Hershey, PA - Junior Corps Divisions

[Guest GeorgeD]

Prologue:

I left my father’s hospital room in Alexandria, VA exactly 2 hours and 45 minutes prior to the National Anthem being played. My date for the show this evening had just canceled on me...

Only problem is-the Anthem and the show were in both Hershey, PA and darn Map Quest is telling me it’s a three and one-half hour drive. Times like this make me very happy I bought a German automobile. I closed my eyes and pictured myself on the abandoned rural German autobahn. I opened my eyes just over 2 and one-half hours later and I was sitting in backed up traffic entering the Hershey Park complex! Directed to the most distant spot in the most distant lot of the huge complex (I know, that’s what I get for showing up late) I glanced nervously at my watch – eleven minutes now prior to the announced start time.

Only problem is – I am now still sitting in the very distant corner of the very distant parking lot AND I still needed a show ticket. Vanished from any possible reality was hanging out with various friends prior to the show (sorry guys, family first).

So- I did what any dedicated drum corps nut would do - I took off like Bruce Jenner (He IS fifty-five or so by now, right?) across the parking lot and toward the ticket booth. Boy – drum corps sure is popular in PA – SECTION SOLD OUT – SECTION SOLD OUT- SECTION SOLD OUT – scrawled far across the posted seating chart.

Sigh, it looked like my destiny was the ten-yard line!

Just then –a savior– -an angel- an older gentlemen with a saintly glow about him --whispered in my direction: “Young man (lol), you wouldn’t happen to be looking for a single ticket, would you? My wife couldn’t make it.” I was SAVED. Suddenly, three minutes prior to the step off of the first unit I was in my seat – high up on the forty-five yard line!

Show Review:

Weather: perfect – 80’s, low humidity, dry conditions!

Stadium: packed – big stands, great grass field – but rather far back from the field (track and then some around the field)

Seating: 45-yard line – high up!

The anthems – missed them! As I ran across the parking lots like (an aged) Bruce Jenner, I did notice two pairs of skydivers jumping from a small plane overhead – the first pair carrying the Canadian Flag, the second pair with the American Flag. The program stated the Bon Bon Alumni Chorus of NJ sang the anthem. The Bon Bon’s were an all-girl trail-blazing junior corps that disbanded in the mid-seventies. The alumni chorus was formed in 1994, and this was their third appearance at the Hershey Spectacular to sing the National Anthems. (Sorry I missed them; they have always been very good)

Senior Corps (other thread)

George's Senior Corps Review From Hershey

Junior Corps

DIV II:

Magic: Orlando, FL

Size-Big (but a few visible holes, including maybe four brass holes and 1 center snare hole) Guard 26

Repertoire: Desert Winds-The Wind And The Lion by Jerry Goldsmith

(My second viewing of this corps in 2002)

The crowd gave a warm welcome to the returning Magic, with a guy down in front of me shouting out “Welcome Back Magic!” prior to them kicking off the program. Another shouted “I Believe In Magic!”…

