Louisville KY, 6/26/04

[Galen]

I'm just getting in from seeing DCI tonight in Louisville KY. I went with my boyfriend, it was his first show and he was extremely entertained and impressed by what he saw. Here's my review of the night's events:

First, I think that Cardinal Stadium is a very good stadium for drum corps. There's a little bit of a distance between the sidelines and the seats, but not too much. The lower sections are pretty close to the field, and the pressbox is high and a bit far back but not extremely so (as in Allentown or Bloomington IN). The stadium is a 3/4 horseshoe and resonates sound very well. It's a very accessible stadium, right off of I-65, with lots of available parking (which was either $5 or $10 tonight, I can't recall which). BIG parking lot with enought room for all the corps to more or less warm up right next to each other without interfering with each other. We watched Cap Reg's vis. warmup briefly before we headed into the stadium. Inside, I bought a copy of the year's tourbook, which looks pretty good. I noticed at first glance lists BK playing their corps song "I Go On" as their ballad this year, should be nice to hear them play that as part of their show. The book also shows a picture of a Cavaliers tuba player whose horn appears to have seen MUCH better days. Dents up the wazoo in that thing.

On to the shows:

Marion Glory: I counted 19 horns, including 4 contras. They have 1 guard member (whose outfit, I noted, was a nice reflection of the corps proper, using the corps colors of maroon and cream). She sat on the sidelines for the first half of the show and did work the second. They performed selections from Holst's "The Planets", starting off with Mars and working in a fanfare from Uranus later in the show, one of the lesser-referenced portions of the overall work. Their drumline looked pretty well playing, but they had some feet issues at points in their show. I've noticed in the times that I've seen them in the past 3 years on tour that they tend to not have many high brass players, and this was the case again tonight. While their hornline was fairly balanced, numbers-wise, it was evident that the low brass were stronger than the high brass. Their mellophone section sounded alright by themselves, but their sopranos had some exposed passages that they did not project very solidly tonight. As an ensemble, they sounded ok and did a good job of filling up the stadium. Crowd gave them a nice applause as they finished their show.

Kiwanis Kavaliers: Kiwanis gets my award for "Classiest-looking Drum Major" of the night. Their dm wears black pants and a red jacket with a white citation corps that reminded me of those that the Blue Devils wore in the late 80's and early 90's, without the ruffled shirts. On a personal note, I've not been a big fan of Kiwanis' uniforms in the past few years, and I think they might do very well to change the corps proper uniform to this style and give the dm a black coat in the same style; they'd look VERY stylish and traditional in this kind of uniform. If the picture my bf took comes out well, I'll try to post it later.

The corps's show is called "Tonight" and is the music of West Side Story. They had 19 guard and a sizable hornline, but I didn't think that they did a good job projecting their sound off the field. They did have some good moments in their show with some solo groups, particularly with a bari/mello duet in their ballad that sounded very nice together, and a LOUD bari soloist who more or less outplayed the whole hornline on his feature. The guard has some nice flags at one point in the show that show a city skyline at sunset. Also, they don't have all their work complete yet, and looked a bit awkward performing without the work. Finally, there was the "trash can" ensemble at the end, with several of their battery playing licks on the sides of trash cans. It's a nice effect, but unfortunately the snares playing at the same time covered them up tonight. It's a moment that needs more exposure if the staff wants it as a feature, right now it just didn't really get through the horns and drums. Speaking of drums, Kiwanis appeared to have the most girls in their battery tonight. I counted 4 girls playing bass drum and at least 2 on marching cymbals. At this point, after their show, my bf turned to me and said, "Wow, they're really good," I told him "You ain't seen nothing yet! B)

