DCI Southwestern - Evening Show Review

[MikeN]

Part I of the review can be found here.

Sorry - this part's a little shorter - only 4,500 words this time!

Intermission – Hey, I was happy to be indoors in the air conditioning and sitting in one place. I wasn’t particularly interested in going out and confronting the masses – over 14,000 strong (a San Antonio record!) – on the concourse.

Bluecoats (6th, 87.350) led off the second set of the evening show. You’ll have to bear with me here – there is no APD of the performance (licensing issues, I’m guessing with their closer), so I’m doing this one exclusively from memory.

The Bluecoats’ program is called Caravan, and includes Caravan (obviously), Incantation (Cirque du Soleil – Madison also played this in 2003), Ombra (also from Cirque du Soleil) and Hajj (Stephen Melillo). The corps is dressed in the same uniforms as last year – blue coats (ha!) and white pants, while the guard is wearing white tops / brown pants with a teal sash around the waist.

Only hints of the full melody to Caravan are played throughout the show – it’s mainly used as a framing device to tie the pieces together. The real opening number to the show is Incantation, which while Madison used it as a ballad in 2003, becomes a high energy Middle-Eastern jazz opener for 2005. And you know what? It works. It’s got an easy to follow melody, lots of passages to show off different sections, and they’ve put some great triangular drill moves in it, including a full corps wedge that reverses in on itself and straightens out backwards.

The ballad, Ombra, feels like it takes up the longest portion of the show.

The closer, Hajj, comes off as slightly rushed into the music, and has the least definable melodies of the show. That said, it still fits right in to the mood, keeping things jazzy, fast, and slightly Eastern. Visually, there is an amazing guard solo near the finish where the entire unit performs a flag routine with no musical / drill accompaniment. There’s an audible “swish-snap” as they all throw their flags in the air together, and they left just enough of a break after it (split-second) before the corps reenters, that the crowd goes nuts right with the music coming back in – nicely done!

What the Bluecoats have going for them this year is an insanely good drumline (challenging for top honors) and a GE laden musical production that keeps you involved the whole time. The only thing I think that’s keeping them from a top four finish right now is that the brass and guard are a little ragged at times. It’s still the best corps to ever come out of Canton, but it’s not *quite* as razor-sharp as the next two corps. That said, they could still make a push – little execution things like that are fixable.

If I had to predict this very second, I’d estimate they’re going to finish 6th, which would make them and the 98-99 Glassmen the only corps in recent memory to break into the top 6 in consecutive years. Not shabby at all!

Phantom Regiment (5th, 87.800) was received warmly as they came out of the tunnel and set up for their 2005 program, Rhapsody. The show consists of only two pieces, Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. The corps is dressed the same as they have been since 2003 – all-white uniforms with black baldric. The guard uniforms are discussed below, but mostly blue.

The show this year is a little unusual in that there’s no clearly defined opener / ballad / feature / closer as we’re used to them. Instead, they work sections of the two pieces together in broad groupings, each group containing several different themes. The second group includes the slow intro to An American in Paris, while the third contains the legato (think United Airlines) section from Rhapsody in Blue, but those groups also include other parts of each piece. A little unorthodox, but it works.

I’m going to have to alter my format a little here, and talk less about what they did visually, and more about my reaction. Mainly because watching this show live, the undisputed star of the corps is the lone male guard member. The show is built visually around him, and for long stretches it doesn’t even *matter* what drill the corps is doing because of what *he’s* doing – I’m obviously not a guard person, but he showed off an amazing array of dance moves and equipment tosses. And even better, he nailed every one of them, which makes some of the more cheesy moves he does okay. :) I ended up focusing on him (and the guard members he interacts with) so much, a lot of the rest of the visual program was lost on me.

(Oh yeah, and that brass line is a *beast.* The contra solo in a part from Rhapsody in Blue got a huge response from the crowd.)

Since the corps is dressed in white / black, the guard is what gives the show its color. The guard begins in dark blue flapper-style outfits, and then later sheds those for a lighter blue-slightly purple dress (though I’d politely call it a “slip” :)), later adds pants to the ensemble (unless I have it backwards) and then adds orange to it. (A combination that left my wife kind of aghast.) Again, you just have to see it, but on the field, it works.

