DCI Southeastern Championship (Atlanta) - Saturday, July 27, 2019

[Bob P.]

2 hours ago, corps8294 said:

What in the H*ll is the deal with the Blue Stars putting in a soft ending when the powerful ending they had was perfect? This happens every year around this time. Their content scores are just fine, it's the achievement scores that need focus. Clean, clean, clean and finish with an exclamation point!

I haven't heard the "new" ending, but I can say that the so-called powerful ending (which I have heard live 7 times) was not an ending since it lacked a true climax and resolution.  

[MikeRapp]

1 hour ago, Cfmninjaa said:

I feel that bloo might have won partly due to other corps pulling other captions. It seems to help to have Crown and SCV at their shows with BD. Bloo also didnt have their best run and are still trying to find out how to integrate their new closer. I think they can do it. Screamers were not as consistent in "Shes so Heavy". Like I said earlier, if they get these issues dealt with and continue cleaning, they have a great shot at gold.

 

On another note, SCV is only .5 behind 1st

posted from the DrumScorps app

It’s harder to run down the leader when one or two corps outside the medals are winning captions. Crown and Boston are certainly making it a little easier for Coats to stay just ahead of BD and SCV.

[George Dixon]

5 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

It’s harder to run down the leader when one or two corps outside the medals are winning captions. Crown and Boston are certainly making it a little easier for Coats to stay just ahead of BD and SCV.

yup - absolutely. Could be the case of a corps getting second in everything WINS

[jwillis35]

2 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

I would say, though, that watching an entire Regional gives you a different perspective than just watching a few performances in one evening. IMHO too many corps are sacrificing musical excellence for dancing around and doing silly facial expressions. First, play great music really well. Then, you can emote. Right now many of these designs are light on music and heavy on silly emotive stuff that does not translate or differentiate.

This is true. As much as I love many of the shows this year, there are a lot who don't get it. with too many the musical composition/arrangement is poor. Now take those poor arrangements and push cliche visual design at the audience, just for the sake of body movement or some interaction between brass and guard, or what have you. Watching a full regional makes you see just how good the Blue Devils and Bluecoats design (SCV, Cavaliers, Boston, and Crown are amazing, too). I love Blue Knights' overall design and music (really love their music). There are great shows to be seen, but there are too many that perhaps should not program in this manner until they have a better musical product on the field.

[Weaklefthand4ever]

9 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

It’s not binary. Bluecoats are basically top three in DCI in every caption. To say populist concepts are somehow fundamentally not as technically expert as the more cerebral approach is not accurate.

And I'm not disagreeing with you. And I don't believe that I said that. If I did, then I was mistaken. Populist concepts don't have an automatic bearing on technical expertise. I simply believe that show design 30 years ago was more geared towards entertaining a crowd 1st. Yes, we embraced technical expertise as well but we wanted to make the crowd throw babies. 

[Rich Cline]

Thoughts on last night ---

Only was able to watch parts of the show due to work but, what I did see, I liked alot.
All of the shows, even the bottom tier corps' were interesting and enjoyable to watch. Have not been able to go back through the forum thread yet so if I repeat something already said; I apologize.

Just a few standout moments (not in order) for me were:

Phantom Regiment - a much improved show. Music is cleaner and like the visuals. Earlier in the season, Phantom received a lot of criticism here in the forum about their show which I felt was bit unfair.
While Phantom does not have "Gold" performance or program, I get that these kids are proud of their corps putting forth a 150% effort to compete. GO PHANTOM!

Mandarins - Another solid performance. If we were talking 2018, the Mandarins would be moving up another placement but against the quality of shows this year, they may place again the same as last year. I like their show and noticed that female CG MM was back on top of the prop at te end of the show. In the last show I saw, I thought she had been replaced by a male MM. Loving Mandarins brass line since I'm a brass person but their drumline is also making an impression on me.

Cavaliers - This corps is "On Fire" this year. There show is high octane energy from start to finish. Visually the show is leaps and bounds over last year's show. I'm not a big proponet of all the facial hair on all of the corps' members but the look of the Cavaliers MM's really fits their show. The things the CG is doing to add to the show is well done and really enjoy the musical/synth train sounds in the program. Love the drill where they layout the train track.

