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The Balance: "Souless Perfection" vs. "Inspired Attempt&#3


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Each year, a few shows fizzle out finals week while others gain momentum; to keep with the soulless theme, Cadets 2010 died in the back end of the season. Strong show that never went anywhere and each change made the show worse unlit it was annoying by finals. Some may recall the pack of Cavies, Crown, Bluecoats and Cadets were very tight through the first half of the year, cavies got hot, Cadets went cold.

Past few years and at the end of the season I’ve felt Cadets have beaten the life out of their shows with cheap, cheesy tricks whereas decades prior, they were closers.

One of the reason why I like 3 days of finals, it’s give a much better read on the season, the shows and the performance. Seen many of my early hates and raves change places. Poor design becomes glaring if it plays 3 days

Soulless perfection doesn’t exist in drum corps, cleanliness is effect. Some will point to Blue Devils as so good they make it look easy so they don’t get fan credit but they do get mad love from the judges. I’ve never bought into that as it’s usually thrown at people that just don’t connect to that years show

A well regarded show that scored well (more on design than performance, IMO) that I never connected with and found boring, minus some ensemble drill moments, Frameworks, Cavies 2002. Didn’t like it at the time and still don’t like it; all effect and no soul. Kids will disagree as fight club made them all wet but meh, gimmick

Good examples, and a lot of truth to the above comments.

Great ideas on paper often don't work out on the field. Sometimes they show promise of working, but lack a few elements. Sometimes they lead to new ideas that enhance the original intent, and the product ends up being way better than planned.

Sometimes a fan might see a show too many times, so even if the show is improving and becoming more exciting, the viewer may not see that because they know it too well. They are not caught off-guard by impact moments, and they are not stimulated by the experience of seeing something for a first time. I sometimes feel this is why fans can think a show might be "dry" come late season, even Finals.

On the flip side, the constant cleaning, tweaking, and "hosing" of various elements in a show can have a negative effect. I have seen shows go from exciting to safe. Some became down right boring. Others, while still good, became safe, clean, and void of emotion.

This is the one negative to scoring and applying numbers to a show. I do prefer scores and placements, but I've seen too many corps "hose" the hardest musical passages, make safe adjustments to drill for the sake of hiding errors, pull true demand from a visual program and instead apply some generic body movement or free-form drill instead of presenting straight lines, crisp forms, perfect intervals, and demanding music. Even after some of these changes these groups go on to score higher come finals. Why? Because the show is cleaner and the performers are showing more command of the content.

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Not as good, I'll give you. Absolutely correct.

But "horrid"?

Compared to what, the NY Philharmonic... the Chicago Symphony, etc.? All drum corps is "horrid" compared to that. :tongue:

I marched in a local-circuit corps, back in the day. Some very good corps for their level, but also several corps that barely could get out of their own way or know which end of the instruments to blow into. You want "horrid horn lines"... there were plenty of them. LOL.

Again...compared to 1986 and 1988 (and 1976-1985; 1991-2004; 2006-2015), the Blue Devils hornline was a poorly tuned, unenergetic, ill-timed product that ran out of steam before the end. Even in the years where they didn't manage to be 1st or 2nd in horns (2011 & 2015, to name 2), they still sounded great. 1987: Horrid.

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SCV brass had some intonation issues but dang it was LOUD. My ears are still ringing from their standstill at Allentown that year.

The rolling notes in the opener were magic.

They buzzed with the best of them.

Magical.

Sometimes technically proficient is soooo overrated.

Hence this thread.

Yeah, 1986 Spirit of Atlanta was that loud. The assault on the ears was...deafening. Somehow, BD is the master at playing fortissiissimo while holding onto tone quality and intonation. BAD, SCV. BAD! (It's no secret I loathe that show. I still believe that one is the DCI definition of "ironic." That's why they scored as highly as they did.)

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Yeah, 1986 Spirit of Atlanta was that loud. The assault on the ears was...deafening. Somehow, BD is the master at playing fortissiissimo while holding onto tone quality and intonation. BAD, SCV. BAD! (It's no secret I loathe that show. I still believe that one is the DCI definition of "ironic." That's why they scored as highly as they did.)

I think I lost you. Are you talking about SCV 87? Somehow we pivoted from BD. Anyway I always consider SCV 78 as the standard bearer for a championship show with an ear offending fracktastic horn line.

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Again...compared to 1986 and 1988 (and 1976-1985; 1991-2004; 2006-2015), the Blue Devils hornline was a poorly tuned, unenergetic, ill-timed product that ran out of steam before the end. Even in the years where they didn't manage to be 1st or 2nd in horns (2011 & 2015, to name 2), they still sounded great. 1987: Horrid.

I bet all the horn lines they beat in '87 would have loved to have been as "horrid."

"Just as I thought it was going alright

I find out I'm wrong, when I thought I was right

s'always the same, it's just a shame, that's all

I could say day, and you'd say night

tell me it's black when I know that it's white

s'always the same, it's just a shame, that's all" :tongue:

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I often find many "parking lot warm-ups" more musically dynamic and emotion-filled than their on-field counterparts.Last night I was youtube-ing the Bluecoats 2014 and 2015, and as I've noticed many times before, especially with BD, the booming electronics often dull and flatten-out the overall sound.

--SiletzSpey

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I think I lost you. Are you talking about SCV 87? Somehow we pivoted from BD. Anyway I always consider SCV 78 as the standard bearer for a championship show with an ear offending fracktastic horn line.

SCV '78? Dang, you ARE old.

SCV '87 was, and is, one of my standard-bearer shows, period.

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'Soulless' is too strong, but 1992 Regiment is a prime example of a show that just lost steam at the end of the season. From beating the eventual second place corps to eighth place in the space of six days.

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Hockey Dad:

Yet that Frackfest in 78 scored a 9.9 in musical analysis and 9.8 in GE brass. How?

(should have finished 3rd, imo)

Edited by Rocketman
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