Show Meanings

[84BDsop]

One of the major corps in this year's competition made a massive, offensive error in music interpretation for their marching music production this year. It's huge. That's the point of discussion. Feel free to add to the content of the discussion at any time.

Huge to you and one other person that I can see.....not to anyone else.

Claiming that a piece of art MUST ALWAYS BE PERFORMED IN FAITHFUL SOLIDARITY TO THE CREATOR'S INTENT is the opposite of art to begin with.

If that were held true to it's most pedantic effect, Bernstein would never have been able to do "West Side Story." You DO remember the source material for that, right?

[OrpheusAwakening]

Having spoken to a friend/fraternity brother who has been on BD staff for a few years now, I can contribute this to the conversation.

When designing the show, the BD staff loves to leave things open for interpretation. Yes, they do have a set storyline that they emphasize, but their main point in designing the show is to make the viewer want more. To see more, to hear more, to understand more. Thus their complicated themes and their wide field placement while doing many different visuals at a time. They want people to feel inclined to watch their performance again, whether it be at a future show or on video. It's similar to how some of the best movies have to be watched multiple times in order to catch everything. The main theme of the show is presented for the audience to enjoy and the judges to... well, judge. However, they add so many layers to it as a kind of reward for repeated viewings.

There is a huge amount of artistic development that goes into the shows, and part of it is to make you want more. After all, the shows you remember the most are the ones you view most often. That's how BD, Crown, Cadets, Bluecoats, Madison, Cavaliers, Phantom, etc. have all remained near the top for all of these years. One part of watching/listening to a show from the past is enjoying the music or visuals; another equally important part is watching/listening for something you didn't quite catch before that adds to the excitement.

Just my two cents.

[Lance]

Huge to you and one other person that I can see.....not to anyone else.

Claiming that a piece of art MUST ALWAYS BE PERFORMED IN FAITHFUL SOLIDARITY TO THE CREATOR'S INTENT is the opposite of art to begin with.

yep.

what a boring world we would live in if designers in any medium had that antiquated and reductionary point of view.

[lindap]

Well, it's flawed, as Because not only worked, it worked very well.

I agree. I liked it and don't know why? When I watched DCI Live! for half the offered iterations in 2015, I'd write a short comment beside the corps on a printed sheet. I'd also scribble a smiley face or two beside the note as I've done for years. In past years, I'd revisit the videos with the smiles and determine why I liked that performance, at that time, at that place. Unfortunately, the opportunity to revisit 2015 performances is scant. My general synopsis of 2015, based on impressions during points in time, is that 2015 corps had variety of music, theme and use of the huge green stage.

Those that are analytical of design must have seen the performance many times to support their views. Those of us who wish to view that magical moment in time they liked cannot review the design due to the absence of media during a copyright debate. I enjoyed the dynamics, colour pallette, drawing the audiences eye, listening to a superb soloist, punctuation, fervour, speed, story telling, staging, varied music of drum corps today during those few views on a laptop with a flakey streaming service. How I wish I could see that performance again to see what I missed!

[flammaster]

I am old school. I love themed shows and modern drum corps. Sometimes I get the shows. Sometimes I don't. I still think it's great though. I really love the idea that they are perfomers now more than just marching members.

If they want to do an old school show. That is great also. I like variety.

I enjoy the visual aspect much more now than in the past. I never liked marching. I wish I knew pit was going to come around or I would have marched many more years.

[ouooga]

This is a cheerleader’s hip hip hooray for the great work by the marching members who did exquisite work, despite the designers’ flailing about with incomprehensible, undefined imagery without any pattern, thematic argument, or understructure or resolve, discovery or new information by the end (see also Bluecoats). Yay!

Seriously? This was easily BK's best designed show in their history. I get goosebumps every time I watch it.

[ouooga]

I feel like I'm listening to Vince McMahon in that episode of South Park where he's judging wrestlers on their ability to convey storytelling and their acting chops rather than their wrestling.

It's not theater, it's drum corps. If a corps wants to do a play, great, that's their choice and they might be judged on that aspect, but theater isn't our medium, marching and playing loud music is. Theme helps me, as an audience member, stay connected. However a corps decides to do that, good for them as long as it works. I'm just as happy seeing Faust help Gretchen go to Heaven as I am seeing a bunch of extremely dizzy Cavaliers spin around during Spin Cycle or a bunch of Bluecoats Tilt everything to the side. Yes, you should tie your show together so me, audience member, doesn't think "wo, where the heck did this come from." But I came here to hear loud music and watch fast drill, so if you want to tie everything together with a reenactment of Game of Thrones or just sample a few lyrics from a Beatles song, I'm fine with it!

