Finals Observations

[yabetterbelieveit]

Once again, I am reviewing corps 9-1. Hope to not cause confusion.. This time I was higher up in the stadium rather than lower and on the right side..

SCV (8th): First off, loved the 'under the ramp' Phantom of The Opera. Beautiful.

Onto the show...

I am amazed how much I loved this show. Amazed. Hornline sounded good and eep, though not as much power as some of the other corps. Drill was interesting and surprisingly clean. They marched 10x better than Crown and Boston. All in step and very crisp looking. Music flowed with the show very nicely and set the tone perfectly. RCM rocked! I am really glad I sat down to watch, I would not have known what I was missing!!

BAC (9th): Opener was my favorite part. Loud and in your face, go Boston! But everything after that seemed to settle down, and even when they were 'jamming', it didn't sound nearly as loud as a good jamming session should be, IMO :(. I think if the hornbook would have had more "oomph", I would have been able to enjoy more. 'Nice' show. Though I must agree with myself from my semi's review that BAC is not being taught to march very well. Out of step more times than I could count. SCV deserved the 8th spot, at least for that night.

CROWN (7th): IMO, they were better Friday night. Hornline was, well, a great hornline. Gaurd seemed into it. Im not sure, but overall just seemed to lack some of the zest they had with them on Friday. Still snatched 7 easily, another great year. Don't mean to sound cliche here, but love the ballad. Superb.

MADISON (6th): Rocked! Wow, the energy level change from Friday to Saturday was incredible, no one but Madison could have pulled that off. That being said, I wholeheartedly disagree with 6th place. If they had BC clinched on Friday without the energy that had Saturday, they sure as h*ll deserved to grab 5th. Everything just seemed right. The show looked and sounded crisp. I was starting to have my doubts, but Madison's final show reeled me in and caught me. Nice job Mr. Salas on getting the boys pumped up again.

BLUECOATS (5th): Still like the show, but seemed to have the opposite case of Madison, which baffles me. Bluecoats seemed to have the better show on Friday, where I thought they deserved to beat Madison. Now, to me, they have a good show, but not like Friday's, and beat Madison by almost two points!! Yikes! Oh well. Great sop line as I said before. Still dirty even from the front view <**> . Liked the show overall, though. I think to break top four all they have to do is clean clean clean. Keep up the solid work Coats.

BLUEDEVILS (4th): Clean as they get. Has anyone else mentioned that the hornline in that corps can downright play?? If only they played a bit more often. Very, very dissapointing... so much talent, so little playing. Nothing else to say.

PHANTOM (3rd): Great year overall. Drill was getting sloppy especially towards the end. I'm expecting it was only an off night, because if I know Phantom correctly they are not a sloppy corps whatsoever. Music was entracing, whole show seemed to go by so fast... I lost track of time. My favorite was the opening 5 minutes. Brass line was glowing. Loved it to death. The male gaurd member was awesome, he rocked. My pic for 'top gaurd member of the year'. Played the part great. Shoulda beat Cavies.

CAVALIERS (2nd): Can't really say I enjoyed the show. Music seemed very generic and as though I had heard it a hundred times, though this was the first time I heard the show all year. Baseball section was okay, should been Sox vs. Sox. Hello, they have a series going on while you guys are on the field! Seemed to run out of gas, not fresh as I thought they would have sounded. Less in the GE department than Phantom.

CADETS (1st): Squeaakky clean. Cleanest I've seen a Cadets show in a very long time. I applaud them for that. 99.15 was a little high, but I can handle it. It is supposed to be that one night, that one show, so from that perspective I'm fine with it. Hornline was loud and proud, just how I like any hornline. I did notice more finals night than semi's that they have cut out a good chunk of the Bjork Speak and the Drum Speak from the beginning of the season. Works well. Only complaint is the unis. Most classy uni's left in DCI, and they wreck them for a few ooh's and aa's I barely happened to notic. Shame on Hopkins from that aspect. There is always next year, and next year just so happens to be in Madison, Wiscosin.

[billparlan]

Nice review but I think you got the performace evaluation wrong between Madison and BC. Madison marched poorly (for them) sat nite. When you get your dvd, take a look at the sequential drill move that leads the focus back to Carmen's entrance. It was very sloppy. Same with their other big move at the end of the drum solo- they had trouble covering the shrinking columns. These are just two of many spots which were not as clean as the night before. BC had two hot runs and that consistency was the difference.

