Drumcorps4life Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 I was at the show last night and I decided to write a review. I was a Contra player so most of my comments are horn and drill oriented with some guard comments. As always these are just my opinions and like anyone else I'm not perfect and I get things wrong. And don't be offended if I say something you don't like I read plenty of thingsi about my shows in the past that I didn't like, its just critisism. Part of life. Spirit of America - Not a bad show at all. They march much better than they play. At louder volumes some of their tubas and their one trumpet player like to play superman and they tend to stick out. THey also had a very good trumpet soloist. Wasn't crazy about the woodwinds though. Marion Glory Cadets - I saw these guys a week ago and they have made some big improvements. Their colorguard hash inceased from one girl standing on the sidelines to two girls that are actually doing routines. Unfourtantly you can hear them arguing with eachother during the show about which routine is right lol. Also I believe they completly redid the music to the end of their show. They stood in an arc for about the last three minutes. So I'm assuming they are just now learning the drill. As always with a small corps they need to work on blend and balance esp with a hornline. Its been so long since I"ve been able to watch division III I have no idea what the standard of excellence is so I can't comment on how I think they will do. Glassmen - Deffently a wake up call for the auidence. This was my second viewing of glassmen for the year and they have already improved a lot. I hear they won horns last night and I deffenlty woulnd't disagree with that at all. They really do have a really solid hornline and they can really put out the sound when nessicary. Drill is starting to clean up a lot as well. The show his deffently still a little bit out there though and some of the music esp in the closer is just so cut and paste together that it doens't really work to well in my opinion. But I think with some rewrites and more cleaning G-men will easily be back in finals and maybe as high as 10th. Magic - I really enjoyed the pirates theme. Music is recgonizable and they have some really cool effects. A lot of nice role playing by the guard that works really well. I like it esp. whenever the guard has one girl walk the plank. There is also anotehr neat portion of thier program where the corps is drunk and then they start playing really loud and in spurts. I blieve it is to simulate puking because at the same tiem the guard is throwing water everywhere. And when I say everywhere all over the horn players. I turned to my friend who marched cascades and I said man I'd be ###### if I was the hornline haha. Unfourtantly though for magic they have a ton of problems to fix. There was a very noticable drop in performance level from Glassmen to Magic. I hear the hornline is 95% rookies and it is very evident. There is tonsn of slop everywhere and esp towards the end of the show much of the hornline stops playing. Drill is also a major concern and their drill wasn't nearly as effective either as glassmens. I hope they can pull something together because as of now they will be struggling to makes semis.... Intermission - I ran into my former best friend from my first drum corps I marched in. He lives in pittsburgh now and is getting married and sat with me for the rest of the show. I was very excited to see him and we traded phone numbers. Best part of the show!! Spirit - I'm a big spirit fan but I was slightly dissapointed by this. It isn't like spirit from the last couple of years. The cavaliers influence is painfully obvious. Their marching techinque is identical, drill looks very identical, and horn arranging also has kind of gone the cavies route. They have some very cool effects and cleanliness was about where I thought it would be tonight. I think they could do so much more though with this show, but when it cleans up I think they can do well. Crown - Best corps crown has ever had period. ! Hornline is playing together very well for this time of year. They are overblowing in parts and it gets a little bit raunchy but the volume of it is enjoyable. After the singing part when the horns come back in is a very nice moment. Bohiemium is a very nice ending too. Kind of cheesy but nice. Drill is also looking very clean for this time of year. Ok onto the singing. The voices just sound terrible through the mics. If they had better mics and better speakers where the voices sounded more natural I htink I would enjoy it more but they didn't spend enough money to make their voices sound right. It soudns like they are coming out of the long ranger and it is just such a bad sound coming through the speakers. My friends and people around me were commenting on them too. NOt many people really liked it. Crown was my favoirte show of the night despite the amps. Boston - As they are coming on the field the poeple infront of me said oh my god its a BOA show. Technicallyl Boston is solid as always. There show has some nice GE but nothing stands out really. The voice overs are terrible. People around me were laughing and making comments about them while they were happening. And as I as saying for crown, the voice is so distored through the amp that it just soundsn bad and is very distracting. my friends who came wiht me and never saw a drum corps before also hated it. Sorry but thats what they thought and I wasn't a fan either. I did like how they ran off the field into the boxs where you couldn't see them. All I could think was that was my dream when I marched. I would have taken my helmet off, drank some water unzipped