2015 Open Class World Championship Finals

[flammaster]

go back home and watch your scratchy vcr tapes and cry into you hamms you got from the food n liquor M'may? or you could learn to accept the fact that these great young performers are doing wonderful things.

sorry I wasn't on your lawn actually I was just near it. Or you can yell upstairs for mom to bring you a nuther discount beer for your next it aint drum corps's no more rant.

[N.E. Brigand]

But where is the performance element in the lighted prisms?

Where is the performance element in uniforms? (Or in SCV's case, lighted uniforms?) Why not make every corps wear the same outfit and spin the same silks?

At Avon Lake, where I first saw BDB's show, I said to friends that I felt BDB did too little with the lights. I still feel that way to a degree, but maybe because I paid more attention, I noticed more integration of corps and props at Finals.

(None of the above should be read to imply that I agree with the other bile-filled response to your post.)

Edited August 6, 2015 by N.E. Brigand

[N.E. Brigand]

It's too late and I'm too tired after driving back and working a full day to offer many comments on the show. Here's a few quick notes:

I bought my ticket upon arriving, and was able to get a seat five rows from the top on the left 45-yard line.

Chien Kuo High School Marching Band has apparently toured to North America before. I'm glad DMT identified their opener and closer as Wojciech Kilar's Orawa for Orchestra. I knew I recognized it, I thought SCV had played it, and felt that it wasn't quite the same as "The Chairman Dances", but could not pin it down. As I mentioned earlier, I saw only a couple minutes of their short show from past the left endzone, so I can't say much about it. They've got a couple brightly-colored inflatable props, each about four feet across. I didn't have a chance to count their size.

Gita Surosowan Banten had some microphone troubles as they mixed traditional Indonesian instruments in the pit, amplified speaking characters, and straight-up drum corps in an epic narrative with some sort of conflict between two figures, one richly robed and the other bare-chested, whose champions eventually do battle. Some visual splendor but a mix of strong and weak spots in the music. I counted 120 members: 62 horns, 17 battery (8 snares / 4 tenors / 5 basses / 0 cymbals), 15 pit, and 26 guard.

Jubal finally does something with those four tent-like pyramid props at the end of their show: they unfold to form a large silver triangle on the field. A landing pad? While the story remains unclear at many points, some parts of it began to come into focus. One moment from the guard seems like a nod to Crown's 2014 space show: they're in two lines, each appearing almost tethered together, but unable to reach the other, being separated by an arc of horns. Their percussion and brass are pretty strong; I appreciated their tubas especially. It looked like they had 77 members: 31 horns, 18 battery (6/3/5/4), 10 pit, and 31 guard.

Stentors, in what seemed to be a slight step back from their modestly appealing magic show of 2014, has what some might see as an extremely stripped-down version of Blue Devils' "Ink": they turn pages on a large book to reveal the names of different women from fairy tales. Corps Reps doesn't mention it, but I'd swear they played "Enterprising Young Men". What I said about the sound of GSB going from better to worse and back applies in spades here, as Stentors seemed to falter then recover every few seconds. Their front ensemble seemed like the strongest section. This was the first of two shows I saw this evening in which two characters kiss (the other was Gold); in this case, it was to wake Sleeping Beauty. They had 42 members: 12 horns, 9 battery (3/2/4), 10 pit, and 11 guard.

Raiders makes their message very prominent: "From The Ashes" and "We Will Rise" read the flame-edged screens framing the pit on the front sideline, and if that wasn't enough, a narrator tells you the story of the phoenix as the show progresses--and apparent recordings of corps members, a la Bluecoats in 2012, connect that narrative back to their experience. Raiders seemed much stronger two years ago with "The Raven", despite that show's over-reliance on John de Lancie's recitation. This show seemed perhaps too ambitious for this group. Can a percussionist explain the advantages or disadvantages of Raiders' choice of snare drum, which look shorter than what most other corps use? The phoenix flags at the end are pretty. The corps changes the sash color on their uniforms mid-show, but at least one didn't work. They had 73 members: 36 horns, 19 battery (7/4/4/4), 11 pit, 8 guard.

Colt Cadets, who also have a prerecorded narrator (the souvenir booth staff said it was in fact the Colts member speaking in the radio studio set of "Johnny Staccato", but earlier in the season it had been the fellow who voiced the scarecrow in last year's Colts show), have an easier but much cleaner show than Raiders. They're also a bit playful, as this corps often is. Taking their theme from Robert Frost's poem about the world ending either in fire or ice, the fairly short show has two halves. In the first, the members wear red; in the second, blue. About halfway through the show, some horns briefly work with flags, and then some of the guard has a nice if fairly simple flag routine that ends with them in a push-up stance. Shortly after that is a modest but elegant drill move in which files of horns alternately move forward and back as they cross to left. Best of all is the clever "ice" ending, which just about justifies the use of narration. Per my count, Colt Cadets had 82 members: 34 brass, 22 battery (7/6/5/4), 12 pit, and 14 guard.