Next up was Southwind. My first thought was "I miss the yellow coats" (but not the chains). Despite the problems they had in the winter, they're still the same size as they normally are, including 27 guard members. They had the unmistakable deep-throated, dark brassy sound of a corps marching G bugles, and projected very well from the first impacts of their show and kept it up for most of the performance. Controlling and refining that sound, however, still needs a bit of work. But, they are playing loud and projecting well, so that's a start. Their show called "A Journey Through The Sand" reminded me of Magic's 2002 program, featuring the same kind of "arabian" rhythms and runs. The hornline has a lot of difficult runs in this show and they will need some time to clean up, but should add well to the mood of the show when they are clean. I especially liked the music in the second and third movements. Pit percussionists lay down a groove with tambourines (UNamped, by the way) and carry the mood throughout the piece. I can't remember much of the drill, but I do recall that the marching style was beginning to appear evident consistently in the marching members. This was an enjoyable program for me and it got the first standing O of the night. Hopefully Southwind can finish higher with it than they have the past couple years.

Will post the rest of the review in a little bit, after I get back from Steak and Shake.

[Toby]

Grr...I wanted more reviews... :P

[bawker]

#### you and Steak and Shake, Matt! :P

Just kidding. I'm kinda worried about Boston and the whole narration thing, but we seem to have similar tastes in shows, so I'm anxious to hear your take.

[KFanti]

mmmmm Steak and Shake... i wish we had one in Houston...

[Galen]

Ok, I have my shake, so I can continue with my review.

Next corps up is Capital Regiment. I'm very pleased to see Capital with a full hornline this year; they should now have the tools they need to start moving up in the rankings. Their new horns sounded wonderful tonight, from the opening trumpet and mellophone statements of "Old 100th", to a GREAT full-corps impact. The music isn't the most recognizable (unless you're a Holsinger fan), but it keeps you interested. Their ballad, Tapestries, sounded very nice tonight, especially the trumpet soloist at the end, who looks as if he's fixed the endurance issue he had with his solo at DeKalb last week. Their third piece, Scootin' on Hardrock, is a departure for the corps. It jams, it swings, it cooks, and they even do a little bit of leanback at the end. Capital Regiment playing jazz? Inconceivable!!! But they play it pretty well and they're obviously having fun with it. After the show I talked to some of my friends from the past 2 years and they're saying that this year's already been a huge improvement from the past season and they're having a lot more fun this season. Now they need to develop the sense of pride and class that comes with being members of a drum corps and start climbing the ladder.

Magic of Orlando was next. An interesting tidbit about this corps: their new black sashes are ACTUALLY eggplant purple! Of course, the only way you can tell this is if you're standing closer than 5 feet away from them. They look better than their previous red ones, but they could use some trimming up to give a more unified look. The show itself was Pirates of the Caribbean. I'll be honest. They had a rough show tonight. Very rough. The drill was extremely dirty, even for a first show. The music was recognizable from the soundtrack, but rather repetitive (I think 3 of the 4 songs started with more or less the same melody). The horns were not well-blended, and frankly sounded crass at a few sections of their show. Drumline was very aggressive, which suits the dark and sinister mood of this show. The guard is well-costumed and has a couple nice moments, including one where a girl dressed as the heroine from the movie takes a trust-fall off a plank that's being held in midair, but they also have a couple scenes that look tacky. One is when they're taking swigs from water jugs (ala Patriots '98) and then doing Triple H impressions by spitting clouds of water in the air. They didn't do this well tonight, and I didn't care for it. At the end of the particular song, they start spinning the jugs around and splashing water all over the areas of the field they're in. They're well enough away from the corps to hopefully prevent people slipping on wet spots and falling down, but it still didn't go well for me. I'll be frank again in my final evaluation. For Magic's sake, I hope that this was a bad case of "first show jitters". Their show as it was tonight was very poor, and there are many corps ahead of them with more solid products on the field. Magic needs to improve vastly and quickly, or they could conceivalby fall out of not only the top 12, but semifinals as well.

