Toledo Scores!

[raphael18]

Shamelessly borrowed from the BD forums:

1. The Cavaliers 74.850

2. Phantom Regiment 71.600

3 . Bluecoats 70.650

4 . Glassmen 67.650

5 . Southwind 58.200

From the Grinder...

CAVIES 74.25

PR 70.65

COATS 70.20

GMEN 67.75

SWIND 54.95

The Grinder is scary

[hughesmr]

Looking at the recap, everything looked pretty on par. Phantom's Visual Performance and Colorguard scores were oddly low, but that'll be fine.

I was expecting a closer gap in brass (Cavies 15.4 and Phantom's 14.8), but nothing earth-shattering.

EDIT: No brass judge; so the music ensemble's score doubled. Didn't notice that the first time.

Just got in from Toledo. Short takes:

1. Bluecaots have a wonderful vehicle, and look much cleaner than Regiment at this point. Their whole show seemed more polished and complete than PR .... which doesn't bode as well for them, since PR is already ahead of them with tons to clean and so much to add.

2. On a similar note: Coats brass was better than PR tonight, IMO. PR has VOLUME, but ensemble balance is pretty lacking now .... muddy textures than need much refinement and phrasing work. Part of this may be in the brass scoring, too, but it is all eminently fixable. They especially need to explore the lower end of the dynamic spectrum MUCH more than they are.

3. Regiment percussion is the bomb, man. They are in the run for the title, no doubt about it. Scary clean already and hairy book. Coats percussion was tasty, but very dirty (10 snares FYI). Didn't deserve 2nd in perc IMO.

4. Cavies percussion is VERY creative and has an unmistakable Casella stamp. Their tenor voice especially is very noticably different this year ... looks like a different head and implement choice than years' past ... very "throaty" and full sound (I like, I like).

5. Cavies show has some remarkable creativity in the "machine" theme, and they load it on in the first half of the show .... the last half (for me) was much flatter. The closer is on, but doesn't feel like a real "wrap" to the show. Obviously more in the pipeline.

Off to bed,

Mike in OH

Edited June 18, 2006 by hughesmr

[jwillis35]

I just got in from Toledo. Excellent first show for all the corps tonight. If tonight was any indication of the season, then it should be another great year for DCI. Crowd was large and seemed very much into each of the shows.

Now, some observations from my perspective.

Southwind - This is a great show for them, and I had them scored higher than the judges did, but they are quite dirty. Wonderful drill, good brass book, although sometimes confusing, and I really like the second half of this show. They look to have a pretty full corps. There are a few holes to fill, but even with those they marched 53 brass tonight. From a visual perspective, the show will remind many of you of the 1987 Sky Ryders dual uniform of white and black. Southwind does a nice job of highlighting this. The show is called Duality, and it features visual and musical ideas that are opposites of each other, yet they find ways to connect the whole thing. The intro of the show features snippets of music from Holsinger's "In The Spring: At A Time When Kings Go Off To War" and "Firebird Suite." It's a bit confusing at first, and probably needs a bit more kick to it at the onset of the show, but I still got into it. The Claire de Lune section is wonderful, with the mallets playing much of the moving lines, but doing so quite well for this time. Honestly, this show has so much upside that I believe it could contend for a top 12 spot if they can clean it and fix the few weak GE moments. This is a solid production by Southwind, and perhaps that is an understatement.

Glassmen - They performed last to the appreciation of their home-town fans, and what a nice job they did. This is an excellent show that takes the ideas of last year's show to the next level. The show is titled "Beethoven: Mastery and Madness." Is opens with the very famous 5th symphony intro, put together in a powerful and regal fanfare. The Glassmen will be crowd pleasers, and once clean, this show will be a solid contender for top 8. Excellent drill, but dirty, and I love the brass and percussion book. Guard is beautiful, but very dirty and somewhat unsure of themselves. Glassmen have a very musical percussion line. If they can get the brass to be as musical, this will be one heck of a musical show. The ending was abrupt, but I have this feeling that will be re-written. Very good show, and I really enjoyed it top to bottom.

side note: All the corps tonight had complete shows, although I think most will re-work their endings.

Bluecoats - All my bias aside, this was perhaps the most complete vehicle on the field tonight in terms of demand, artisitry, entertainment, and excellence. The crowd was taken by this production, and for good reason, the show keeps you glued to every little nuance, and to all the big GE hits. Of all the corps here tonight, Canton still has the most to clean, but they are also dealing with perhaps the most difficult of shows (perhaps even over Cavaliers, alhtough I need to see the two again). There are no weaknesses in this production, other than the fact that they are dirty. Brass sounds great. Very refined and musical, not too loud all the time. They show good control of dynamics and the intended artistry that this music calls for. This is probably a more sophisticated production, yet the entertainment factor is high, and the 2nd tune will have you whistling, hootin' 'n' hollerin', and just tapping your feet throughout. The ballad may be one of the best this year. In terms of demand, they have the goods to move up in standing. I really believe that. Now, whether it happens or not is another thing. Phantom was much cleaner than Blue, and so were the Cavaliers. While I am not sure Blue can catch the Cavaliers, I really believe they will catch Phantom this year. Unless the Regiment re-writes a good chuck of drill, they simply do not have the overall visual or GE to beat the 'Coats. They do have a wonderful drum line, and their brass is always great.

