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On 8/18/2020 at 11:22 AM, Hrothgar15 said:

Cadets 2002: American Revival, performed as originally designed:

 

I love this show in its early form. Fun music, fun drill, and very entertaining as you can see from the crowd reaction. Obviously the corps was very talented.

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Been trying for ages to post the rest of my review...  continued from before.

Bluecoats went with a very wind-band repertoire, but also introduced us to Dancer in the Dark way before Cadets did.  In hindsight, this show felt *very* much like their 2011 Brave New World production musically, with heavy emphasis on metal and dark musical effects.  I love Paradise Utopia (the opener) in particular, and they did a tremendously faithful job in the arrangement.

Glassmen, to me, missed on their '02 repertoire, with one giant-sized, Euphonium-shaped exception.  "Javelin" was the flavor of the year that year, but no corps really did a proper job with it.  Glassmen's ballad though... wow.  That dude was nails.  Absolute brass ba.... um, he was an exceptionally talented performer.  I'm not a fan of the whole show, but I'd definitely recommend you watch it at least once just for the ballad.  It's that good.

Crossmen, as a fan, felt like this was going to be The Year.  They had a spectacular set of charts to work with, and in the early going they were absolutely on fire.  The opening drill to Heat of the Day was brilliant, with crosses and boxes swinging back and forth, appearing and disappearing.  I want to say it was during the East Coast swing somewhere that year that their brass was within spitting distance of Blue Devils!  Alas, they couldn't clean the show, and then the hose came - the Finals version you see today was much different than what they started with in June.  I'm still a huge fan of the show, though - it's fun, jazzy drum corps, you know?

<still more to come>

Mike

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4 hours ago, MikeN said:

Bluecoats went with a very wind-band repertoire, but also introduced us to Dancer in the Dark way before Cadets did.  In hindsight, this show felt *very* much like their 2011 Brave New World production musically, with heavy emphasis on metal and dark musical effects.  I love Paradise Utopia (the opener) in particular, and they did a tremendously faithful job in the arrangement.

######, my brilliant Hemingway-esque review (ruined to a 500 internal error) said that Bluecoats 02 Bjork'd before Cadets Bjork'd. Plus, I really like Overture better than the more percussive New World, that seems to be what Cadets used.

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2 hours ago, kdaddy said:

######, my brilliant Hemingway-esque review (ruined to a 500 internal error) said that Bluecoats 02 Bjork'd before Cadets Bjork'd. Plus, I really like Overture better than the more percussive New World, that seems to be what Cadets used.

Aren't "Overture" and "New World" the same piece, but the latter has lyrics?

(Drum Corps X says Cadets in 2005 played "Overture to a New World from Dancer in the Dark".)

A number of other corps have played the piece, of whom my favorite (i.e, third overall) is probably Atlanta CV's 2018 version.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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10 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Aren't "Overture" and "New World" the same piece, but the latter has lyrics?

(Drum Corps X says Cadets in 2005 played "Overture to a New World from Dancer in the Dark".)

A number of other corps have played the piece, of whom my favorite (i.e, third overall) is probably Atlanta CV's 2018 version.

Same general melody, but New World has percussive elements behind it (and lyrics). Bluecoats played the tune sans percussion, while Cadets eventually introduced percussion.

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(gonna keep trying to get this in, come hell or high water)

Spirit stormed back into Finals with from Holsinger's Easter Symphony.  Which... you could kind of obliquely tie back to a Southern inspiration if you stretched, but that's ok.  The new dark and sophisticated Spirit worked good for me.  This was one of those corps that wasn't going to light imaginations on fire, but it was very well designed for what they could achieve, and the corps just had no real weaknesses all around.  Brass, drums, guard, drill all were solid and well done.  You would definitely have to call this a home run shot for the design team.  

Magic of Orlando was a Division 1 corps that was forced to compete in Division 2 thanks to massive lack of foresight on the part of the DCI Board at the time.  I don't think that Magic's situation was at all what they had in mind when they decided a corps had to "work their way back up."  Instead, a Finals-level Division 1 corps had to stomp on Division 2 corps all summer, Colossus-style, before maxing out the Division 2 championship sheets and setting fire to half of the upper division on their way to a Saturday night slot.  Anyways, the show itself was another one that was incredibly well suited for the level of performer they had, if the program itself didn't overflow with wow moments.  Well, the tenor guy did fall over backwards with the drum in the air, and the judge helped him slot right back in like a Boss, but that was more of an organic moment.  

Seattle Cascades rounded out the top 12 with their first and only Finals performance. It's basically the Cadets' Greatest Bernstein Hits, but they play it well, the drill is good, and the guard was technically sound.  I'd give it a solid B.  Probably worth watching for the novelty factor, and to see a tribute band done well.

