DCI "At the Movies"--Irvine, Ca

[Ryan H. Turner]

Thanks for everyone for posting their perspectives on their own experiences, especially Pee Wee and Mr. Golden Throat Haring. Appreciate your comments.

First off, I want to publicly thanks Tim Patterson, Operations Manager for Regal at the Irvine Spectrum for being a VERY VERY helpful and at times, entertaining person who explained to me and my friend the inner workings of what this DCI "cinecast" means to the company and how interesting he finds us "fanatics" about "band". My buddy and I made friends with him (we were geeking out and first in line--thank you very much!), so we explained to him the need for SOUND, as drum corps audiences typically and historically have responded the sheer emotion of a well placed power chord. He didn't understand power chord, so I busted out a dry erase board and explained with a marker in hand exactly what a power chord was. He thought out loud, "Boy, this Turner guy IS a geek!". In any event, he was very accomodating, and in Theater 10, we had fairly good sound.

Overall picture and sound quality was pretty good. As Pee Wee explained in his review, there was a transmission goof and we lost the feed for a good 30-45 seconds during the highlights at the front of the show. Too bad, as we were in a Pacific Crest fan area, and we were quite disappointed we didn't get to see all of them and Southwind. Now I don't know about Pee Wee, but this "transmission goof" seemed more like someone kicked out a wire back east. Because the transmission froze, then blacked out, popped back on for 2 seconds, then went dead for 30 - 45 seconds. I bet some production assistant got chewed out back in Providence!!

Run down of my impressions of the corps...

Troopers--CLEAN FEET!!! WOW!!! I was very very impressed with marching technique. If they can grow the hornline, and Chuck can continue working his musical magic, I think Troopers will be on the right road. I don't know who their visual folks are, but kudos to them (I know the designer--I'm referring to the instructors).

PC--Loved the company front. My ears were telling me, "MORE MORE MORE!!!" PC needs to rework the visual focus for upcoming years and start taking some chances to get into semi-finals.

Esperanza--flat. Didn't get a whole lot of that snippet. Need to grow the hornline. Guard seemed solid

Kiwanis Kavaliers--CAN THE UNIFORM. Holy cow. Bad choice.

Crossmen--WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I stopped being a Crossmen fan about 1993. Shows after that didn't do much for me. They were ON FIRE in quarter finals, with a grooving horn and drum book and a fun show! THANK YOU!!! Very entertaining....

Capital Regiment--I was expecting worse because of people's inability to get the idea behind the sundial. I liked it personally, and I liked the show design. What I didn't like was the corps inability to develop forms very well. VERY frustrating, and they weren't the only ones.

Seattle Cascades--another "expecting the worst" corps, only to be pleasantly suprised. Narration was NOT distracting in the least, and I thought it was well done, thusly, negating all the furor in a previous thread a few weeks ago about the quality of the narrator himself as well as the content. I have spoken, so shall it be. Good job Seattle. AND KURT JULL!! You rock brother!!!

Spirit--LOVED the "Wicked" ending. I actually called my wife on the cell and told her about that closing production. We LOVE the Wicked soundtrack. Someone needs to do the whole thing next year. Pretty good stuff.

Colts--Can't remember much. Seemed ok.

Mandarins--Pretty much the same corps that left southern California back in July. Didn't see vast improvements in any caption. Liked the new ending.

Santa Clara Vanguard--<<sigh>>. I love this corps. They were out to set a record straight with people and to make they knew they were there to play ball. But alas, they are victims of what happened to VK I think. The rest of the country is getting really good, and they're not. Execution wise, there were some REALLY REALLY good things happening out there with SCV's show. They sounded marvelous. But....content wise. It's not on the same level as PR, Cavaliers, Cadets...meaning, where I WANT SCV to be. I'm talking visual AND musical. They were good. They DEFINITELY belong in the Top 12. But they're not Top 6. And that's sad. I forsee big changes in the House of Vanguard in the off season. BIG changes.

Crown--WHAT A HORNLINE. My immediate thought about how they sounded was a tremendously dark and controlled sound, ala Star of Indiana and Academy. VERY nice sound. Good book. Fairly good visual program. Some development issues--ack!! What is it!?!

