Gorgo Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 (edited) I got to the show in plenty of time to score a great seat on the left 45, 3 rows from the top. This venue doesn't go very high, and my seat was about as good as any excepting the press box just over my shoulder, with judging personnel inside. There were 6 corps competing tonight, one Division III (Marion Glory Cadets) and 5 Division I corps (Kiwanis Kavaliers, Colts, Crown, Crossmen, Phantom Regiment, in that order) with Phantom the defending champs. Last year this show was a lot earlier in the season, in mid-June around the second full week of competition. I was looking very much forward to seeing and hearing much more "finished products" here than I did last year, and I was not disappointed! The first 15 minutes or so consisted of a local "alumni" corps, Cincinnati Tradition, playing three numbers in an exhibition standstill. Tonight they had 2 sops, 2 mellos, 1 contra, 1 bari and 1 bass drum. A little sparse, but they did better than when I heard them at Fairfield last year with about twice the personnel. Less fracks and better intonation than before, even with some intonation issues between octaves of the group. Music was essentially the same as I heard last year as well - When Johnny Comes Marching Home/Battle Hymn medley, Danny Boy and (I am assuming because of the thematic material) Appalachian Spring. Overall enjoyable performance! 1. Marion Glory Cadets (56.65 - 1st) promptly took the field immediately thereafter. They looked to be bigger in number than I recall from last year (I saw them here then) and the drumline was practically Division I sized - 7 snares, 3 tenors, 5 basses, 4 person on-field cymbal line, and 7 in the pit. The hornline was comparatively spare - 5 sops, 4 mellos, 5 baris, 1 euph and 4 contras. I was pleased to see 5 guard members accompanying the corps as it approached the field, as I had seen guard scores of 0.00 for some earlier shows because they had not yet fielded a guard. However, I was a bit let down that only two of them took the field last night - the other three stood at attention on the sideline watching the show. Later this season, I will hope to see them all out there eventually after this "slow start". Their show was based on Holst's "Planets". I had to try my best to disregard any preconceptions of the music, largely fed by my love of Cavies' 1995 treatment of this DC classic. The MG Cadets started right off with some nice big hits requisite of what "Mars" calls for. I also saw some visually effective movements with some of the biggest hits - particularly the spread-leg "squats" for the tight staccato (a la Glassmen 2001's opener)! This is the tightest and biggest hornline sound I have ever heard from this group. Ditto their drumline - nice job! The pit is also very well projected (no amps!) but sometimes overpowered the hornline. The guard needs more work to overcome the "slow start". The two young ladies I saw this evening need to work more on syncing up and tightening up their individual styles. I'm sure that, as the corps approaches Finals week, this will be positively addressed. On the "Saturn" pit/drumline feature, the drill featured rotating diagonals that had some serious dirt issues. I also saw some individual differences in marching styles out there tonight. I would hope the techs can help get things more uniform before too long. Later I saw some nicer form rotation during a turn move. At the "Mars" reprise, I liked the hornline single file line dissolving into smaller lines as the larger line moved right-to-left. At the close of the show, I saw and heard some really big stuff to bring it all home - more big brass hits, fast rotating forms with the visual insensity matching that of the music, and the drumline diagonal back left that put the finishing touches to what is now my favorite MGC performance, despite the dirt in the drill. Thank you Marion Glory Cadets!! Work on cleaning things up and you'll do well in August! 2. Kiwanis Kavaliers (64.75 - 5th) - Two corps so far. two DC classic repertoires in a row. KK features the music of West Side Story this year, with a show entitled "Tonight". They seem to be a bit smaller in number than the previous season, perhaps some personnel is missing. The Kavs start in a tight block mid-field. My suspicions were soon confirmed - I saw some holes up front, including two adjacent ones - that must be tough to overcome! As the opener "Somewhere" begins and the block unfolds into a wider-spaced form, the guard features some nice work with purple and gold flags. Not long into the show, they go into "Tonight" with a nice sop solo at the beginning - note to soloist: nice job, but please work on getting the pitch of your top note up just a little to get it right! Later on "Cool" there was a hot sop solo done quite well, followed by some drill that broke the hornline up into sections with some long distance "disconnect" issues as melodic material was passed between the sections. At the end of "Cool", I really liked the guard's flag toss - a lot a visual appeal in those black and white silks! On the ballad, "If I Have A Love", a nice mello/bari duet ensues, with the corps doing some effective lunge moves. The guard now is featuring silks with a dark pastel "skyline" motif. At the end of the ballad, the guard does a nice "visual pyramid" of bodies in different placements to evoke the shape, with one solo flag at the pinnacle - NICE! For the closer, "America", some of the guard starts sitting on overturned garbage cans alongside the pit area, then going on-field during a nice bari/sop duet. While the corps proper is bringing the thematic material and drill to a close, there is some fine saber work in the guard. Some of the drumline by now has shed their instruments and are using the garbage cans now for percussive effect, a la "Stomp!". Only problem is, it turned out not to add much, if anything, to the appeal of the show - it seemed to be a bigger burden than a benefit. While the musical performance was quite competent and well-done, this show overall did not "pull me in" as much as last year's Beatles show did. The drill was not particularly memorable, as the guard was frequently pulling my attention away from the corps proper. Thank you Kavaliers for a memorably musical performance!! 