bssop97 Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 (edited) Sorry for being late... covered up in work. My seats where good.... Very high in the club seats on the 41 yard line. Boston... Second time to see BAC and they where flat compared to last week in Oxford. Visual was cleaner and brass had a better sound but the showmanship wasn't there like it was last Monday. The opener is the highlight of the show for me. VERY nice drill and a great sound by the brass. The rest of the show is good but leaves me flat, they have done some little changes to Candide, a little quoting of America form WSS in it now. Promise is still nice but I don't like the drill for it. Sing, Sang, Sung... I don't care for the style it is comming out from the brass line and once again... STOP TAKING A BREATH AFTER A LOUD CHORD INTO ANOTHER LOUDER CHORD. Geez... this is something the brass does often and it kills some nice moments that need to be thought of as lines of music rather then lets play loud, take a breath, then play louder. Drill wise the show was nice and I thought they where MUCH stronger then Crown with ensemble. Crown show has more in it so I can see Crown winning GE over them but Boston is doing a hard drill better then Crown is. Overall nice show. Crown..... First time to see them since 99! First, nice sound from the brass. Very warm sound from the line except for a trumpet that had to stick out (also stuck out during warm up too) a times. Could use a little more Contra but the sound is nice... think Star minus some sac. Oh.... btw... mellos b**bs Show as a whole does nothing for me till Angel both musically and visually. Then Angel is flat our beautifull, music/drill/guard/ visualls.... a well done job by the staff. The closer is ok but the drill is nice and the guard rocks. There was quite a bit of missed releases by the brass in the closer, well honestly, lot of individual brain farts. I can see why Boston won on the field but Crown is the better line. Marching wise.... Some members really need to watch their center of balance with this straight leg style. Too many members have their weight over the back heal on the downbeat, push off the platform guys. Also tempo, tempo, tempo... drive the beat with the feet. Ok, I'm picky and I get to teach 250 kids straight leg tomorrow. Overall... This years corps is better but I liked last seasons show better. Will place 7th. Bluecoats....... HOT! HOT! HOT! Go see my Oxford review for me getting picky but I will say this now.... IF Madison and Bluecoats where on the same night in Allentown, Coats will win. I can just see the big "mo" going for them. They cleaned up a nice bit since Oxford and I do see them over Madison in all visual captions by finals week and placing 5th. The closer rocks! There was a mic problem tonight, remember to check the batteries next time on the wireless mics. Madison.... Well visually they where cleaner durring their afternoon run and IMO no way they should be beating Bluecoats in performance vis. Only spots where I see Madison out marching Blue is when the demand is much higher then what Madison is doing, not a little... MUCH. Ensemble is a different story though. Music wise, they where pertty much on... Very hot drumline. The new/ now gone closer was a bad idea and did nothing for the show. Crowd was on their feat at the end. Now for my opinion on the Scouts vs. Bluecoats. You have two apple trees, on is in your backyard and makes some darn good apples right now. Then there is this tree in Washington that is two weeks out of season and when the apples are ripe, will be awsome apples. Well the backyard is Madison and Bluecoats are the Washington apples. Madison will be 6th. Bluecoats 5th Phantom.... I know I'm out of the order but Phantom belongs here. First thing.... somebody got a visual program. Best visuall package by them since 96, nice upper body control and they got a look to them they haven't had in a long time. Musically.... So nice to listen to. Much better musically then BD. TRUMPETS!!! OMFG! Best of the night... I have NEVER said that about Phantom. Really all the show is missing is some energy. The changes they have made since the early APD is what the show needed. Clean it, perform it... you will get third place. Blue Devils First.... BD is why I got into corps, the 93 show to be exact made me want to keep in band and learn to play my trumpet. BD is my all time favortie corps. Heck the high point of my night was talking to one of the soloist from that show after the contest was over, heck if it wasn't for Scott Steward, I would of played football. Now for the show... The visual design is nice. Good use of the field. Nice moves, and for BD, good velocity. The Bad... the rest of the show. Hornline was off, frack city. Guard was not the BD guard it usually is. The drumline, well sounds like the same stuff they have been playing since 94. This show got old on me quick, the changes to the nararation did not help. The tag at the end did a little... Yes it is a new ending. Still it didn't feal like an end to the show. I've never been this hard on BD. They are my favorite so I decided to be this hard on BD. They will not win this season, heck I see them in 4th. Cadets... THIS IS THE ####### ####! I don't care about what the anti ampers say (heck I'm not really pro-amp). This show is the Cadets being the Cadets and they where the only corps that had the killer look to them out on the field. The show is fast, loud, angry, pretty, shocking, and very creative. Brass is so nice. And visually this group is a little dirty but the best marching group for them since 98. My only complaint is with the drill writting... A little too much use of a 2 step interval and the drill seems to be inside the 20's but they move so fast that the lack of coverage is only a deisgn issue. I would of like to see more use of the field during the balad. This show has