In 2002, Magic has done a good job of making the “Wind And The Lion” repertoire their own, with a dark “Magic” sound and southern jazzy essences worked in throughout the program. The corps seems a bit on the young side when compared to the “top” junior corps, I would guess the average age is around 17/18 – and this youth seems to have slowed the corps progress a bit as they are behind most of the other junior corps units here tonight in terms of cleaning drill and locking down timing issues. Several apparent ensemble tears during the opener and the corps ran out of steam during the closing minute or so of the performance. The guard has made rapid progress since I saw them ten days ago and the effectiveness of their work and staging has really added to the emotionalism of the program. Magic’s guard needs to work on projecting that emotion all the way to the top of the stands – the “art” of exaggeration. Excellent basic training is apparent in the uniform visual technique the corps demonstrates – unlike even some of the finalists DIV I units here tonight. The drum line is doing a good job of dealing with the snare hole on the field and played relatively tightly this evening, particularly the tenors. The pit could play out a bit more and add some more misc. equipment to their book for varied effects. Brass line playing is much improved from ten days ago – and again an excellent basics program is beginning to reap rewards. A nice low-end dark end sound balances a bright, articulate and clean(er) attacks in the top end. Magic needs (and probably is) to work on their dynamic shaping a bit, esp. so in the drum line which tends to overplay much of their book, dominating the pit almost at points in the program. Turning down the horn line to make the lows lower and the highs higher may not only preserve some of that young energy for the closer but also improve the general effectiveness of the show. Magic was the first junior corps tonight, and the audience loved them – everyone around me was very impressed and the women behind me kept going on and on (in a good way) about them throughout the remainder of the evening. Really nice job Magic! Score In DIV II: 79.79 seemed low for me on those score sheets. Based on prior DCI scoring in DIV II, I would have had them in the mid-80’s. Should be DIV I, IMO. The program is written for finals – the holes on the field and the youth of the corps “may” keep them sitting on finals night – but that is up to the kids on the field at this point. Work, Magic, Work! Outlook: 12-15th – depends on the competition, much of which I have yet to see.

DIV I:

Kiwanis Kavaliers: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (second viewing)

Kavaliers come on the field attired appropriately enough for their 2002 theme “Hall of Justice” with the guard in large silver capes and the corps proper in headgear and reflective face mask. Music is drawn from the source material “G-Force”, “Spiderman”, “Flash Gordon”, “Johnny Quest”, “Superman” and the popular and familiar closer “Batman.” The audience loved the costumes and several folks around me were passing around binoculars taking amazed closer looks. In the opening strain however, the guard could have made better use of the capes with a more striking lining and some different work – instead, they were quickly discarded after little effect. I spent a lot of the program watching the pit and then the battery and then the pit again. What a positively HUGE drum line: 5 cymbal, 5 bass, 10 snare, 6 tenors plus 10 (or more?) in the pit. Despite these big numbers, the battery spent the majority of the program in the backfield and wasn’t featured enough, IMO – while the pit played the entire time, but rarely projected their sound effectively. Pit parts should be re-written to better support the horn parts, with more cymbal sound and concert bass during the hits. The crowd really seemed to enjoy the recognizable tunes, humming along to Spiderman in particular. Nice solos during the ballad and finally, toward the end of the program the big battery got to come down front and strut it’s stuff. This seemed, like Magic, to be a relatively young corps. Unlike Magic, I didn’t get the sense that a strong enough basics program was in place – for any caption. The corps would be well served to toy with dynamics and add more color to the guard to pump this program up by Madison. The Score: 62.30 seemed about right. Outlook – good Quarterfinals placement.

Spirit: Jacksonville, AL (second viewing)

Spirit looked great coming on the field – all-business! (The women behind me exclaimed “they just keep getting bigger and bigger” - to which I said, “nah, this is about as big as they ever get!”) The show this year is based on the David Holsinger Symphony “Easter: third movement: Symphonia Ressurrectus” which is an exciting and dark fast paced wind-ensemble sounding tune. Excellent mature brass ensemble sound with a nice thick and deep low end from the 12 contras (a section which marches very well). Body movement in the opening block was very effective as it highlighted the brass attacks in the score. Very nice trumpet and mellophone solos – and a very effective repeating scale in the pit enhanced the ballad. The pit itself was great, with a professional approach from the moment they came on the field right through the performance. Intensity was apparent in this group – particularly the timpanist who got everything “just right” prior to the show – but then went on to give a great performance. Keyboard part are very well written, the most effective of the night other than a couple brief features in the Cadets’ program. Guard may be the one element, which holds this corps back – and yet they are VERY good – the only thing they lack is numbers (24). Better staging will help this in portions of the program, a few more (say-8) would also go a long way to pumping up the GE visual scores. I expect Spirit to land in finals Saturday night. Score: 72.75 seemed about right.