3. Colts (71.4 - 4th) - WOW COLTS! From the first note today, you had my attention and kept it! This show's impact matched, if not exceeded, that of last year's show. During the opener in particular, the corps had me going "Oh yeah!" several times! On the opener of the "From the Heartland" show, Jenkins' "American Overture" (another repertoire classic) had a very nice and effective music hit/flag toss at the beginning! Very nice and crisp mello work here, with the corps doing a very good crescendo into the midsection of the piece. At the end of the opener, there were numerous folks out of position in the block, but that dirt shouldn't be very difficult to clean up before Denver. Very pretty melodic treatment on the second piece "John Henry"! Despite some disconnects between widely spaced personnel and some fracks, this was a very enjoyable piece. Also some nice saber/pole work in the guard. On "Threshing Machines" the drumline very effectively gave the feel of such a machine slowly coming to life, and kept the tempo steady and fast throughout, accompanied by equally intense and appealing drill, until the end, when they just as effectively wound down the tempo to a standstill. I liked the flag work here also, while the guard is in the middle of the hornline while the latter are in a diagonally-facing square. I also saw some "creative" stepping here to overcome long distances required by the drill. I hope that it gets fixed before Finals week, as the different styles exposed here do tend to distract from the positive side of the performance. At the beginning of the ballad, "Old Man River", the corps did a move evocative of Cavies 2000, with personnel standing still, but leaning or "listing" side-to-side in a "random" sequence individually, giving the "ripple" effect of moving water. Quite nice! Also excellent shaping of the musical line here! There was a nice solo dance at the close of this with that soloist joined by another for a fine duet dance ending. On the closer, "Celebration", I was waylaid by my cell phone vibrating. I had to answer discreetly (so as not to disturb the other patrons - it was my job calling me). Unfortunately I missed most of the closer as a result. It was a shame, because I really liked what I was hearing! I did manage to sneak a peek at some "cute" ensemble moves - sure wish I could describe how they brought it home, because I had to rely on what I heard of the music. It sure sounded good to me! Distractions notwithstanding, I really enjoyed this show! The variety of musical and visual styles and intensities were well done and appreciated - the crowd seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, because by the time I got back to my seat, folks were still on their feet cheering! Great job Colts!! * Overly-long intermission inserted here - see my "rant" in the "long intermissions" thread in this forum * 4. Crown (81.3 - 2nd) - When Crown's pit set up, I saw something happen for the first time in my short career as a fan of the activity - amps being plugged in. I'll try to keep as open a mind as possible, despite a predilected preference for purely acoustic performances. (Sidebar to Mike Boo - did I use enough alliteration in that last sentence? LOL). As I read the repertoire in the program, it looks like Crown will have a tremendous opportunity to present a wide variety of musical and stylistic idioms. Seeing Smetana, Puccini, "Rent" and Freddie Mercury/Queen on the same bill is about as amazing a variety as anyone can imagine! Not to mention the poetry of Jack Kerouac - this could be veddy interesting indeed. . . Oh WOW!! The opener - one of the very best and effective sforzando/descrescendos I have ever heard in any medium!! Had to go retrieve my poor ears from the ground under the stadium seating - they done got blown off! Very nice curved line form accompanying that hit, by the way! Crown's guard has been a favorite of mine since I saw them at Indy last year, and this year, they seem to have picked up right where they left off, and gone a notch or two higher! OMG - what a performance throughout today!! Again, I did not see a single apparatus drop - this is astounding to me! Sabers, rifles, flags - all par excellence!! Really liked the saber/rifle interplay on the drum break (either the opener or the second number, I lost my place briefly), shortly followed by a nice dual wave lunge move by the hornline toward the middle of the form. Definitely on the Puccini (2nd piece), the hornline featured some body movements that were very evocative of what Phantom Regiment has been using in recent years. Lunges, leg swings, horns moving around - all used effectively! On the "Seasons of Love" from "Rent", this is where a vocal quintet, including one guard member, sang quite nicely while miced. While this was a very pleasant and well-done performance in its own right, it seemed to me to be a bit out of place on a drum corps field, but did not detract terribly or add much significantly to the overall effect of the show for me. I would have likely felt the same effect by and large, if the passages were played instead of sung. Just one person's opinion. . . Right after the "Rent" piece came to a close, the corps went into their original piece "Beat Generation", featuring the spoken (and miced) poetry of Jack Kerouac. I would have liked a bit more stylistic delivery of the poetic material from the male guard member, but again, that is just