Drums Across the Desert - July 3, 2023

[Chief Guns]

Great job Mandarins! 

Keep proving you belong in the top six!

[mbird139]

Stadium looked full to me

Yes it was hot, but the humidity was low so that helped/ .. have sat thru hotter shows at Broken Arrow, Denton, Katy than tonight 

Typical AZ crowd .. very supportive of all the corps. BD was more silent cause when watching  them you just appreciate the talent they have 

Academy Youth - flags, rifles, sabres all used . Nice job . 

Arsenal - from El Paso. .show not complete just yet. Small corps or group as they were called. Liked what they did have though. 
 
Mandarins - what to say. Most talented corps they have had. So much going on the field it’s going to take multiple viewings . They might take 5th in Indy. Watched the battery warmup in the lot . Impressed. 
 

BD - when I watched them on Flo for the San Diego show thought they could be beat this year .. seeing them in person tonight - nah. The guard work is ridiculous. .:they are way ahead of everyone else, but the thing is this show has so much more to add. Thinking another championship will be added to the BD trophy case
 

Academy - they have a chance to be on the field Sat night in Indy. Like this show more than last season for sure. Uniforms look great. Seems more talented in guard than last season, I think. Crowd favorite obviously 

 

As for going back to Mesa - glad they did •
Last year was at ASU and the field looked awful. Easier to enter/leave the stadium tonight and concession lines were not bad at all compared to last year. Hopefully they keep the show in Mesa 

[Box5Opinion]

Mandarins show is really coming along, what a great performance tonight! 

Blue Devils continue to dominate all captions (watch the spread of Content and Achievement to get smaller as the season progresses). Color guard needs to clean, clean and clean some more. Already in the 80s after three shows - at this rate, the judges will need to give BD a score of 106 by finals night! 😉

[MadisonBandMan1]

3 hours ago, Precious Roy said:

Yes. (I haven't been paying attention to this thread).

Hey, I am a meteorology student currently! We need to connect!

[desertrat68]

The humidity is low so while it was hot, it wasn't THAT hot. I've been to shows in the south that were much worse than what we had tonight. Once the sun goes down and the solar radiation isn't beating down on you, it's not that bad. Plus The Academy is pretty straightforward in telling corps to practice inside during the heat of the day. 10-12 years ago they had to send people over to certain corps to tell them to get their kids out of the sun and to give them water/gatorade. 

Anyway, it was a good evening of drum corps. Normally by this point I would had seen Academy's show before hand but we decided to wait and experience it for the first time at the show. I was encouraged by what I saw and heard. Covid hit Arizona music ed HARD and it's going to take a while for it to recover and for the talent pool here locally to get back to where is was before. 

[AMarcher]

Thoughts from the show (on the 50, 20 rows up) from me (marched euphonium for Academy many moons ago) and my niece (7) and nephew (5).

I was not expecting much from Arsenal given their smaller size but they impressed me for what they have. Solid foundation of drums and brass and enough movement to show they are heading in the right direction. I would not be surprised to see them holding their own in Open Class in a few years. I will make sure I am tuned in early to San Antonio to see them again.

The crowd was tepid at the start for the Mandarins since they aren't the hometown corps and don't have the big name draw of the Blue Devils, but they came out and grabbed the audience from the jump, held them in the palm of their hand throughout and got a standing ovation before they were even finished playing. Watching Flo over the weekend I thought they deserved to be much closer to Blue Devils, but I saw a lot more dirt in the show tonight than I did watching on TV and agree with a 5-7 point gap between them right now. Clean that up and this could be a post intermission Finals show. In the short running to be my favorite show of the season and one I will watch for a long time to come. I would tell you my favorite part but it would just be me giving a play-by-play of the entire show. Favorite part for the kids was when the two baritone players hang upside from one of the props and continue to play.

Blue Devils grab you from the beginning with their show, but it slowly lost my attention (and especially the kids) as it went on. They perform on a wholly different level and are supremely amazing to watch, especially the guard doing the most weapon work I have ever seen from them. Everyone moves with such purpose and conviction that I feel I would be entertained by them doing mundane tasks like mowing the lawn or doing dishes. The entire corps exudes a level of confidence that is amazing to watch, but I just feel the show is missing something. Maybe it is better utilization of the props (saw the props had cut out sections that weren't used yet) and a better ending? Has potential, could win, but I don't see this going undefeated and certainly not remembered as a favorite Blue Devils show in its current state. If there is a corps I trust to fix an underwhelming show and make it memorable, it is probably this on. Favorite part for the kids was the guitar player who is a whole show unto himself.

Academy sound system took a LONG time to set up. It was fun watching the corps do the slow motion ripple/wave around the table prop as the preshow, but eventually the corps director went out to stop them since the delay was so long. Show has a lot of potential and easily their most enjoyable vehicle in years. Story is easy enough to follow (and some free GE points tonight with a giant full moon in the sky behind them) but I noticed a lot of smaller details that aren't being sold due to dirt such as a crescent moon in the drill that I barely recognized. Not having guard work for the last minute or two of the show and some missing work for the Sun and Moon characters is definitely hurting them. Get that added and cleaned up and this has huge potential. It is nice to just genuinely enjoy an Academy show again. Favorite part for the kids was something that wasn't even in the show, as they were setting up their giant circle midfield prop had a bunch of colored lights go on underneath which made for a pretty cool effect. The kids were super excited to see it in the show but no lights ever came on during the show itself, so look forward to some planned changes to the show at some point and using the lights for something.

[resipsaloquitur]

Wasn't there but saw a hornline and a drumline warm up video on YT.  Crowd was big (esp in the hornline circle) and were into it.

[resipsaloquitur]

16 hours ago, Box5Opinion said:

Mandarins show is really coming along, what a great performance tonight! 

Blue Devils continue to dominate all captions (watch the spread of Content and Achievement to get smaller as the season progresses). Color guard needs to clean, clean and clean some more. Already in the 80s after three shows - at this rate, the judges will need to give BD a score of 106 by finals night! 😉

Unless I read wrong, BD and PR are tied at GE. But, west coast inflation.

[84BDsop]

Wish I'd been able to go....I'm in Phoenix for US fencing nationals -- drove in the 3rd, in fact. 

However, I was due to -- and did -- compete in Veteran 60 (age range 60-69) men's sabre today, and had I gone to the show I would've done poorly, since we had an 8am start time.

Ended up 33rd out of 36, but overall performance was an improvement from DFL in Louisville and ALMOST winning 2 bouts in St Louis.   This time I won a pool (1st round) bout and barely lost my direct elimination (2nd round).   Overall, I was happy with it.