Dekalb TOC

[PhillipSopper]

All Times CDT

740p Blue Devils

757p Bluecoats

814p Blue Stars

831p *break*

901p Carolina Crown

918p The Cadets

952p Phantom Regiment

Color Guard: Richard Kemp

GE Music: Nola Jones

GE Visual: Marie Czapinski

Music Analysis: Caleb Rothe

Music Brass: Wayne Dillon

Music Percussion: Rick Rodriguez

Visual Analysis: Sylvester Sybilski

Visual Proficiency: William Chumley

Marie!!!!! Be still my Cavie heart!!! Look out DCI! And NOLA...feeling blessed y'all.

[PhillipSopper]

All Times CDT

740p Blue Devils

757p Bluecoats

814p Blue Stars

831p *break*

901p Carolina Crown

918p The Cadets

952p Phantom Regiment

Color Guard: Richard Kemp

GE Music: Nola Jones

GE Visual: Marie Czapinski

Music Analysis: Caleb Rothe

Music Brass: Wayne Dillon

Music Percussion: Rick Rodriguez

Visual Analysis: Sylvester Sybilski

Visual Proficiency: William Chumley

Marie!!! Be still my Cavie heart...and Nola....could be sisters. Love this panel!!

[Fan of the Arts]

Just back from Dekalb... great show tonight. My quick thoughts on the corps.

Blue Devils - Thank you finally putting on a show I actually enjoyed to listen to! I do believe they will win this year. Everything just worked.

Bluecoats - first time seeing this show in person and loved it. Everything builds up to the ballad which was beautiful. Then it looses some steam for me before it builds up into the ending. Probably best use of props this year.

BlueStars - much improvement since I saw them in Rockford. They should make finals night no problem this year.

Crown - The intro is killer. Brass is awesome as always. Guard need some improvements yet. Love the solo effect they added to the ballad. Hearing that in person is awesome! Brilliant! I hope they keep pushing and tweaking and get ahead of Cadets.

Cadets - My first time seeing this show live. Everyone in my group, which was 10 of us. Could not enjoy this show. All the narration is too much. WAY TOO MUCH. And then the poor guy starts off and his mic didn't work. I hope that don't happen in finals. Sorry its just not my fav this year. And from the crowds response.... enough said.

Cavies - Much improvement since Rockford show. Show is really falling into place. Cavies are back!

Phantom - More I see the show in person the more it grows on me. Some good changes since the Rockford show.

If I had to rank them tonight it would of been:

BlueDevils

Crown

Bluecoats

Cavies

Phantom

Cadets

BlueStars

and thats my 2 cents. =)

Oh and if you want to see some photos I added find me on Twitter @highwaydude

Thank you for your thoughts.

Irving

Fan of the Arts

[theCHEZman]

I find it odd how discussion about Bluecoats showing all their cards too early can be discussed while not asking how Cadets can maintain some sort of pace like they are also with minimal design changes?

I love both shows, but for this show to suddenly fall out of the sky in a matter of days is frustrating.

Cadets have more content and demand than Bluecoats and they have slowly added changes/ body movement and continue to refine and clean. (Percussion guard). Bluecoats have a fun show and I still think top 4 so world isn't ending but you can't throw all you're stuff out there in June and not have great effects in reserve to keep judges engaged. They saw and liked the sound bend at the end in the beginning of the season. If you want to contend, the judges are "now give me some more".. Edited July 14, 2014 by theCHEZman

[icecubeguy]

I agree - way too fast and way too deliberate with this drop !! WHEN I GO TO A DCI show I want to see these top 16-21 year olds performing something a high school band cannot - I see that with BD, Blooooo, & Crown

AND please, no lip syncing ! Another rant and rule -

A triggered effect is not permitted to have a tempo that can be used by the corps or used as a transition to another tempo - it must be the same tempo as was previously established by the group. Pre-recorded speech does have a tempo.

In all fairness I don't think the Cadets are using it to transition because we have seen/heard it end at different times.

