Last Weekend's Ludlow Show

[RAM]

I have received several emails from folks who knew I was there to give a review of this show.

It has been a hectic week so I am sorry for the delay. I arrived somewhat late and only was able to see a the last couple of corps. I did hear that the Burlington

Citations returned to competition in DIV 3 tonight. Congratualations to their organization and look forward to seeing you in the future.

Here is a partial reveiw for those corps I was able to see.

Lehigh Valley Knights(70.75): This was the first time I saw them this year and I really enjoyed their music and interesting drill moves. I'm a big fan of the Disney Millenium chart and they do very well with it.

I like the guard singing in the beginning of the show and the nice play off sections during the drum solo. Uniforms look sharp under the lights. They need to work on making their hits "HITS" (with quality....don't overblow) and clean up some marching and they should do fine come Madison. So far the best DIV 3 corps I have seen this year!

East Coast Jazz (80.45): Much better at this perfomance than in Southbridge. Good job sopranos and soloists. Contra's....keep working on that Pegasus feature and it will come. I really think the end of the show drill wise is excellent.....horn wise it seems to run out of gas........a lot of notes going on out there. They may want to rewrite some of the parts leading to the end.

I saw from another post that their was a car accident involving some members. I hope that they are doing better and will be able to make tour.

Patriots (81.15): Best I've seen this corps. Guard wasn't as together as the night before but I actually got into the horn book this evening. A lot more dynamics out there than previouly heard....maybe due to the Stadium in Ludlow vs. the HS field in Southbridge. Excellent horn sound and balance with the battery. I still would like to hear more impact and melody......especially in the opening statement (nice drill there) and the closer. I think if they add some tempo changes and a few more eye catching drill moves they should keep the forward momentum up with the rest of the top DIV2 pack.

Spartans (83.30): Very flat performance tonight. Probably due to the long stand around and wait time on the track. That always put a dent in the game face when I marched. Whereas this was the first viewing with stadium acousitcs , I did pick up on some issues with balance between the brass and battery. Their drumline is huge so they may want to consider toning down some snare/tom parts at times. Hornline seemed to be overextending tonight to compensate at times. I've seen this horn line practice and produce a nice "ringing effect" in half circle....if they can work on acheiving that then their ballad and hits will sell nicely. Guard was off tonight too, but as posted elsewhere, everyone is entitled to one bad night.

I have seen this corps the most this year and they have had wonderful individual moments on the field at different shows. If they can put together all those wonderful moments into one performance they should do very well up against Magic, the midwest, and western corps. They still lead their local competition by 2 - 3 points.... but they are improving as well.

This weekend in Wayne should be a nice match up for the East. I'm also curious to see how the scoring in Dekalb is tonight as well.

To all the corps....keep up the hard work and most of all enjoy yourselves. Tour is always the best time in drum corps....as well as the time to really fine tune your shows.

Thanks again for making this local season an enjoyable one. Good luck to each one of you as you head off for tour!

I look forward to seeing you all in Madison.