The Academy 2016 - The Drum Corpse Bride

[Damonallred]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8187aknkY&feature=youtu.be

Get it while it's hot.

As I'm watching impressions:

• Bad camera angle, not forming any drill impressions.
• Wow, that first brass entrance scared the crap outta me. That's always a good sign.
• Transition out of the first section is pretty long without much going on, cute narration. I sense that will develop more, when the tempo picks back up they definitely regain my interest.
• Man their brass sounds very good. On par with what I've heard of a few of last years finalists if I'm being honest. Some kind of white prop, can't tell what they are. Alters? Well utilized.
• Brass stands out to me. Drums are solid as well.
• Their adorable and entertaining front ensemble has more fun stuff this year. ARE THOSE MINI XYLOS ATTATCHED TO THEM? That's adorable. It's so corny but I love it.
• That section kinda fizzles out. Sense that's a work in progress. Transitions need work.
• Brass is hauling it during the Profokiev. Lots of "Here Comes the Bride" quotes.
• Rest is stand still. They have about 8 minutes marching and playing.
• The ballad is really nice! Great building momentum throughout it to the end of it. Lots of very recognizable music in this show. Great pit writing in the middle of this. Drumline seems really solid.

So if you don't feel like reading all of that, in short:

Some really really really nice moments. Highlights for me are:

• Opening hit and the build is fantastic, love the music from the Corpse Bride in the opening. Like I said, that made me jump.
• Ballad is going to be REALLY nice, a nice contrast to last years BEAUTIFULLY subdued one, this one gets a little more in your face.
• Brass in the front 6 minutes sounds VERY solid. If they get the rest sounding like that by next Saturday they'll have a great debut in California.
• No idea on the quality, but the drill seems up a notch or two in difficulty.

Some things I'm not sure on yet, but it's freakin June 14th so I think it's just a work in progress and they haven't worked these things out yet:

• The transitions are pretty stark right now. I sense that's in development, so I'm not going to draw any conclusions there. There were definitely individual sections. This show is DEFINITELY not finished.
• In particular, the transition after the opening takes a long time to go anywhere, not sure about that yet.
• There are a ton of moments where I see some front ensemble stuff maybe, some body or visuals DEFINITELY added. We shall see.

Brass sounds good, drums as well, and the guard seems more involved so far this year. Lots of great, fun, recognizable music in there. The big moments are fantastic, the spots between are going to take work to develop and maintain interest. Considering it's not done, no costuming, ect., I'm not forming and thematic impressions yet. I've never seen anything from The Academy this early, and my first view of them last year was the Pasadena show video from well into the second or third week of the season last year so I suspect they looked about like this last year at this time.

I think this is a great preview into what they are going to do this summer. Some very strong bones in this one so far (no pun intended hehe). There is a ton of fleshing out that needs to be done, but enough great things that I'm very hopeful.

No prediction yet. Not sure about top 12, but they're off to a very solid start.

Overall Impression - Good, want to see more!

Loooooove that first hit.

How are they coming along compared to last year in terms of how far into the show they are? Not sure since I haven't seen anything from them this early before. 8 minutes seems pretty solid for where they are.

Last year at their send off show, they only had about five minutes on the field, and it wasn't nearly as clean or entertaining as this is right now.

Edited June 14, 2016 by Damonallred

[DrumManTx]

Last year at their send off show, they only had about five minutes on the field, and it wasn't nearly as clean or entertaining as this is right now.

Well in that case I cannot wait to see it on the Stanford webcast!

[BRASSO]

Unchained Melody.. closer... very nice, imo

[DrumManTx]

So is that everything in the show? There is about 7:50 marching and playing, then they go into what seems like the ballad which times out at 2:50 making for a total played around 10 minutes straight up.

[Damonallred]

So is that everything in the show? There is about 7:50 marching and playing, then they go into what seems like the ballad which times out at 2:50 making for a total played around 10 minutes straight up.

They'll be adding bits and pieces here and there but right now it's 10:30 and they're going to end up around 11:15 by Indy.

[Cappybara]

So is that everything in the show? There is about 7:50 marching and playing, then they go into what seems like the ballad which times out at 2:50 making for a total played around 10 minutes straight up.

They're using a ballad for a closer? How Regiment-esque

[Damonallred]

They're using a ballad for a closer? How Regiment-esque

They did it in 2012 with Left of Spring too.

[DrumManTx]

Well the overall consensus seems to be really good, and if they're far ahead of last year I cannot wait to see how they look and sound in August.

[luv4corps]

Wow! The Academy could surprise this year. Fantastic start to their season. I was sitting here fiddling with things around the computer as the run-through started and at their impact I bout jumped out my chair. Great job!

[DrumManTx]

Wow! The Academy could surprise this year. Fantastic start to their season. I was sitting here fiddling with things around the computer as the run-through started and at their impact I bout jumped out my chair. Great job!

Yeah, it got me too. Haha. That's a good sign always.

I think The Academy is a corps I can always count on for a few things:

Listen-ability, they seem to always pick fun, recognizable, entertaining music that everyone has heard at some point. Especially 2011 on. Last year was the culmination of that.

Entertainment, they ALWAYS put a smile on my face. 2013 is a show that got some heat from the narration aspect of it, but going back to it, it's so hokey and corny it's hard not to laugh at it and realize they were just trying to do something quirky and fun. And that corps seemed to REALLY have bought into that show, I feel like that's one I took way too seriously at the time. Their pit features the past two years and again this year are just downright fun. They might not be the most difficult thing out there, but #### they're entertaining.

Performance and Design Quality, they are always one of my favorite non finalists to listen to. Their brass is REALLY good when they're on, and the drumline always has tons of energy and attitude when they play. The end of the show last year I thought drums were gonna snap their necks from the hype every time I saw the show. They do fun and entertaining REALLY well, and they don't let performance and design quality suffer from it. They might not have been in the fight for finals, but they always put on a quality product, relative to their tier.

Beyond excited to see this show fully fleshed out.