Phantom has three advantages going for it this year – they’re playing a well-known set of melodies, so the audience is already engaged; they’re playing a tremendously energetic program with an amazing amount of enthusiasm (and the lighthearted nature of the music keeps things going), and their guard soloist is absolutely stealing the show. They had by far the loudest ovation of the night (and not even because Texas is full of Regiment fans), and my whole row agreed that they were absolutely the best corps of the night. Even writing this after the fact, I won’t change my mind on that. After their performance, I felt very much like I did in 2003 after seeing them live – that I was very lucky to be able to experience the show in person, and I’ll have a hard time in the next few years putting into words why it worked so well. Bravo, Phantom – I think this one will be remembered as one of your best shows.

Madison Scouts (4th, 88.550) came in seeded slightly ahead of Phantom, and thus performed after. One of two all-male groups remaining (Cavaliers are the other), Madison makes that statement slightly exaggerated this year with the addition of a lone female member.

Their program, The Carmen Project, has much more visually to do with West Side Story than it does Carmen. Musically, though, it’s all Carmen, though run through a latin jazz machine. All of the familiar melodies are there, but they’re in forms you may not recognize immediately.

The corps has altered their uniform design slightly for 2005, with a silver half fleur-de-lis on the jacket, silver citation cord, silver hat band and silver gauntlet edging. Basically, all of the red has been removed from the uniform. They still have the white pants, so they really give off a clean look from the stands.

The guard is wearing track suits – half in blue, half in green. I don’t remember which – one of them has an M on the back, the other has a FDL. They remove the jackets later to reveal blue/green tank tops to go with the black pants.

After the initial statement from Carmen, the opener is a fast paced, tight medley of various latin-influenced melodies from the opera. I have to say, though, that I never could pick out any particular tune to run with – very much like Spirit’s opener way back at the beginning – it was very cut-and-paste arranging. Very well played, obviously, but still hard to follow. Once you picked out a tune, it would change to something else.

The second tune (beginning with Habanera, done in a vaguely stripper-lounge-act sort of way) begins with the introduction of the female member. Wearing a (slightly revealing) red and gold sparkle outfit, she created an ovation from the crowd just by her entrance. My wife even knew it was coming and didn’t see how they got her to midfield. Since I’d seen a video on Season Pass with that moment, I knew which guard members to watch, and it looks like they had her crouching with either a flag or a jacket over her so you couldn’t see the red. (Prior to that, she got to hang out during the whole opener under the backfield podium, which was covered in black. Regardless of how it was done, it was a great entrance – one of those “oooh” moments and one that I’m sure is going to be remembered forever by Madison fans.

The next piece (again, clips from Carmen with hints of other latin jazz they’ve played before – Malaguena and Bolero both make it in to the show) involves Carmen alternately tempting, teasing and frustrating the two “gangs” until they fight over her. Clips from West Side Story work into the music, and the drum feature involves the entire hornline blowing whistles, which in the Alamodome created a really cool ringing affect that I imagine won’t resonate the same in Foxboro’s open stadium. Obviously, in the course of the show, she dies (You did read this is *Carmen*, right?) and that’s that for her. All told, she gets about 6 minutes of field time. It’s a gimmick for the show, sure, but it’s well done, and it works. Hey, if the members don’t mind it, I don’t mind it. :)

The show closes with a reprise of the initial Carmen fanfare, another quote from Bolero and then back to Carmen to finish.

Much like Phantom and Crown earlier, Madison’s brass section is amazing this year, especially their upper brass – they play a lot of exposed passages with a lot of notes darned near perfectly. And what they bring to the table is velocity – lots and lots of speed. I don’t know if they played the whole show as fast as the Blue Devils – I didn’t exactly sit there with a metronome – it *felt* like they outran them. (And I mean that in a good way.)

Jenna felt their guard wasn’t as strong as Bluecoats and Phantom, and Bruce felt that their brass, while better than Bluecoats and below Phantom, didn’t have the same flowing arrangements that the other two did. Both agreed that of the three corps in this pack, they would have ranked them Phantom, Bluecoats/Madison. While I agree that Phantom simply amazed and entertained, I couldn’t flip a coin at this point between Bluecoats and Madison. I think both are *very* fun shows and will end up enjoying them for a long time no matter which one of them ends up on top.

Blue Devils (3rd, 89.775) were on as the 3rd seed, which was a little unusual – I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show with them where they weren’t first or second. Regardless, they’re still the Blue Devils – they have that air about them. Even the newbies on our row felt it – not exactly a swagger, but that movement of a professional. The corps is wearing the same uniform as last year – blue / silver jackets and black pinstriped pants. The guard is wearing various versions of beige, each person with a sign with a number on it pinned to them.