If Magic was my "disappointment of the night", then Carolina Crown was surely my "Favorite" of the night. I became enraptured with this show the second I read the program announcement, and what they performed tonight was everything I imagined and more. Here's the bad news (for other corps that is): Crown has a hornline this year. And they're #### good. They're AUGUST good. We've watched Bluecoats and Madison duke it out the first 2 weeks of tour with delight, and guess what? That duel is now going to have 3 people in it. Crown tied Blue tonight, and earned it. Their opening production of "Ma Vlast" by Smetana hearkened back to some classic Phantom productions in its arranging and flow (and did I mention that the horns sound good too?). Show continues with some very strong marching to back up the horn sounds, while the guard doesn't look like they've lost a step from last year (they wound up 3rd in guard, ahead of both Scouts and Boston). And then comes... the controversial part. Crown, as first reported somewhere on DCP, is using amps in their show. They start off with a sextet singing the opening lines of "Seasons of Love" from Rent. I'm thinking, "Hmm, it's nice, it doesn't stick out obnoxiously, and it fits with the show". Then the horns start playing, and I think "What do they need the miked voices for? The horns can play this BEAUTIFULLY by themselves!!!" So my first impression of "modern amped drum corps" is: It's not bad, but they really don't need it with the caliber hornline that they have this year. Onto "The Beat Generation", which has the pit playing Thelonious Monk (Epistrophy, I think) interweaving with battery parts. They also have a miked guard member disseminating on "Bohemian virtues" and the "essence of poetry" at this point. Snap snap. My second taste of amps is: Here, they don't add to the show, and the script is unnecessary. Anybody who knows what your show is about, or even anybody who has seen Moulin Rouge and is thus well-versed with the Bohemian Virtues of Knowledge, Beauty Truth and Love, will get it by this point. So that brings us to the closer, Bohemian Rhapsody. It's great. Staging, drill and guardwork are excellent, and the horns sounded just as strong and powerful here as they did at the start of the show. The show has a down ending that is perfectly done, with the horns and guard forming hearts and facing the back-right corner. Mark my words: this is a top-8 show. I would not be surprised to see them over Bluecoats come August. VIVA LA VIE BOHEME!!! The crowd absolutely loved the show and didn't seem to really care about the amps in this case, since they were tasteful and made sense in the context of this show. For other shows, they weren't as appreciative.

At this point, we get an intermission, albeit a short one. So short that I was not able to see Spirit's performance :( They sounded ok in the tunnel, and I caught a few strains of Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring in the opener as well as some of On the Town that Vanguard played in the 80's. The few glimpses I got of the guard showed me uniforms that looked very familiar, like some corps has used them in the last 2 years or so, but that I just couldn't put a finger on. They also used some very odd-looking "S's" as props/weapons. Wish I could say more about them, but I can't write about what I didn't see.

Btw, I'm posting this review in segments so as to spare people's eyes from scrolling too much.

Edited June 27, 2004 by Galen

[KFanti]

you want to prevent scrolling? nix the 40 line political statements in your signature.

could you save that stuff for the off season?

sorry - just being impatient and snatchy - you still writing the rest of the review? it's GREAT so far

Edited June 27, 2004 by KFanti

[Galen]

Bathroom break.

Back to the review.

Next corps that I got to see was Crossmen. Their new black and red uniforms look very good under the stadium lights (drum majors have similar uniforms, with white accents and not red), which were coming into effect with the late hour now. Their show starts in a different manner than what Crossmen fans are accustomed to hearing; it sneaks up on you and then jumps out and grabs you and shakes you around for a bit. And it's good stuff. The horns were very strong all night long, and my bf said that they really used a lot of dynamic contrast throughout their show, and sounded as well at soft dynamics as they did at loud ones (an excellent sign at this point in the season). The opener, "Jubal Step", has one section where both the trumpets and baritones are staged on the sidelines, using plunger mutes to produce some very cool sounds. The high brass really have a good book this year, there's a lot of subtle (and not-so-subtle) screaming written into the parts, and their screamers really shine, both by themselves and when amplifying the full-ensemble sound. Speaking of amps, Crossmen had them, but they didn't really seem to help the pit's sound very much. Guard had mostly black jumpsuits with a vertical white stripe that runs the entire length of the body, right at the left shoulder, and red arm and leg sleeves. I didn't really get to focus much on them because of how captivating the horns and drums were. The drumline SMOKES this show, they're vastly improved over the last couple seasons (and that's saying something coming from someone who's really dug the Crossmen's drumline the last few years). Their parts in Puma (which is a great piece) really cook. The pit is amped, but I didn't really notice any particular effect. This corps is very much worth seeing and hearing if they're within driving distance of you.

