Westminster Wrap-Up (long)

[vaguardguy]

I haven't been a true spectator at a drum corps show since June 2001 (I've spent the past three years marching), and this is my first show review...ever, so be gentle .

For what it's worth (very little), I'll give a little background on myself since that has been a concern for a few people in this forum from review submitters. I marched in LVK's colorguard (flag) from '02-'04, ageing out last summer. I have had a little bit of instructing experience, but for the time being I am relegating myself to fandom. Accompanying me to shows this summer is a friend of mine who marched in LVK's drumline (snare) in '02. He ended his marching career after that summer, and this would have been his ageout year. Between the two of us, we have friends who are currently marching members of almost every corps present at tonight's show. As for biases, I tend to notice most things visual (it's been many years since I've been a musician), especially the colorguard (with most of my attention given to flaglines). I value consistent technique and solid execution, and get pretty frustrated when it shows that a performer has a poor grasp of the basics he/she should've learned prior to performance season. My friend's a drummer, he likes drums :P .

The day began with concerns over the weather. Some forecasters predicted rain, but by good fortune it held off tonight. We departed Northern VA at 4:30PM for the 7:30PM show, hoping to have planned in enough time for ATM/gas/dinner and still arrive early enough to watch warm-ups. DC-area traffic (second worst in the nation after LA) never ceases to amaze me, and after a short dinner stop where we ran into a family also en route to the show from Richmond, VA, we arrived with only 20min. to spare. Three hours to go a mere 65mi is unacceptable.

After a long walk around the perimeter of the school, we went straight to the ticket counter to purchase our seats for the night. We chose the $20 reserved seats (reserved seats being between the 20-40, with the expensive seats being between the 40-50 and the general admission $10 seats outside the 20's), which seemed like a good idea at the time until we were given two seats in section A, row 7. I sat right next to the red tape that separated the reserved seating from general admission on the 20yd line (side B ), not much higher than field level. We sat in front of some band kids who must've thought we were weird cheering during loud sections and after great features - I think they must've thought this was more like a concert and less like a sporting event and should save their polite golf-applause for the end. Overall, the stadium itself was great by HS standards. The stadium was clean, there was plenty of seating for tonight's large crowd, the upper rows had good vantage of the field, and the sound projected well. This was a fantastic venue for drum corps with two exceptions. The PA system was unreliable, and the warm-up areas were far too close to the field. During the quiet sections of certain shows, you would invariably here a snare, a tenor, or a gock block in the background.

We left to watch Surf's colorguard warm-up a little before heading back to our seats just in time for the beginning of the show after a late start. After thanking the local high schools for hosting the corps, we stood for the Star-Spangled Banner played over the PA. I wish they would've had a guest singer or maybe the HS band play it, because it sounded terrible over this bad PA system. We again took our seats as the first corps took the field.

Jersey Surf - My first drum corps show was '00 DivII/III finals at College Park, MD. I was hooked on the activity from that moment, and hold a special place in my heart for DivII/III. In fact, Surf 2000 is the very show that convinced me I was going to someday march a DCI colorguard. I now never miss a DivII/III performance, and it's corps like Surf tonight who prove time and time again just how enjoyable these corps can be to watch. Admittedly, I have been in the minority by not being a huge fan of them the past four summers, but let me be the first to say that this is the best Surf corps since 2000's Re-inCARMEN-ation show. They have new uniforms this year that look very sharp, though I was a sucker for the mostly-white ones they used to have over these very dark uniforms they're sporting this summer. I'll admit they look great, I just liked the old ones better. The guard comes out in a costume with a shiny silver/gold top with a short, black cover-up they wear in the opener, and turquoise pants that become a skirt in the ballad. The corps itself is huge by DivII standards. They were indistinguishable, size-wise, from all the other corps of the night. The music is very recognisable and very fun, performed in almost a campy manner given the classical nature of the pieces. There are a few sight-gags in the show, but either there aren't very many of them or they have more of them that just aren't very noticeable. Parts of the show seem written too far beyond their abilities, but most of it should clean up by finals after they break out the hose. The staging is great, and makes for some exciting drill moments. After they work on their individual marching technique, they'll become very effective. One of the highlights of the show was a very "old school" feature presented by their colorguard. It added a little to the campiness of the show, but probably went on far longer than needed. The biggest surprise for Surf this year is their colorguard. The past two seasons have been a train wreck for them, but this year they are getting their act together and could very well be their best guard since 2000 (when they won DivII high guard). When all is said and done in Brockton, MA this Aug., they will finish no lower than fourth place in DivII.

