Shockwave review

[Galen]

This is a full review of Blast 2: Shockwave. I saw it this evening at the IU Auditorium in Bloomington, IN. There was a full house (about 3,000 or so), lots of college and high school students here as well as the typical adult presence. I noticed a lot of people were wearing band jackets, and I recognized a lot of my friends that I went to high school and marched with at Bloomington North. And now, for the review:

First, the actual show:

The pace of the show was very steady, with a good flow present between individual numbers. The first number, "Starburst", was set up to look like a jazz band rehearsal, with about 15 players on stage surrounding a drum set. After playing through the melody for a couple minutes, the rythms began to be broken down among individual players who would stand up at random intervals. This chaos grew and finally broke down into the opening statements of "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs". The saxes really carried this piece and kept a good swing feel throughout. The guard did some drop spins with music stands during the song. The trombones had no problem working their way through the difficult melody as the whole piece built to a full-ensemble presence and a giant "Blast 2 Shockwave" screen appeared at the top of the stage.

Next up was "First Circle". The invisible pit provided the rhythm on their synthesizers and sounded very much like the original Metheny recording while the visual ensemble danced. After a fabulous solo dance, the guard used half and quarter-circle "weapons" and long, curved poles with sheer flags to augment the melody. The blue lighting created a very liquid atmosphere for this piece. A clack from an escaped piece of equipment here was about the only noticable performance error of the night, and was forgotten about almost as soon as it occured.

"Guaguanco" featured a solo trumpet being held aloft in the air. The stage was black-lit, with scant traces of orange. While creating a good dark atmosphere, it made seeing some of the performers difficult. This was another dance feature, and somewhat short.

"God Bless the Child" was based around a marvelous trombone solo with ensemble support. The girls in the visual ensemble wore black leather tops for this number. After trumpet and sax solos, the full ensemble joined in for some of their best playing of the night, sounding very much like Blue Devils did during "House of the Rising Sun" this summer.

Blue Rondo a la Turk. This might have been my favorite piece of the night. A sax feature, with blue, green, and purple lighting. Absolutely awesome playing by the saxes, at one point they're playing while jumping on balls, with no bounce in the sound at all (no pun intended).

Adagio for Strings was another dance feature. The musicians stand beneath the pit structure and are largely unseen. One of Jim Moore's best features, he and another girl dance on, around, and climb through 2 cage structures. As the music builds to its climax, what appears to be a rescue scene develops as the girl climbs up the inside of one of the cages while Jim is atop the other with an outstretched arm. The way they present it, it doesn't look like she's going to make it. Saxes started off the song but give way to the brass. They reappear as the full ensemble crescendos to the peak of the song. They didn't quite convey the sheer angst that Santa Clara was able to pull off when they did this back in 2000, but the sound they produced was still chilling to say the least. Luckily, there were no Krystal fans in the audience tonight.

Channel One Suite started with an extended drum set solo before breaking into an up-tempo version of this drum corps standard. They used Wayne Downey's more traditional arrangement from the 70's and 80's rather than using the more current one that BD did this summer, and the crowd really seemed to enjoy it. The slow part featured a sax on the melody and a VERY long tenor solo that got both the performers and the crowd fired up. The visual ensemble threw VERY high tosses (6's and 7's) with metal-frame weapons shaped like the commas that the Cadets used a few seasons back. Very good way to end the first act.

After a 20 minute intermission, the show continued with selections from "Carmina Burana". The players wore hooded white robes as two flutes played in a dim yellow light while the rest of the players processed in, singing, through the audience. The guard used what looked like metal Q-tips for this number. During a flute solo, the guard waved long, thin silk sheets, tossing them up in the air as the lights went out, where they held tantalizingly in mid-air before slowly drifting back down. After a good trumpet solo, the full ensemble kicked in with "O Fortuna" and, I kid you not, started doing the Bottle Dance while playing! 4 rows of musicians, criss-crossing directions back and forth. Absolutely amazing! This may have been the longest single piece of the show. The way they did it, I'm a little curious why this piece hasn't been done in drum corps in a while (think Sky Ryders were the last D1 corps to try this). I'm pretty familiar with the whole work, and I think there's a LOT of stuff here for a drum corps to work with. I think Phantom could do a good job with this, or maybe Cadets (the song also has a ballet written for it, and Cadets could probably do some good presentations with the dance numbers).