haha. Overall this his a solid show but I see them being overtaken by a few corps. And the voice overs need to go. "Courage is orange" give me a break. Crossmen - These guys have some fantastic solist and the first tune is rockin. Unfourtantly after that it starts to go down hill. Starting with the balad the horns really start to get ragged and so does the drill. Towards the end of the show stamina becomes a real issueu for them as well. As the su mmer goes on and they clean this up thsi will be one of my favorite shows I believe but I think Glassmen will pass these guys and making finals could be in question for them. Hopefully bones can clean up though enough that this isn't an issue. And yes I love their new uni's! Thanks for reading and remembmer just my opinions as I saw it. My friends who never saw drum corps before loved the show and I thourougly enjoyed myself as well. Till next time. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Directorofbands Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Thanks for the review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumcorps4life Posted June 30, 2004 Author Share Posted June 30, 2004 Thank you for the thanks!!! I like reading reviews so I figured I should post one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crownmember Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Thanks also for your review. Hey, quick question, do you remember how long the singing part was in the Crown show? Is it like 15 seconds, or more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcifan2002 Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Thanks also for your review. Hey, quick question, do you remember how long the singing part was in the Crown show? Is it like 15 seconds, or more? too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumcorps4life Posted June 30, 2004 Author Share Posted June 30, 2004 (edited) Actually I forget if I added this to the review but the APD of crown I downloaded has more sinign than the show does now. They got rid of the sinigng that was going on during the loud horn playing. I'd say they sing for about 30 to 45 seconds. Then during the drum solo there is some spoken stuff that is sparatic. Mark Edited June 30, 2004 by Drumcorps4life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crownmember Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Actually I forget if I added this to the review but the APD of crown I downloaded has more sinign than the show does now. They got rid of the sinigng that was going on during the loud horn playing. I'd say they sing for about 30 to 45 seconds. Then during the drum solo there is some spoken stuff that is sparatic.Mark Hey well maybe theyve been listening to whatever criticism they have been getting and are starting to cut back on the singing stuff.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrband Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 I just wish that Crown would add more percussion behind the spoken poetry, and would have their pit playing more technical stuff during that solo section. The stuff is just way too easy for a corps that has such an amazing percussion section. Remember, last year at this time Crown and the Cadets were very close in percussion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Spirit - I'm a big spirit fan but I was slightly dissapointed by this. It isn't like spirit from the last couple of years. The cavaliers influence is painfully obvious. Their marching techinque is identical, drill looks very identical, and horn arranging also has kind of gone the cavies route. No, you are right, this isn't the Spirit from last year, or the year before, or when I marched. The corps is continually trying new things, not getting stagnant with one particular genre of music. At least it keeps you guessing what to expect. The Cavies influence shouldn't surprise anyone...Spirit has both the Cavies' drill designer and brass arranger on staff. Why not try to march like them? Cavies have placed extremely high in Visual Performance for over a decade, while Spirit...well, that's our weak point. Why not emulate a proven winner? As an alumnus, I remember our days of southern laid back jazz fondly. But, those days are gone. Spirit is experimenting with a number of styles, yet still trying to remain true to the corps' philosophy. Even the most identifiable corps in the country has find itself exploring some new ground this year (Phantom). I love our old style, but it's just that...old. I wish it would still compete in today's environment, but I'm afraid it won't. And since becoming a part of JSU, we've tried wind ensemble music, choral works, and now original arrangements. The corps IS a college music class, and I would expect them to continue to find new things to explore as they teach the members/students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_G Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 (edited) Actually I forget if I added this to the review but the APD of crown I downloaded has more sinign than the show does now. They got rid of the sinigng that was going on during the loud horn playing. I'd say they sing for about 30 to 45 seconds. Then during the drum solo there is some spoken stuff that is sparatic.Mark Hey well maybe theyve been listening to whatever criticism they have been getting and are starting to cut back on the singing stuff.... sounds about the same length as it was in Concord then. People are just being overly critical and exagerating the length of it because there's even 10 seconds worth, yet alone 30-45. Edited June 30, 2004 by d_grey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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