In addition, Madison's guard although improved this season was not up to the task of supporting the climatic moments. More than once a huge musical moment was not supported by equipment work but rather only by some relatively ineffective dance sequence or even worse, some appropriate but again, relatively ineffective play-acting. The last flag sequence at the end of the show was, relative to the demands of the competition, a mess.

The three in a row championship format separates the good from the very good shows. The smoke and mirrors (again relative to their brutal competition this year) of Madison's guard, their sub-par marching performance on the night of record, and finally, the two solid performances by Bluecoats added up to the Bluecoats taking all but one caption from Madison as well as all the subcaptions except for that one percussion sheet. That kind of judging slam dunk isnt a fluke or politics or a mistake, it's about as close to correct as the system can come up with.

Edited August 15, 2005 by billparlan

[oldbandguy]

I agree with you on Madison and Bluecoats. I thought the Scouts had them

on Saturday night...especially in marching. I think the previous poster may

be surprised by what the DVD will actually show.

However, two great corps going at it. I believe that over the past couple of

seasons the Scouts are like 25-0 vs Bluecoats head-to-head PRIOR to finals,

but Blue is 4-1-1 in those 6 shows.

[mwetzel1]

I agree with you on Madison and Bluecoats.  I thought the Scouts had them

on Saturday night...especially in marching.  I think the previous poster may

be surprised by what the DVD will actually show. 

However, two great corps going at it.  I believe that over the past couple of

seasons the Scouts are like 25-0 vs Bluecoats head-to-head PRIOR to finals,

but Blue is 4-1-1 in those 6 shows.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My vantage point from the 45, agrees. I was very surprised that Bluecoats beat them on Saturday. Madison had energy, Bluecoats did not seem to have it.

I thought is was the best Madison show of the week, and Bluecoats probably second best.

Mike

[SkyRyder_FMM]

I agree with Billparlan - I thought Madison was off visually on Saturday night. I noticed a lot more visual dirt Saturday, especially on the big moves mentioned. Scouts had an emotional performance in finals, no doubt - but quality of the performance suffered. After viewing both, I expected Bluecoats to move up, and was glad to see the judges agreed.

[tubaman1321]

No matter how bad Madison was or how good Bluecoats were, there is no way that after a tie the night before BC did not gain 2 points on Madison. Both performances were Great but the scores were a little off!

[Snapettes Mom]

It amazing to watch somany corps raise the bar this year. Big props to the Cadet's drum line for throwing down. WOW!!!

Special mention to Phantom snare line playing clean 'cheeze' in their feature. NICE.

Mom

[Geneva]

Nice review! (Your impressions are very consistent with mine B) )

I was at quarters and semis and not finals, so I can't comment on Bluecoats vs. Madison, but I can appreciate where you are coming from on this one and want to believe your observations there. Right on about Blue Devils. Great corps, but really let down by their program. Likewise right on about Phantom vs. Cavaliers. I certainly would have had no problem if Phantom won, but Cadets were very good, just weird.

[bluecoats88]

However, two great corps going at it. I believe that over the past couple of

seasons the Scouts are like 25-0 vs Bluecoats head-to-head PRIOR to finals,

but Blue is 4-1-1 in those 6 shows.

not sure where you get the 25-0 in relation to scouts over bluecoats in season over the past six years. Other than this year bluecoats had consistently beaten Scouts during the season. 2004 scouts only beat bluecoats at the first show, then never again. and in 2003 and 2002 I don't think scouts beat bluecoats once.

[Matt_S]

I believe that over the past couple of

seasons the Scouts are like 25-0 vs Bluecoats head-to-head PRIOR to finals,

but Blue is 4-1-1 in those 6 shows.

Another reason why Blue Knights are one of my favorite corps: their awesome website!

Here's the head-to-head results for 'Coats and Scouts over the last few seasons:

2005

Overall: Madison 11, Bluecoats 1 (1 Tie)

Finals week: Bluecoats 1, Madison 1 (1 Tie)

2004

Overall: Madison 6, Bluecoats 3

Finals week: Bluecoats 3, Madison 0

2003

Overall: Bluecoats 10, Madison 1 (1 Tie)

Finals week: Bluecoats 3, Madison 0

2002

Overall: Bluecoats 15, Madison 0

Finals week: Bluecoats 3, Madison 0

2001

Overall: Bluecoats 15, Madison 2

Finals week: Bluecoats 3, Madison 0

Bloo really dominated those last few, but I can see what you mean about 2005 & 2004. Madison never lost to Bloo during the season, only to lose out in the end at finals. In 2004, Madison won all six meetings until the corps got to Denver, where Bloo came out on top every time.