Bluecoats: Canton, OH (first viewing)

Bluecoats entire visual look is so clean and appealing as the set up for their 2002 production “Urban Dances”… the auxiliary uniform (varying designs out of just gray and deep blue) really did a nice job of blending in with the corps proper but also making the unit distinct enough. Horn sound was very good with a sweet top/bottom blend. Overall production has some very interesting moments and the drill is extremely effective – not quite “top-box” in the scoring difficulty – but a big step in that direction from a Bluecoats program a couple years ago. The drum line jams throughout the show, except when they dance with the guard backfield during the ballad, ugh. Wait-the impossible has happened – they are GOOD at it – the first battery in the history of DCI that doesn’t look like they are just going through the motions in a dance segment. Congrats! The guard has also taken another step upward this season, with the entire guard (except four) on effective rifle work during the second half of the opener (although this should be staged more center-it gets a bit lost down on the left front side). I understood that a large portion of the middle of the show had just been rewritten and the corps did a nice job of pulling off this segment – with traffic from the horns and city “chat” from the guard. The only downer – the corps ran out of steam big time in the last minute of the program. The bass line was without player 4 but suffered through (that can be a tough one!) – a center snare player (female) did a great job during the program – the end snares need to clean to her – IMO. All in all, a great job from Bluecoats – a good and effective program that makes good use of the overall field, highlights the talents of the members and effectively conveys the music’s intent. Score: 77.40 Outlook: Finals – solid middle to upper middle placement.

Boston Crusaders: Boston, MA (first viewing)

Repertoire: Appalachian Spring, You Are My Star & The Music Of Arty Shaw

Boston’s new uniforms look great – keeping the traditional look of the corps intact while just modernize the design slightly by simplify it. The lines of the new jacket make the members look taller, something that can prove difficult to do with black from the waist down. Program “You Are My Star” is based on famous American Quotes, which are highlighted as the guard unrolls nifty banners that read “America”, “Land of the Free”, “Home of the Brave”… during the opener and also others later in the program. The audience loved this. All captions are quite solid as units – but the corps is being held back in three areas right now: 1. Ensemble problems with some pretty big rips in the opener and during the more rapid passages later in the program 2. Staging / drill problems – I get the feeling the corps is marching parts of the same drill from the past two years and the “clumped on the 50 yard line” feeling is starting to grow tiresome - although it is improved from last year with open forms early and late in the show. 3. Theme development – I am certain the theme they are putting on the field will be further developed over the remainder of the summer (right now it is not cohesive). Guard attempts four hundred tosses again this summer – misses every once in a while. The battery is very good. I am not a big fan of the arrangement of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which is very chopped up and poorly resolved musically, IMO. But I really look forward to seeing this corps again in a couple of weeks and check out the growth in the program. Score: 76.70 Outlook: this corps has a lot of potential, with some adjustments corps could place as high as fifth.

The Cadets: Bergenfield, NJ (3rd viewing)

Repertoire: Times Square / On The Town; The Places Where Dreams Come True (Field of Dreams); Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy & New York Memories