By the way, if any of the abstract shows I mentioned had a story that I somehow missed, as someone who has watched at least one drum corps show every day for more than a decade, maybe designers have over thought things? Until this thread, I didn't even know there was a clown in BD 14.

[Channel3]

Huge to you and one other person that I can see.....not to anyone else.

Claiming that a piece of art MUST ALWAYS BE PERFORMED IN FAITHFUL SOLIDARITY TO THE CREATOR'S INTENT is the opposite of art to begin with.

If that were held true to it's most pedantic effect, Bernstein would never have been able to do "West Side Story." You DO remember the source material for that, right?

When the original piece is about women getting their eyes bitten out by Stalin's regime, but you do an "interpretation" about neon colors and counting to ten, no. Please tell me you've never produced anything other than maybe portable toilets. Edited September 3, 2015 by Channel3

[BRASSO]

After all, the shows you remember the most are the ones you view most often.

I wonder if DCI has a breakdown of all the numbers of fans that attended a live Drum Corps show more than once in a season. My experience has been that the overwhelming majority of those who have attended a DCI competition in a season only see the corps in that show and that show alone and only once that season. Perhaps a few percentages more then subscribe to the live streams and they see them ( and others ) again and again after that one live show. But my guess is that every season, the vast majority of attendees to shows only go to that one show. As a result, if your show does not reach them in those 11 minutes of frenetic multifaceted things going on simultaneously, then you've lost those large segment of attendees that are not about to give you a do over, or a 2nd, 3rd or 4th, or a dozen follow up opportunities. You've got just a few minutes to reach them with the theme and its intended messaging. Thats all you get.. with the vast majority of coast to coast show goers in any season anyway.

Edited September 3, 2015 by BRASSO

[Channel3]

It's time to teach drum corps fans and designers basic lessons in production decision-making. Let's start with the very most basic lessons of show coordination-- Music and Theme Selection - Avoiding Disaster.

MUSIC AND THEME SELECTION - AVOIDING DISASTER

QUESTION ONE:
Which of these musical selections would most likely be inappropriate for a drum corps show?

a) William Tell Overture
b) Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag
c) Nirvana's "Moist ######", lyrics by Kurt Cobain

ANSWER: Clearly it's C. No matter how it's reinterpreted, cleaned up, re-contextualized, it will never, ever be anything other than a pornographic-titled grunge song by Kurt Cobain. The title alone simply makes this tune impossible to play for a 4013c youth activity, regardless of how stark and brilliant the song is. It's just common sense.

QUESTION TWO:

Which of these visual interpretations would be inappropriate for the musical selection?

a) Mozart's Piano Concerto 6 portrayed as a Hollywood farce.
b) Hot Butter's "Popcorn" portrayed as a modern DNC convention.
c) Music of the Holocaust Era portrayed as a couture runway.

ANSWER: Use your head. One of these has an inescapably heavy historical context. The context of its original tragedy is unavoidable. Any interpretation other than its original context would simply be regarded as offensive.

QUESTION THREE:

Which of these themes is unsuitable for drum corps style production?

a) Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's Ten Stages of Death and Dying
b) WatchMojo.com's Top Ten Songs to Strip To, featuring Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me
c) 10,000 Audio sound effects library
d) TV Jingles for 1950's Diaper Services
e) I Don't Like Mondays - music and lyrics by the Boomtown Rats

Of course, all of these are awful a) Too heavy, although likely to be performed at some point by the Blue Knights b) inappropriate adult theme c) non-musical d) frivolous e) way way way too heavy a topic. Use your common sense.

QUESTION FOUR:

Which of these uniform and flag color palettes would be an inappropriate pair for the show listed:

a) Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs - Polkadots and glitter.
b) Beethoven's 9th - Grays and bruise/puss colors.
c) Shostakovich's 10th - Neon.
d) Bruce Springsteen Retrospective - Pink leather chaps and rainbow colored confetti bombs.