my preference. The volume of the micing managed to cover up some of the percussive effects as the piece began. I forget exactly where, but at the close of one of the slower sections of music (perhaps the "Rent" piece") the guard is to the right of the hornline (as I see them) and one soloist there yells "FREEDOM!" and is quickly joined in dance by the rest of the guard. Very nice moment! On the "Bohemian Rhapsody" closer, the corps had a very nice backfield sound, where I could hear all parts clearly and cleanly. And the "wave effect" flag toss on the soft section of the piece - exquisite!! It wasn't long before I stopped writing and just sat to listen, watch and enjoy the rest of the closer. Suffice it to say that the corps brought it home very nicely and had me on my feet a few counts before the last. The ending phrase of "Rhapsody" was delivered as soft and sweet as could be - a very effective way to end a show! Who says that every last note of a show has to be a huge hit? This worked very well for me! I think that despite some minor technical and stylistic differences of opinion on the amped sections, that this is my favorite Crown show of all time I've seen, and I loved last year's "Bellissimo" show! The wide variety of music is performed very well and very effectively, with the whole equaling more than the sum of the individual parts. GO CROWN!! THIS SHOW ROCKS!!! 5. Crossmen (78.4 - 3rd) - The opener, "Jubal Step" started with a gorgeous backfield sound - somewhat subdued - that preceded a very nice turn move and then BAM!! the XMen hit me and everyone else seated alongside squarely in the gut! Huge hit - huge impact! I can still feel the vibrations shaking me down to my toenails! Despite some fairly exposed fracked notes on some soft ensemble passages, they featured some SCREAMIN' sops, including one who went through the friggin' roof!! WHEW!! Had me sweating bullets!! Best solo/duet work of the whole evening for me! Side note to "highest" soloist: in other points of the show when you took it up a notch, you were noticeably out of sync with your corps, about a quarter count late more than once. Just anticipate a bit more and you'll be right as rain with your "supporting cast"! Despite some dirt in the "background" of the marching block at the close of the opener, there was a VERY NICE and EFFECTIVE change of mood as they segue'ed into their ballad "Both Sides Now". Unfortunately, I heard some shakiness and more fracks on what sounded as if the music should have been relatively easy to play. You know the old adage - the easier the notes are, the harder the music is to produce well. It certainly applied here. Later in the ballad there was a gorgeous low brass ensemble sound while the sops and mellos did some visual interaction with the guard in a series of straight lines facing front - very nice moment! Even later was a NICE sop/mello duet. And OMG, just before the last phrase of the piece, the HUGE HIT and EXQUISITE RELEASE in the hornline! WOW!! During the silence thereafter, I elicited a few stares from folks in the area while emitting a soft "oooooooooooh!". The ending of the ballad went seamlessly into the beginning of the closer "Puma", with the drumline providing a very fast "chicka-chicka" feel and the horn block falling into the faster tempo. Loved the sectional octets here - sops and mellos particularly sweet!! Very memorable in the end of the closer was the appearance of Xmen's requisite Maltese Cross form midway through, and then re-appearing closer to the front, and larger in size, as it rotated clockwise before settling into a final Maltese Cross for the last phrase of the show! While this show was very well done, I still have a slight preference toward last year's offering. "Count Bubba" was kinda hard to follow up, and they gave it a great shot this year, but fell a bit short in my sight. But still nothing to be ashamed of - this was perhaps my second favorite Xmen show to 2003's, and it had a lot of visual and musical appeal, despite some of the exposed fracks I already mentioned. 6. Phantom Regiment (84.55 - 1st) - After last year's all-time masterpiece of a show offering, I went into this evening hoping for the best, but with slightly lowered expectations, because for me, I was practically convinced that "Harmonic Journey" could not possibly be topped, at least in so short a term. And I was right, by and large, but not for the reasons I expected. I was expecting a slight drop in intensity and in overall performance. While I still liked last year's show better than this one, it wasn't because of the quality of the performance, it was strictly because I liked last year's music book so much better. THIS YEAR'S PERFORMANCE LEVEL SURPASSED LAST YEAR'S, IMO!! The hornline and drumline's already-high level went up this year! The drumline was so much tighter and sweeter (and last year's line was GREAT!) and that marvelous hornline got even more so - I was so pleasantly shocked, it really surprised me! Even the guard, which did such a nice job last year, had less drops and were tighter than I can ever recall from seeing this corps live or on recording. "Apasionada 874: The Music of Astor Piazzolla" sounded a bit esoteric to me at first glance, as I'm not familiar with this composer's work at all. And after hearing the material, I still couldn't tell you where one piece began and another ended - there were seven altogether - but OMG what I heard and saw from beginning to end was one nonstop aural and visual romp!! The opener "Buenos Aires Hora Cero" started with the contras in a center block, creeping forward with side-stepping excellence as they get the show off to an effective and "different" start - the rest of the hornline starting on a yardline to the right, moving left and peeling off a few at a time to the right, then dancing toward the contras as the rest of the line moves