The Magic - Sor to whoever thought the definite article at the front of their name was a good idea, but, "Now on the field, presenting their 2005 production 'A New Beginning', The Magic," sounds really bad. I can understand wanting to remove the affiliation with a specific city, but placing "The" in the name (in this specific instance) sounds like a joke. On a more relevant note, their uniforms look great. The silver belt looks far better than the red one did, and they even bought new gauntlets that were similar to the old ones with the red stripe, but with a silver stripe instead to match. The guard had shiny gold and black outfits that look great under the lights. I hope they don't have to do many day shows this year, because they won't have the same effect. The members performed well, the problem was they were given a vehicle that was totally forgettable and written slightly above their abilities. The colorguard had moments where their book was unreadable, the drill was too challenging that it highlighted their inconsistent marching technique, and there were parts of their horn book that are going to need a hosing by Aug. The new drums sound better on the field than they did in the lot, and was pleasantly surprised with the Ludwigs. I can say that I enjoyed the show while they were performing, and there were some fantastic drill moves. The ending sequence of their opener, and the section of their production number where they form the "M" were especially exciting. Aside from those two moments, the remainder of the show was wholly forgettable.

Intermission - Yes, after only two of the seven corps, they had an intermission. It sounded like a few corps weren't aware of Baltimore-Washington traffic and were late to the show site. We decided to stay seated for the 25min. break and wait until the next corps began.

Spirit from JSU - This was a fun show musically. There was such a noticeable volume difference from Magic to them. They played a lot of recognisable Broadway hits, and were the first corps of the night to garner a standing ovation. More noticeably, what a drumline (also, they were 6-5-6, a combination I've never seen before)! They took occasion to feature them numerous times in the show, and each time was clean and exciting. I can see why they did so well in percussion the other night. At the start of the show, two Cavalier drummer alumni took a seat in front of us, and we all agreed it's great they moved away from the Cavie-lite fare they've been doing the past few years (though parts of their marching technique like marking time in first position are reminiscent of the Caviliers). My only complaint was the lack of interesting drill. They had some moments where the hornline danced (poorly - unlike Crown later in the show who appeared to at least have some dance training), but other than that, there wasn't a whole lot going on visually. Also, they covered the white delta with dark blue sequins that really takes away from the effect presented by the solid white on baby blue in their uniform. I can't help but think this was in an effort to hide dirt, because the two tones of blue certainly don't look good together on their own. The silks were very busy, which really made their dirt stand out. I'm sure they'll have it clean by Aug. and it'll work out alright, but for now their flag work looks really rough all because of their choice in silks. Overall, this was such an enjoyable show in which to listen (especially the drumline), but visually left me with nothing.

Boston Crusaders - They were the first corps tonight to have the total package (in my opinion, one of two), and I'm glad to see they're finally getting scores they deserved. They have really exciting music. Their take on "Candide" was interesting, and they really had the crowd going on "Sing Sang Sung". I won't say their brassline was as good as Crown's, or their percussion as good as Spirit's, but I will say that their average was better than the two's. Visually, I don't see what people were complaining about. They had some classic BAC moves in there, and in my opinion had the second best individual marching technique of the night after Cadets. Their colorguard was the first to have a completely readable show from start to finish, but they certainly weren't better than Crown's guard. All in all, this was my second favourite show of the night, and though I doubt it will be permanent, I hope they manage to remain above Crown the rest of the season. My only complaint is I didn't hear the "Conquest" riff. Is it in there this year?

