Battle of Bowling Green 6/28

[DrumManTx]

So there's currently a 3.8 point gap between 5th overall place (Crown) and 6th (Cavaliers). There's no west coast inflation there, since they're both out east. I know it's early season and stuff, but wow, that seems quite a distance, especially in the middle of the top 12.

Pretty telling where they went head to head, not much difference in how much of that was content spread and achievement spread either, 1.7 spread in content and 2.1 in achievement.

So...............where's Anstig? lol

Edited June 29, 2015 by DrumManTx

[drumcorpsfever]

Pretty telling where they went head to head, not much difference in how much of that was content spread and achievement spread either, 1.7 spread in content and 2.1 in achievement.

So...............where's Anstig? lol

3 words about sum this up: Minnesota!

July 11 is going to be fun!

[Catan]

Nice jump BAC!

[chris ncsu]

Another impressive percussion score for Crown. Just 0.3 behind Cadets. And again, another show without brass and guard judges. Encouraging for Crown for sure.

I'll just point out that the Cadets-Crown gap is currently 1.5; a week ago (with the same captions judged) Crown was 1.8 behind Cadets, and the day prior to that with a full panel it was 1.6. The gap narrowed, but perhaps not dramatically :-p

[Ghost]

Nice bump BAC !!..

The nice bump was the 68.1 at Michigan City. Thought the Bowling Green score, with the banners added. would have been more than .2. Just a slight delay for now.

[drumcorpsfever]

One thing is very evident, signing is in vogue. Saw Crossmen for the first time. Nice show. Like Troopers and BAC, there's heavy emphasis on voice. I'm not sure any additional practice will bring the same polish that you'll hear from the brass and percussion by seaons's end. That's really too bad because Troopers and Crossmen brass sounds great. All of these corps great brass sounds kind of get diminished in the signing that is not completely effective. It reminds me of the 2007 Cadets. If you focus on the brass only, you're blown away on how great they sound.

Edited June 29, 2015 by drumcorpsfever

[2000Cadet]

...? Or Crossmen had a dirty run. God forbid.

Lol this coming from someone who doesn't like "excuses".

[KVG_DC]

One thing is very evident, signing is in vogue.

Not sure I've seen anyone using ASL yet...

Although I still think a silent drill break with the numbers 1-10 would be fun for the Cadets this year!

[craiga]

One thing is very evident, signing is in vogue. Saw Crossmen for the first time. Nice show. Like Troopers and BAC, there's heavy emphasis on voice. I'm not sure any additional practice will bring the same polish that you'll hear from the brass and percussion by seaons's end. That's really too bad because Troopers and Crossmen brass sounds great. All of these corps great brass sounds kind of get diminished in the signing that is not completely effective. It reminds me of the 2007 Cadets. If you focus on the brass only, you're blown away on how great they sound.

Not sure I'd call singing in BAC "heavy emphasis"... she sings for about a minute and 30 seconds out of an 11 minute show....and beautifully, I might add.

[jwillis35]

Many thanks to Liahona (and anyone else) for copying my tweets (text and photos) and pasting them here onto this thread. Big help!! Initially I was going to try and write everything here, but with my Samsung S4 phone/camera, it's easier to use Twitter for quick updates. My phone camera is not nearly as good as Kevin Gamin's and other folks, but hopefully those give you some idea.

Bowling Green's stadium is a REALLY nice venue. Beautiful campus, lots of parking, tons of warm-up areas for the corps, and plenty to do, see, and eat in the area. This is the show that used to be held at the Glass Bowl in Toledo, also a nice venue, but I like this location better. Not as loud as the University of Akron stadium, but still worth the 3 hour drive.

I only saw two of the three SoundSport groups. Columbus Saints and Indianapolis Ignition. Ignition got best in show. They are quite good for a small group. I was very impressed. Columbus did not march at all and had trouble with the music. They sounded younger and like they are still in the learning process.

My over-arching thoughts were:
- Legends from Kalamazoo are no joke this year. This is a group on the rise. Accessible and fun show, big solid sound, large percussion section.

- Love Spirit of Atlanta's color scheme. Their Kanstul brass sounds wonderful. I think they are behind in some captions and with overall cleaning. Lot's of cleaning to do before they begin making changes to the show, but I like their music and the show is fun. They will make a run for top 12 like a few others will.