"Good Vibrations" saw the players revert to their all-black outfits. It started off with a lovely trombone solo with large jumps to the upper register. Despite a couple hitches, his playing was still well recieved. At one point during the end of his solo, either a flute, harmonica, or synthesizer started "distracting" him, much to his perturbment. I couldn't really figure out what was going on here, but it may have been a play on people bringing cell-phones to shows and having them go off during the performance, as he at one point used his slide to indicate his discontent with the distractions. The announcer had made it clear pre-show that cell phone violaters would be dealt with harshley, and at one point suggested that people set their phones to vibrate, pointing out that "it feels good," Back to the song, it was another big band/rock chart basically. They got the crowd into it, wandering into the audience and forming an arc, where they created another highlight moment of the show. A trumpet player acting as a conducter threw space chords back and forth across the ensemble with sudden, rapid drops and growths in volume from section to section before finally resolving to a good ovation from the crowd.

"Drum, Drum, Drum" was about the only chance the drummers got to come down from the loft. They brought 4 or 5 bass drums on stage and did drum-to-drum on them. Then they brought out the tic-tac-toe bass drum racks that I alluded to earlier before bringing out even more bass drums for a massive percussive throw-down. You really need to see this!

At this point, the show began to get wierd. The lights went out as the guard brought a large orange pipe sculpture on stage. They manipulated it like one of those paper triangle things elementary school kids make, constantly reshaping it while solos were being played. They kept the lights down for this whole part, making it difficult to tell where one song stopped and where the next one picked up. The first part, "Star Children" used sitars (or synthesizer sitars) while Morrisette's "Uninvited" featured soloists that were covered up by guard members walking behind them, using fishing poles that held up sheets to conceal the soloists. Also a part of this extended section was "Turkish Bath" and "Opus V", both Don Ellis numbers.

When the lights came back up and the saxes started playing "Bohemian Rhapsody", I thought at first that they had switched the program order around. The whole selection was a farce, much like Officer Krupke was in the original show. Among the comic highlights were the 3 tuba players wearing pink tutus and trying to do ballet, perhaps spoofing the massive amount of movement already being done by the rest of the ensemble. In the middle of the song, a Brunhilde-style opera singer made her presence felt as she pursued various members of the ensemble before finally seizing one member in punk-rocker garb. When she walked out, I immeadiatly thought, "Where's the shark?", but she escaped the fate that had befallen her Velvet Knights predecessor.

Chuck Mangione's "Lullaby for Nancy Carol" was the penultamate selection and featured an amazing baton twirler accompioned by a flute solo. A point in her routine where she threw a very hight toss, caught it with leg fully extended, twirled it and immeadiatly tossed again, all in one fluid motion, was the highlight of a flawless performance.

"Swing, Swing, Swing" was the closing number. Much like the Cadets did in '95, this was a full-ensemble dance movement, with the saxes and the guard starting off the fun. The "hairclips" that the guard had used in Channel One made a return as the ensemble brought the house down. Near the end, they brought several chairs back out and reassembled their opening jazz-band set as the curtain came down, but it was only a ruse as the curtain came back up to feature the return of the tic-tac-toe boards as they finished off to a rousing ovation. The ensemble played on for their encore, with a tenor sax player emphatically closing the show with an astronomically high note.

A lot of people have said that Shockwave is a very different show from the original Blast, and they are correct. While Blast had a clear background in drum corps/marching bands, Shockwave throws this out completely and instead takes on the appearance of a Big Band dance show. Here are some of the more noticable differences:

First of all, the cast for Shockwave is considerably smaller than the original Blast had, numbering only 48 in brass, winds, drums, and guard. Most if not all of the original cast has moved on, although lead dancer Jim Moore remains (and shines throughout the show) and most of the original design team (Wayne Downey, Donnie VanDoren, Jim Mason et at) that helped make the first show such a success still remains. Not only are woodwinds present, but they are integrated among the brass throughout the show. At times, they really steal the show, as one tenor-sax playing girl did with a fantastic solo during "Blue Rondo a la Turk" which acts as a feature piece for the saxaphone section, much as "Split Complimentaries" was in the original show. Not to be outdone, another sax player, male, lays down a very long solo during "Channel One Suite" and later closes the show in a register that should be unreachable.