Cadets 2002 “An American Revival” is a program aimed squarely at two places: the first is the audience’s heart; the second is a shot at another DCI championship. They are making rapid progress on both fronts. Many changes are evident since I last saw the Cadets in Herndon, VA around ten days ago. A large, three piece monument has been added to the front left side of the field, framing a 40’s era American flag. The monument is pretty plain right now; I imagine they will be adding details to this soon. The Ballad has been somewhat restaged and some pretty significant changes were evident in the opener as well. Part II of the opener (the slow part with the trumpet feature and the three Bari solos) is still in the show, but I’ve heard it will be yanked soon. This will make time for a new ending to the program and more changes to the opener. Right now, this short Part II segment is dragging down the overall performance level of the entire show and really takes the steam out of what else would be an effective start to this highly popular program. Guard has made tremendous progress over the past ten days – and now is more effectively staged throughout the entire program – and most significantly – further interacts with the horn and drum lines during the show. The rifle line gets the “most improved segment” award for the Cadets – some of the work is now cleaning up nicely and is VERY effectively written and featured. During the opener, the tempo is now kicking at around 180 bpm – but for some reason lower brass (particularly some baris) tend to rush their attacks. Other than that, some real good dynamic shaping and timing is now in place. The guard work in the entrance portion is out-of-this-world effective, some of the best ensemble dance / mime work yet put on a football field. The ballad has been somewhat restaged, particularly in the guard – and now includes the entire corps’ recitation of the last lines of our Pledge of Allegiance – which the crowd ROARED for. This comes just prior to the last big hit of the piece, and while it does interrupt the flow of the ballad musically it really serves to heighten the emotionalism of this song - staff may need to consider writting a small interlude swell to quite the audience before that hit... The ballad represents (in the story line of the program) the transition from home life (and love) to military life – the rifles now get undressed behind the boxes and then walk out holding their Army kakis folded in their hand – as if just issued. They dress as the female guard dances around them. Guard members can be seen prominently checking the newspaper’s “draft list” just prior to this. The guard now has very effective & dramatic dancing and equipment work which becomes increasingly militaristic during their move from left to right. Remarkable. The drum line, which begins the piece staged backfield right, slowly builds to a march cadence after creating a dramatic and effective “distracting” sound “over there.” Really remarkable staging through the entire ballad. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is a delight – and tonight the crowd again thanked the corps with a large and extended standing ovation for this piece. One criticism I had earlier (the staging of the low brass) has been corrected. The closer has really made progress, and now is cranking along with good timing side-to-side and pretty good timing front to back (baris!) at around 200 bpm. The company front is very effective – but needs cleaning. The “new” show ending should serve to really pump the crowd up, even though tonight they leapt out of their seats to thank the Cadets with a long and extended full ovation. Cadet’s 2002 battery is a monster – but one, which I feel at this point, is being under utilized – they need at least one additional smaller feature, imo. Crowd really loves the current percussion break during “BWBB” and also the short bass drum feature during the opener. Pit is another story – it is obvious the players are working hard and are quite talented, but IMO some rewrites are needed to better support the brass parts and / or more effectively feature this ensemble. The current writing approach too often has “everyone playing all the time” – it tends to get muddled and ineffective, with the talent of the ensemble featured effectively only a couple points during the entire show. The keyboard parts are just too fragmented in general, IMO. (See Spirit for a good example of effective pit parts) Brass is showing some tiredness at this point in the season, with individuals in the bari and trumpet lines sticking out, esp. on attacks – sometimes dynamically. During the closer – lead trumpet line did a bit of “frack, fracking”. I know they are learning new music right now, so perhaps this is taking its toll – or the removal of “Part II” of the opener (and their wop/wop feature) may help. All in all, Cadets program is making good progress, but it is not without weaknesses. Currently I feel the program lacks a bit of GE visual – despite the great efforts of the guard and very good instrument staging throughout – it lacks a bit of the “zigzag” drill or “wow” moment we all now expect from these guys. Hopefully that will resolve with the new additions. The drum line looks strongly positioned to challenge for another drum trophy (fix the pit parts) and the guard is stellar. The brass line is very strong – top to bottom – but does seem to be struggling right now a bit with the show changes and drill. They play “frightened” for lack of a better word – as if they are so concerned with the timing issues and tempo demands at this point the music has stopped “dancing.” Guard still using solid red and blue flags in two long segments of the show – I guess we’ll see “real” silks prior to the Texas tour and their next smack-down against the Cavies. That and the show changes should bump their score up 3-5 points in short order. Score: 84.90 seemed right. Outlook-Challenge Cavies for #1 spot (again). Drum & Guard in good positions for Caption runs right now. Talented and very LOUD brass line needs some adjustments for a strong statement at finals.