You're learning. These are all just egregious. Color should spring naturally from the original piece. If your interpretation strays too far from the original intent, especially if the original intent was politically charged, age inappropriate, or tragedy-related, you're in a danger zone.

Fundamentals and common sense.

Now that we’ve explored how to avoid disaster in selecting themes and music, let’s assume you’ve chosen music or a theme that won’t cause a media firestorm because of its inappropriateness. Great. You’re ready to move to the next level in selecting music and a theme.

SELECT THEMES THAT MARCHING MEMBERS WANT TO PERFORM REPEATEDLY FOR SIX MONTHS

QUESTION FIVE:

Which of these drum corps show themes might depress your marching members if they played it for six months?

a) Your Last Breath – exploring the images of life that pass before your eyes in your final moments before death.
b) Gamma Rays – how Gamma rays affect the natural properties of various elements on the periodic table. Encore: Principles of accounting audits.
c) Alone – Depression on College Campuses

That’s right. All of these themes are burdensome a) way too on the nose b) too sterile a subject or c) maudlin. Unfortunately, these themes are not too far away from themes that have been chosen by corps and WGI units in the past. Ug. Instead, select themes that audiences want to see and that kids under 22 want to perform over and over again. Avoid depressing topics, avoid scientific micro-theory and other inanimate objects that can’t be dramatized, and avoid downer subjects that are lugubrious, joyless and one-dimensional. After all this is a pageant art.

MATCH YOUR THEME TO THE MUSIC, THE MUSIC TO THE THEME

QUESTION SIX:

Which of these themes and music combinations fit together?

a) The Old Man and The Sea – La Mer by Claude Debussy
b) The Composer’s Subconscious Mind – The Music of The Books
c) The Sting – Music of Scott Joplin
d) Suffragettes – Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”

Clearly Jimi Hendrix’s misogynistic story is inappropriate for the subject matter of women’s suffrage, including the lyrics:

“Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot you old lady down,
you shot her down to the ground. Yeah!”

If you try the route “I don’t know that most people would notice” then you’re fooling yourself. The judges will notice, and your score will show it. Carefully select your music to fit the theme. Carefully adjust your theme to fit the music.

BALANCE YOUR PRODUCTION

A drum corps production works best if it displays a range of tempos, emotions and moods. Unlike in a symphonic concert setting, if you select a piece of music that has a single tempo and voicing for a twelve minute period, the audience and marching members may tire of it. Also, a single-mood piece may not display your skill at handling a range of material. Twelve minutes is just long enough to require a range of emotion.

QUESTION SEVEN:

Which of these musical selections would most likely require an extra attention paid to adding variety and a range of moods?
a) Koyannesquatsi
b) Monotone-Silence Symphony by Yves Klein
c) Poema Sinfonico by Gyorgy Ligeti, a work for 100 metronomes

Ug to all of these. If you select these pieces, make an extra effort to instill variety of mood and tempo, somehow. You’ve only got about twelve minutes. Best to avoid pieces that lack variety, brilliant as they are in a different setting.

Next, we’ll explore staging with, Building an Understructure into Your Show (A Dramatic Action).

Now that you have avoided the amateurish pitfalls of selecting inappropriate music and themes, you’re ready to select substantial music, build an understructure into your show, grow your theme, and support it with socko set pieces.

BUILDING AN UNDERSTRUCTURE INTO YOUR SHOW (A DRAMATIC ACTION)

Once you have selected a theme based on your music, or selected music based on a theme, you must develop that theme using the music’s flow, drill sets, movement, and characters to create patterns (and even full-blown stories) that satisfy the audience’s need for drama. The pattern of events in your show comprises your dramatic action. The dramatic action grows and transforms during the show, providing a stirring, heightened, universal and unique visual musical production with a solid, satisfying ending.

To create the understructure of your show use all the elements available to you in the theme-maker’s toolbox.

THE THEME-BUILDER’S TOOLBOX

Drum corps shows have grown from jukebox-like collections of random pop tunes, military marches, anthems and show tunes, to carefully crafted themed productions. Shows are more sophisticated now. A show’s theme conveys meaning that lies under the surface of the performance. The theme symbolically alludes to underlying social issues, philosophies, and other areas of universal human interest. Even if the show has no narrative elements, the music and drill motion provides patterns of action and emotion that grow and build in a meaningful way to satisfy the audience’s need for emotion and drama.

