N.E. Brigand Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 I agree that VK has had some intentional accidents in their show. I always thought that there was a sop solo in their '90 show that fracked a bit to mimic the BD '89 frak. Can't be sure though.... There certainly are other parodies in that show. It starts with the DM pulling an oversized baton from the nape of his shirt, a la Phantom Regiment (he then tosses it aside). And though Michael Boo once argued otherwise, I feel sure that the way the cymbals surround the soloist a minute into the show is meant to parody Madison '88. The soprano solo for VK's "Singin' in the Rain" is frak-less, but its pretty little noodling coda certainly suggests BD's "If I Were in Love". But you mean the last notes of the solo in "Summer of '42". If that was a deliberate parody, it may have been too subtle! That would be a serious danger of deliberate accidents. They have too be obvious enough not to be read as actual mistakes. So naturally the swashbuckler's pants were supposed to fall down, but was the Cowardly Lion's tail supposed to fall off in the Wicked Witch's hands? In any case, pops to VK's "Scarecrow" character for conveying the floppy limbs that Ray Bolger evinced in The Wizard of Oz. Finally, I can only assume the chairs employed by the guard in the percussion feature, via time machine, are a parody of BD '09. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 Adding for a moment to that tangent: the BoA Semifinalists were just announced, as determined by scores over the past two days of Prelims, and based on how the BoA judges scored three bands that I had seen live multiple times this year on the OMEA circuit, something went terribly wrong. One band that just moved to Semis didn't even earn a Superior rating in OMEA State Finals and had lost late in the season to two others (who did earn Superiors) who didn't move on tonight. All those OMEA results were entirely fair and reasonable, in my estimation. Admittedly I didn't see the past two days' performances, but it is inconceivable to me that this band could have improved so dramatically in relation to both of the other two; it would be as if, say, 2014 Troopers had passed 2014 Cavaliers and Carolina Crown in DCI Prelims after having been 8-10 points behind them five days earlier in Allentown. I've paid minimal attention to BoA before now; based on this result, I have serious doubts about that circuit's judging. It seems I may have spoken too soon. Now that I've seen the BoA Semifinals schedule, the band in question (in fact, all Ohio Semifinalist bands except the two perennial BoA contenders) is playing in the first block, which means that its qualification came due to being among the highest in its class (which is the smallest category*) and probably not for beating the other two schools I mentioned. *It's interesting that the smallest class size in BoA is for schools with grade 10-12 enrollment of 600 or fewer. In OMEA, there are two categories smaller than that: one for schools with 300 or fewer students in those grades, and another for schools with 301-500 students in that range. The best OMEA band in the smallest class this year (at least of the 20 or so schools I saw) had just 30 members. Can I drag this back on topic yet again? More or less, by referring back to judging accidents already mentioned in this discussion (like Bluecoats 1990 as described by mingusmonk). I just saw a clip of a mid-season performance of Carolina Crown's "Rach Star" in which a judge is nearly run down by the brass in their fast backward marching section during "Paint It Black"--he gets away, but almost simultaneously, in another part of the field, two bass drums went down, apparently without serious injury. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Speaking of Crown 2011, the guitar didn't break at Finals, so the guard soloist tries to keep breaking it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TroopAlum12 Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 As far as I can remember, we didn't have any major on-field accidents during shows...now rehearsals, that's another story. My rookie year (2010) we had a move during a drum break where the hornline formed two lines facing each other, knelt down, and the guard threw a flag exchange over our heads. First time we ran it, one of my buddies took a flag pole straight to the back of the head, javelin style. During the very next rep, I met the same fate. I remember hearing the guard girl behind me yell something, then pain, then realizing I was on the ground as the corps was about to step off into the next set, rolling out of the way, and just sitting on the field. The staff checked me out real quick after the rep finished, and I was deemed fine and put back into the rehearsal. After two back-to-back incidents, it took a little while for us to keep people from flinching right as the guard threw the exchange. I did lose a shoe once during a show. And I remember that happened to others every so often through the years. And every single year, for some reason, at least a third of the corps' hats would blow off during the Lafayette, LA show. Never had much of a problem with that elsewhere. Sophomore year of high school band, we had a "waterfall" set where the band made a block that line-by-line cascaded back through itself. During a halftime show at a football game, it had been raining all day. This particular field (our home field) had natural grass, but also had