The Crossmen: Newark, DE (3rd viewing)

Crossmen have a great program this season in their 2002 production “The Signature Series”… They have shown rapid improvement with the biggest changes in cleaner drill and a restaged / reworked ballad. It was obvious during my first viewing that the ballad was going no-where emotionally or musically resolving itself properly. The musical re-write has fixed the resolution problem. One gripe though – the entire guard was using highly effective large mirrored poles during this number and their spinning during the climax was very effective. However, now the guard is broken into saber / silk and pole sections, with the poles backfield. Not as effective, although I guess it does better interpret the various layers in the music. Restage the front silk back to the poles and it may be a winner. Guard, brass and percussion are all playing very well – it’s obvious the corps is pumped and the members love the program. The crowd sure did as well! The opening of the show is still proving challenging for the corps to pull off musically – it need tinkered with from a tempo and dynamic standpoint to really max out as a build. Cymbal line gets the “most improved section” award as they now number four (was three) and have added a lot of visual work and some good crashes to their book. Closer (Strawberry Soup) now really grooves along – the crowd around me was tapping their toes and dancing to the beat. Overall – the corps is positioned to make a good run at the upper-half of finals night standings. Battery is a force to be taken seriously, with a great bass line and some tasty snare and tenor parts. New uniforms really make a difference visually. Guard still using solid flags during much of the show – I imagine some more effective silks will be added into the production shortly. Guard uniform is highly effective as it transitions during each piece. This is the best Crossmen corps and production ever, IMO. Score: 79.40 – about right, expect this to grow as the corps gets more comfortable with the ballad changes over the coming week. Outlook – corps going to have a good run this July & August, could finish as high as 4th, with a top 7 finish likely. Bravo Bones.

Closing – all in all a GREAT night of drum corps. Crowd all around me, from old-timers to new fans, was VERY pleased with the level of the performances and the various shows. One gripe - the guards are extremely good now, but the guard books are being too heavily influenced by the indoor staging preferences of WGI. I know four part guard books work in a basketball arena, but they don't work in a football field sized venue.

Good variety in the various corps programs really helps – not watching ten wind-ensemble work shows in a row is refreshing. Lots of big and loud horn lines this summer – esp. in the junior corps ranks. Yes, I said “loud.” The Bb / G controversy – forget about it. The new horns sound wonderful and after a bit of a shaky start in 2000 – the horns have really adapted wonderfully to drum corps. Tone is the best ever, I love the low-end sound and the overall quality of sound is much improved.

2002 looks to be a great season in our activity. Get out and see as many shows as you can! I'll see another show in a couple of weeks and add more notes at that time - I like to see the corps a few times prior to getting real detailed.

George

B)

[Magic92Sop]

This is one of the best reviews I've read all season...thanks very much for sharing with us!

Steve Alia

Magic 92

[Sluggo]

and to think it came from George!!! LOL

[GMichael1230]

Well George, so far...DCP will be giving you the prize. What a well written, well thought out, descriptive review.

Thank you

Geoffrey

[MikeN]

George -

Write less. You're not allowed to win your own contest. That's *my* dvd you're taking away with the great review. :P

Grrr.

Now I've got to write a friggin' Tolstoy epic from San Antonio to beat that.

Mike.

[jjeffeory]

What a great review! Thank you for sharing!

Jeffeory

[Bleedblue93]

George, Good review...thorough if not anything else! I agreed in many areas but there were some things that had me scratching my head in Herhsey. Here are some thoughts I had:

Spirit: You mentioned, "Excellent mature brass ensemble sound with a nice thick and deep low end from the 12 contras (a section which marches very well)." By far this was the worst sounding tuba/contra section of the juniors. Overblown, really poor TQ&I.....you could hear them, but yikes it was bad. As for Spirit's show, I don't know if it has the legs to make top 12. Placement 8-14 are going to be a dogfight and I just don't see any GE in this show.