Whether they do it consciously or not, audiences look for a through-line when the drum corps show begins. It’s like watching a TV show or a film. As soon as a performance begins, audiences automatically ask themselves the following thematic questions:

• “What are they playing?”

• “What style of music is this?”

• “What’s this about?”

• “What does the title mean?”

• “Is the show a strict interpretation of a musical piece?”

• “What is the point of focus on the field?”

• “Is the show is narrative or non-narrative?”

• “Does the drill tell a story?”

• “Does the show have a central character?”

• “Does the show follow a story timeline in a linear or nonlinear way?”

• “How do the selected musical pieces fit together to form a theme?”

• “What do the uniforms or costumes convey?”

• “What does the flag design symbolize?”

• “What patterns is the corps developing overall?”

• “What is the thematic argument, overall?”

• “How does this theme apply to my own life and to the lives of others here?”

• “What’s the universal, unique message that’s being conveyed that comments on some aspect of the human experience, triumphs, trials and the way we live?”

• “What’s changed or grown by the end?”

Audiences can’t help but ask “why” about the production. It’s a natural instinct. Whether they realize it or not, the audience subconsciously absorbs these elements. Show coordinators use these elements to form the show’s theme, all carefully planned and orchestrated.

Viewers who claim they don’t try to “figure out” a show are lying. It’s a natural and sometimes even subconscious process.

QUESTION EIGHT

True or False?

a) Whether you consciously recognize it or not, the color scheme of guard uniforms is typically tied into the theme of the show. T or F

b) Flag design is typically tied into the theme of the show. T or F

c) The theme of the show is tied to the music. T or F

d) The music in the show is tied to the theme. T or F

e) Drill sets are typically tied into the theme or music. T or F

f) Characters that appear in drum corps shows are typically tied into the story, or are typically tied into the theme behind the music. T or F

g) All design choices are typically tied into the selected theme or the chosen music. T or F

Of course these are all true, and incredibly basic questions. Don’t be embarrassed if you never realized it-- every single drill set, every color, every choreographed move, every character, every musical selection ties into the selected theme in some way, or vice versa. But don’t claim that it’s not true—show coordinators carefully construct and design themed drum corps shows around that theme. (At least the good ones do.)

HEIGHTENING THE PATTERN/PROGRESSION

As the show progresses, the audience looks for the arc or “game”. The audience wants to know what the pattern is. How are these various elements of the show growing and changing by the end? Does the show have a logical understructure where we see patterns building, heightening and resolving to a satisfying end?

For example the Velvet Knight’s 1992 show lampooned cultural and entertainment memes, first presenting pop icons from American culture, then mixing and matching the characters, and finally at the very end the frivolous pop icons literally ate each other. This is a perfect example of a heightened theme with a social commentary, and a satisfying, hilarious ending.

In other shows, the music provides the simple but profound understructure for the production, and the drill movement simply interprets the underlying piece of music which grows and builds for dramatic effect.

Heightening the dramatic action is important. A twelve minute show is long enough for the audience to want a transformation by the end of the show. The audience wants to see the emotion change. They want to see characters (if any) develop and grow. They want to see the circumstance or setting or activity change. They want the pattern to evolve. They want the story to progress to a conclusion. They want to experience the music heightening to a logical conclusion. They want to see a payoff.

Sometimes productions can avoid a theme that builds throughout the show, and instead simply conjure a last-minute set piece and resolve the show in a satisfying way. Even though there might not be a theme to the entire production, at least the ending provides some satisfaction based on visual trickery, a gymnastic move, repeating a previous device, or a high impact GE drill movement, even though it doesn’t necessarily tie into any other part of the show.

QUESTION NINE

Which of these shows had no thematic understructure, but relied on a last-minute show-stopping set piece to satisfy the audience’s need for a heightened resolution?

1) Cavaliers – Softly as I Leave You

2) Santa Clara Vanguard – Bottle Dance

3) 27th Lancers – Danny Boy Company Front

4) Bluecoats – Tilt - Pitch Bend/Jumping off the Platform

Of course, all these theme-free shows relied on a final set piece that made up for a lack of thematic through-line. (The Bluecoats show did feature various elements that tilted to one side, it can’t be considered a fully developed theme because the concept of tilting was a simple visual attribute unrelated to underlying meaning of any kind.)

