Toledo Review (June 15th)

[StradmanBW]

This is going to be a long review.

General:

Nice stadium, ample parking. Seats were just bleachers, but the corps were so involving that I didn't care how much my butt hurt. Show was run well in my opinion. No big complaints. On a side note, however, I asked at a Toledo gas station for directions to the University of Toledo Glass Bowl Stadium, at which the person at the counter looked at me funny and asked, "there's a University of Toledo?" Ugh. I also brought my mother (was all state choir in high school) and sister (an all state clarinet player), both first time viewers, to the show to see what they thought.

Marion Glory Cadets

My Score: 31

Their Score: 31.5

Program: The show is called Primary Colors, and includes a bunch of music I've never heard of before and I didn't recognize hearing. I personally don't think that abstract music is a good choice for smaller corps.

Brass: Small line, if I remember correctly it was something like 4 sops, 3 mellos, 3 baritones, and 3 contras. Lots of tone quality, intonation, and tracking issues. They're really trying though, and I applaud them for that. There were some moments that I can hear being nice brass moments once the show is cleaned up.

Guard: Seemed in line with most Div3 colorguards in June.

Percussion: I have been told they're playing a tough book, and the line appears to have some injuries and holes. I saw 2 snares on the sidelines injured with 2 horn players, 2 of which were on crutches. The drums are dirty right now, some players just simply not playing their parts at times, but it'll clean up. The pit is massive.

Capital Regiment

My Score: 49

Their Score: 48.55

Program: The show tells a story of climbing Mount Everest, featuring several symphonic pieces and the music from the IMAX film Everest. I like this program a lot. I think that Capital can be 2nd or 3rd in Division 2 this year.

Brass: This is a phenomenal Div2 line! Lots of improvement and an exciting, dramatic horn book. I liked the show a lot. There were some nervous fracks and some tired chops in the upper sop parts that I heard, but those will improve undoubtedly over the coming weeks. Good writing, good line. They really put out some sound.

Guard: Looked like good work. I'm a horn player.

Percussion: 8 snares, sounded quite clean for a Div2 line this time of year. Pit was nice, had some good acoustic parts all through the show that I enjoyed.

Colts

My Score: 58

Their Score: 58.35

Program: The program is entitled Revelations and features different times and emotions experienced by a person through their lifetime. The show features Gillingham's Concerto for 4 Percussion and Winds, which they play well, but I like Crown's arrangement better.. more powerful chord moments. Anyway, beautiful program, well written and conceived. Some unfinished drill tonight. My sister and mother commented that the music was "very pretty." My sister recognized Be Thou My Vision

Brass: Very powerful, clean line. I was impressed. The Colts brass section is very consistent - I have not seen a bad Colts corps in my life. Music may just be a little bit too easy for them... very clean already.

Guard: Don't remember much, but don't remember anything being bad. That's probably a good sign. ;)

Percussion: Not much to say, looked like a top 12 drumline to me. Sounded pretty clean. Pit had some nice moments.

Southwind

My Score (This is where my scores started getting off, lol): 53

Their Score: 49.75

Program: This program has a darker feel than most Southwind programs, and features the "template" for a show used the past two years that I like very well. I like this show, but I don't see the corps getting past 14th or 13th at best.. this is a much smaller (but no less talented) Southwind.

Brass: Loud hornline. First hits in Toccata threw me back... I wasn't expecting it. The line has that characteristic rich sound I have come to expect from Southwind. With only about 48-52 members, I was impressed with what they were doing.

Guard: Same uniforms as last season, I noticed. Seemed a little messy in places, but it's June. Once again, I'm a horn player.

Percussion: 8 snares, 3 tenors, 5 basses if I remember correctly. Full line.. could definitely hear them well. Snares did some neat work with traditional snares in one of the numbers.. Marche Slav if I'm not mistaken (?). Pit was clean for June.

Bluecoats

My Score (off by a few again): 68

Their Score: 63.05

Program: Powerful, entertaining program. My favorite program so far. Very nice visuals... lots of thought has been put into the concept for this one. The show is a day in the city... the best way to describe it is to cross 90's Blue Devils with Vanguard 2001 with Cavaliers 01 and you've got this show. A very well written story. Jazzy music, killer solos, and a BEAUTIFUL ballad. This is also the most underrated show scorewise so far. This was my mother's favorite program of the night.

Brass: What a line. Loudest line tonight. The hornline has a slightly topheavy yet still rich sound, and the low brass has a lot of clarity. The lead sops are CRAZY. Bluecoats had the best soloists of the night, soloist in the closer decided he'd hold a double G until everybody was going nuts. Wow. Great horn arranging too... and these guys can march well too. I'm not sure why Bluecoats were lower than Cavies tonight musically. My sister commented that they were really loud.

Guard: I like the uniforms. Urban-esque. Neat flagwork all the way through the show with lots of bright colors, and a dance solo in the ballad.

Percussion: Doing nicely. Lots of different percussive textures are used in the show on the jazz/funk end of things. A very musical drumline and a pit that seemed a little better than last year's. Parts sounded a lot like Cavaliers' writing in the pit.

Phantom Regiment

My Score: 68.5

Their Score: 63.65

Program: Lots of power this year in a very, very dark Phantom show. This show reminds me of the 95 program, except angrier. There's something for just about everybody in this program, with the exception of those that crave crazy high sop work and jazz. But anyway, there are retro elements in the show as well as modern elements.

