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All time shows: Carolina Crown


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Interesting that someone would dig up the Carolina Crown thread overnight as I have been planning on doing Crown this week for awhile since I will be spending a long weekend in the Charlotte area this weekend.

What are your top 1-5 all time Carolina Crown shows?

(Optional) What are your 1-3 least favorites from them?

You can go into as much or little detail as you like but please please try to keep things positive.

For a quick recap in case you missed it and/or want to add your contributions:

Week 1- Cavies- 2006 the Machine is the favorite and 2012 15 min of fame is the least favorite.

Week 2- Jersey Surf- 2012 Bridgemania favorite

Week 3- Blue Knights-1994 Trittico for bras band favorite. least  2001Blue Toons

Week 4- Spirit of Atlanta- 1980 favorite

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1. 2015- Inferno. In a time filled with singing, narration, amplification, and prop vomit all over the field...this was a very simple and powerful show. Captivating from start to finish. This is my husband's all time favorite DCI show. The MMs performed well and sold the show from a GE perspective. Really cool moment during the ballad with some of them being "pulled back into hell". The title was theirs lose in 2015.

2. 2012- For the common good. I was at finals in 2012 and this was honestly the first live show that made me say "wow". Such beautiful, clean brass, and a clean, wonderfully executed show overall.

3. 2008- Finis. Hello brass dynasty! What a big, beautiful, powerful show. 2008 was a great year for drum corps.

4. 2014- Out of This World- This show was a bit quirkier but I enjoyed it more than E=MC2. The brass book was out of this world and this is my favorite year for Crown brass.

5. 2005- Angelus- how could you not love a mighty fortress on the field?

HMs

2013- E=MC2. The best total package crown show- probably why it won gold.

2001- Industry- Great musical book and captivating from start to finish. The percussion outscored brass by almost 2 points. Imagine that. One of my favorites from 2001 finals.

Least favorites

2004- la Bohemia- Seasons of Love from Rent- they sing it. Ugh. The rest of the show was nice but the brass and percussion weren't good enough to save it.

2017- It Is. Carolina Crown arguably has the best hornline in DCI history. A true treasure. Let's have them do background music for a vocalist!

2016- this show was well done and performed but it could be the most disappointing crown show for me. Why? Because Crown had a top 3 show for me from 2005-2015- no other corps has a streak like that- and this show was extremely boring.

 

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Yay Crown!

Favorites

Out of this World (2014) - I was very disappointed by this show when I first saw it in the theater that year.  2013 was such a wonderful music book that totally captured the "spirit" of the 20th century minimalists, if not the letter.  OOTW was a more typical drum corps type program that felt all over the place.  As the years have gone on, though, I think they really did not get as much credit as they should have, particularly in the brass - my goodness, this is one of the most well-written and performed brass books ever!  Love, love, love the finale with the running upper brass, and they absolutely nailed the opening.

Rach Star (2011) - I loved how they integrated the various bits and bobs together.  Paint it Black is one of my favorite drum features ever (even managed to transcribe the parts - holy heck!).  I know the Band Directors that run marching music turn their nose up at rock, but it *can* be done.  (Though it's funny that Crown's idea of "raawwwwwk" are the Stones and Queen - who have been performing for more than and almost 50 years each)

Chess...and the Art of Strategy (1996) - this was the first year for "darker" Crown - the purple jackets, and of course, the giant chess set on the field.  If only we'd known what props were going to be like 20 years later... The visual design is superb - they use the pieces to great effect throughout the program, popping out and back in to match the darker music.  While Nimrod of course is the change of piece ballad, the closer merges Walton and Elgar's music together in a really cool way that just screams "yup, we're done."  While Postcards from Britain (1997) was a more technically well-performed show (and Terpsichore is one of my favorite DCI charts ever!), Chess had more heart. 

A Second Chance (2010) - I love this show so hard.  The opening Mahler... wow.  Longest mello note ever?  Danzon - another of my favorite drum breaks ever.  The only thing that keeps this show from being in like my top 3 ever is the finale.  Despite being told a million times over the summer "we have a plan," it never felt like they had a plan.  Unless presented with undisputable video evidence, I do not believe kind of sort of reprising 2009 was the end goal.  That's a minor quibble though - the music in the first 2/3 is so spectacular, I'll forgive just about anything in there!

Finis (2008) - Sometimes, it's the seemingly "easy' shows that are the hardest.  Peel back the curtain on Crown that year and they are running and gunning as much as any of the other top corps, while making it feel like a stroll in the park.  The closer, of course, is an insanely fun game of DCI Music Whack-A-Mole, but pay attention along the way and there is so much to like in what you see and hear.  This new "sophisticated" version of Crown may be above a show like this these days, but this program would score high in any year. 

 

Honorable Mention

Angelus (2005) - the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass ...

 

Not-So-Favorites

Bohemia (2004) - yeah, the singing, but the whole back half of the show didn't musically connect to the front half.  It never really felt like a full program.

Greek Mythology (2002) - let us never speak of this again.  Two corps got suckered in by "Javelin" that summer and had bad competitive years (Glassmen).  Let's just call it the curse of Michael Torke and move on.

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I can't be the only one who liked Bohemia, right?

 

1. 08

2. 07

3. 04

4. 15

5. 12

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43 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Yay Crown!