Bluecoats' guard gets my guard of the night award. They really drew me in with their strong ensemble work and their cool-looking outfit tops. Wish I could get some close-up pictures of this. There were a few individual mistakes in the guard tonight, but they were very strong as a group and really sold their difficult show. They had my focus for most of the program, so I didn't really get to check out the rest of the corps. However, their uniform updates look very good, and they have a pretty good arrangement of "I'll Fly Away" (and there's no guy in a molting bird suit prancing around like a headless chicken, either).

Madison... was Madison. Someone in the crowd: "No Amps!"

Scouts' guard outfits are similar to last year's, but no hats or hatracks, and the tops are darker as well. The opening pieces were strong and solid, and the corps marched well through them. And then we get to MALAGA! ^0^

They take a much more faithful approach to the piece than they have in the past, playing a significant portion of the original's introduction and doing their famous spin-wedge during this part. And then the fun starts. The classic "95" Malaga sections follow up next and are handled masterfully, although only the trumpets have the melody this time around. Screaming soloists are great in the middle of it, as is the mello soloist at the end. And the rotating front is sold perfectly. They set the audience up to jump out of their seats here, and it's clearly the highlight of their show. Like I said at the beginning, Madison was Madison tonight.

Ok Bawker, here's my take of Boston. They get my Jerry Seinfeld "Show About Nothing" award tonight. I'm actually glad that they were allowed to have their miked voiceovers tonight, because otherwise I wouldn't have had a CLUE what their show was supposed to be about. They set their amps up on stands, which makes it easier to hear their pit and voiceovers. I gathered from reading the yearbook notes that the PVC cubes that the corps starts out in are supposed to be covered up with colored sheets. There are voiceovers at the very beginning, in the 3rd movement, and at the very end as the corps marches into cubes in the opposite end zone to make a nice reversal of their introduction. The corps marches and plays what they have extremely well (and the drill is not recycled). However, this show just wasn't very captivating until about 2/3rds of the way through. The guard, who wore gray and black costumes, took their tops off to reveal unicolored shirts that the voiceover explained. Like I said, it's a good, solid show, but for me, it wasn't very compelling to watch. There are shows that are based on performance, and there are shows that are supposed to tell a story. But this kind of "themed" show really doesn't tell much of a story, and has to rely on a lot of "extras" (esp. the voiceovers) to make it "work". We've seen a lot of these "theme" shows the last few years, in both bands and corps (ie "color", "time", "urban", etc), and frankly, I think the designers that write these kind of shows really need to think long and hard about "How is MY show going to be different from all of these other ones like it that have been done already?" before he starts putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Boston finished third tonight, I had them fifth, based on the fact that I found Bluecoats and Madison to be more entertaining.

