Huntington Review

[TexasPRfan]

Well, how lucky am I? After zipping down to San Antonio from Dallas on the weekend, I was off to work this week, visiting an office in Western Virginia. Of course, that made the perfect excuse to drive 2 hours to another show & catch a bunch of corps that I didn't see in San Antonio, but all of which I had seen at least once before in Enid or Louisville. I had great seats, on about the 48, 40 rows up in what is a rather flat (not steeply inclined) stadium.

Marion Glory Cadets -- Wow, they've quintupled their Color Guard! err, well, sort of. They marched out with 5 guard members after having 1 in Louisville. However, only 1 performed the whole show & one more performed pieces. I'm sure the rest are still learnign the show & will be worked in as the season progresses. It's too bad the corps doesn't have the guard to compliment the strong horn & drum lines or this show could contend for Div III. Musically, the arrangements are esoteric & uncompelling in many places, but the kids tackle it with inspiring intensity and pluck. I enjoyed Marion tonight only for the kids performances. It seems the Div III corps could take a queue from many of the "big boys" and stop finding inaccessible, esoteric musical programs to put on. They are behind the curve on that one right now.

Kiwanis Kavaliers -- Interesting side note here. Two guard staff members came up in the stands and sat in the row in front of me. One spoke into a recorder the whole time. When she left, all the folks in the row in front of her could do was complain about how distracting she was, and that they knew more about what she thought of the show than what they did. Not cool. As for the show, this is a nice product by Kiwanis. Certainly nothing innovative or trend setting, but good solid drum corps. The guard program seems overly simple and not particularly effective (felt very immature). I don't think this corps will beat many Div I corps other than Troopers (I haven't seen Pioneer) this summer, but they are better than last year, in my opinion.

Colts -- Hey, look out! This show is coming together quite nicely. The horn line pumps out a nice deep, solid sound throughout the show. Color guard is large and impactful, if not always together. Visually, the Colts have a ton of cleaning to do in 3 1/2 weeks, in both drill and particularly in Color Guard. I don't see them threatening for Finals, but they do have a solid chance of staying in Semifinals, I think. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It's accesiible, musically enjoyable drum corps.

Crossmen -- Not sure what to say about Bones. I think I was actually more impressed with them in Louisville than I was tonight. Following Crown & Scouts didn't help, I'm sure. I thought the corps was relatively close to the same level as Crown & Scouts, but seriously behind in the visual department - in everything from Marching to Color Guard. Turns out the judges actually agreed with me. I must be "better" at judging the 7-24 corps than I am the top 6, as I usually agree with the judges down there. Probably partly me being less emotional about my impressions of each show from corps in this range. I don't think Crossmen did as much to sell their show tonight, at least for me. They definitely sound like a top 12 corps, but they really "look" like a corps on the bubble. Musical arrangements were enjoyable and energizing. Drill was lackluster, and not marched too well for mid July. Guard is dirtiest I've seen a Crossmen Guard in July in years. I like the program though, and I hope X-men keep their finals streak alive. Can we just let 13 corps in finals this year? There is just a huge chasm between the 10-13 corps and the rest below them.

Carolina Crown -- My favorite performance of the night, without a moment's doubt (and yes, I'm a die-hard Regiment fan). This show is packed with emotion & GE. What Crown has always lacked was a big powerful hornline to drive their package home (started to buck that trend last year). They have that now. What big rich sound their 68 horns crank out. I know Andre Faegin's on that staff & his influence is unmistakable. I think this show has the potential to pass Scouts by Denver IF they can clean it up. Their is certianly much more dirt left in both Crown's Visual (especially feet - another Crown annual achilles heel) and Musical programs, and thus more room to grow. This corps is a real wild card that could finish anywhere between 6th and 9th, I think. Regardless, it is one #### of a well designed show that will be one of my favorite shows of recent memory. The amplifcation is a mixed bag with Crown. I don't mind the brief singing too much ( I'd prefer the voice NEVER be amped though), but the corps comes in som beautifullly with the big brass hit next in teh Rent ballad, it makes you wish you could have just heard the horn line play the whole thing. I hate the poetry narration, though. It could be scrapped and the show would lose absolutely nothing. It's the weakest part of the show.