left, then they all come together very nicely after this "intro", through an excellent crescendo and accelerando to arrive at a tight diamond form in the center and the BIG HIT!! OMG - the hornline was SOOOOOOOOOOO TIGHT here through the fast note passages! Bone-chilling effect! Loved the mello line on the beginning of one of the pieces (maybe #3?) followed by the hornline compressing into a very tight triangle that reminded me of the Cavaliers' final form at the end of the 2001 Four Corners show. There was a HUGE HIT upon arriving at this form and I got shivers again! After this, some hornline members picked up long rectangular, reflective red metallic panels, to be held behind fellow hornliners as they move around during the percussion/pit feature. There is great hornline/guard interplay here as well - almost too many things going on to take all in at once - brain and eye candy! The ear candy is well supplied by some fine castanet work in the pit and some very tight snare work! Basses were just a shade off though, through their passing run. As the show builds to the close, there is to be seen some of the most visually exciting and insane drill I've ever seen from this corps, and it set the field on fire! The music merely matched the white-hot intensity toward the last big hit note. One surprise - I was kinda half-expecting, half-hoping for some sort of form compression and kick-out at the end, like the last couple of years. Didn't get that this time - they actually spread it out a bit but still kept up the massively intense feel in getting there. Most exciting visual program I've seen emanate from Rockford yet! And the tightest musical performance I can ever recall as well. As marvelous as last year's hornline and drumline were, they still had some minor weak moments. Those weaknesses were not to be found this year, at least by this woodwind geek! RETREAT - America the Beautiful/O Canada done sublimely! ENCORE CONCERT - two numbers from PR. First was a march I'm not familiar with, but I heard the DM use the word "Bayonet" when giving directions before the encore. Very nice performance of a Sousa-like march! Heck, it coulda been Sousa and I wouldn't know otherwise! Finale was "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral". First time I've ever heard this PR classic, and it reduced me to a blubbering mess well before it was over. Good grief, I'm tearing up just while typing this from the mere recollection of the aural memory. BEEF-A-ROO!!! ($1 to Mike Meyer) While last year's Regimental win at this show did not produce a retreat or an encore, this first-time catch of PR as an encore performer was well worth the wait - I now can't wait to see it happen again (hopefully) on 7/28 in Fairfield!! Edited July 13, 2004 by Gorgoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownsSweetheart Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Awesome review...I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say that this was very informative. I'm new to the whole drum corps thing and my boyfriend marches in Crown's bassline. I've been to several shows but I enjoy reading reviews because I can't get to all of them, and I don't really know what I'm seeing besides "something cool" :) I just wanted to say thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancerlady Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Yes, this is a very informative review. I could invision all of this. Nice writing by the way. Are you a mellophone player ? :) Or do you just know what you like! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowBrassman Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Excellent review.... Bravo for your efforts. Thank You ^OO^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincinnatiGloryMello Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Wow! Here is my early vote for review of the year!! Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorgo Posted July 12, 2004 Author Share Posted July 12, 2004 (edited) Yes, this is a very informative review. I could invision all of this. Nice writing by the way. Are you a mellophone player ? :) Or do you just know what you like! :) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you check out my sig and/or my profile, I just an ex-band director slash clarinet geek who happens to love drum corps! But I do have a bit of a soft spot for mellos, especially when played very well. . . :) BTW, thanks!! B) Edited July 12, 2004 by Gorgoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMichael1230 Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Wow is right, a very easy read, descriptive, clever and full of information. Great review Thanks ~G~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ferlazzo Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 This, indeed, is a great review. It's well-written and informative. Thanks for detailing your observations. I now have a guide of some things I should look for in my next viewing of these corps. This is one of my favorite reviews thus far this year too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsMom Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Excellent review, and I agree with almost everything he said! Best summation of the corps yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadets54 Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Greg, All I can say is that this review is FANTASTIC ^OO^ Where do you find the time to give so much effort? This review gets my vote for the top one of the year! I also agree with you on the Crown, they are really good this year and I really enjoyed there show when I was in Oldbridge. I will be seeing more of them in the next two weeks: Giants Stadium and Allentown, can't wait. Keep up the GREAT work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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