Crown - They have a brassline that could rival top four this year. Who would've ever thought Crown's premier section would be their brassline instead of their colorguard or percussion. To play off the same pun everyone else has been using this year, their sound was heavenly. Their colorguard held true to the high Crown standards of the past many years and put out a show with some of the most difficult work I've ever seen put on the field. Some of their weapons book I can't believe they're even trying outdoors. They have such a risky book (even more so than the Cadets) and are able to pull it off. Right now, they have two big weaknesses. Their first is their individual marching technique. The only corps who had more members out of step or marching with varying technique than Crown tonight was DivII Jersey Surf. They need to seriously have a few long basics blocks, maybe even playing their entire show over and over in block while focusing on their foot technique. They had a few features where the hornline had a great deal of body, and I'm glad they were taught to pay attention to all the details. It looked good and is probably what is salvaging their visual scores (because the drill was alright, but nothing amazing). Second, their percussion isn't up to some of the Crown shows in the past. If Crown can clean up their feet, they will overtake Boston again, but I can't see it happening until then.

The Cadets - What can I say other than this is, barring two or three unpleasant moments, an amazing show. This review will take a few paragraphs since this is such controversial show.

The show began with a narration explaining the concept. For starters, the volume was too low that it was inaudible on the 20's. Secondly, the little parts I did hear sounded like they were written by an 8th grader. The ending went something to the effect, "...and now welcome to THE ZONE." It was so campy. This has been my major complaint with narration the past two seasons is that whoever they have writing this garbage to be spoken into the microphones is terrible at using the language to generate the desired effect. The introducing narration sounds like a script written by a little kid taking his dad's video camera and shooting his first sci-fi flick. It's cheesy to the extreme (and there's plenty more where this came from). I'm also bothered the designer assumes we can't understand the show concept. I had no problem understanding most of what was occurring on the field, but I do have the benefit of having a lot of exposure to the source material ("Kill Bill" and "Dancer in the Dark"). It's fairly obvious: a girl is stumbling into their surreal domains, or "zones", via the door. The production piece is called "Liquid", which explains the "water" flags and the girl wearing a rain coat. The ballad has the guard exposing parts of their costumes to display chess pieces, and the girl is wearing a fitting medieval headpiece (I wonder, did the design staff ever consider having the guard members only do drill in the ballad according to the movements given to them by the chess piece on their outfit - that would be a neat effect). The drum feature is from "Cvalda" (another track off "Dancer in the Dark"), which takes place in a factory. This explains the girl in the hardhat. My only complaint here is that you need to know the source material to understand this variation on the theme (unless you understand the percussion section is trying to generate "factory" sounds). The final piece is called "Mirrors", which accounts for why all the girls are on the field looking at themselves. Rather than an unsatisfactory narration, which explains nothing, the audience really needs to see the source material to truly appreciate certain aspects of the show (like the drums in the ballad, the Bjork-speak, etc.). This is no different than SCV '89 or Madison's "Carmen" show this summer, to fully appreciate some shows on all levels, it helps to have seen the source. Other than that, this show is no more bizarre or surreal than any other.

The other really jarring moment was the Bjork-speak at the start of the drum feature. Sor, don't f- with Bjork. She's got something that is impossible to replicate without sounding like an idiot. I feel bad for the girl (presumably) that is being made to repeat the vocal gestures at the beginning of the source material. As a service to DCP, I'm providing a link to the Amazon sale page of the "Selmasongs" (the soundtrack to "Dancer in the Dark") record, which includes audio samples of Cvalda and what is meant by the Bjork-speak at the beginning of the feature. Conveniently, these samples include parts of the song that include these vocal sounds. The point is, whoever they have doing this featurette can't pull it off. She sounds bad doing it, and it comes off as silly. This is not an anti-amp rant, this is an anti-"this sounds like crap" rant. Like the narration in the beginning, it comes off as awfully silly sounding, and for a production such as this, it's wholly unfitting. Either hire Bjork for finals, or scrap it because you're not going to find anyone that can replicate that effect with any success...promise.