- Troopers are BIG TIME this year. Top to bottom, this is a great show. Some big impacts in this show. Wild Horses ballad is excellent. Troop packs a punch in brass and percussion. Effective staging. They are still one of the dirtier corps on the field, so cleaning will only push them upwards in score, if not in placement. Competition is tough, but I could see this in the top 12.

- Boston Crusaders made the biggest impact on me last night. From my viewing in Akron to last night at BGSU was night and day. I was amazed. That's the Boston I wanted to see. The props with all the color add so much, but it's more than that. Their percussion and brass were on another level from Akron. Last night they had one of the better brass sounds of any corps there. Better, fuller, and darker than all the corps except Cadets and Crown. Their percussion was really good and what a great book. They are still filthy visually, so much cleaning needed on forms and feet. Musically this show made more sense, and although I still need another read, I'd say Blue Stars and Madison better watch out as well. Not sure Boston can power their way into the 6 - 8 range come DCI Finals, but 9th place I can see.

- Crossmen have a colorful show with very effective props that look like clouds. Music is fun, easy to listen to, and grooves nicely. Their ballad is beautiful with some excellent staging. Drill is good, brass plays well but still has many issues with phasing, balance, blend, and dynamic range. To me, there are no super big hits in the show musically. They will need to pull more GE and dynamic range out of the music book in order to push this show further up the ladder. Plenty of time. Still lots of cleaning for them visually as well. I sense the show is more BOA than DCI, but I need another read. A really good group and another view will tell me more.

- Carolina Crown was solid on all fronts. Brass...yeah, they can play. Just wonderful! More dynamics being put into the book, more musical flow. They have cleaned a lot. Percussion is really well written into this show, but I'm not wild about the extended drum feature in the opener after the brief first musical statement by the full ensemble. I think the show loses some focus right away after that awesome opening statement. Guard is fabulous. Closer still needs work, but I know that's coming. The build in the fugue section going into Ode to Joy is stunning. One of the best musical moments of the summer. Could this show be top 3? Sure, but some things must happen. The competition is as tough as ever. On the strength of brass and guard you'd say yes, but drill, overall GE, and percussion will be the determining factors.

- The Cavaliers have a FUN FUN show to watch. I love almost every minute of this thing. But they are dirty as all heck musically and visually. They had a young trumpeter who must have been injured and was finally put into the show. He was all over the place last night, missing set after set. But I know he will conquer that visual book in a few more shows. Visually the Cavaliers are much stronger than Crown (in terms of design), but not quite as good as Cadets. In terms of form and feet the Cavies are still just filthy. That will change soon. They just need to clean the feet and get the music to lock in. I'd say they have more work to do musically. Very tough music book, brass and percussion. Some tasty writing. This is a show that will peak come Finals, and to me they are a solid 6th place if this thing is clean. Can they go higher? Not sure, tough call. The top 5 at the moment look really good. Might be a tough call, but I wouldn't put it past the Cavaliers.

- The Cadets are really on another LEVEL from the other groups here. After seeing them I did not think Crown or anyone else was even within 2 points of them. Can they win? Yes. Will they? Not sure. Bluecoats are amazing with huge GE moments everywhere in the show. BD is always amazing, and I am hearing that SCV is also on top of their game. There is much to be determined and a lot of season left. All I can say is, as of now, this corps is PURING all all cylinders. They have no weaknesses. Still lots of cleaning to do. Their drill is wonderful, their brass book is musical and super demanding, their percussion is stunning at times, their guard made huge improvements from Akron, and the GE impacts in this show, both small and large, are too numerous to mention. They add little nuances that many might not catch but that are extremely effective, and they have as many big impact moments as anyone. To everyone around, including some Crown fans, it was a no brain-er on who won last night. They made some big changes to the end of the waltz. It's stunning. The french horns have an added musical line before the solo horn. When they add their full ending they will be tough to contend with. I imagine things will get closer come the end of the season with the other top 5 corps being cleaner and with edits fully inserted. So who knows what will happen. As of right now my initial thought was "boy do these guys know how to clean and tweak." Maybe BD can beat them, but I doubt anyone else at the moment.

Edited June 29, 2015 by jwillis35