Bluecoats: You mentioned, "Horn sound was very good with a sweet top/bottom blend. Overall production has some very interesting moments and the drill is extremely effective – not quite “top-box” in the scoring difficulty – but a big step in that direction from a Bluecoats program a couple years ago." Their blend and TQ&I was the best out there behind Cadets. Not quite "top box" in difficulty? Are you kidding? They play, spin, and throw more on the move than anyone (minus Cadets and Cavs) in the activity. The reason why this show is scoring where it's at is because the difficulty is so high. When they get comfortable with the drill, the scores are going to jump (I would look for the 3rd week of July). Also, the hornline hasn't worked on adding the last two levels of volume....stay tuned, they will crank it up very soon (like you said, blend is good....that's what they try to master before adding volume).

Boston: I agree with just about everything in your review. In your outlook you said they could be as high as 5th? No. Show design (i.e. demand) isn't there.

Cadets: What can you say. This show is incredible in just about every facet. They had some spacial awareness problems (my guess this is why they aren't near Cavs in the scoring). But this show is GE out the ying yang. Incredible color guard. Where do they find those amazon women? Christ, they could throw me.

Crossmen: I was prepared to be dazzled by this group (having read all the incredible reviews) but was left scratching my head. I didn't see the demand that everyone was talking about (especially visually....they don't even touch a difficult musical passage if they are moving). This is the best Xmen drumline I've seen and I think the horns are much improved over last year. As far as Strawberry Soup goes, that was the chart leaving me most disappointed. It's a rehash of every other Strawberry Soup that's ever been done. I'm not a fan of corps rehashes (I realize there's no statute of limitations or patents on charts, but if you are going to do a chart that's been done by two other top 12 corps in the last 10 years, at least make the arrangement new!). It was pretty much a Madison/BD-lite version of Strawberry Soup with soloists that were good, but not as good as the Madison/BD versions.....which leaves you thinking, it's a retread version of this classic. It's not clean yet, it's early July, I get that.....perhaps this is the piece that has the most room to grow and by August they'll have me screaming and standing, but right now, it's just flat and kind of sad.

As for the scoring tonight, I thought Cadets were pretty close to the 84 they got. Xmen, should be about a point lower (I had them scored at 78). Didn't really agree with the music performance numbers. Bluecoats should have been about .75-1.00 point higher (the drum score and color guard scores were an absolute mystery...each recieving a 14.8) Blue's color guard was miles ahead of the the rest of the pack, but squarely behind Cadets (Blue did finish in 2nd in guard but with a 14.8). They should have been in the high 15s for sure. The drum score is ridiculous, there's some kind of silly east coast thing going on there (in no way shape or form should they be second to last in percussion.....or maybe they should? But with a 14.8? Down from the 15s they were scoring a week and half ago?). Boston should be scoring closer to Spirit in the 73 range. Boston just has way too many "big" problems (ensemble issues, TQ&I issues, etc.) and Spirit has no GE at all.

NOW, let's all take a deep breath. A lot of negatives there. Here's what was great: I feel like more and more corps this year are figuring out that they have to reach the crowd. There were moments in every show where I really wanted to cheer (I can't say that for MANY of the shows in previous years). I really, REALLY applaud Crossmen and Cadets for connecting with the crowd and designing what I would consider "old school" shows that think of the audience and performer first. Bluecoats get a "Blooooo" for their park and bark, awesome color guard incorporation, tenor features, and incredible dancing from the entire corps (Jim Buckley rules).

My opinions.

DW

[Guest GeorgeD]

Boy, you do "bleed blue" don't you? lol. (just poking fun)

B)

[Bleedblue93]

Absolutely George! But let's get something straight, I'm their biggest critic when they deserve it (I was not a fan of much of the stuff they did between '96-'99). What I saw at Hershey was SIGNIFICANTLY better than what I've seen so far this year.

I call 'em as I see 'em ;)^

[JT76]

WOW! George, great review.

It was entertaining just reading it!