Madison--Carmen was unnecessary. That's the bottom line. She was at best just a focus point, but not really necessary. The music and the rest of the guard would have/could have done without here. Madison to me is back in old form. LOVED it!! Thank you!! Some really neat visual moments.

Blue Devils--yeah, the narration could be central to whatever they're trying to do, and yeah, it was probably a good idea on paper, but it was awful. Pure and simple. At one point, and I'm not lying, and I'm a professional announcer who has made my share of errors so I think I can comment on this...at one point, when the announcer starts with the "...don't forget to write your mother", he sounded absolutely disengaged and BORED with what he was doing. The design visually is basic Jay Murphy that doesn't really stand out but is very clean. The horn book is typical chucked and jerky horn hits for 11 minutes, and even if it isn't, IT SEEMS THAT WAY--and shouldn't the arranger be aware of how it SEEMS??? To me, this is not what I would want to see out of corps, and the 4th place finish was a definite gift. Madison and Bluecoats were both FAR better and more engaging.

Bluecoats--WHAT a show. WHAT A SHOW!!! Loved it. You got the crappy end of a judges decision. BD should not have been above you. Sorry about that. Great show. Absolutely loved the sounds of the pit--and I NEVER say that because the pit is the last thing on the field that I've ever noticed. WOW!! Great job!!!

Phantom Regiment--remember when you came in third place with Harmonic Journey. This is what's going to happen again this year. You'll be the solid third place contender/winner, but in my heart and the hearts of millions, you will have WON THE SHOW! You have all been able to match with an uncanny ability the styles of Phantom with the writings of Gershwin. I laughed out loud at a couple of musical moments when I was like, "That's sooooooooooooo Phantom to do that", yet, it was GERSHWIN. Unbelievable! I absolutely flat out loved this show. There were a couple of visual moves, like the LAST ONE OF THE SHOW, that defied description. I advise everyone to watch this show on the high camera angle once the DVD's come out. VERY VERY VERY cool. And the Gene Kelly character was not anywhere near unnecessary as Carmen was to Madison. He was phenomenal.

Cavaliers--I thought for a moment last night that perhaps Michael Gaines is from another dimension and only visits us to share his unbelievable drill designing talent, and once the season ends, POOOF, he goes back to 15th dimension or something. There is a move that Fran referenced in his review--the ladders are in a circle. There are multiple layered and different count moves that takes the hornline from side 2 INTO side 1 into a space defined by the ladders. To describe further would entail me having to rely on some kind of physics and crap that are beyond my comprehension, so it wouldn't make too much sense. Mike has the ability to morph things in a sequential fashion that is simply amazing. And I know he'd probably say something like, "Ohhhh it's not that hard." During that one move I was blown away. There were other moments like that in the show, but truly, Mike Gaines....there's no other way to say it. He's fricken scary!!! Great job Cavaliers. Great music. Nice humor in the show too. Guard--hands down great. Thank you!!

Cadets--I don't know what everyone was so upset about this show. It's pretty dang amazing. And Marc Sylvester's drill is up a notch this year from some of his previous efforts, so I appreciate that. VERY MUCH!! Great solid job. Winning the whole thing??? Ehhhhhhhhhhh....I guess. I would rather PR do it...but Cadets are simply amazing.

That's it...all off the top of my head, and I'm sure I forgot someone. But anyway...I had a VERY enjoyable time, with my SCV long time friend, his wife, his sister, and a MILLION people that were there that I knew and shook hands with, including Ginger Smith, the VK MOM for decades, who made the trip down with her husband to see the show. Really neat time. Thank you DCI for making this happen!!!