Adding a 13th this year, 'cause BK put on what at that point was probably the Angriest Show in DCI.  The whole thing is angsty, stabby, and still wonderfully engaging.  I don't know if technically they were as clean as Seattle, probably not, but they generated exponentially more amounts of emotion.  I think it's on YouTube - definitely worth watching.  

Honorable Mention - Madison fell (relatively) flat on their face.  Music was still no real problem for them, though there were even cracks in that formula (remember the "X-Percussion" that turned out to be one short auxiliary feature?).  Visually, they had like 12 guard and the whole program was a mess. Their Board that offseason finally let Scott Stewart go, and that was the end of that era.  They did rebound the next year, but Sal Salas had a rocky tenure. 

Also, Carolina Crown had a solid (Greek Gods!) show concept, a decent lineup of tunes (though Moulin Rouge even then was trite and another corps using Javelin) and ... pink togas.  Yeah, that's the part they still can't live down.  Seriously, ask anyone from BITD about that show, and I guarantee you they'll say "oh, the one with the pink togas?"

Also also, Capital Regiment had a decent show, Southwind was slowly declining and Kiwanis Kavaliers kind of fell apart.  Oh, and Pioneer pretty much exploded this season, with their Oliver show lacking both technical complexity and... well... enough members to fill out the corps.  Felt like this was the year Roman decided "screw it, we're not going to compete."

Next year - the top two keep doing Top Two things, Phantom shows everyone how to create a finale, and Crown and Madison reinvent themselves. One kind of sticks.

Mike  

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On 8/24/2020 at 10:54 AM, MikeN said:

(gonna keep trying to get this in, come hell or high water)

Spirit stormed back into Finals with from Holsinger's Easter Symphony.  Which... you could kind of obliquely tie back to a Southern inspiration if you stretched, but that's ok.  The new dark and sophisticated Spirit worked good for me.  This was one of those corps that wasn't going to light imaginations on fire, but it was very well designed for what they could achieve, and the corps just had no real weaknesses all around.  Brass, drums, guard, drill all were solid and well done.  You would definitely have to call this a home run shot for the design team.  

Magic of Orlando was a Division 1 corps that was forced to compete in Division 2 thanks to massive lack of foresight on the part of the DCI Board at the time.  I don't think that Magic's situation was at all what they had in mind when they decided a corps had to "work their way back up."  Instead, a Finals-level Division 1 corps had to stomp on Division 2 corps all summer, Colossus-style, before maxing out the Division 2 championship sheets and setting fire to half of the upper division on their way to a Saturday night slot.  Anyways, the show itself was another one that was incredibly well suited for the level of performer they had, if the program itself didn't overflow with wow moments.  Well, the tenor guy did fall over backwards with the drum in the air, and the judge helped him slot right back in like a Boss, but that was more of an organic moment.  

Seattle Cascades rounded out the top 12 with their first and only Finals performance. It's basically the Cadets' Greatest Bernstein Hits, but they play it well, the drill is good, and the guard was technically sound.  I'd give it a solid B.  Probably worth watching for the novelty factor, and to see a tribute band done well.

Adding a 13th this year, 'cause BK put on what at that point was probably the Angriest Show in DCI.  The whole thing is angsty, stabby, and still wonderfully engaging.  I don't know if technically they were as clean as Seattle, probably not, but they generated exponentially more amounts of emotion.  I think it's on YouTube - definitely worth watching.  

Honorable Mention - Madison fell (relatively) flat on their face.  Music was still no real problem for them, though there were even cracks in that formula (remember the "X-Percussion" that turned out to be one short auxiliary feature?).  Visually, they had like 12 guard and the whole program was a mess. Their Board that offseason finally let Scott Stewart go, and that was the end of that era.  They did rebound the next year, but Sal Salas had a rocky tenure. 

Also, Carolina Crown had a solid (Greek Gods!) show concept, a decent lineup of tunes (though Moulin Rouge even then was trite and another corps using Javelin) and ... pink togas.  Yeah, that's the part they still can't live down.  Seriously, ask anyone from BITD about that show, and I guarantee you they'll say "oh, the one with the pink togas?"

Also also, Capital Regiment had a decent show, Southwind was slowly declining and Kiwanis Kavaliers kind of fell apart.  Oh, and Pioneer pretty much exploded this season, with their Oliver show lacking both technical complexity and... well... enough members to fill out the corps.  Felt like this was the year Roman decided "screw it, we're not going to compete."

Next year - the top two keep doing Top Two things, Phantom shows everyone how to create a finale, and Crown and Madison reinvent themselves. One kind of sticks.

Mike  

Great insights! 

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