Winchester, KY - Drums Across the Bluegrass

[ryekart]

I marched SW in '02 and aged out in '03 and after the Cedarburg, WI show got rained out, I had to put in a little extra effort to see the yellow-now turned black, white, and gold team. That being said...7:30am Monday - depart Madison...7:30am Tuesday arrive back in Madison...

Marion Glory Cadets - Having marched the past 2 years, I haven't ever really seen this corps. When I saw the show title in the program (Holst's Planets), a sense of weariness and skepticism ran over me. I was pleasantly suprised by the show design though. The book is arranged to keep your attention and to be a bit different from your typical "planets". The drumline is definitely MG's strength. Well-balanced hornline size, that will be good by season's end. The guard is struggling with members learning the show and being rushed in it seems. It'd be nice to see how this corps develops during the next 2 weeks.

The Glassmen - After a cool intro (dancing and Staresque Medea hit), I was primed for an all out entertaining Glassmen show. I was soon let down though and found myself detatched and bored for the rest of the program. Interesting show concept, but again...it's boring and honestly, a lot of overdone stuff that when performed again, will always be compared with the original corps who did the selection (i.e. Medea, Appalachian Spring). I appreciated the drumline, G-men always have a great drum book IMO. Hornline was tight at times, but some individual problems detracted. Visual program was the most rough. Guard bumped up the visual GE. Overall though, left me wanting more. I wish G-men would have a show like '98 or '99 again. I love those shows.

The Madison Scouts - Wellllll...those big black boxes in front of the pit certainly drew my attention. Boo. I thought maybe it was for their TRUMPET soloists...teehee, just kiddin'. Still though, I guess I'd just rather see Scouts without amps or trade 'em in so they can fix the SW bus. This show has cleaned up a lot, since I saw them rehearse at everydays in Whitewater...which should be the case I suppose. The opening part of the show is still a little flat for me. I really dig Soundpiece, but the flow just isn't that entertaining until Malaga. The drumline layed it down tonight! Wow! Not really understanding their recent placements in that caption. The guard too, performed exceptionally well. Smokin' weapon line and great choice for color of silks. I want the hornline to be louder. Ending with attitude was sweet...give me more. Oh yeah...very clean visual program...except the rotating company front had a little blip tonight. Boo to that. Good stuff though.

The Santa Clara Vanguard - Real drum corps. This show has got it all, not to mention the amazing performers on the field. I was captivated the moment their bad@ss DM stepped on the field. The opening hornline hit blew Madison's ending out of the water. They were on an entirely different level. The drum book is sweet as usual and I really loved the mini break in the opener. I love this music orchestrally and SCV is the perfect vehicle for the field version. The colorguard brings the story to life! and sweet 10 foot poles! Those big saber/knives look kind of cartoonish though. Go Vanguard, I'd love to see this show take it all.

Southwind - Woo! I love this corps. Perhaps not the best advantage in the world to follow SCV, but this was a great venue for a home show and the fans certainly let them know. I'm insanely jealous of aging out and not being able to march this show, it has a much better design than SW shows in previous years. The corps just needs to execute it at a higher level. Way too many individual mental errors tonight. Fix them please! I love the low brass in the corps this year...play louder so the sops and mellos can be balanced! Drumline is very young, only 3 or 4 that I marched with last year. I love the guard uniforms and DM Lauren is hot. The weapon line is greatly improved and those snakes are cool. The visual program was cleaner than I had expected. There are still some ensemble issues that would help this show greatly when fixed. This is a great program that I regret I won't be able to see live again. With only 2 weeks left, I hope they can take the show up a notch and get that hornline really smokin' like I know they can. Poke 'em!

I had a great time at the show. Almost old school retreat with SCV playing Send in the Clowns and Scouts singing You'll Never Walk Alone. SW encore was sweet with tons of heart. I miss corps. I love SW. It was great seeing everyone after the show. Saw the "temporary" horn bus and the staff "school" bus. Please help SW! This corps is too sweet to lose.

-Matt Reichardt

'02 sop

'03 mello

[Phansouth]

Madison and amps just don't mix, do they?

[jvsmom]

Thanks for the review!

[sblez]

Thanks for the Review. We actually drove up from TX to see the show (fine line between being a dedicated parent and an idiot).

This was a really nice show for Winchester. I understand it was their first show in 10 years and that it was significantly larger than SW's homeshow last year (was it held in Lex?). It's nice to see the enthusiasm that the city of Winchester is greeting SW with. Hopefully the corps can gains some solid backing from either Win or Lex over the next year.

I agree with your comments concerning SW's following SCV. These guys have an amazingly powerful show and Madison is nothing to sneeze at either. Like one of the other posts - the amps don't do it for me thought. Guess I'm too much of a purist. Interestingly, we've attended a number of DCI contests so far this year (goes back to my second sentence up top) and I've had little or no difficulty hearing the subtlties (sp?) that they are trying to bring out by amping the pit and while the corps using sound amplification are big, loud corps, they don't have that much more going in interms of volume as compared to the un-amped corps. Oh well, just my opinion.

One last thing regarding SW. I was a litle puzzled by the scores they recieved Monday (69 and some change) as compared to Orlando (73+) and last night in Ohio (75+). I felt like their program has continued to get stronger and cleaned up. They made some nice changes to the program which really helped the general effect (my perspective). They have one part more or less in the middle of the show where the various horn sections are doing runs (I'm sure there's a name for this - I'm a percussionist myself, what do I know) and they are alternating and attempting to blend these that isn't quite working right now. If they could get that put together and add some additional strength to the brass (volume) in certain places they should move up nicely.

Thanks for indulging me! :P

[ryekart]

The past two years, SW's homeshow was in Shelbyville, KY...just north of Lexington. Southwind partnered up with the high school, but they didn't do a good job with the show. It was poorly advertised and attended. This year's show was great though, Winchester did an outstanding job and I hope the Lexington/Winchester area will continue to support Southwind as they try to grow some roots.