some room to grow... tweek the ending a bit. I see this show placing 1st. Cavies.... The visuall package is sooo nice. The music is very well played, nice style and sound from the brass... mellos and baris OMG! The problem with this show is musically it does not connect up top. ALSO... I hope this is not the ending. I see why the won... They are cleaner then the Cadets on the field, in the box, Cadets connect better. So it is Cadets ability to clean vs. Cavies selling their show. I think showmanship is something a corps has or dosen't, it is part design but it is part attitude. I will take Cadets in cleaning over Cavies finding a way to connect. Cavies in second at Finals. Ok..... I know there is many typo's but I had to do this quickly. Edited August 1, 2005 by bssop97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardman Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Madison....Well visually they where cleaner durring their afternoon run and IMO no way they should be beating Madison in performance vis. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So...Madison beat themselves? :P I found your review interesting because of your ability to "see" the future (e.g.-Cavies second at finals). Tell me...where did you attain your psychic powers? I got mine from a frog that had been swimming in toxic waste... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bssop97 Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 (edited) The second Madison should of said Bluecoats. If you can't see why I'm calling Cavies in second then you didn't read the review AND if you want to go with I got a bias against them, I have a kid from the band I've been teaching the last 4 years in their pit. There is no bias. I would like for him to get another ring. This season reminds me of 2001... Devs where clean as #### but Cavies where performing the heck out of their show this time of the year. This season Cavies are clean and Cadets are the slightly dirtier corps that is performing well. I call it the way I see it and that's the way I see it. To make things more interesting... If Cavies win, I'll double the $50 donation I plan on making to DCP to $100. Now I'm going to put on my flame proof suit on because I'm sure I po'd some people the bleed green. Edited August 1, 2005 by bssop97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boybugle63 Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 From CardMan's review -- Broken Arrow: "Phantom will wind up beating the Blue Devils on finals night. No offense to the Devils, or anything...it's just that this show is so great, others are bound to fall to it (as did the Scouts tonight...)" .... Now what type of Frog did you kiss and where did you find it?? Great Review "BSSOP97." It was a wonderful evening in Murfreesboro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bssop97 Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 LOL! I guess predictions are ok if you are pro-Cavies/ anti-BD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFsmack Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I wanted to post a little here since I agree with your review in many ways. I think you're dead on about BAC, Crown, Bluecoats and Madison. I think Bluecoats are really pushing the envelope with this show... really challenging the members. Madison is a challenging show.... but I don't see it getting TOO much better before finals in terms in drastic improvements. I don't know if anyone else saw it....but Madison, Phantom, and BD all had pretty nasty guard weapon shows. I saw TONS Of drops with Madison.... lots of handling issues with Phantom's sabre line.... BD had so many drops and weird crud going on in the beginning of the show that we joked that maybe it was part of the "tired guard" act that they were putting on. hahahaha. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to think this. I also feel that Phantom's show wasn't great early on. I think it took about 2 or 3 minutes for it to start connecting. The crowd was REALLY into it the last 1/3 of the show. Same thing with Blue DEvils. The beginning is kinda dull, but the end makes it worth the while. I think many perofmers on American Idol were accused of doing the same thing this year. lol Cadets and CAvaliers guard so so different from each other this year. The Cadets do some very cool mirror work (if that makes sense) and the Cavaliers just flat out dance and kick butt. Both are a joy to watch. I think Cavaliers should have won by more than a point in Murfreesboro....and I'm not sure what happened in Indy. Guess Cadets turned it up a notch. This is such an exciting season. It was my second time viewing BAC, Crown and Cadets this year. 1st for all others. This year is the most interesting year to watch. Thanks for the great review. Hope I didn't rain too much on anyone's parade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bssop97 Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 (edited) Some more things I remember... Bluecoats... there is this one mello feature that if I was on staff, I would bring out the hose. I've heard the Dublin show and saw them twice and they botch it all 3 times. The lead part is up there, maybe just a revoice. I think its in the closer. Yeah... A lot of corps where droping that night. In Phantom's case, they where droping in warmups, I actually almost got nailed with a flag the flew away from a girl. Seeing how there guard score has been going up, I'm guessing an off night. Oh... I gotta gripe about the Cadets now too.... WHOEVER thought about putting members out by the both to help bring in members to the sovie stand.... Quit putting a hot girl in a school girl outfit by the trailer... It's my weekness and I spent money I wasn't going to :P Edited August 2, 2005 by bssop97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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