Wednesday, July 13th ... “Corps Encore” … Stewart Stadium at Weber State University – Ogden, UTAH

[Chief Guns]

7 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

From my memory, Felliniesque’s closer did not change much at all

I think the only thing that was added was the dissolving straight lines, then they reappear which was freaking insane! No one does straight lines like BD. 

[CAtenhut]

1 hour ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

I'm not sure where the 'lets learn a temporary ending and use it for a few weeks until we learn a new final ending, even if that gives us less time to clean and tweak the new final ending'  trend came from. 

I guess I just come from an era where you only did a re-write only if whatever we were doing just didn't sell w/ the judges.

SCV put in a "temporary ending" in 2018 and it worked out just fine in the end. Their show is currently almost 12 mins long, so they will obviously need to do some editing at some point soon. I hope they start with that drum solo after the ballad... That thing is way too long. 

[Zeke]

19 hours ago, KVG_DC said:

Oroboros was amazing guard work.  I mean the whole show moved and used color like some undulating dream.

Was there a significant staff design change from 2017 to 2018 in regards to their colorguard staff? That 2017 guard nothing short of brilliance.

[jjeffeory]

20 hours ago, saxfreq1128 said:

ok don’t start a war, the Nirvana song is a classic

I find it hilarious that with "Smells like Team Spirit", maybe people that Nirvana is making fun of the fans.

With that bent of interpretation, it's amusing to wonder if SCV is making fun of their fans and critics, and that's probably not the best way to enlightenment....

"With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us"

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by jjeffeory
I don't take myself seriously...

[jjeffeory]

Duplicate

Edited July 15, 2022 by jjeffeory

[TexasPRfan]

I had the great pleasure, while on vacation,  of getting to go to the Ogden show with my best friend - who I met marching drum corps 32 years ago.  Great seats 18 rows up between the 45s.  Some great shows. A beautiful mountain backdrop, and an enthusiastic, large crowd made for a great night.  
 

A caveat - these are all first viewing impressions, which can change wildly in the next four weeks.

Colombians - one of two very pleasant surprises.  Solid show, well designed and performed and they really got the crowd going.  Bravo!  Hope they can keep the momentum up and get to Indy in the near future.  

Battalion - I’ve followed their growth very positively over this new corps’s rise.  It’s exciting to see the org maturing enough to get to Indy.  Sadly, I think this show is a big design miss and their numbers are a bit down.  It feels like they reached to hit all the current criteria, but after Colombians, this was a flat show to me - despite the enthusiastic home crowd.  The design has just not come together in an appealing way yet.  And easily the worst cord guard uniform I’ve seen in years.  Painful to see the males in the color guard wearing what they are. 

Troooers - Holy Moly (or maybe BLOODY HELL), wow, Troopers.  The other huge positive surprise, though maybe if you were paying attention last year in Indy you saw signs of this coming.  Absolutely me & my friend’s favorite show of the night, and the crowd went nuts.  A very rich, dark, powerful horn line with fantastic low brass.  In our opinion the most powerful of the night.  The ending is lights out good.  They got a later start but this show has real legs.  Kudos for pulling of a modern show while keeping your identity in spades.  Can’t wait to see this tomorrow again at DATR.  A lot of upside here as there is a ton of cleaning to do.  
 

Academy - I love the accessible, entertaining approach Academy takes, and what a nice recovery from all the challenges they had last summer.  Love the unis/costumes & color scheme.  After troopers though, the show was whimsical but not as solid or entertaining- even fully giving a pass to the guard for the mid show wind blast.  Really the only corps that had to deal with any type of meaningful wind.  I have a huge place in my heart for Academy, but at this point this doesn’t measure up as a package to their stronger shows in the mid to latter part of the 2010s though.  

Mandarins - there are some things to live in this show.  Solid guard and a really good horn line - and at times some really cool, effective moments with the props.  My friend and I wanted more power from the horn line though, and somewhere, some semblance of DRILL (there were maybe 30 seconds of what we would call drill).  There are times where there is so much focus on unnecessary movement of the props tying up too many members.  The singer - and his blend with the ensemble has improved greatly.  He did a great job last night.  I can’t wait to get a read on this show up too in San Antonio.  Hopefully that puts my mix of great and “meh” to bed - on the side of great.