"Marching" as we know it is completely absent from this show, replaced instead by all sorts of body movement and mass motion. Musicians play from innumerable poses (including a trumpet player being carried upside down during one song) while undergoing all sorts of movement. At one point during "Carmina Burana", the musicians emulate Santa Clara's famous Bottle Dance. Also of special note is a segment of "Blue Rondo a la Turk", where saxaphones (and later trumpets) play and move while hopping up and down on what looked like kickballs with rings around them! That they were able to do this without any kind of diminished sound quality whatsoever speaks volumes about their playing abilities.

Perhaps the reason for the lack of marching maneuvers that the original blast featured is the reduced size of the stage. While the original Blast made use of the entire stage, Shockwave's on-stage performing area is considerably smaller, measuring perhaps 15-20 feet from the front of the stage to the back while still using the whole lateral amount of the stage.

Also absent is the marching percussion battery that was a highlight of the previous show. While some of the guard do use field cymbals for a couple numbers, the percussion mostly comes from the smaller pit, which is deployed on top of a sideways "E" structure on the back of the stage. Their presence is very obscure throughout the show (they aren't even seen until about halfway through the first act and disappear and reappear again at varying intervals). This was a bit of a disappointment. However, the percussion did get a chance to shine in the aptly-named "Drum Drum Drum", a rearrangement of "Sing, Sing, Sing". With support from synthesizers, drummers wheel several bass drums onto the stage and do a lot of drum-to-drum stuff (but don't take any laps), and then it really gets fun. First, 2 large constructed cubby-hole racks are brought on stage, each with 8 bass drums set inside of them so that they resemble a giant tic-tac-toe board. Then, with help from the lighting crew, the drummers appear to sprout 2 extra pairs of arms to help them play 6 drums at a time. This bit of stage magic got a good ovation from the audience. Meanwhile, other drummers are climbing on and in the cubby-hole structures and banging the heck out of the drums. The crowd simply ate this part up!

Costuming was kept fairly simple as it was in the original show. The musical performers had only 2 costumes: an all-black look or a silver/grey jogging-suit style outfit with black and white stripes going up and down the arms and legs, and across the chest. The visual ensemble was similarly costumed with the exception of featured dancers, who at one point in "Adagio for Strings" wore outfits similar to the guard uniforms used by Madison in '98.

All in all, it was an outstanding show. The performance level that these people displayed was absolutely phenomenal. I heard many people in the audience praising the guard for their effortless completion of very difficult work.

Like I said earlier, this is definately not the original Blast, nor is it typical Star of Indiana as they don't rely on any prior Star material (except for Adagio), but they do enough stuff that drum corps fans will recognize. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see any of the marching that the first show had featured, and I heard some people comment that they liked the original show better. As a primarily drum-corps fan, I think I can agree with them in that regard, that the original Blast is a better overall show, but from a performance and entertainment standpoint, Shockwave is definately worth seeing.

[skajerk]

Great review! Thanks for sharing, Matt. I just wish they were bringing it to CA!! :(

[Matt_S]

I'll be catching the show tonight, also at the IU auditorium. from the first row of the balcony. I saw Blast at the Murat and thought it was absolutely incredible. I have my doubts about this show, because Iit doesn't sound like this show sticks as close to its drum corps roots as I would prefer. Still, I expect to have a great time.

[Jeff]

The cell phone ringing in Good Vibrations is part of the show. Jim Mason wanted to spoof all the cell phone interuptions that we experience in our lifes.

[warriorpop]

""Swing, Swing, Swing" was the closing number."

do you mean "sing, sing, sing"?

[Galen]

No, it's "Swing, Swing, Swing". From Cadets show from '95

[Jeffsjetta]

excellent review!

[Panther Pilot]

I'm going to see them in Corpus Christi in Feb. I'll see Blast in Jan here in San Antonio and Shockwave in Feb. Exellent review and thanks for sharing, I now know what I'm in for.

[steelcityrabbit]

The cell phone ringing in Good Vibrations is part of the show.

I figured it out after the second phone started to ring, but the "theater folk" sitting in front of us turned to yell when the 3rd phone started.

Also, great review.