[kiotad]

If you get a chance, any insight into Boston's performance. I respect your opinions and just wanted to see how you reacted to their show.

gil

[Ryan H. Turner]

I'm sorry Gil...I completely forgot about Boston. I KNEW I'd forget something trying to go off the top of my head. Interesting music--Ode to Joy peppered around. Pretty cool stuff. I'm no programming expert but the Sing Sang Sung, while cool, seemed sort of odd. But then again, corps in the "old days" used to mix and match any kind of style of music they #### well pleased, so who am I to say it wasn't good. Just not the norm nowadays. VERY poor choice for the guard in terms of costuming--DEFINITELY not my cup o' tea. Boston seemed pretty dang good, but I wasn't getting (at least in my theater) that Boston "hunger" that we were seeing in 2000 and 2001 when they really came into their own. Which is OK, I guess, as they attempt to explore the more intellectual (ACK!!!!) realms of drum corps, but that's just my stupid little opinion. It's so great to have them in the Top 12 that I'm willing to overlook this! :-)

Sorry again Gil...anyone else I miss???

[cptbackfire]

ryan,

marc sylvester didn't write the drill for the cadets program this year.

jeff sacktig did.

excellent review!

[Sideways]

Isn't Jeff Saktig writting Cadets this year?

[cbrent]

Sorry again Gil...anyone else I miss???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Blue Knights, Glassmen?

[MikeD]

Troopers--CLEAN FEET!!!  WOW!!!  I was very very impressed with marching technique.  If they can grow the hornline, and Chuck can continue working his musical magic, I think Troopers will be on the right road.  I don't know who their visual folks are, but kudos to them (I know the designer--I'm referring to the instructors).

watched them do a basics blockl at A'town and thought the same thing.

Spirit--LOVED the "Wicked" ending.  I actually called my wife on the cell and told her about that closing production.  We LOVE the Wicked soundtrack.  Someone needs to do the whole thing next year.  Pretty good stuff.

Yes, loved Wicked...did not care for "They're Playing our Song opener, as I've ALWAYS thought the tune itself rather lame.

Madison--Carmen was unnecessary.  That's the bottom line.  She was at best just a focus point, but not really necessary.  The music and the rest of the guard would have/could have done without here.  Madison to me is back in old form.  LOVED it!!  Thank you!!  Some really neat visual moments.

I understand they showed her a LOT on screen....I thought that live she fit in quite well.

Phantom Regiment--remember when you came in third place with Harmonic Journey.  This is what's going to happen again this year.  You'll be the solid third place contender/winner, but in my heart and the hearts of millions, you will have WON THE SHOW!  You have all been able to match with an uncanny ability the styles of Phantom with the writings of Gershwin.  I laughed out loud at a couple of musical moments when I was like, "That's sooooooooooooo Phantom to do that", yet, it was GERSHWIN.  Unbelievable!  I absolutely flat out loved this show.  There were a couple of visual moves, like the LAST ONE OF THE SHOW, that defied description.  I advise everyone to watch this show on the high camera angle once the DVD's come out.  VERY VERY VERY cool.  And the Gene Kelly character was not anywhere near unnecessary as Carmen was to Madison.  He was phenomenal.

Goodness do I love this show and the performance level...if the Cadets have to lose...I hope it's to Regiment.

Go Cadets....

Mike

[stickman882002]

Phantom Regiment--remember when you came in third place with Harmonic Journey.  This is what's going to happen again this year.  You'll be the solid third place contender/winner, but in my heart and the hearts of millions, you will have WON THE SHOW! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Didn't Phantom place 4th with Harmonic Journey? They barely beat SCV for it on finals night if I do believe. (Though I wish PR was 3rd)

[Ryan H. Turner]

Glassmen!!!! Forgot about them. I'm sorry. I just cringed a few times with their musical interpretation. To my ears, it seemed almost immature. I looked over at my buddy and we sort of laughed at what we were hearing, and he sarcastically said, "It's a NEW WORLD baby!" Well--I didn't appreciate as much as I think they hoped me too. HOWEVER, that being said, I DID appreciate the aggressiveness to their sound. I think they've been railed on as the boring corps of DCI. Musical arrangements notwithstanding, I thought they were opening up their sound more than I remember in the past. Visual was ok. Nothing to write home about. Don't remember the guard at all.

Blue Knights--I don't remember much about them. I don't recall anything being out there and real memorable. I seem to remember their ending drill being that symmetrical fast stuff, which prompted the question from my buddy, "What's with all the symmetrical drill this year??" b**bs I LOVE FULL CIRCLE STUFF!!!