Blue Devils - I really need to see this again.  Their usual great performance levels & showmanship are there, though it wasn’t their best run for sure.  At this point one of their least memorable designs IMO in the last 12 years.  Hopefully my first take is completely different than my later viewings.  One other thing, the “wraps” over the costume that immediately come off we’re really pointless and added nothing.  On the positive side, it was nice to see a good bit of drill mixed in with the prop work.  
 

Vanguard - the white costume coupled with the purple on the guard is very pleasing to the eye.  However, I agree with the others, there are major chunks of the show where the guard is practically invisible.  Great to see considerable drill and nice marching from Vanguard.  Some nice touches to the Indian Nirvana theme, though I think they can do more with it.  At first viewing, the props really don’t add anything to the show.  Hopefully my opinion on that changes.  Some vintage big sounds from the horn line, with some points feeling a bit like the Babylon show with power & an edge.  Both my friend and I felt SCV should have been MUCH closer to BD.  
 

Blue Knights - I hope everything is ok within the org.  I’ve grown to absolutely LOVE Blue Knights over the last decade, but this is not one of their better designs.  The unis & shakes look GREAT.  A ton of time spent moving the big blue dots around with very little effect.  Musically, some nice moments, but a lot that was forgettable.  This is another show where I hope my first read is way off.  If not, BK could be looking at a double digit placement for the first time in a long while.

kudos to the kids in every corps.  Some things in drum corps constantly change - some for better, some for worse.  But the talent, dedication and passion of the kids never does.  And THAT is the HEART of the activity.

Purely to my entertainment perspective, Troopers stole this show.  However, wow, the West is bringing a lot of good Corps to Indy!

Harvey

 

 

[Mikah]

On 7/14/2022 at 2:44 AM, Ashontheinternet said:

Blue Devils live sure is a sight to behold.

True!  For whatever reason, whenever I think of my favorite corps or favorite show, the Blue Devils never pop up in my mind.  Then, when I'm able to catch a live BD performance, I'm like, "OMG!  This corps is so awesome!  They are my favorite!"

[Terri Schehr]

2 hours ago, TexasPRfan said:

I had the great pleasure, while on vacation,  of getting to go to the Ogden show with my best friend - who I met marching drum corps 32 years ago.  Great seats 18 rows up between the 45s.  Some great shows. A beautiful mountain backdrop, and an enthusiastic, large crowd made for a great night.  
 

A caveat - these are all first viewing impressions, which can change wildly in the next four weeks.

Colombians - one of two very pleasant surprises.  Solid show, well designed and performed and they really got the crowd going.  Bravo!  Hope they can keep the momentum up and get to Indy in the near future.  

Battalion - I’ve followed their growth very positively over this new corps’s rise.  It’s exciting to see the org maturing enough to get to Indy.  Sadly, I think this show is a big design miss and their numbers are a bit down.  It feels like they reached to hit all the current criteria, but after Colombians, this was a flat show to me - despite the enthusiastic home crowd.  The design has just not come together in an appealing way yet.  And easily the worst cord guard uniform I’ve seen in years.  Painful to see the males in the color guard wearing what they are. 

Troooers - Holy Moly (or maybe BLOODY HELL), wow, Troopers.  The other huge positive surprise, though maybe if you were paying attention last year in Indy you saw signs of this coming.  Absolutely me & my friend’s favorite show of the night, and the crowd went nuts.  A very rich, dark, powerful horn line with fantastic low brass.  In our opinion the most powerful of the night.  The ending is lights out good.  They got a later start but this show has real legs.  Kudos for pulling of a modern show while keeping your identity in spades.  Can’t wait to see this tomorrow again at DATR.  A lot of upside here as there is a ton of cleaning to do.  
 