Aside from those two hilarious moments, the remainder of the show was great. I don't care what the recaps say, the Cadets really do have the best visual performance of any corps there. All their members stay in step, have uniform technique, and perform. No other corps does it quite as well. I can't help but wonder if the judges are punishing them for their pants, and the "perceived" sense of highlighting dirt. Frankly, if you're even half-attentive, it's not hard to tell that regardless of the pants the Cadets are good marchers. Sor, it's not the pants colour that hides dirt, it's the contrast with the green backdrop and within the pants themselves (like stripes). The only solid-coloured pants that truly hide dirt is green. I've always loved the Cadets for the stripe on their pants, it shows they can march, but maybe the judges are getting carried away with this "what hides dirt and what doesn't" convention and are faulting them on that. I wonder what their visual performance score would be if they wore black pants one night (they might make that elusive box 6). Point is, their marching was the best and I still fail to completely understand their visual performance scores.

The door does not really hamper their drill at all. In fact, this is the drill that made us fall in love with the Cadets. The door is not as big a distraction as everyone claims, the forms are very readable, and the drill is very exciting. Keep the door, just give it a fresh paint job every once in a while.

The uniforms looked alright from the stands. I still wish they would make sure the corners of the applique on the back of the jacket were secured better (it still looks like a few are loose on the edges on the back of the jacket). I'm still waiting on them to fix the problem with different uniforms showing different amounts of cumberbund now that the cumberbunds are situated below the jacket instead of over. Some people have very little gold showing, some have the entire cumberbund on display. Please, it's the details that make you look like a champion.

Also, I'm in love with their colorguard this year. They spend the entire production number on these water-themed flags, and the book is great. They have the entire show on the field, and it grips you for the entire performance. Bravo Cadets, this is a colorguard fitting for a title!

All in all, this is a championship calibre vehicle with a championship calibre performance - clearly the best of the night in all captions. There are those two awful moments in the show, but barring those, it's a true-to-form, loud, exciting, clean drum corps show.

Crossmen - As the host corps, the Crossmen had the misfortune of appearing after the Cadets. This is a really fun show, and I love the music. It had some great moments like the risque guard "duet"s in the closer. They had some of the most prominently featured screamers of the night who were alright and will improve as the summer continues. The colorguard had a really difficult book given their level of execution. The book was a step above Boston's, but below Crown's and Cadet's. It was pretty dirty, and I imagine the hose will be brought out soon. The problem (other than the drumline, which could use some serious cleaning) is that the show just feels like it's missing something. There's nothing that drags the viewer in, compels him/her to not miss a second. It's an all-around good, fun-to-listen show, but it's by no means a must-see show. This isn't just an execution problem, but a design problem. I just wish I knew what it was, because it would justify this review more thoroughly. I hope the staff finds it, because until they do they will be swapping places with Spirit all summer.

After Crossmen's show, they forwent America/O' Canada and went straight to the DM retreat. After retreat, Crossmen performed an exciting encore. I wish their field performance was as exciting as their standstill. Wow, they were loud. The encore alone was worth the price of admission.

The crowd was shocked at all the place-swapping with Spirit/Xmen and Crown/BAC. For this particular show, I felt the first was justified. Spirit brought it tonight with an exciting show, and Crossmen's was flat. I talked to a few members of Xmen after the show, and they said it was painfully worse than Chesapeake the night before. The guard especially got reamed a new one by their staff. These two corps really are comparable, but I do think when the Crossmen can figure out what's missing in their show, they will push ahead. If they don't, I'm going to say it can go either way between the two. As for Crown and BAC, I have to profess I like BAC more but I would've placed Crown ahead tonight. Crown really did have the more professional show, and their brassline and guard were leaps and bounds better than BAC's. True, Crown's feet were a gross mess, but I can't see that being bad enough to relegate them to third last night. I profess to liking Boston (other than last year) a lot, but I feel this show's placement was a fluke with respect to Crown.

When all was said and done, it was 11:30PM and we had a drive ahead of us. This turned out to be an incredibly well-run show, and thank you YEA for hosting such an excellent event. Next stop for us, 9 July DCA show at Reading, PA.

