Finals Review

[usmcontra]

I have to ask if anyone showed up early enough to see us. I need an honest review. The director is bugging me because I haven't sent him any links from last week in NJ or this week at Finals. Thanks!!

[mfrontz]

What a fine intelligent review. Reminds me of the old days on RAMD with the RAMD Virtual Symposium or whatever it was.

Are the top five being "rewarded" for amplified vocals - I don't think so. Last year it was the seventh and tenth place corps that tried it. Cascades did it as well this year. Just so happens that "better" corps did it this year. I do agree with you that Phantom's and Cadets amped vocals made sense from an aesthetic standpoint. I dug totally the drum-speak of the Cadets and the QF movie crowd in Harrisburg did, too. Musical "effects" are far more palatable to me than singing or narration.

Well done, too, with your division of dc elements to sound, color, and motion. I would be interested in your non-finals corps takes. Any comments on the Crossmen's use of color? How about Capital Regiment, whose sundial thing I totally got into?

As for the vertical dimension, I think that's been happening for a while (remember BD's dice in the 92 show? Star's huge triangles in 93? Cadets dance band stages in 95? Giant chess pieces by Crown in 96?) Maybe, however, it is reaching a new stage of refinement and "growing up" as it were.

Something I noticed at Quarters was the amount of familiar music arranged in unfamiliar ways. Whereas in the late 80s and early 90s arrangers would approach a piece of music such as Medea, Prelude Fugue and Riffs, New World, etc., as arranging the music for a brass ensemble and trying to make it sound as close to the original as possible, nowadays it seems like the piece is arranged according to the sound palette the arrangers wish to convey to complement the visual and altered accordingly. Also, it seems as if Spirit, for one, took a cue from 2004 Cavies and others and simply arranged familiar melodies in sequence to form a kind of "musical impression." It seems to be a move to impressionistic music. The BD have been pioneers at this as well, but perhaps they are now moving in a new direction.

Thanks again for the great comments!

[Lieut. General Effect]

Great review. You made some interesting observations, many of which mirrored my thoughts too. You made your review very thought provoking and especially worthwhile was your asking many of us to do some self reflection and self critique before going to the keyboard to type in our comments and observations. Good advice. I throughly enjoyed reading your review. It was done tastefully and intelligently, and made me pause and think about things I had not thought of before. Thank you for your contributions here.

[kdaddy]

I do agree with you that Phantom's and Cadets amped vocals made sense from an aesthetic standpoint. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Phantom did not use amped vocals.

And great review dckid!

[matye]

Incredible review. I also vote for this one for review of the year. Thank you!

[Cadet311]

I'd also like to add that SCV and Phantom seemed to be the crowd favorites this year, or at least the underdog Heroes. SCV got a standing ovation only a few minutes into their program (at least in the club level) and got so much crowd support. Samething goes for Phantom - the crowd on the upper level were in love with both these corps and I totally agree. Placements or not, these two were my top favorites of the night.

Anyone else enjoy the Cadets "costume change" at the end? When the girl came out dressed like an adjucator? I found that to be pretty funny. One of my friends in the Cadets sent me a message "look out for the girl at the end" and I was like "huh?" and then I got it.

[hsreed]

Smart review-thoroughly enjoyed reading every word.

I will state that many corps have used props to pop the field up to another dimensions:

Phantom 83-throwing the ribbons up in the air at the end of their show

Freelancers in 85-hornline used ramps

Vanguard in 87-the snow princess/queen (not sure what to call her) floating across the field, a platform held up by male CG members (no offense if there were females holding her up-I just didn't see any)

Cavaliers 92 (or 95) a colorguard member was propped up on a small telephone pole about 15 or 20 feet up in the air while holding a ball.

Just a few, I'm sure there were others.

I would also add that great shows, throughout most of DCIs existence, have taken viewers on a journey. This year is no exception.

[BluebariJames]

You said there was booing when Scouts score was announced. What are the chances that some of that was blooing instead? I know that's what happened in 04. At least it sounded that way from the field. I hope nobody was actually booing.

[dckid80]

People always boo when the Scouts score is announced. It's a DCI tradition.

[oldbandguy]

Did you notice?

The bottom 7 corps tonight did not use vocals in their shows.  Four of the top five did. 

[

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did I miss a use of vocals in the top 5? I heard it only in Cadets, BD, and Bluecoats?

Did PR or Cavies use it?

Nice review. Agree with much of it...although I really thoughts the Scouts drill was

nothing short of outstanding, especially after seeing it Saturday night from 3 miles up.