troon8 Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 (edited) Was Genesis's narrator live tonight? At the previous shows, the voice has been prerecorded (and from the sound, probably not a member), and some fans have complained, rightly in my opinion, that those audio clips were (1) too long and (2) very flat in affect. It may well not have been, I just assumed it was. The voice sounded plausibly member age-ish to me, but regardless, it needs some fixing. The clips were quite short tonight at least, maybe they trimmed it. Edited July 11, 2016 by troon8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swmstom Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 MADISON SCOUTS: Jesus Christ Superstar 2.0? So here’s my only catch with this one. It seemed to me like they wanted to give us music from Jesus Christ Superstar, but didn’t want it to be another straight-up Jesus Christ Superstar show. So they tried giving it an “angle” of sorts by focusing on Judas, (or at least intending to - some of it communicated very clearly from the guard and staging, but other parts didn’t.), but I don’t think they necessarily needed to. The music selection and arrangements were unique enough that it felt like a fresh JCS show, not a rehash of an old one. That being said…A heck of a night for the home team. No one works the crowd like the Scouts, and this was their night and place to shine. Crazy intensity from the brass, I don’t know how any of them had chops for their encore. Well done! And herein lies one of my qualms with the direction DCI has gone. You can't just do straight up music and drill anymore. Unfortunately so much of what goes into scoring is totally out of the hands of the marching members. To be competitive you have to have a theme, you have to have a visual package that tells the theme clearly.....all things that are out of the control of the kids who are actually doing the show. And before someone jumps down my throat, I know it's always been that way as far as a staff deciding the show music, title, theme, direction, etc. But in today's DCI, to be competitive it seems like you have to have some obscure thematic production. A show like I marched with Scouts was just pure jazz.....there was no theme, no guessing...it had jazz in the title, we played jazz and it scored well because the marching members played that dadgum jazz show good. I remember Jeff Moore telling us something along the lines of "we're not here trying to tell the life and death story of a butterfly...we're playing jazz". Something like that wouldn't fly now. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsoprano Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 And herein lies one of my qualms with the direction DCI has gone. You can't just do straight up music and drill anymore. Unfortunately so much of what goes into scoring is totally out of the hands of the marching members. To be competitive you have to have a theme, you have to have a visual package that tells the theme clearly.....all things that are out of the control of the kids who are actually doing the show. And before someone jumps down my throat, I know it's always been that way as far as a staff deciding the show music, title, theme, direction, etc. But in today's DCI, to be competitive it seems like you have to have some obscure thematic production. A show like I marched with Scouts was just pure jazz.....there was no theme, no guessing...it had jazz in the title, we played jazz and it scored well because the marching members played that dadgum jazz show good. I remember Jeff Moore telling us something along the lines of "we're not here trying to tell the life and death story of a butterfly...we're playing jazz". Something like that wouldn't fly now. So true. And it's a #### shame that a corps can't just go out there and play good music well, while marching a cool drill. No, they also have to tell some (oftentimes) silly story to be competitive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 I've only seen Jesus Christ Superstar once (the play, not the film), and I didn't care for it, although maybe it was just that production (although I liked it more than Cats), but as I recall, in many ways, it was the story of Judas, or at least made him much more sympathetic and prominent than the Bible does. No? I played bass in the pit for JCSS awhile back, and yes the play focuses more on Judas and his coming to grips with who this person Jesus really is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 And herein lies one of my qualms with the direction DCI has gone. You can't just do straight up music and drill anymore. Unfortunately so much of what goes into scoring is totally out of the hands of the marching members. To be competitive you have to have a theme, you have to have a visual package that tells the theme clearly.....all things that are out of the control of the kids who are actually doing the show. And before someone jumps down my throat, I know it's always been that way as far as a staff deciding the show music, title, theme, direction, etc. But in today's DCI, to be competitive it seems like you have to have some obscure thematic production. A show like I marched with Scouts was just pure jazz.....there was no theme, no guessing...it had jazz in the title, we played jazz and it scored well because the marching members played that dadgum jazz show good. I remember Jeff Moore telling us something along the lines of "we're not here trying to tell the life and death story of a butterfly...we're playing jazz". Something like that wouldn't fly now. A few points: If you look at the best corps today, many of them are doing concept shows, not themes. The Bluecoats TILT show was a simple concept. No deep theme, no info needed ahead of time, just tilting and awesome music and visual to bring that concept to life. Bloo's show this year is the same. Just a concept. Music and visual "Downside Up." They're just having fun. No theme, no meaning, no complex plot -- just fun. All Madison has to do is have fun and explore some better musical and visual concepts. A quick point of clarification -- Madison did not always play jazz. They often played Spanish music and other Latin music, JCS is considered part rock and orchestral (from the original Broadway version), they've done Pop (Ice Castles, Memories), original charts, and much more in addition to jazz. On the rest of your statement I agree. Designers, instructors, and techs can make or break a corps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted July 11, 2016 Author Share Posted July 11, 2016 Careful now! When I tried to say Crown's story wasn't entirely clear, I was pretty much told I was an idiot. Not by me :-) I think it's an area in which you'll see continuous enhancement as the season progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 I've only seen Jesus Christ Superstar once (the play, not the film), and I didn't care for it, although maybe it was just that production (although I liked it more than Cats), but as I recall, in many ways, it was the story of Judas, or at least made him much more sympathetic and prominent than the Bible does. No? I agree about the focus being on Judas more so than Jesus. I have the original 2-record vinyl album "concept" recording released a few years prior to the first Broadway production. Love the album, and I did really like Trevor Nunn's original Broadway version. Was not a huge fan of the film...it was on one hand minimalistic...the bus driving through the desert...the scaffolding to represent the temple...while on the other hand, bombastic...the tanks, jet fighters, etc. Sadly, the last Broadway production I saw based itself more on the film style...machine guns, hand-held video cameras, etc. Did not really care for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlamMan Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 It was a great night of drum coprs in Middleton last night. We sat in the top row rignt on the 50 yard line. Not much time to write now but we enjoyed all of the shows, especially Music City and The Academy. I actually thought Academy had a chance to beat both Madisin and Blue Stars. Freag show design, brass and drums. Marching needs work. Madisons show is nice but the last few minutes are disjointed and seem like random snippets and odd transitions to me. I donf understand the purpose of the jungle gym. Scouts drum line needs a lot of cleaning as they were very dirty during the first half of the show. More later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 Madisons show is nice but the last few minutes are disjointed and seem like random snippets and odd transitions to me. I donf understand the purpose of the jungle gym. Scouts drum line needs a lot of cleaning as they were very dirty during the first half of the show. More later. The "jungle gym" takes after the temple of the High Priests as shown in the film version of the show.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucbari Posted July 11, 2016 Share Posted July 11, 2016 (edited) I'm sure some Corps have played some nautical tunes in years past. Ahh see below. Yes we have. Can you say Drunken Sailor or Russian Sailor Dance? Edited July 11, 2016 by Bucbari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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