Madison Scouts -- Man, it is great to see Madison back as a competitive corps. they have tightened up their visual and musical programs considerably since Louisville, for sure. I don't particularly care for the arrangement of Malaga. The piece is so great it's still exciting, but the arrangement is choppy and a pale comparison to the 94 and 95 versions. I sat their watching their color guard wondering how in the world they were beating Regiment in guard. This guard seems to have takena step back from last summer. Their equipment work in many places is dirtier than you would expect in mid July, and there is just too much preening and indepent prancing around for my taste. A ton of energy, though to be sure. Scouts deserved to be 3rd in guard in tonight. Glad to see the judges get that one right. I just am not sure how far this vehicle can take Scouts. I sense a maxing out coming before finals week. I think Madison, while currently flirting with Regiment & 5th, will be very lucky to hold on to 6th come Saturday night in Denver, and could really fall anywhere in the crowd of Crown (who has more show), Bluecoats and Boston. One interesting observation -- from my vantage point, Crown got a lot more reaction and enthusiasm from the Crowd throughout their entire show, with Madison only getting a stronger ending from their peel your faces ending notes.

Phantom Regiment -- I came ready to be excited by my favorite corps after a disappointing first view in Enid in June. I came away with mixed feelings. The show has more potential than I thought it did. And I have to say after hearing everyone but Blue Devils so far that has a shot at Finals, Regiment far and away has the most difficult music book being attempted on the field this summer. One begs the question if it's difficulty at times for a purpose other than being difficult. The key to answering they question will be how far the corps gets by the end of the season to go beyond getting it down technically and actually selling it to the crowd. That's the litmus test for this year's Regiment. A very dirty show last night, with lots of musical tears and visual dirt. I couldn't believe how many drops the guard had. After the show I learned that they are basically doing 2 shows right now, the one they are practicing, with more 30 plus pages of changes, and the one they are still performing, so that became a little more understandable. Makes me wonder how much they can rocket up once the new product is on the field and polished. The talent is obviously there, and there are some beautiful moments developing in the show. I think they will definitely pull away from the pack for 5th by seasons end, but whether they can go beyond that is truly in their own hands. Cadets have a show that can be had for at least 4th, but not if Regiment doesn't tighten up dramatically.

Just my thoughts from what was a great night of corps,

Harvey

[cheezedogg 23]

Here's my review finally. Been busy sleeping, practicing and reglueing my upholstry on the roof in my truck. Well me and my mom drove 4 hours to the show and got there around 530. Picked up my tickets and then ate dinner. got out and heard Marion's drumline warming up. It was rocking. I was VERY impressed with it. As it seemed the many people watching were as well. Soon the heat and humidity got to us and it was time to go sit down. Luckily the stadium seats were in the shade. We were on the 40 about halfway up the stands.

Marion- Opener was again much louder than you'd expect from a small corps. I was still very impressed with my old corps. But compared to the last show i saw they didn't seem as alive in it as the previous time i saw them. They took out the silent "hit" with the funny DM shrug and replaced it with some hard hitting brass hits while doing a nice sumo walk. I liked it alot, very good. the crowd liked it too. The ballad again wasn't as energetic as last time i saw them. But MUCH more intune this time. Only a few moments weren't so pretty. Crowd didn't get into it as much as I did. Finally the closer was completed. And moves to beat heck all over the place. I couldn't keep up with it. The drill is stil very dirty, but i'm told they just finished just udner a week ago. So it'll be awesome come finals.

Speaking of which, having 5 gaurd is a good sign. Only 2 of them did most of the show. all 5 did a brief moment in the ballad and such. But they just recently picked them up. Good luck girls. the solo girl in the ballad is VERY good as well. Back to the corps, the drumline i felt was slighted in thier score tonite. I felt they were solid with just alittle bit of phasing the pit and pit to DL moments. The hornline was much improved over last time. And thier endurance was much greater too compared to last time.