Edit: Part of my text accidentally made a smilie :) . Also, I changed a punctuation/grammar mistake or two

Edited July 11, 2005 by vaguardguy

[bawker]

Excellent review...almost like being there.

Thanks! :)

[Magic Fan]

unneccesary quoting removed

Thanks for a well thought out review, even if you didn't particularly like . Since you appear to be objective, what do you think would kick Magic up a notch to get into the finals race? Not talking about competing with Cavs, BD,or Cadets, but to compete with those corps hanging from 8th to 12th place?

Edited July 4, 2005 by EuphoniBone

[geluf]

They had some classic BAC moves in there

They don't form two lines on the field and then mesh them and make a box again so they???

Please. PLEASE tell me they don't.

[93Bluecoat]

Holy crap, why didn't you just entitle this "The Odyssey".....great review nonetheless...we're not hurting for info from this show now!

DW

[vaguardguy]

Thanks for a well thought out review, even if you didn't particularly like .  Since you appear to be objective, what do you think would kick Magic up a notch to get into the finals race?  Not talking about competing with Cavs, BD,or Cadets, but to compete with those corps hanging from 8th to 12th place?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have never designed for a corps, nor have I ever instructed for one, but I'll gladly throw in an additional $0.02 for you. Thanks for asking nicely. That's pretty rare around here sometimes with the, "Corps X got the shaft," "No, Corps Y has the better show," "No, Corps Z is, and will always be, the best corps to ever grace the field," arguments.

I think the first thing Magic needs is 30hr days (maybe 32hr). I know, not possible yet, but maybe if they do a few reps of their show backwards they can alter time in such a way that...okay, in complete seriousness, I get the impression Magic is really young this year. They play like they're young and they march like they're young. This is not a bad thing, it just means a lot of time focusing on the basics and integrating them into their program. I know last year was rough on them competitively (but at least they ate), and I can't help but wonder how many of the vets returned?

In more specific terms, there are a fair number of problems with their feet: both timing and technique. They might want to consider defining their marching technique in greater detail, and if it already is well defined, then simplifying the style in such a manner that everyone looks the same. They could also consider marching basics blocks without a gock block and to their show music to focus just on the timing of their feet with the show music without the additional responsibility of drill. Musically, I'm certain that with more and more cleaning, it will sound good once the really difficult parts (like this one horn lick towards the end of the show that was a bit of a mess comes to mind) are hosed. They also don't have the same dynamic range as some of the other corps despite being roughly the same size. Maybe this is by nature of their horns, or it could be they're not putting enough air into their horns. Maybe they need to do more cardiovascular workouts to better control their breathing.

As for design, I would go as far to say they potentially have a better drill design than even Spirit and maybe Crossmen (tweak a few sets here and there). There are some really strong moments in the drill that are far better than those two corps. If the transitions between these moments are tweaked a little, the production may become more memorable through and through rather than two or three exciting moments. The problem is the technique is missing at the moment, but lots of rehearsal can address that issue. Musically, I wish I could help there. There needs to be some rewrites. It's has the dynamics, at times it has excitement, it's just missing a melody to tie it all together. Recall the Cavalier's experiments with original music: the jazzy riff in '01 and the reversed "Over the Rainbow" riff in '02. I think a rewrite that has a melodic theme could do wonders for that show.

I hope these comments were constructive. Again, I am neither a designer nor an instructor for a DCI drum corps. Thanks for asking, and I wish you, and Magic, luck this summer.

[vaguardguy]

They don't form two lines on the field and then mesh them and make a box again so they???

Please.  PLEASE tell me they don't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rest assured, not in this show (though when/if you see it, you'll find one or two others from the '00-'04 era). I think that move went away along with the Tarpon Springs fellows.

[HornPlayerChris]

and I can't help but wonder how many of the vets returned?

Six.

[bluecoats88]

Six.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow really? Magic only has 6 returning vets from last year? how do you know this?

[chris ncsu]

Regarding whether the Conquest hits are in BAC's show...I heard it when they did their gym standstill in Columbia, I think it was at the end of Sing, Sang, Sung? But I don't completely recall...