QUESTION TEN

Which one of these shows had a strong theme that escalated and heightened for dramatic effect, and whose high impact ending indeed tied into the theme and satisfied the audience?

1) Carolina Crown – Triple Crown - Horse race photo finish

2) Madison Scouts – Band of Brothers – Eulogy/You’ll Never Walk Alone

3) Phantom Regiment – Spartacus - Overthrow

4) Blue Devils – Felliniesque – Presentation of director’s chair

5) Carolina Crown – Inferno – Beatrice climbs out of hell

All of these shows had strong, thematically aligned final set pieces.

USING SET PIECES TO SPICE UP YOUR THROUGH-LINE

When designers create a show, they heighten the dramatic action with “set pieces” which are strong, memorable visual and audio images with a high-impact action that ties into the theme. In the Blue Devil’s Felliniesque, the design team created a series of character images from Fellini’s films, and strung them together in a lyrical, flowing way, and then at the end, wrapped up with a tableau of the characters presenting a director’s chair paying homage to Fellini’s life in art. The visual set pieces were character-based, separate, non-linear, but matched to the music, loosely strung together, and gathered at the end in tableau. Often screenwriters create a series of set pieces on a single theme and string them together to form a story or through-line for a film. Drum corps shows can be created the same way, providing a loose understructure for any show.

The set pieces form a pattern in the viewer’s mind. The set pieces link together based on the theme to strengthen the underlying dramatic action. The audience wants to know what comes next, based on what’s come before. These set pieces help set the audience’s expectations about how the show’s dramatic action progresses, heightens and resolves.

QUESTION ELEVEN

Which of these shows used clear “set pieces” which spiced up the dramtic action?

1) Blue Devils – Ink - 2015– Characters pop out of lifesize storybooks, various tales are retold with modern spins, and a young girl beckons us and encourages us to listen to our stories again.

2) Carolina Crown – Inferno - 2015 - Dante encounters the sign “abandon all hope”, wrapped in a river of blood Dante tries to escape and free Beatrice, Beatrice triumphantly escapes to heaven.

3) Phantom Regiment – Spartacus- 2009 – Slaves are beaten, rebellion, coup de tat.

4) Phantom Regiment – Juliette – 2011 – Juliette woos Romeo, grieves at his passing, defiantly takes her own life rather than live without him.

Of course, all of these shows used effective “set pieces” to grow and build their show’s dramatic action. Note that each show included a final transformation which provided a satisfying ending.

But not all shows need narrative story elements in order to convey a dramatic action. In many effective drum corps shows, the dramatic action springs from the music.

QUESTION TWELVE

Which of these non-narrative shows built a strong through-line using the music and marching formations alone?

1) Cadets – Appalachian Spring

2) Cavaliers – The Planets

3) Santa Clara – Fog City Sketches

Of course, all of these shows successfully built a through-line using the progression that’s built into the music. The shows simply relied on style of movement and repetition in order to create a pattern to satisfy audiences’ need for a thematic through-line.

Now that you’ve selected music, a theme, and developed that theme with set pieces, it’s time to step back and examine the universality of your theme and thematic argument. The more universal your theme, the more it will move the audience, and the higher your score will be.

The next section addresses your show’s universal and unique message.

THEMATIC ARGUMENT - BUILDING RESONANCE AROUND YOUR UNIVERSAL AND UNIQUE MESSAGE

The key to a winning depth of concept score is to follow these guidelines:

1) The show theme impacts the performers themselves, and changes the way they live their lives in some small way.

2) The show theme springs from these performer's point of view, it represents the performers themselves, and it's a good fit.

3) The show theme perfectly captures the essence of something universally human in all of us.

4) The show theme is told in a way that is unique and never done before.

5) The show theme fits in this medium-- drum and bugle corps competition in large scale venues, rather than, say, a wall hanging, or a ballet, or radiator cover design.

First, the show must impact the performers and change them. When the Blue Stars performed the circus theme this year, guard members portrayed conjoined twins, literally sharing the same body and forging a new path, a new way of being. The performers worked closely with one another all season and became one, like circus performers do. In a weird but real way, these performers captured the essence of drum corps camaraderie, and had a profound insight into the outsider's mind, performance artists' point of view, and their issues of social and personal acceptance.