Boston Crusaders - Seems like their show has flip flopped since Detroit. Since these reviews are mostly visually related, I'm not a big fan of BAC's uniforms. Maybe it's too much "gold" accent color, maybe the design. BAC's pants to me have too much of a "tight look" for someone from a Gladiator erea. I'm not that versed in Bible teachings but when David kills the Giant, it's too graphic for my tastes. I believe that the Bibical version is that David slings a rock at the Giant hitting him in an unprotected area and killing him. In BAC's program, you hear the synth sound of David spinning his sling (needs to be louder or more isolated), the CG MM is spinning his rifle, then the Giant falls back against the prop. That's the way it was previously, now you have David "cutting off a head"? They should just end it when the Giant falls and then CG MMs should turn the prop around so the Giant is no longer visible. Otherwise good brass performance and drumline. Would have hoped to have more of the "Rocky" theme at the end.

Cossmenn - Like their show. Music and theme seem to fit well.

Cadets - Again, felt they have received a lot of unfair crictism about their show. Music seems to be dirrent prom previous shows and like it better. Like that they have painted their props M & G. Seems like preiously, the props at the end formed a bridge. WHat I saw last night was the props positioned as intersecting bridges and liked this much much better. The MMs were doing circular drill around each bridge.
This felt more complete. Seemed like a big improvement in brass and percussion. Seems like a lot of talk of cadets drumline being very strong and I concur.

Santa clara Vanguard - So happy they dumped that "ulgly" center tarp. The smaller tarps under the props “Eh, okay.” Still feel like SCV's drill is too reliant on and too conjested within the props. I would rather see SCV spread out more on the field during their drill. Music is strong and percussion is always SCV's strongest caption. Seemed like the staging was changed in the solo's last night and the change
is better. It seems to give the music a more ensemble sound as opposed to just having soloists playing everything.

Blue Devils & Blucoats - See my reply to MikeRapp commenting on FLO's comments.

[PamahoNow]

7 minutes ago, Rich Cline said:

Boston Crusaders - Seems like their show has flip flopped since Detroit. Since these reviews are mostly visually related, I'm not a big fan of BAC's uniforms. Maybe it's too much "gold" accent color, maybe the design. BAC's pants to me have too much of a "tight look" for someone from a Gladiator erea. I'm not that versed in Bible teachings but when David kills the Giant, it's too graphic for my tastes. I believe that the Bibical version is that David slings a rock at the Giant hitting him in an unprotected area and killing him. In BAC's program, you hear the synth sound of David spinning his sling (needs to be louder or more isolated), the CG MM is spinning his rifle, then the Giant falls back against the prop. That's the way it was previously, now you have David "cutting off a head"? They should just end it when the Giant falls and then CG MMs should turn the prop around so the Giant is no longer visible. Otherwise good brass performance and drumline. Would have hoped to have more of the "Rocky" theme at the end.

 

I Sam. 17:51:

David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

 

[Rich Cline]

 

5 minutes ago, PamahoNow said:

I Sam. 17:51:

David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

 

Thanks for the correction. I need to read the good book more.

[Dr.Mickey]

Here are thoughts from a long time DCI fan about last night, which was a fantastic night all around. 

For me, my sweet-spot has always been mid 90s fast drill with the Cadets/BDs duking it out every year.  But I do appreciate where DCI has gone today.  And as always, DCI represents the best of the best of marching shows. Here are my thoughts:

Crown certainly has a lot of what I love. That horn line is so good.  But, right now, Bluecoats and BD are on another planet with show design. Holy cow, I was laughing, jaw hanging open through most of BD show. It is staged so well. And they DO march!  Some of that drill was so well executed and very difficult. And Bluecoats show was like a fun color-pallet art show.  I loved the uniforms, the colors, and the creativity.  Having watched 30 years of the activity, I’m surprised to see it scoring ahead of BD, but not surprised to see those two ahead of everyone else.

And now, for the uncomfortable conversation about my Cadets...I mentioned the 90s duals.  Well, I was always a Cadets man.  I was trying to explain to my 15yo the buzz that used to fill the stadium as they were coming on the field, usually in 1st or 2nd position (thank you BD,lol). I felt a little piece of history slip away last night. Of course those kids are working their tails off, and like all of these kids, in my middle-aged view, I appreciate.  But they have fallen so far behind the top.  

Highlights for me otherwise: I really enjoyed the Cavies and Boston. I think the Crossmen are under-placed.  I was uninspired by SCV - but part of that is my nostalgia for their old look, and part of that is the fact they came on after the two best shows of the night.

Anyway, that’s it for another perspective. It was indeed a great night!

 

[FLBuzcut]

5 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

I say this every year, so George Dixon expects me to say it again.

One of the most brilliant show designs ever put on a football field was Angels and Demons, in part because they split the corps uniforms between maroon and white. It created a whole other level of design to play with to tell the story. 

Why corps don’t to this I have no idea. If Crown and SCV did this, they would have entirely different shows. Were I designing shows I would probably do this every single season.

Also see, 1987 Sky Ryders, West Side Story.