Academy - I love the accessible, entertaining approach Academy takes, and what a nice recovery from all the challenges they had last summer.  Love the unis/costumes & color scheme.  After troopers though, the show was whimsical but not as solid or entertaining- even fully giving a pass to the guard for the mid show wind blast.  Really the only corps that had to deal with any type of meaningful wind.  I have a huge place in my heart for Academy, but at this point this doesn’t measure up as a package to their stronger shows in the mid to latter part of the 2010s though.  

Mandarins - there are some things to live in this show.  Solid guard and a really good horn line - and at times some really cool, effective moments with the props.  My friend and I wanted more power from the horn line though, and somewhere, some semblance of DRILL (there were maybe 30 seconds of what we would call drill).  There are times where there is so much focus on unnecessary movement of the props tying up too many members.  The singer - and his blend with the ensemble has improved greatly.  He did a great job last night.  I can’t wait to get a read on this show up too in San Antonio.  Hopefully that puts my mix of great and “meh” to bed - on the side of great.

Blue Devils - I really need to see this again.  Their usual great performance levels & showmanship are there, though it wasn’t their best run for sure.  At this point one of their least memorable designs IMO in the last 12 years.  Hopefully my first take is completely different than my later viewings.  One other thing, the “wraps” over the costume that immediately come off we’re really pointless and added nothing.  On the positive side, it was nice to see a good bit of drill mixed in with the prop work.  
 

Vanguard - the white costume coupled with the purple on the guard is very pleasing to the eye.  However, I agree with the others, there are major chunks of the show where the guard is practically invisible.  Great to see considerable drill and nice marching from Vanguard.  Some nice touches to the Indian Nirvana theme, though I think they can do more with it.  At first viewing, the props really don’t add anything to the show.  Hopefully my opinion on that changes.  Some vintage big sounds from the horn line, with some points feeling a bit like the Babylon show with power & an edge.  Both my friend and I felt SCV should have been MUCH closer to BD.  
 

Blue Knights - I hope everything is ok within the org.  I’ve grown to absolutely LOVE Blue Knights over the last decade, but this is not one of their better designs.  The unis & shakes look GREAT.  A ton of time spent moving the big blue dots around with very little effect.  Musically, some nice moments, but a lot that was forgettable.  This is another show where I hope my first read is way off.  If not, BK could be looking at a double digit placement for the first time in a long while.

kudos to the kids in every corps.  Some things in drum corps constantly change - some for better, some for worse.  But the talent, dedication and passion of the kids never does.  And THAT is the HEART of the activity.

Purely to my entertainment perspective, Troopers stole this show.  However, wow, the West is bringing a lot of good Corps to Indy!

Harvey

 

 

That is a beautiful setting for a show. 

[DrumCorpsRelic]

On 7/13/2022 at 8:24 PM, KVG_DC said:

To be fair, the mic placement got blown around mid show!

Yup "Acts of God" can play havoc, as it especially did during THE ACADEMY Performance of "Dodge/Kick Ball". My heart sunk watching The  Large steel Willy Wonka Entry Gate collapse. The Corps marching members Brilliantly kept their heads while flawlessly performing a fall free drill, How the guard maintained control of the flags and tosses in such intense winds was amazing!  Despite the fact that the Corps did ummn...lose their balls!? NO PUN INTENDED. Their GE score should have recieved a generous bump for creative integration of equipment. 👍

[KVG_DC]

41 minutes ago, DrumCorpsRelic said:

Yup "Acts of God" can play havoc, as it especially did during THE ACADEMY Performance of "Dodge/Kick Ball". My heart sunk watching The  Large steel Willy Wonka Entry Gate collapse. The Corps marching members Brilliantly kept their heads while flawlessly performing a fall free drill, How the guard maintained control of the flags and tosses in such intense winds was amazing!  Despite the fact that the Corps did ummn...lose their balls!? NO PUN INTENDED. Their GE score should have recieved a generous bump for creative integration of equipment. 👍

Hah yeah.  That was some wicked wind that kicked up for them.  We were all feeling it for the guards at that show.  I kept looking for the staff running to the end zone to try and catch the balls so they weren’t lost.  

Hopefully they didn’t have to go back to AZ to retrieve them!