Second, the show should spring from these performer's point of view. For example, the Velvet Knights were well known for shenanigans both on and off the field. Their 1992 show lampooned cultural icons and satirized drum corps memes. The theme of their show seemed to spring from the corps members' comedic personality themselves-- their own voice. At the end when the shark ate the Valkyrie, the fat lady sang, literally, something magical happened. The entire corps elevated itself to the strata of great performers in time who perform for kings and lampoon cultural icons-- that Cique du Soleil feeling of unmistakable human joy, satirizing the way we live and embracing the absurdity and comedic beauty of the human experience. These traveling performers transported us into their ridiculous world, and it turns out, they know more about us than we do about ourselves.

Third, the show theme should capture the essence of some aspect our humanity, in a big or small way. Some beauty or incongruity of life on earth that comments on the duality of our experiences. The pain and joy, the beauty and horror of our lives, the triumph over the elements, the joy of victory, the agony of defeat.

Fourth, the more unique a corps production is, the more memorable. VFW shows in the 1960's and 70's became so redundant, so almost indecipherable from each other that the art form risked extinction. During these years only small, almost imperceptible risks differentiated productions, and corps shows were restrained and dominated by onerous rules of military bearing and marching and maneuvering. These rules provided both a joy in precision, and a high-pressure emotional containment, but also strangled the corps' range of expression. By the time military-style units were playing the theme from The Exorcist using military bearing and formal M&M maneuvers, the activity appeared to be almost absurd and comedic, splitting its own pants, and ready for change.

Fifth, the best shows fit into an outdoor, large scale music performance medium. Molecular science might not be the most fitting theme for a large scale venue.

QUESTION THIRTEEN:

Which of these shows resonated with audiences for their universal themes?

Madison Scouts - Band of Brothers - The horrors of war, and the triumph of loyalty.

Phantom Regiment - Spartacus - Slavery, and the fight for freedom.

Cadets - Appalachian Spring - Spring awakens.

Santa Clara - Les Mis - The classic novel of revolution and redemption.

Answer: All of them.

CREATING THE BEHIND THE SCENES STORY - DEVELOPING THE UNIVERSALITY OF YOUR SHOW

Many shows in drum corps history were missing the final component-- universality (the human component.) Everything else was in place-- the great set pieces, music of substance, even a topical theme, but they simply lacked meaning on the level of the human spirit. Audiences said "So what?" or "That's curious. I wonder what's on their minds?"

Often show designers think that a historical theme, or a novel reference, a visual gimmick, or a music genre is enough to vault them to the level of profundity. In rare cases it is. But to add true depth of concept, the show designers need to simply add an element of story linking the content to the performers, either behind the scenes or in the show itself, which adds universal depth and richness. The depth of concept increases when the members own the material and become one with its philosophy.

• Could Santa Clara's Scheherazade have benefitted from a behind the scenes activities of corps members with Muslim backgrounds, especially young women, exploring the theme of powerful Middle Eastern women in history? Could SCV have invited Malala for discussions behind the scenes?
• Could BlueCoats' Tilt have benefitted from some behind the scenes research about how these composers want to tilt the landscape of modern composition? Could BlueCoats have promoted discussions with these composers about their trials and triumphs, their struggles for industry acceptance and quest for legitimacy? Public forums on artistic innovation, risk and reward, building some substance to the shallow idea of "Tilt"?
• Could the Bluecoats have invited Bob Dylan to talk to them about the 60's, Leonard Cohen, and how America's image changed from within, relating to their show To Look for America?
• Could the Madison Scouts have changed their repertoire the year they helped local flood victims in Wisconsin? Could they have created a production around volunteerism during devastation?
• Could the Cadets have benefitted from a discussion with any local conductor regarding their interpretation of Shostakovich's Tenth? Or maybe talk to the Russian lady down the street who fled her homeland during the 50's and what the music means to her?
• Could the Bluecoats have benefitted from incorporating images from various Mr. Maps vidoes, or at least a public forum with The Books on avant garde music, sharing ideas about the nature of music, rule-breaking and innovation?

The greater the universal message, and the more it directly relates to the performers themselves, and the more uniquely it is conveyed, the more the show transcends its medium-- an absurd, ridiculous performance art form where young brass and percussion musicians and color guards gather in abandoned football stadiums to perform music of substance.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Channel3