Gold's "Pop Star" is wild and in your face fun, but messy enough to explain the eighth-place finish. It's overflowing with ideas that don't all work together but do impress through sheer spectacle. The pit is halfway back on the field, and includes a drum set and two electric guitars on a platform set eight feet off the ground. The show's title is given in large lettered pink electric placards along the back sideline. A large pink tarp is down front. The corps is split into two different sections like Cadets' angels and demons of 2011--and while this is also true of parts of this year's shows from Gita Surosowan Banten, Music City, and Spartans, in Gold's case, they're actually wearing different uniforms, some white, some black, some striped. Speaking of uniforms, as befitting the theme, they will make you think of some from Carolina Crown 2010, Academy 2013, and Blue Devils 2014--or maybe Lolita Tabujara's DM outfit for Renegades in 2012. When the announcer asks Gold's drum major (who had been using his cell phone like the typical image of the egotistical Hollywood agent) if the corps is ready, he in turn asks the corps that question, and they responded with aggressive cheers. "Toxic" is probably Britney Spears' best song and they do fairly well by it. Gold has 126 members: 57 horns, 29 battery (8/5/5/5/6*), 16 pit, and 24 guard. *That last six in the battery were playing something different: two small shallow drums plus a small cymbal. Is there a term for that?

With River City Rhythm, we move from extravagance to pleasing calm. This much smaller ensemble has a sound that belies their size. What's shocking is that their earlier scores had them in the company of Raiders and Colt Cadets, because RCR tonight was clearly at another level from those corps. Given their mountain props backfield and their general air of purpose, my first thought was that they seemed to be modeled on Legends. The opening and occasional in-show narration, however, did not appeal to me. If I want to watch a nature documentary (which is what the every stream starts with a single drop of rain commentary evokes), I'll turn on PBS. That complaint aside, and not meaning to overstate the modest achievement of the corps, I was quite impressed. The very nicest touch comes at the very end, when through a simple but brilliant bit of choreography, the corps, who had previously drawn out a long narrow blue tarp, becomes a river--largely through use of their arms. Don't miss that! RCR has 58 members: 22 horns, 13 battery (4/2/5/2), 13 pit, and 10 guard.

Before River City Rhythm started, I noticed their staff picking up some sort of small debris from the field and showing it to officials. I feared that Gold might be in for a penalty, but fortunately that didn't happen.

Well, that's all I have time for now. I'll try to return to the remaining, better-known and (deservedly) higher-scoring shows later, but that will be after many more people have seen all of them on the World Class Prelims webcast.

[luv4corps]

(I do wonder how many of these will fall when compared to World Class programs on Thursday. Several of them are well under W.C. timing requirements.)

There was some talk that judges perhaps did not deduct for shorter shows last year. Don't know if that is true and I'd love to hear from someone who knows for sure. I know VC and BDB march a full show, not sure about the others.

[drumcorpsfever]

Great year for OC

[Randall Matthews]

N.E. Brigand, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the Open Class Finals line-up if you get around to it.

[C.Holland]

I wonder if we are coming full circle to back to a time when we will need to separate Open Class back into division 2 and division 3. I know corps numbers arent built back up yet to the 20s or 30s like we had in the 90s, but it seems like size was an advantage here.

I would like to tip my hat to the Spartans for coming out and performing an awesome show, without lots of gimmick. They played and marched and embodied the characterization required, and hung in there with several corps much larger than they were.

Does anyone know what the Spartans retention rate is?

[N.E. Brigand]

If I counted correctly, the corps, in order of score at O.C. Finals, had:

140 -- Vanguard Cadets

148 -- Blue Devils B

109 -- Spartans

144 -- Genesis

104 -- Legends

106 -- 7th Regiment

124 -- Music City

126 -- Gold

61 -- River City Rhythm

82 -- Colt Cadets

74 -- Raiders

42 -- Stentors

34 -- Racine Scouts

34 -- Blue Saints

The spacing indicates groups whose scores were fairly close.

As previously noted, at W.C. prelims, River City Rhythm managed to outscore Gold, who were twice their size, by about two points.

And Jubal, with 77 members, did even better.

Edited August 13, 2015 by N.E. Brigand

[Randall Matthews]

I would like to tip my hat to the Spartans for coming out and performing an awesome show, without lots of gimmick. They played and marched and embodied the characterization required, and hung in there with several corps much larger than they were.

Does anyone know what the Spartans retention rate is?

I can't help but feel as though the Spartans have become sterile. Their design process seems to be the same formula year after year. Don't get me wrong, those kids play incredibly well, so kudos to the members and their instructional staff. The just aren't taking the same risks as the other groups like 7th Regiment, Genesis, and even Legends, all of whom took great leaps in terms of design this year.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Randall Matthews

[DrumManTx]

I can't help but feel as though the Spartans have become sterile. Their design process seems to be the same formula year after year. Don't get me wrong, those kids play incredibly well, so kudos to the members and their instructional staff. The just aren't taking the same risks as the other groups like 7th Regiment, Genesis, and even Legends, all of whom took great leaps in terms of design this year.

Feel the same way. Sold corps, just feels like I'm watching the same show every year.