Kiwanis- they had a great opening moment. the drill matched well with the music. It was nice to see another classic redone in a new way. I really don't like seeing people pretty copy another corps show entirerly. I read once someone saying they didn't like the fact these shows (of the once been done b4) were different. I loved the fact that they were completly odd and different. Makes them unique. anywho.. Musically I felt they could have had more dowm moments with builds to thier big moments. It just seemed to go up and down way to quickly. And thier visual program needs a bump up a level or 4. It seemed to me they could easily have taken on a much harder show visually. The gaurd program was well written and staged really well. I think it was bext part of thier visual program by alot. But over all I enjoyed the show, but it jsut seemed a little dry through most of it.

Colts- As people have said b4. Old man river.. WOW, what can be said.. thats a song for them that could be a favorite for them. Something you could expect from them at victory or retreat show playing you know. It was simply wonderful. Again it seemed yet another corps was giving a much easy drill book then they could have taken on. The forms were well designed and they flowed much better than kiwanis. But it didn't seem to match as well to the music all the time. The brass is clearly the strong point of the corps. Very dark balance and very few moments where someone stuck out.

Crown- well they were clean. Seemed dead at the begining of thier show. didn't have the impact i thought it should have had. Not much to say this time. the percussion has come along way here. And brass didn't have as many problems or balance issues as the last time i saw them. Gaurd was very well put together. I still don't like the singing. I also could barely hear it, and the little scat/narration thing. It was very under balanced where i was. The Rhapsody again was just AWESOME. The arrangement is very nice. And the ending still gives em goosebumps. Its hard to pull off a soft ending like that, and they do it very well. I hope they do well. I'm not really sure how much farther they can go with the show though. It seems to be stuck on a GE roof on it. we shall see as the season continues what the staff pulls out of thier hat for them.

Madison- seemed dry also at the begining. it seemed for the crowd till halfway through the show. Of course to those that have seen them. The ending of malaga jsut gets you going. Some parents of a friend of mine have seen them several times and they said they jsut seem to hold the chord another 4 beats every night. Perhaps at finals they'll do another "take a picture of the crowd" thing. I know iw as standing well b4 they finished.The soloist were awesome. BEst they've had in a while. close to the guy from a drum corps fans dream. I was hoping for comepltly new solos though. they aren't complete rips, but they both contain alot of the same riffs from years past. But again.... it works really well, so why not. hehe... A great show. The percussion rocked it out. I was slightly dissapointed with thier volume of the corps though. I was expecting to have my hair parted. not quite, but quality over quantity.

Crossmen- first off. I love thier show. I always do it seems. I felt they should be ahead of Crown. But thier drill is too dirty yet I suppose to do that. But they seem to have the GE package to go places with it. The horns still need some work in the trade off section. The trumpets were quite off last night in thier feature, they were much better at my last viewing. The baritones pitch got alot better this time around though. the snareline was smoking. Being a horn man myself I know not alot about percussion, but for my enjoyment I liked Crossmens Dline just as much as Madison's, perhaps alittle more. they weren't as good, but i enjoyed them just as much. Their drill is much harder than years past. and how dirty is still is is obvious of that fact. But once they get the visual package clean, I think they could be shooting for 7th place or evern more. The horns I felt were quite loud. I felt my hair starting to part with them.

but nothing compared to the PHANTOM-

Wow were they loud. They had several hits from the back field and i felt it. I could also feel the couple of musical tears they still had. I picked them to win, but i knew madison was gonna be close, and they were. The percussion wasn't as good as last year. At least not IMO. But they definatly have places to go. Actually i felt that madisons GE was better and that PR visual and music was better performed. with madison having the better ensemble. And i thought thier visual program should been alot closer than the recaps give. Overall I just was hoping for more impact from PR at the end. but their is time. They seemed to give up in the last 20 seconds. But they were the first corps since Marion and Kiwanis to not start out seeming dry or tired. They seemed into the show from the begining till nearly the end when i felt they pooped out just alittle. A show that if cleaned to perfection could win i feel. But I havn't seen any of ther 1-4 corps yet. But IMO the show has the possibility to win it all. perhaps another 96 season. we shall see. Its gonna be a great season.

[Lance M]

Two excellent reviews back to back. Thanks guys!

[BigBadMadMan]

I read that Scouts were putting in an entirely new ending to the show in Orlando...we'll see what happens...

[TexasPRfan]

I hope so. It would be great to see both regiment & scouts finish well & have a true top 6 this year, with scores all in the mid 90s or higher.

Harvey