Their show, Dance Derby of the Century (hence the numbers on the guard – they’re contestants), is a mix of a number of tunes, including “Redline Tango”, “On the Town”, “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” “In Wartime” and a number of other clips. It is one seamless production, without a break during the performance. It’s either 5 or six times during the show, the narrator breaks in to set the stage. It starts from the “end” of the derby and works its way back to the beginning, though if you didn’t know that ahead of time...well, the narrator pretty well tells you as you go along – it’s not difficult to figure out.

The corps does a pretty good job of setting it up so the narrator isn’t covering any interesting music up, but that approach also segments the show into a whole bunch of musical / visual vignettes. Folks who already didn’t like cut-and-paste clips from the Blue Devils *really* aren’t going to like this show – it’s a cleverer way of doing it, but it’s still the same thing.

As individual sections and performers, they are simply incredible. The snare drummers have a lot of exposed sections during the show and make the most of it – more backsticking than I’ve seen in all of drum corps lately! And they deploy a huge number of horn soloists, each one with a buttery smooth tone and seemingly playing higher than the last. The guard really sells the performance and keeps the visual flow going, including a great deal of equipment work (though it does seem like they do less flag work than any other top corps).

I think I’m in the minority – I think the narration works for this show. It keeps you involved with what’s going on, and with a show that’s depicting an event *backwards* - I’m not sure how else you can do it. And the guy’s voice is perfect for the role.

All of that said, though, after seeing it, I’m not sure it’s a championship performance. First off, the drill was slightly off tonight – straight lines were consistently bent – just enough to get you to notice, and after a while, the lack of a developed musical theme starts to make the show feel like it has a nervous tick. If anything, it seems like a vehicle for individual talent, not group talent, if that makes sense. They display a lot of amazing skills, but not really in the context of a cohesive whole.

I’d have had them behind Phantom tonight – I think Phantom connected with the audience on an extended level where BD showed flashes of it.

Even so, though, I think it’s a good show – just not as good as the ones above them.

The Cadets (2nd, 91.150) were on next. Sorry for the length – this one is going to take a while to write about, and it needs the exposition! :)

There’s been so much written already about this show, and I had to do a lot of quick explaining to my row about where this was going once they saw the corps and guard appear. The corps is wearing the red cadet-style jackets, as always, only this time they’ve added a white reverse-image of the front buttons/sash on the *back.* The pants as well are double-sided, white on the front, red on the back. The corps is dressed in cream tops/pants with many panels / hoods to be removed as the show goes on. (They also had gold-sparkle drums, and from a distance, they didn’t do a whole lot for me.) Oh yeah, and a giant door on the 50 on the front hash, with a giant black frame around it. Get used to the door – it’s not going anywhere.

Boy, this show tells a story, so the description of what they do on the field is going to take me a while. :) First off, the music played was Bernard Hermann’s “Twisted Nerve”, an original piece by Jay Bocook, the Overture from “Dancer in the Dark” by Bjork, “Cvalda” from “Dancer in the Dark” again by Bjork, and an original piece again by Jay Bocook.

During the time that the corps are allotted to play their warmup, the Cadets are already moving. They don’t get judged for it, but it does help set the mood. For us old-hat fans, this isn’t anything new, but the first timers were really thrown off their groove by it – it confused them. (Did they already start? Did I miss the announcement?) The intro ends with the girl going through the door (and a neat amped doorbell that got the crowd laughing.)

The story as it comes across on the field (whatever the intent) is this – girl is looking for an address – turns out to be a door to the Twilight Zone – girl gets thrown into a trio of “episodes” with some different thing happening to her in each – and in the last movement, the original girl (as well as the “her” from each episode) all run into each other – chaos ensues – girl gets away from that friggin’ door. :) Um... yeah, that about sums it up.

The first episode involves water – the guard has blue flags, the drill has a lot of wave motions to it, and the girl comes out of the door with a raincoat and umbrella. Yep – seems like water to me. :) Musically, it’s very much like their opener in 2000 (Millenium Celebration) – very frenetic – very Cadets.

The second episode (my goosebump moment, BTW) involves her coming out in a princess hat, and getting involved in a chess match with life-sized pieces. The guard removes the front of their jackets to reveal black chess pieces outlined on them, and the flags have checkerboard patterns. The first few seconds set the stage for the whole piece, and they’re what made the whole song for me. She comes out of the door, and two chess pieces are standing there and start doing a rifle routine, marching next to her but kind of oblivious. She appears scared for a second, then starts getting more and more confident as the song goes on, dancing with the pieces.