[icecubeguy]

Cadets have more content and demand than Bluecoats and they have slowly added changes/ body movement and continue to refine and clean. (Percussion guard). Bluecoats have a fun show and I still think top 4 so world isn't ending but you can't throw all you're stuff out there in June and not have great effects in reserve to keep judges engaged. They saw and liked the sound bend at the end in the beginning of the season. If you want to contend, the judges are "now give me some more"..

[theCHEZman]

Coats are doing their famous "end-of-season-sinking" act. It's almost clockwork.

I was just hoping this year might be different since the product is the best one they've ever put out.

I'm not sure if this stuff helps. Bluecoats are having a rough patch and will get out of it. Nothing has changed. If a design staff could write such a unique show, they have the talent to listen to tapes and fix/clean.

[icecubeguy]

Where is this content you speak of? Engaging judges ? The one judge was actually facing the audience while commenting for at least 4 moves

The bottom line is the kids have to love to perform to be involved in DCI the way it is these days. A great show will not win and a really clean HS show us labeled as innovative. So be it.

The audience agrees - kind of like Crown with their Rock show several years back. It comes down to do you want to be the crowd favorite or old judges favorite. No big deal - the audience is being entertained at two levels -

1) the shows and the designs

2) the judging - very entertaining in itself - benefit of the doubt that something must be good because back in the day they were good with this music and drill do.....,

Two levels of entertainment

[JAZZER]

Weather was perfect.

On field pre-show feature of PR Tubas doing a fun groove, followed by NIU student summer band, sans percussion with our National Anthem. Passed around some home-made detailed programs to neighbor seats. They were appreciative.

Blue Devils-so poised, confident. Opening hit amazing. Guard is ridiculously delivering IMO, amazing to see. The hornline definitely has a quality someone described as Wayne Downey returns to his earlier style. Very tight ensemble, really nice grooves. Visual was really crisp from our vantage. I agree with others who believe it is their championship to lose, the execution level already is scary good. There is so much complexity.

Coats-we were sporting support signs for Bloo tonight, and excited to see them right after BD, which honestly IMO affected the spreads. Super entertaining show, Hymn is so beautiful. I prefer they not do the fade on the pitch bend btw. I think drums might have had an off night. Now that I've seen it in person, the drill does look somewhat congested at times, but our seats were not super high up. Very enjoyable show, could hear this ALL day and not tire of it.

Blue Stars-it was hard for me to get by the first half of the show and the blue coverall-alls and lack of headgear. I know, movers don't usually wear hats, but even a baseball cap would have worked for me. Lumpy looking. Tough show position, and the pacing of the first 3 minutes makes you desire some power. Once that I happened, I was more engaged......until the singing. It was done fairly well, not my cup of tea for the activity. A finalist for sure, hornline had some nice moments, but some fatigue was noted as well.

INT-30 minutes

Crown-slick. Hornline delivered big time tonight. Had only seen videos [not FN] and wondered how everything on field would read. So much cleaner than what I had seen online, even though seats not high up. Drums noticeably improved from last year. Some very cool effects in the production, but I tried to not watch the trampoline action except for when soloists were perched. Pacing to the muffler drumming seamed better than what I had seen. That hornline is so fun to hear. I just shake my head in awe. okay, yes I know there is singing as well-but as presented works, as I see it as 1. "pre-show" 2. electronically mixed/disguised a bit for effect setting up first hit.

Cadets-rough start with audio drop and soloist fracks. Hornline impressive, really seemed super inspired. Drumline played beautifully, my favorite tuning of the night. The color guard is enjoyable to watch. Would love to see this show without: narration, stage in front, screens, amplified gong. GH seemed to exit with hunched over pout, maybe it was the sandbag he was carrying. I like this show concept, and it is wonderful writing and performed excellently, just not my preference in method of delivery.

Cavaliers-drums and guard carrying them, some nice drill moments as well. Hornline still making its way. Marimba feature got expected response. Thunderous goo and other electronic contributions tainted my enjoyment honestly. I do not believe they will overtake Coats or SCV in the end, but this year has been incredible to see the competitiveness.

Phantom-GE & Visual did not do it for me tonight, BUT so much appreciated in person [& with changes] more-so than what I had seen online. Brass had a solid night I thought, soloist beautiful sound. Dark blend very nice. Hometown crowd, performing last I was expecting a bit more firepower, but perhaps recent edits are yet solidified to get that extra zip. It would not make sense with story line, but I'd like to see this once with no uniform change.........just once.

