TOC Spartan Stadium

[bayareafan]

Well I don't generally post to these forums, though I read them a couple of times a week. However, I'M SO GLAD that DCI finally had a show out here at the end of the season that I'm motivated to put my thoughts down.

DCI, thanks for putting this show together!!! Hopefully you'll see fit to send a championship our way sometime soon. DCI, did you notice the following:

- There was NO RAIN the entire week you were in Cali.

- The temperatures were COOL the entire week. It was about 70F at showtime!!

- There was very LOW HUMIDITY.

- There were LOTS OF FANS.

- There were LOTS OF SOUVI SALES.

- There are a LOT OF THINGS FOR VISITING FANS TO DO (San Fran, ocean, Nappa, Yosemite, Tahoe,...).

Overall, I think a finals in Cali would be a huge success. Please give it some thought.

Anyway, on with my impressions of the show. One thing, being local I've seen SCV and DB a couple of times earlier in the year, but this was my first viewing of the other corps tonight. If I had seem them all a few times I might have a different impression.

Phantom - I didn't find Phatoms show to be nearly as strong as last years. It never seems to develop much to me, and they really weren't executing well tonight. They have the strongest low brass of any of the corps, however by contrast there were times when you really wanted the high brass to cut through and yet they were always overpowered by the low brass. Last year I loved Phatoms show. It was one of my favorites. This years show just didn't do it for me. But again, first impressions aren't always accurate.

Madison - I've historically been a huge scouts fan. I didn't get to see them live last year, so I was excited to get this chance today. Unfortunately I agree with what some of the other reviewers have said about Madison. It's like someone took our scouts out and neutered them. The last 2-3 minutes of the show generates some level of excitment, but up till then they just don't seem to be the Scouts. The biggest problem I see is that they've lost their trademark sound. Remember how you used to always be able to recognize Madison just by their trademark sound. Well, that sound is gone. It didn't sound like a Scott Boerma hornline. The arrangements weren't as good as in the past and the tone of corps just isn't the same. Some of it is due to multi-key brass, but some of it is also just a stylistic change - one that I don't like. The problems that the Scouts had in the past were related to their guard as well as to generally poor execution in marching their drill. However, they always sounded great!! Now their guard is much better, and they're doing a cleaner drill, but their sound is just not strong and the overall package is disappointing. I don't mean to be ragging on the scouts - again I'm a fan!! But I hope that their staff will do a better job of "letting the scouts be the scouts" next year. Their encore was nice though. During the encore you were hearing the real scouts doing what the scouts are supposed to do. I hope next year will be better for these guys.

Cavaliers - Great show in every way. Great music, well executed, and without a doubt the best overall drill design of the night. From what I can see they deserved their sixth world championship title. I was originally worried that with a 007 theme, the show could get cheesy. But it doesn't. They carry out the theme with real class. Other corps are stronger in some areas - BD has the best hornline, and realistically both BD and Cadets execute at about the same level as Cavis. But the superior show design of the Cavaliers definately puts them a cut above the others. Somehow these guys just get everything integrated better than any other corps. Overall, a great performance.

SCV - I love this show. Great music, good drill design, and the most powerful (though not cleanest) hornline of the bunch. The show is very entertaining and filled with places for the brass section to showcase their powerful sound. The new ending they added toward the end of the season where the guard disappears is great. Very effective. Overall, a great show. I'm glad to see our local corps doing so well :-)

Cadets - I'd read all these kind of negative things about this show - how it was cheesy and shallow - and was prepared to dislike it. However, I found that I really enjoyed the show. Of course the baton twirler was gone, so that may have helped. It is not as strong as BD and Cavis, so yes they deserved either 3rd or 4th, but it is still a very good show and they execute it very well. They also did the best encore of the night. They obviously spent a lot of time working on their encore and I appreciate that since that is something extra they were doing for us fans. I think some of the negative reviews have been influenced by peoples disagreements with George Hopkins. Overall, I liked the show and appreciated the Cadets interest in making us fans happy.

BD - (I've listened to their preseason CD a few times in addition to seeing them earlier in the year twice. So that might influence my review a bit.) Overall, I think this is a very good show, though not quite as good as Cavaliers. They have without a doubt the best hornline in DCI. Their music this year is very difficult but they play it beautifully - much better than in their preseason recording. From what I can see their guard was also likely the best of the bunch though I don't really know much about guard. However, I do note that drill BD was not as difficult as for instance Cavs of Cadets, and while it was well designed the Cavs are still clearly a notch above on drill design. I think that in future years BD, and for that matter all the other corps, will need to take their overall show design up a notch in order to compete with Cavs. They've definately raised the bar in that area. But overall, a very enjoyable performance by BD.

The mass corps activities were nice tonight and the instant encores were a good idea. Maybe DCI should consider the encores for regular competitive shows. They do a good job of filling up the setup time between the corps.

Overall, a great night. Thanks to all of the corps for making the trip out here. And thanks to DCI for taking the risk on this.

[alto92]

no comments for the first time poster!?!? geez! thanks for the review!

[dc oldtimer]

Great Review and Welcome!!

I am sure things are a little slow on this site because the season is over, kids are back in school, parents are back at work... blah, blah.

Anyways, again, welcome!

[Orpheus]

Overall, I think a finals in Cali would be a huge success.  Please give it some thought.

Don't worry -- they are. Part of the reason for the TOC in the first place was to sort of "test the waters" to see what attendance would be like.

Thanks for the review.

[bishtom]

What a great night to end TOC...and how about SING SING SING??!!!!