Thus we come to Phantom Regiment. This is a wonderful show from a musical standpoint. I usually love their brass, and this year is no different. Very powerful, and large, brass line, and the percussion is smokin'. Their brass book may be just a tad more demanding that Bluecoats (just a tad), and all that typical double-tongued passage work that we have come to expect of Phantom is evident once again in this quite dark, but wonderful musical presentation. The highlight of the show for me was when the entire trumpet section puts down their horns and picks up baritones. When the corps plays the Ave Maria they go with a mellophone, baritone, euphonium, tuba instrumentation for the bulk of the tune, only adding trumpets at the end. Great stuff. Where Phantom is lacking, at least at this point, is in guard contribution to the show (which did not grab me), the lack of demand in their visual book, and the lack of GE in the visual book. Their GE score tonight seemed too high for me, although I would have had them in 2nd overall tonight, but not by much. Maybe .5 over Bluecoats. The Bluecoats had some issues at the beginning of the show tonight with the pit not having everything plugged in when the show started, and some of the brass players were not ready and had to run to their spots just seconds before the show started (Canton actually starts their show prior to the announcement, a la Cadets 2005). But back to Phantom. This show is great to watch, and entertaining (and their brass and drums will keep them in the thick of things for some time), but it is nowhere near what they had last year. It's early, and much can, and will, change. But as of now, I see Bluecoats pushing ahead of them in a week or so.

Cavaliers - WOW. They are so polished, even when they are dirty and still have tons to clean. This is a great show that has a freshness to it that will leave many in awe, yet will have the crowd laughing, clapping, and dropping their jaws in amazement. The show is called Machine, and it is very evident from the onset that this show is driven by sound effects (obvisouly, those of machines). Each of these effects are so well used and staged, that the crowd gets it without any explanation of the show. They interpret each effect musically, but even more so visually. The musical book is quite demanding, and already very well played. Big line for them. I counted 71 brass. Very powerful. There are some excellent trumpet solos in this production, and I love the new sound of the drumline. I love the slanted snares, and Casella's writing is obvious and artistically appropriate for this show. The guard is amazing, and really stand out in their Tron-like unis (similar to 2003), only they are various shades of blue this year. The flags are a powder blue, or Carolina blue, in the opener, and this provides a real contrast to the Green uniforms of the corps proper. The closer is somewhat anti-climatic, but I am sure they are going to redo the end. This is definitely a show that will contend for the title. Is anyone surprised?

Great night for all corps.

Jonathan

[nero14]

woot...

seems to be contrasting information on the whole "who was cleaner" question between phantom and blue... also i'm looking forward to tomorrow night to see how addition of the brass judge looks on the score sheet... i just cant wait to see it myself... and yes, i'm a blue homer, but i'm going to bring the phantom contras some ice-cream on monday here in memphis... cause its a contra thing... see... i love everybody!

[Medeabrass]

Great reviews Mike and Jonathan. I can't remember the last time I had this much anticipation about a season.

Can anyone out there tell me if Phantom is going with 14 contras again this year?

[hughesmr]

Can anyone out there tell me if Phantom is going with 14 contras again this year?

Affirmative. :)

Mike in OH

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I'm not sure if this is against the rules, so if it is, I'll take the link out.

Here you go.

Link removed by me until an official response as to whether videos fall under the "no mp3s" regulation

UPDATE: Problem resolved. I apologize if I caused any strife. Medeabrass, you should probably take the link out of the quote as well. :)

Edited June 18, 2006 by G-Cym

[Medeabrass]

I'm not sure if this is against the rules, so if it is, I'll take the link out.

Here you go.

<link removed>

Wow...Cavies are beginning to make me realize that original composition is the only way to go when it comes to combining difficulty and entertainment/accessibility into a product that works in the DC idiom. I'm feeling really good about this summer.

Was it just me or did anybody else notice that the Contras urrrhuurr umm Tubas seemed to project much better compared to Bb lines of the past? Low brass projection has been the only thing that's bothered me about the switch. Maybe it was just the recording. Anybody know if Cavies basses are playing new instruments and/or mouthpieces this year?

[nero14]

i'll give you a hint- showing an entire DCI show is definitly against the rules- just FYI

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Is that certain? The reason I ask is because the disclaimer under the link to the General Forums says nothing about video, only mp3s. And I am pretty sure I have seen people post drum corps vids before that were on YouTube or Google.

Mods?