Agreed with the outcome placements, pretty obvious actually based on what we saw. Spreads? I thought Crown closer to Cadets tonight, but both a bit back from BD, who seemed stoked to go.

Drove home 200 miles, nothing compared to the performers headed to Warrensburg.

Will be interested to see tonight's TOC results, thus far a GREAT year of productions.

[cowtown]

Nice show in DeKalb last night, a brief recap

With me, a FMM that had not seen a show since 2006, a FMM parent that saw this show last year which, was their first show since 2004 (so this was their second show in 10 years). A fan that doesn’t follow the gossip or the corps, just goes to some shows and moo-self.

Oddly, all of us had the same favorite shows; Blue Devils, Regiment and Cavies while Cadets left us all flat.

Blue Devils, saw them last week, was higher (in the stands) today. Like their horns and drums, they march well and they march…yeah! The guard leaves me flat, not much color, a lot of vamping, felt like I was at a Lady Gaga dancer audition. Not dazzled by this guard at all, they seem weak by BD standards. I enjoy their show better ignoring the guard. General Consensus: too much stuff on the field and from the folks that this will be their only viewing of the show ever, too much stuff going on, felt like they were missing things which; was not a good thing.

Bluecoats –my first viewing of their show, read the hype, was ready to have them be my favorite and well, sort of flat show. Got a Home Depot vibe from the orange roof supports. May download the music to see if I can get into this show more, reaction from our group; it was OK. They didn’t seem to have any pop in the visual and many of the ramp stuff we’ve seen here and there before. No real visual hook here, the guard got lost, ensemble drill moments were few and far between. This show needs a visual GE injection or it will drop, sorry kids, I wanted to like it more

Blue Stars – third time I saw them this year, show is growing on me and now with more props. Many props are just there for props shakes, like the boxes. Something strange in the brass on the opener, they got better as they went along. Mass confusion about the Nursery on the opposite side of the master bedroom, garage in the middle of the house and no kitchen . Things that don’t matter much to me but to the 1-timer viewers; lack of detail turned them off. I thought the field marks and props 'boxed' in the drill a bit but not in a good way. Some of the guard props and work with them is a bit silly, header choppers with a box? MMMkay, that was worth it. Did like the bubble wrap flags. Nice show over all.

Crown – got raves for their sound, a dusty old timer said they we were worried at the start with the signing but then Boom, real drum corps. Fist I’ve seen them since Rockford and the show is so much better, they are still in it if they can get their guard better. Guard seemed noticeably weaker than last year. The hook for this show from the group was it was FUN. Yes, FUN still sells.

Cadets, yeah, no…our group and the crowd were not into them…do we really need narration after the JFK quote going ‘That’s what he said, that’s what Kennedy said’? Um, we know, you just played it...Cadets just played a quote, stupid. Drill seemed in slow motion, guard, surprisingly good..... other positives….the drums coming from the back of side 2 and their closer

Cavies – everyone loved the Cavies, so much drill dirt means so many points left on the field. Brass was week but not bad. Drums were good; this show just keeps getting better. I thought they had the best guard (or guard design) of the night. See, they still use flags and their flags are mostly in synch and their guard looks like a color guard and not a football field dance troop trying to justify years of lessons at My Pretty Pony Dance School. Seriously, dance as GE from the box in a big stadium? Really? Oh, look at how her wrist is bent, just like the one next to her, from 100 yards away… Stop judging ideas and trends, watch the #### show all this dance is ineffective and silly from up high

Regiment, another group favorite, my fourth live viewing of the year and I finally got it. It’s a better show than I thought…all the other times, I was in a small stadium and low so I thought they put too much GE in the hands of the uniform change which when you’re watching them do it, not all that impressive but from up high when it just happens and you have the interplay of the black and white, so much better. Brass sounded nice, needs a bit more punch and volume. Drum line is a lot cleaner than they were, the guards seems stalled, about the same as they were but they had some new flags. Entertaining show overall.

Edited July 14, 2014 by cowtown