Brass: HOLY GOD PHANTOM'S BARITONES ARE LOUD. I can't express this enough. The low end becomes OVERPOWERING to the high end at LOTS of points in the show. Many out of control baritone/euph sounds coming out of this line. This is an old school Phantom hornline. In my opinion, they need to darken up the sopranos and mellos to get them to blend in with what the low brass is doing. It sounds like two different hornlines sometimes. Melodic passages in the high brass can NOT BE HEARD for the sake of HALF NOTES in the baritones. Sick. But I like it. A lot. I forgot, nice ballad, good flugel soloist. Baritones. Jesus.

Guard: Started out with 36 rifles in the Rockford File! Looked great. Lots of neat guardwork going on in the show, a point with three groups of guard using rifles, what looked like shards of twisted metal, and flags at the same time. There's also some ballroom type dancing with the hornline in the ballad.

Percussion: Lots of different timbres and textures explored. I thought this pit was what made Phantom so close to Cavaliers... they really were playing some interesting stuff. Drumline was good, typical Phantom.

Pioneer

My Score: 41

Their Score: 43.45

Program: Small Pioneer corps this year. The music seems fun and it's certainly a challenging program. I picked out themes from Oliver in the show and I enjoyed it. I'm glad to see Pioneer get some new tastes in their programming rather than the traditional Irish stuff. However, I thought it was poor judgement to put Pioneer on after Bluecoats AND Phantom Regiment. They just couldn't get to the crowd after that.

Brass: Smaller line, and they play a tough book. Good arrangements, and good players. This is going to be a really fun show to watch a little later in the season.

Guard: Seemed to be some childish playfulness in the guardwork. Neat stuff.

Percussion: I don't remember much except the pit being put in the back. My sister, a first time viewer, commented that they had too many battery for the brass. I agreed.

Madison Scouts

My Score: 64

Their Score: 60.75 (WHAT?)

Program: Okay, okay, I hate to jump on the Madison-gets-screwed bandwagon, but this is fishy. This program should have been closer to Phantom and Bluecoats, and Glassmen, scorewise. This show has the same crowd pleasing value as ever, but it also integrates some more complexity in design to appeal to the judges' tastes. This is a really fiery, loud, jazzy program. The onfield warmup, Conquest, begins in their starting line facing to the left end zone. All of a sudden, the hornline turns to the audience and juts out into a 6x10000 horn block and really lets the crowd have it hard and loud. I felt a lot of Boston design in Madison's show this year... different. Much better visual corps than last year. Better form control and the guard is 200% better. This was my sister's favorite corps, she commented, "Oh my gosh... they've only known this for 2 weeks?"

Brass: Loud, loud, loud line. Blended better than Phantom at this point just because the high brass could keep up with the volume more, and the low brass played brighter. The baritones aren't quite as loud as Phantom's, but they can get up there. Jeez. The baritone hits at the beginning of Conquistador are very nice. Good soloists, but one hit a hairball in the final note of his solo.. understandable... can't say I nail double C's in front of thousands either . Much better hornline from Madison this year. There are some neat mello riffs to listen for all through the show.

Guard: Much better. Still some drops, but it's June. The conquistador outfits were cool.

Percussion: An AWESOME feature with the tenors and tympani playing the SAME feature. I liked that. Drums sounded typical Madison to me, pit seemed improved over the past 2 years. Lots of grooves in the drumline, and lots of latin percussive sounds. The X-men were a neat addition to things, playing some drums that I don't honestly know the name of.

The Cavaliers

My Score: 72

Their Score: 72.1

Program: This is a very different program for the Cavaliers. There wasn't really any melodic content in the show... the show was primarily chords and hornline sound effects. Neat total show concept... but I don't think this is a championship program. Too different. Lots of crazy Cavaliers visuals, some vocal grooves on counts, and a crazy "frameworks" dancing/movement thing in the rhythm section that was very cool. My mom and sister oohed and aahed at the Cavaliers' visuals.

Brass: More refined sound from the Cavaliers. I appreciated this line more as a top 4 hornline than years past. I believe Bluecoats were a better line tonight because the Cavaliers mostly just played chord progressions it seemed. Not much to say except there are some interesting auditory effects that play with your senses... you just have to hear the show.

Guard: Good job tonight. Uniforms look like something out of the Matrix. Can't say much else.

Percussion: Best battery tonight.. marching 10 snares.. tough to clean, but sounded good despite it. There was a cool feature late in the show with some nice pit integration that I really liked. While Cavies had the battery tonight, Phantom had pit.

Glassmen

My Score: 66

Their Score: 69 (WHAT?)

Program: I will not share my views in depth of the Glassmen's program so as others who might like this program will not have bias toward it going into the show. However, I will say that I thought this show was totally devoid of any entertainment value.

Brass: I liked the Glassmen on G bugles better. They lost that rich King contra sound that they had for the past several years. Flugel man makes his return... I did not like the solo as much as last year's. I felt that the high brass performance this show was sloppy. The parts need to be clean fast if they want to sell this show.

Guard: Seemed to be Glassmen's typical guard. Seemed good.

Percussion: This was the cleanest section of corps. The pit is strong, and the battery plays a clean show for June.

Finale

I liked the old version of America the Beautiful better, honestly, but I'm sure it's probably just because I'm used to it and not this one. Not much to say here except that a Marion Glory Cadet contra was playing the old version of America the Beautiful... so when others started playing a softer section, he got loud, on the wrong pitches. Really loud. That kid's a horse... just needs to memorize the new piece. ;)

I felt that not letting Cavaliers do their victory concert was in poor taste. I wanted to hear their concert pieces.. I, and many others, did not stay for the Glassmen concert.