West Chester comments.....

[MikeD]

Two trips to WC in two days!

Thursday to drop off my drum major daughter at the Vivace/George Parks MB camp. Goodness was the dorm room HOT!!!!

As always, John Vilella has set up a first rate operation. The workers were VERY helpful and friendly.

Of course, my daughter forgot: Floor fan, pillows, hair scrunchie.

Friday, three of us from the band staff drove down to WC for the show. We actually have six kids at the camp between our DM's, Guard Capts, and some of the section leaders.

In the trunk of the directors car: Floor fan, pillows, hair scrunchie...for later delivery to my daughter.

We exited Rt 202 onto High St in WC at 6:30, about 5 minutes from the field.....well supposedly 5 minutes. At 7:00 PM we just pulled into a parking spot on a grass field across from the stadium as the National Anthem started.

Gosh was it HOT....and STICKY.

Entered the stadium just in time for the Hip Pickles.

Hip Pickles:

Three very energetic guys.

To start: one on snare (Chet), one tenro, and one three small vertically mounted basses. Day-glo lime green drums and very loud Hawaiian shirts.

They did a lot of comedy and drumming schtick. What really made it work was that it was obvious these guys could really PLAY. They had the crowd, a lot of them attending the Vivace MB camp, eating out of the palm of their hands. Excellent job. Their finale had some fun audience participation with Miami Sound Machine's "Music is Gonna Get Ya".

Jersey Surf:

Saw them at Clifton early season still in White unis.

LOVE the new look. At Clifton, the guard carreid the sprots gear around. Now they spin and toss the tennis rackets, lacrosse sticks, baseball bats, and hocley sticks. I think they are noe a different color.

The corps has a VERY well designed show, and the members have goen a long way to selling it. Still some individual errors sticking out, timing issues, and visual problems in performance, but overall the corps has made TREMENDOUS strides since Clifton. Especially of note to me is that the humor is now apparent in the performance, probably one of the hardest things to pull off. They seemed to generate a nice reaction from the crowd just where they wanted it.

IMO, if they have enough time after "Somewhere" I might end the show, there. A VERY beautiful moment for them and then they tag on another ending that seemed to be an after thought.

Finally, the 4 young ladies on cymbals turned in the show of the night, IMO. Excellent job!

Crown:

A beautiful horn line that has widened their performance range in a few spots since Clifton but still seems to play with a very cushioned sound, never quite hitting the peaks dynamically. But the intonation and overall sonority of the brass is gorgeous, IMO. Percussion, esp the pit, have also come quite a ways since early season.

The theme of the show is fairly apparent. The Icarus-flying-too-close-to-the-sun was rather elongated. It took the guy with the wings a looong time to traverse the entire horn line to the 'sun' of the spinning flags, where he dropped the feathers and "fell" to Earth behind a prop. The mood around me was spoiled a bit as one wag, a student at the camp, said "Oh, look, he's moulting".

That was the most labored spot in the show for me. I'd not try and have Icarus "fly" that far, as the performer has trouble sustaining the mood and his leaps and twirls just don't cut it after a while. Maybe a bit shorter in duration would help.

BTW, I still love how they integrate the battery back into the show after the stand-in-back spot.

They got a nice reaction from the crowd, as they DO play very well.

Boston:

WOW! I hadn't seen them yet. What a wonderful show, and a VERY nice horn line. Their percussion section as well plays VERY well. I don't mind the banners and the pictures; they do them very well. Their music is well thought out, IMO, and they were the band director and my favorite show of the evening, from a musical performance standpoint. Americana music, tastefully thought out and put together. Just loved every minute fo their show. Their percussion is neck and neck with the BD, it seems, and from my viewingf rightfully so.

Crossmen:

GREAT strides since Clifton. The show is VERY difficult and there are still problem spots in brass performance. Individual errors, and some phasing between perc and brass in the opener. The flugel players have a better grip on the characteristic sound of the instrument, and bow trhey just need to 'sell' the ballad more to really make them sing.

Percussion payed well, but there were some spots of dirt noted in sections, bothe snares and tenors.

Blue Devils:

I can't believe the improvement in their performance since Clifton, ESP the percussion. They seemed early season to be WAAY out of it percussion-wise, and now they are right in the hunt. Wonderful effort by the members and staff.

I like the changes to the show, though since I really like "Ragtime" I wish they used mroe of that show's music. My least favorite spot is "House of the Rising Sun", though that is just as compared to the rest. It's still very good. Love the tease intro to "Channel One"; I don't need to hear them do 1976 al over again. What they've done is excellent.

I think they have a chance to overtake the Cadets, as the scores have shown (not that I hope they do, just that they are certainly capable of doing so) . I'd never have thought that at Clifton.

Cadets:

A lot of changes, mostly postiive, since Clifton. Don't know what the fuss is all about re the Pledge. Very tastefully done, and the brass chorale behind it is wonderful.

They had the crowd on their feet a couple of times with their show. I thought they seemed a bit tired, though, which may have been due to the heat and humidity after an all-day rehearsal. Not quite the zing and pop they had at Clifton. The band director loved their show, but thought the same thing about the brass seeming to be a bit tired sounding.

BWBB was a gas as always, and the closer very moving, but I'd rather a few less melodies and a bit more of "NY, NY" and "America, the Beautiful", for my taste.

Reading Bucs exhibition:

Performing immediately after the Cadets and BD is a thankless task. However, the Bucs held their own out there with a very nice Amerciana show of their own, making three for the evening.

The guard esp did a nice job, and the brass had some nice 'moments' with some other spots that were problematic. Percussion were overall quite good, with some "oops" moments sprinkled around the show.

Their enregy level was quite high, and the overall quality of what they are doing should stand them in good stead at DCA-time.

All in all, it was a VERY nice evening of drum corps, as hot and humid as it was.

At intermission I had the opportunity to speak with an old friend, the brass performance judge Joan Penny. Her former DCI brass judge brother Bernie Baggs and I go way back to college days, and it was nice to see her again top renew old times. From 1980 thorugh 1991 I wrote/taught his percussion at the three schools where he was band director during that time.

Mike

[Jeffsjetta]

great review

[starting line]

Thanks for that review.

[Sean1]

thanks Mike

[Klariade]

Thanks for the review! I was there too. My first viewing of BD and I thought their show was at about the same caliber as Cadets! I agree Cadets seemed a little tired (talked to my best friend who's a Cadets tuba after the show and he was zonked! They've been working hard!). Crossmen...when I saw them in Hershey and also at WC I just couldn't believe it was Crossmen! They sound/look a lot better than I remember in years past. Way to go bones!

on a side note...I attended the Vivace camp at WCU when I was in high school (marching band) and it changed my life. I'll never forget the look on my mom's face when she came to pick me up and I said "Mom, I'm going to be a music teacher!" An excellent experience that I hope will be offered for years to come.

[MikeD]

>I attended the Vivace camp at WCU when I was in high school

(marching band) and it changed my life.>

This was my daughter's 2nd year. Last year she went as one of the percussion section leaders. She was the ONLY female battery player in attendance last year! She was selected to play in the show on Bass #1 and her instructor, the great Tom Float, called her the 'chick' all weekend long. She loved it.

This year she's there as one of the DM's and loved it again. She is still chattering about it. Very impressed with George Parks. The guy DOES know his stuff in the motivation department.

She couldn't believe that Tom Float actually remembered her when she had the chance to say Hi! to him.

Oh, I was glad to see Bones there Friday for the Crossmen; he wasn't at Clifton earlier in the year.

Mike