THE Cadets take the field, my bf observes that the guard appears to be wearing straightjackets (they're not). He also said that he had heard some of Tull's music in the past, and afterwards remarked that he was able to recognize Bouree rather well. Funny moment: Hoppy got booed briefly by somebody when he was introduced by the corps director (it wasn't me!) Thing is, he noticed, but he couldn't tell where in the crowd it was coming from. Funny moment 2: They were amped, but I didn't notice because the horns were playing so #### loud! Curses Hoppy, foiled again! Lol, I'm sure that George will be having some words with his brass staff, asking them to "pull it back a little", so the effects of his grand experiment can actually be heard. I commented in the DeKalb thread that I though that they could do well to stage the horns in pods and then move and expand them into a full form, the way the show starts with small groups of horns playing. Whole corps was extremely solid tonight, and left me impressed after the show was complete. Bouree sounded especially good, and was even better in person (and on the move) than it did in the recording of it I heard in March. It sounds like it's been drawn out a little bit from what I remember hearing. It's a multi-faceted piece, that shifts from baroque fugue at the beginning of it, to full out wailing at the end, and it fits the Cadets' style of playing "Americana" music to a T. The baton twirler was ok, and didn't really seem as obnoxious as people have made him out to be (Hey, who remembers what Star did in '87?) Show was very good tonight, although I thought that the Cavaliers hornline sounded slightly better blended tonight than Cadets did.

THE Cavaliers: The first word I wrote down on my notes about Cavvies was "Attitude". Their Bond show is a perfect fit for this corps. They just EXUDE masculinity and ego with their performance (just like Bond). The show starts off just like the movies do, with the low horns playing the theme that accompionees 007 as he walks across the screen and draws his gun. The guard is in black and grey tuxedos, and they're light years ahead of last year's Green Lantern puke suits. The first set of flags captures that image, and the rest of the the flags follow a similar motif and pattern. I'll put to rest all the talk about "inflated scores" here and say that they're EARNING their 80's (which, if anybody's noticed, have leveled off a bit over the last few shows). There's a nice part where either the corps or the pit whistles a variation of the Bond theme that comes across very well. Their drill is at its usual frenetic pace. There's one section called "Welcome to Cuba" where the corps doesn't march, they RUN, all while sounding phenomonal. The bulk of the show finishes with a cascading wedge that trickles from sideline to sideline with both the horns and guard. Their pit is amped, and I think they were the only other pit besides Boston that I could actually tell was being amped. They close their unfinished show with a really nice arrangement of "For Your Eyes Only". The ending's a bit abrupt, but it's not all done yet. Perhaps getting beat tonight will accelerate the drill-adding a bit.

Results:

Marion Glory Cadets: 51.9

12: Kiwanis Kavaliers 52.85

11: Southwind: 56.8

10: Magic: 61.3

9: Capital (I resisted the temptation to make an excessively visual display of celebration): 63.15

8: Spirit: 69.05

7: Crossmen: 71.0

5: Bluecoats/Crossmen (tie): 72.9

4: Madison: 73.25

3: Boston (I had them 5th): 75.2

2: Cavaliers: 80.65

1: Cadets: 80.7 (oddly enough, the PA cut out when the announcer was giving Cadets' score, and there were lots of gasps when their actual score was announced).

Final thoughts: I saw some very good performances tonight, a couple that have a lot of potential, and a couple that were pretty disappointing. I'm split on the amps issue, they don't seem to add much to the shows that can't be (or doesn't need to be) done without them. In a couple cases, they're the only thing that makes that part of the show work. There were only 2 instances where I could clearly tell that they were making an effect on the pit's ability to project (Boston and Cavaliers). Since it was a big stadium, the acoustics of the arena made it easier to hear what the pit was playing most of the time, making me think that this change was mainly focused on making sure that pits are better heard at small stadiums that don't have this kind of natural acoustic advantage. At big stadiums, though, they really didn't seem to do what they had been designed to, which was help the pit project. Keep in mind that Finals will be in a big stadium, and that most of the cameras will be right in front of the pit anyways, so they're already going to be heard.

Yawn, it's 4 am and I'm tired. Off to bed.

[IRMO]

Thanks Matt!

[SS93]

THNAKS FOR A GREAT REVIEW

[glory]

Thanks for the excellent review, Matt. Good information. Interesting perspectives.

My first show is still six days away. Can't wait.

HH