astroturf on the sidelines that sloped sharply down towards the track. The backwards direction change on that waterfall set placed your foot right on the sideline, pushing all your weight backwards. Needless to say, several people from each line slipped on the direction change (including me). One girl lost her trombone slide and wasn't able to recover it for the rest of the show (thankfully it was not judged, nobody apart from the band parents in the stands really cared, and we were in the closer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sideways Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 The differences between OMEA and BOA judging and scoring are quite striking. I've seen solidly Superior OMEA band score a 295 (out of 300) yet not get a I ( 80/100 ) at BOA and some "marginally" Superior OMEA bands ( 240/300) get a 81 at BOA GN. It's all about show design and maybe a little good old boy system going on. I agree that VK has had some intentional accidents in their show. I always thought that there was a sop solo in their '90 show that fracked a bit to mimic the BD '89 frak. Can't be sure though.... BoA sheets are slanted heavily to GE and ensemble. Granted performance at the field level generally translates into GE, a good design and reasonably well executed program can generate a lot of GE as well. That in itself can cover a lot of performance slop on the field. I have seen a lot of state or regional circuit judging sheets that are more performance oriented...in other words much less emphasis on design and effect. For example percussion is worth 50/200 points on the Music Individual BoA sheet which then gets averaged with the Music Ensemble sheet for the total Music Performance Number of 20.0. That leaves percussion, as a stand alone section, worth 2.5/100 points in BoA...whereas Music Effect is worth 40.0/100 points. A lot of local circuits still have percussion as 10.0/100 points. I am not advocating one philosophy over the other, simply pointing out that the philosophies on show design are very, very different. Write a show that fits your programs strengths and that will be more competitive in the circuit you want to do best in. BoA you need to focus on things that drive effect: Large wind section with a great "symphonic" sound...to the detriment of the brass at times Clean and tasty percussion writing...don't ram notes Large guard that can spin (flags) like there is no tomorrow...weapon work seems of secondary importance Effective drill with proper staging...too much demand from tempo or step size is not rewarded accordingly 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 I think they just said "screw it" and put it down as an exhibition. Pretty cool performance to see on video. Talking to members, they did mostly go with muscle memory, and their eyes did adjust a bit. But there were a bunch of collisions the video doesn't pick up. Amazing a big accident didn't happen. But drum corps members could probably perform their shows blindfolded if you put them in the first set. Not quite yet at that time....it was the first show of the season (and the lights died because there was a power outage in Concord). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BozzlyB Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 With all the sicknesses that can run through a corps including gastro intestinal stuff, anyone ever hear about someone crapping themselves during a show? It has to have happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 BoA sheets are slanted heavily to GE and ensemble. Granted performance at the field level generally translates into GE, a good design and reasonably well executed program can generate a lot of GE as well. That in itself can cover a lot of performance slop on the field. I have seen a lot of state or regional circuit judging sheets that are more performance oriented...in other words much less emphasis on design and effect. For example percussion is worth 50/200 points on the Music Individual BoA sheet which then gets averaged with the Music Ensemble sheet for the total Music Performance Number of 20.0. That leaves percussion, as a stand alone section, worth 2.5/100 points in BoA...whereas Music Effect is worth 40.0/100 points. A lot of local circuits still have percussion as 10.0/100 points. I am not advocating one philosophy over the other, simply pointing out that the philosophies on show design are very, very different. Write a show that fits your programs strengths and that will be more competitive in the circuit you want to do best in. BoA you need to focus on things that drive effect: Large wind section with a great "symphonic" sound...to the detriment of the brass at times Clean and tasty percussion writing...don't ram notes Large guard that can spin (flags) like there is no tomorrow...weapon work seems of secondary importance Effective drill with proper staging...too much demand from tempo or step size is not rewarded accordingly Good stuff to read and learn about. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluehull Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Maybe not so funny, A couple of rattlesnakes crawling onto to field during A BAC practice in Kansas around 2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Maybe not so funny, A couple of rattlesnakes crawling onto to field during A BAC practice in Kansas around 2001 yikes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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