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Blue Knights 2019!


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Visual scores, especially guard, have been an issue for BK in recent seasons. And that exhausts my knowledge of visual scores and BK. So I don't know whether this new vid contains any clues to BK's visual game in 2019. Perhaps better-trained eyes than mine will spot something. There's no information about the visual design of the show, or about how the guard will be used. Based only on a look at the opener on Memorial Day, the guard was front and center from the very start of the show.
 

 

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All I know is their music is way way cool. Looking forward to seeing and hearing them this year as always!

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I just now noticed that BK won't be at DCI West at Stanford this year. Do we know why? I look forward to seeing them every year there.... I am soooo disappointed. They will really be missed. :unsure:

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3 minutes ago, POSITIVenrgy said:

I just now noticed that BK won't be at DCI West at Stanford this year. Do we know why? I look forward to seeing them every year there.... I am soooo disappointed. They will really be missed. :unsure:

Yeah, I'm really disappointed by that. I really thought in 2015 that BK was going to be the next corps to break into the top 5. It's too bad they have been on a downward slide since. I really hope this year they fare better.

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9 hours ago, POSITIVenrgy said:

I just now noticed that BK won't be at DCI West at Stanford this year. Do we know why? I look forward to seeing them every year there.... I am soooo disappointed. They will really be missed. :unsure:

Not sure why that is, but I do know that over the last few years, BK has struggled to complete its show by the start of the season, meaning that they would have to perform 8 or 9 minutes out of 12 at DCI West. I guess by starting their season a week later, they are trying to avoid that happening again.

Also, @ BK: Please announce your show. We've all waited long enough.

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1 minute ago, Cadevilina Crown said:

Not sure why that is, but I do know that over the last few years, BK has struggled to complete its show by the start of the season, meaning that they would have to perform 8 or 9 minutes out of 12 at DCI West. I guess by starting their season a week later, they are trying to avoid that happening again.

Also, @ BK: Please announce your show. We've all waited long enough.

I’m almost certain they started last season with a complete show. The  2 - 3 previous years they caught a lot of flack for not putting a complete show on the field, especially here on dcp. 

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Both in 2017 and 2018 -- working from first-hand knowledge here -- the complete show was on the field from the first contest. They added to the ending in 2017 during the season, but everyone does that.

Pueblo weather forecast looking much better tonight for the scheduled community performance

Show, and uniforms I think, will be revealed Friday at 7 p.m. at sendoff show in Englewood

Edited by 2muchcoffeeman
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Observations from the community performance  in Pueblo, Colo., on Wednesday evening.
 
Excellent crowd, beautiful  weather. 
 
No uniforms, no props.
 
And ... no cymbals. Like, at all, anywhere. They're absent from the instrumentation by design.
 
Lush, lush brass. Without the overtones of cymbals everywhere, it has a kind of dry, choral  quality.  Many exposed entrances. They are really going for the volume, but there is lots of that dynamic range BK does so well. Three soloists at the opening.
 
And they move, a lot. 
 
The first 90 seconds are vintage BK tension build, with a battery setup to the first hit that is sneaky perfect, like a fuse on firecracker. The entrance of the tenor feature will have the quadheads out there smiling. The overall battery sound is tenor-forward; snares didn't project as much as I expected. Perhaps a staging, or maybe a tuning, matter.
 
Oh, for the drum nerds: the battery is skinned in a blond wood look. Very neutral, and elegant.
 
Dont know the finer points of guard, but I can say they are up front and featured through the opener, mostly on equipment work. In the second movement they mix it up in the brass quite a bit. Looks like there are three spots for props, and the guard didn't spend any time gathered around them as if they plan to climb all over something, so it appears for now they plan to be part of the drill. But who knows.
 
Mark Arnold told the crowd that the corps will wear the 2019 uniform the standstill in Denver on Thursday.
 
EDIT: back at the keyboard now; some additional thoughts during the drive home:

First two movements really show off the battery's musicality; MIke Jackson fans will be rewarded. The staging during the two movements seems like it will give the sideline-bound judge a good read. No drum kit in the FE this year. Marimbas are fitted with some 55-gallon-sized whomp drums.
 
In the brass, the second movement features an extended technical passage involving the entire line. Trumpets are sounding crisp.
 
Saw 3 microphones on stands on the front sidelines. Didn't hear any amplification, however -- or, if it was there, I didn't notice anything. This horn line is plenty loud on its own.
 
Overall, the show design looks great. Seems more fluid and cohesive than the '18 program so far. They didn't march the final movement, though the corps has learned much of it, I'm told.
 
They did, however, play the final movement in the arc, and it's a powerhouse. High tempo, high energy, and the sound is signature BK.
 
Overall, right now it feels more like notes and drill than polished performance, but they're hitting their forms and already you can tell the members are digging what they've been given. 
Edited by 2muchcoffeeman
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