyone else. Best first show I've seen from then since I can remember. The biggest thing I came away with was how much this show can grow compared to other years. I'm telling you, this show is vastly different than the prior 3-4 years. I didn't come away saying, you know, I love the first few minutes and the last few minutes. The show is musically great throughout. They look great in white, but it's too much white. Pants need a stripe or something to separate themselves from the jacket. It looks like they are not very well fitted, especially the pants. Whatever material Crown has with their space pants would look much better. I look forward to where this show will go this summer. Cavaliers also have a vastly improved show. They are looking like the Cavies of old. This show is also going places. Guard looked great, marching looked great and horns sounded great. They have the best Pit feature I've ever seen and won't ruin it for those that haven't seen it, but it was freaking awesome. Glad to see Cavies this strong, this early. They have a ton of content to work with. I enjoyed this show much more than anything they have had recently. I see them easily passing Phantom. Crown. Yep, horns are the strength again and drums need big work. A lot going on visually and the trampolines, at least from my field perspective got lost. First percussion feature with the mufflers is better in person than the broadcast from GW the other night. I would love to play Mellophone for this corps, wow that section rips. Like the blue pants, it shows well on the field. Horn book is very good but not at the same level as last year. Drums were very sloppy. Phantom. Those dangly things need to go. Brass, especially Baritones sounded great and guard commanded your attention. It was a home show for Phantom and judging by crowd reaction you would have thought differently. Madison and Crown had people on there feet much faster. This show is ok for me, but not as memorable as the 3 above. Stars, Troop, Spirit and Pioneer were enjoyable. And will try adding something on them when I have more time. Glad I drove the 2 hours to see the show last night. Very enjoyable. I'm so excited to see Scouts this year! I love their choice of music this year, you can't go wrong with Stan Kenton and Don Ellis arranged by Robert Smith. Crown surely will be adding more and more to tie their show together, plus can't wait for a true ending to be added to their show (a visual "crown" has to be in there somewhere). Plus the voice leading at the end clearly screams a different ending. Cavies will surprise some folks by the end and will pass up Phantom by mid-summer I think they just have to play the horn much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 from Blue Stars FB page A heartfelt thank you to the Phantom Regiment for the recognition of our 50th Anniversary. It's been an honor sharing the field with you through the decades. According to my files, the first time Blue Stars and Phantom Regiment faced each other was: July 5, 1970 Dixon, IL Cavaliers--76.65 Troopers--76.2 Blue Stars--75.9 Madison--72.75 Black Knights--56.8 Racine Scouts--56.5 Phantom Regiment--42.5 Perhaps the most amazing thing about this lineup is that 6 of the 7 corps are still on the field 44 years later!! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimlesst Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 We're back and Madison just wrapped up. What a fun show to listen to! Best sounding hornline of the night and they handled the difficult Kenton rhyhms splendidly. I'd pay to hear this one 10 more times at least. I liked the look of the show, but where I was sitting at least 80% of the show was drowned out by the speakers from the pit! I need to see it again just to hear it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos001 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I was at the show last night and have just a few thoughts on the Madison discussion. This show is awesome and definitely got the biggest cheers throughout. It is packed with energy, come mid July they will be peeling paint. Drums, coming from a drum guy were in my estimation the best at the show, much cleaner than everyone. Horns sounded cleaner. Musically, Madison's Brass/Percussion/Battery were more in time than anyone else. Best first show I've seen from then since I can remember. The biggest thing I came away with was how much this show can grow compared to other years. I'm telling you, this show is vastly different than the prior 3-4 years. I didn't come away saying, you know, I love the first few minutes and the last few minutes. The show is musically great throughout. They look great in white, but it's too much white. Pants need a stripe or something to separate themselves from the jacket. It looks like they are not very well fitted, especially the pants. Whatever material Crown has with their space pants would look much better. I look forward to where this show will go this summer. Cavaliers also have a vastly improved show. They are looking like the Cavies of old. This show is also going places. Guard looked great, marching looked great and horns sounded great. They have the best Pit feature I've ever seen and won't ruin it for those that haven't seen it, but it was freaking awesome. Glad to see Cavies this strong, this early. They have a ton of content to work with. I enjoyed this show much more than anything they have had recently. I see them easily passing Phantom. Crown. Yep, horns are the strength again and drums need big work. A lot going on visually and the trampolines, at least from my field perspective got lost. First percussion feature with the mufflers is better in person than the broadcast from GW the other night. I would love to play Mellophone for this corps, wow that section rips. Like the blue pants, it shows well on the field. Horn book is very good but not at the same level as last year. Drums were very sloppy. Phantom. Those dangly things need to go. Brass, especially Baritones sounded great and guard commanded your attention. It was a home show for Phantom and judging by crowd reaction you would have thought differently. Madison and Crown had people on there feet much faster. This show is ok for me, but not as memorable as the 3 above. Stars, Troop, Spirit and Pioneer were enjoyable. And will try adding something on them when I have more time. Glad I drove the 2 hours to see the show last night. Very enjoyable. Re: phantom "judging by the crowd reaction" another lukewarm response? they got the same last year and most thought it was because of the venue change/weather. i can see why a nontraditional approach would keep the home crowd from not responding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
year1buick Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 After watching the FN videos a couple of times I'm liking Phantom's show a lot more than after the first viewing. Same here. I think all the reports of doom following the Concert In The Park were a little premature. (Especially the speculation by some that they might not even make Finals, LOL.) Like I said before-- they'll be fine. I think this will be a pretty popular show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I liked the look of the show, but where I was sitting at least 80% of the show was drowned out by the speakers from the pit! I need to see it again just to hear it. That's where sitting farther out from the center like I was actually works for a change- you don't have the speakers pointing right in your face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimlesst Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 (edited) Which encore pieces are Phantom playing? They posted video of the alumi playing Elsa's Procession with the corps on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg81LlEfBTQ Edited June 21, 2014 by aimlesst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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