Musically, the Overture from “Dancer in the Dark” is similar to the Bluecoats’ version from 2002, with the addition of a techno-sounding drum beat between it, first with the snares clicking their sticks together, then playing a friggin’ amazing set of riffs. I know what they were intending to do here – I’ve heard the show before – but over on our end of the field, since the drums are on the back right *really* far away from the horns, a horrible case of phasing developed between the two – they didn’t line up at all. I assume if you’re in the middle of the audience, it comes off better, but for anyone outside of the 40’s, look out.

The third episode involves the girl in a construction hat, with a metallic jazz piece (and the girl basically getting into the spirit of things). The clanks and clangs of various implements is voiced over with a female narrator doing her best Bjork “Clatter, clank, clash. Rocket fun song. Wheee!” (My personal comment, echoed by just about everyone on our side of the dome: “Ummmm...”) The staple of the Cadets shows – the insane tenor drum feature – is back (thank goodness!) and yes – insane. They also add a segment (only about 30 seconds really) with various corps members singing drum-speak (“rattadiggada” – stuff like that) before the full corps / battery comes back in. On paper, it sounds kind of strange – on the field, it works, especially right after the drum feature.

In the final movement, based on Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, the four different “versions” of the girl all run into each other, with the chaotic music swirling around, and each tries to escape. In the end, the original girl comes flying out of the door to close the show and run away.

I’d read a lot prior to the show about how difficult it was to understand – heck, even their director has said in his blog that folks weren’t getting it – but to tell you the truth, I didn’t really have much of a problem with it at all, and neither did anyone with me. We all compared notes afterwards, and we all got pretty much the same thing out of it. Well, the Clifton and Nicole spent some time speculating about what was in the girl’s suitcase, but that’s ‘cause they’re dorks. :)

For me, the show is a championship-caliber show, no question. The brass, drums and guard are simply top-notch, and the corps should be challenging for the top honors in each performance caption without difficulty. For me, though, there’s only a small number of changes I would make that would move it from “championship-caliber” to “genre-changing.”

First, I would remove the opening narration – the Twilight Zone theme is just fine in expressing what’s going on here, and the narrator’s voice doesn’t fit, especially when we’re going to be comparing it to the actual TV show’s voiceover.

Second – I would remove the Bjork-speak at the beginning of the drum feature. Yes, I know it was in the original, but it’s not adding *anything* to the music, and unless you know Bjork already, it’s just... well, kind of random things said in a funny voice that’s making people laugh.

Third – I would play up the part where the four mirror girls disappear into the door in the closer, before the very end. Right now, they just work their way behind there as the drill is going on, and you don’t really get any sense of climax other than they were all there and ... hey, now they’re not? The only reason I caught it was I was watching them do their thing in a group of horns – nothing about the moment draws your attention.

I’d leave the drum-speak – the crowd really seemed to appreciate it, and it – to my great surprise - came off pretty cool! :)

Like I said – it’s already a championship-quality show, but it could be even more than that with a few changes.

The Cavaliers (1st, 91.775) were the clear favorite going in – I don’t think anyone really expected an upset tonight. And once again, they performed with that machine-like execution that they’ve become famous for in the past half-decade.

Their visual program is still an absolute delight to behold – every move they do has a purpose – every drill form leads to the next. It took me until tonight to realize that the continuity is what sets them apart from almost every other corps out there – the drill is an organic creation that grows and evolves during the show, and it never breaks apart or loses the flow.

The corps is still dressed in the familiar green/white/black, while the guard is dressed in black one-armed bodysuits with ribbony outlines of buildings across them. The guard uniforms did not receive a favorable response from our row, despite the technical excellence of what they do.

As incredible as the visual program is, the musical program this year just doesn’t do it for me. The corps is playing an original opener based on “My Kind of Town”, “Rainbow Body”, an (I think?) original ballad depicting the Great Chicago Fire and Sweet Home Chicago. The original opener is very much Saucedo-Cavaliers. If you like that, you’ll be fine, if not, you won’t change your mind.

The second piece, Rainbow Body, is a tribute to baseball with several baseball themes (Take Me Out to the Ballgame, organ music) worked into it. I know a lot of folks thought this piece was the highlight of the show, but it didn’t really connect so well with me. It was cute, sure, when the assistant DM went chasing the fly ball as it “left the park,” but it wasn’t a make-or-break sort of deal for the show.