Favorites

Out of this World (2014) - I was very disappointed by this show when I first saw it in the theater that year.  2013 was such a wonderful music book that totally captured the "spirit" of the 20th century minimalists, if not the letter.  OOTW was a more typical drum corps type program that felt all over the place.  As the years have gone on, though, I think they really did not get as much credit as they should have, particularly in the brass - my goodness, this is one of the most well-written and performed brass books ever!  Love, love, love the finale with the running upper brass, and they absolutely nailed the opening.

Rach Star (2011) - I loved how they integrated the various bits and bobs together.  Paint it Black is one of my favorite drum features ever (even managed to transcribe the parts - holy heck!).  I know the Band Directors that run marching music turn their nose up at rock, but it *can* be done.  (Though it's funny that Crown's idea of "raawwwwwk" are the Stones and Queen - who have been performing for more than and almost 50 years each)

Chess...and the Art of Strategy (1996) - this was the first year for "darker" Crown - the purple jackets, and of course, the giant chess set on the field.  If only we'd known what props were going to be like 20 years later... The visual design is superb - they use the pieces to great effect throughout the program, popping out and back in to match the darker music.  While Nimrod of course is the change of piece ballad, the closer merges Walton and Elgar's music together in a really cool way that just screams "yup, we're done."  While Postcards from Britain (1997) was a more technically well-performed show (and Terpsichore is one of my favorite DCI charts ever!), Chess had more heart. 

A Second Chance (2010) - I love this show so hard.  The opening Mahler... wow.  Longest mello note ever?  Danzon - another of my favorite drum breaks ever.  The only thing that keeps this show from being in like my top 3 ever is the finale.  Despite being told a million times over the summer "we have a plan," it never felt like they had a plan.  Unless presented with undisputable video evidence, I do not believe kind of sort of reprising 2009 was the end goal.  That's a minor quibble though - the music in the first 2/3 is so spectacular, I'll forgive just about anything in there!

Finis (2008) - Sometimes, it's the seemingly "easy' shows that are the hardest.  Peel back the curtain on Crown that year and they are running and gunning as much as any of the other top corps, while making it feel like a stroll in the park.  The closer, of course, is an insanely fun game of DCI Music Whack-A-Mole, but pay attention along the way and there is so much to like in what you see and hear.  This new "sophisticated" version of Crown may be above a show like this these days, but this program would score high in any year. 

 

Honorable Mention

Angelus (2005) - the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass the brass ...

 

Not-So-Favorites

Bohemia (2004) - yeah, the singing, but the whole back half of the show didn't musically connect to the front half.  It never really felt like a full program.

Greek Mythology (2002) - let us never speak of this again.  Two corps got suckered in by "Javelin" that summer and had bad competitive years (Glassmen).  Let's just call it the curse of Michael Torke and move on.

I like a lot of your choices as well

My faves:

1. 2009 - Grass is Always Greener. It's a classic, classic program IMHO. Semi and Finals night performances were extremely good

2. 2007 - Triple Crown. From a crowd pleasing standpoint, this one can't be beat!

3. 1995 - Stormworks. Yeah - that was unexpectedly good for a corps in their sixth season and launched them into finals. Saw this program many times that summer - the crowds at local shows just loved it, really impacted their profile and recruitment in coming years

4. 2004 Bohemia! Really set up the next few seasons and the corps became a "for real" power in the activity for the first time (scored over 91 at finals)

5. 2016 Relentless. Incredible performance - that GUARD. that HORNLINE. the MOVEMENT. Unfortunately late season changes (the dud ending) and the beast show out of Coats left them as a lock for third. Shortening the tango, slight expansion of the ballad and a better ending IMO could have put them in a spot to possible keep Coats from winning with "THE show" of the year

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 Carolina Crown has some of my favorite shows in DCI history... especially musically. Rarely, do they have a show that was not my particular cup of java.

 Here are a few that come to mind that were big hits for me. Loved just about everything in these shows, ie music, design, visuals, engagement.... in no particular order, either :

 2015.... " Inferno "

 2007.... " Triple Crown "

 2000... " Mask of Zorro "

 2011....." Rach Star "

 2008...." Finis "

 2003.... " Bell-isimo "

 2012.... " For the Common Good "

 2005...... " Angelus "

 2013..." EMC-2"

 2014... " Out of this World "

2004.... " Bohemia "

 

Others were ok, had some good elements it it.... but a mixed bag for me overall in terms of music, design, visuals, emotional and/ or intellectual engagement of the show. These :

 2009.... " Grass is Always Greener "

 2006.... " In- Trance It "

 2010.... " Second Chance "

 

   The ones that were a miss for me were really few and far between, but these 2  Carolina Crown shows really did very little at all for me. Both had musical closers ( important for me ) for example that left me just completely empty emotionally and/ or intellectually at the end of the show.  For example.

  2001... " Industry "...

  2017... " It Is"

Edited by BRASSO
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9 hours ago, BRASSO said:

 Carolina Crown has some of my favorite shows in DCI history... especially musically. Rarely, do they have a show that was not my particular cup of java.

 

Me too. Even though I didn't connect with the design in 2016 and didn't like the 2017 design both of these performances were fantastic.  So really the only miss was 2004 for me

 

Edited by ThePlanets
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