The ballad works several melodies together as the guard brings out a dozen or so ladders into a large circle formation on the field. This comes back later. They use the ladders – and fireman hats – to depict the Great Chicago Fire. After the guard uses them, the mellophone section climbs up and works in strains of “Amazing Grace” into the number – very nice effect.

The closer is about as anti-Cavaliers as you’d ever come up with. The corps plays “Sweet Home Chicago” – yes, the jazz piece. It starts with the walking bass line and includes soprano screamers, an extended jazzy drum solo and a park-and-blow segment from the entire hornline. The ladders – still on the field – are used in the drill as they bisect the field into the “circle” segment and “everything else.” They also help the corps as a guide when doing a great deal of intricate circle-related drill inside of their area.

Yes, they’re right up there, and yes, they deserve to be, but I think this year the Cadets might actually catch them. While the Cavaliers’ visual program is still unparalleled - though slightly missing this year are the extended “wow” moves – the Cadets are to me slightly ahead musically. In the GE department, I would right now give a slight edge to the Cadets. But then again, at this top level, it’s often a case of six of one, 1/2 dozen of the other, and either would be a valid choice.

After the Cavaliers, when questioning the other folks in my group, they all had the same basic reaction – while you could tell the top 3 were *technically* excellent, none of the shows had the same entertainment value as Bluecoats, Phantom Regiment and Madison did. In fact, Clifton and Nicole felt that the Cavies, Blue Devils and Cadets should have been the 4-5-6 cluster rather than the top three.

All of them felt – emphatically – that Phantom Regiment was far and away the best total package of the night. They didn’t feel that anyone was actually even close to them. Bruce and Karen (band director and his wife) felt that Phantom and Carolina Crown were the two standouts of the night, bar none.

As for me, I would have ranked the corps in this order:

Cadets

Cavaliers

Phantom Regiment

Blue Devils

Bluecoats

Madison Scouts

Carolina Crown

Boston Crusaders

Blue Knights

Santa Clara Vanguard

Glassmen

Spirit

And while on one hand, it felt like the overall entertainment values of the combined corps took a step back this year, I also felt like there wasn’t a bad or even “blah” show in the bunch. Normally I find one or two to at least be ambivalent about, and that wasn’t the case here. The corps are all executing at a higher and higher level each year – heck, ten years ago Spirit would have been a 6th-7th place corps with this show. And in a most welcome sight, it seems that drumlines are starting to abandon the “drum solo on the run” approach for more flashy (and demanding) features. All in all, a quite enjoyable time, and one that made me realize that even with the amplified sound effects, voices, props and doorbells, good drum corps is still good drum corps.

And for the record, Maddy liked the Boston Crusaders best. Thank you Gordon Goodwin! :)

Mike

[TexasPRfan]

Part I of the review can be found here.

And while on one hand, it felt like the overall entertainment values of the combined corps took a step back this year, I also felt like there wasn’t a bad or even “blah” show in the bunch.  Normally I find one or two to at least be ambivalent about, and that wasn’t the case here.  The corps are all executing at a higher and higher level each year

Mike

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very nice review, Mike! I agree on the overall assessment for the year, at this point, too. Interesting, I haven't found a review yet of Saturday that didn't think Regiment shouldn't have been 3rd, or at least right there.

Harvey

[glory]

More great stuff, Mike. Read every word. Would have read more, if you'd given us more. Give us more!

HH

[DrumCorpsMom]

Great review! Too bad you missed the afternoon, I would have loved hearing your thoughts on those corps as well. It's terrific that Maddy make it through the whole show, at 3 no less!! :)

[Matt_S]

The third episode involves the girl in a construction hat, with a metallic jazz piece (and the girl basically getting into the spirit of things).  The clanks and clangs of various implements is voiced over with a female narrator doing her best Bjork “Clatter, clank, clash.  Rocket fun song.  Wheee!”  (My personal comment, echoed by just about everyone on our side of the dome:  “Ummmm...”) 

....

I would remove the Bjork-speak at the beginning of the drum feature.  Yes, I know it was in the original, but it’s not adding *anything* to the music, and unless you know Bjork already, it’s just... well, kind of random things said in a funny voice that’s making people laugh.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being quite a fan of the original song (and assuming they do a good job with it), I think I'm going to really enjoy that part. :)