ucfrellis Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Great Review! Go to more shows! Enjoy your thoughts and love your perspective. I'll cut george and the maroon team some slack until I see it in Atlanta (which will probably have had a thousand re-writes by then). When I read this; "The bandos seemed to have stayed home as the Cavaliers were not at this competition, so I was mainly surrounded with drum corps fans—always a plus." This one made me laugh out loud - and I love cavies! r Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlantasean Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 wow, i am impressed to hear such knowledge out of a 17 year old. but then i realized that this 17 year old went to Lassiter and it clearly makes sense as Lassiter produces some of the best if not the best musicians in the country. this person, (sorry, was unable to tell if you are male or female), hit it all right on the nose. VERY good review! We need people like you to become dci judges. i hope we get to see more reviews like this from you this year. btw, i also played clarinet in hs. clarinet power! haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmenjeffb Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 wow, i am impressed to hear such knowledge out of a 17 year old. but then i realized that this 17 year old went to Lassiter and it clearly makes sense as Lassiter produces some of the best if not the best musicians in the country. this person, (sorry, was unable to tell if you are male or female), hit it all right on the nose. VERY good review! We need people like you to become dci judges. i hope we get to see more reviews like this from you this year. btw, i also played clarinet in hs. clarinet power! haha I could not agree more . Outstanding review and a very cool format you picked to use for it. I dont know if i am more impressed with the review or the person !!!!! OUTSTANDING !!!!! Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanOwenSullivan Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 CadetsI mean, anyone can sing, and the segment wasn’t entirely impressive. The man in front of me shouted, “NOT DRUM CORPS!” and I agree. It wasn’t. Did he yell this when other corps corps used amplification or was he just a blatant Cadets-hater? Cheers, Sean w/Stp: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmfootworks Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Very interesting analytical concept, yet written with a great deal of passion. You've designed a framework for comprehensive review but added a generous helping of descriptive information, too. My only minor criticism is that you graded one of the corps a D- whilst crediting them for a "nice job" on the following line. This calls your assessment into question and is an aspect of your overall analysis that you may seek to tighten in future reviews. Overall, I enjoyed the review and hope you'll have occasion to do more of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phand Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Thanks for the in-depth review. I've posted my own that expresses most of my opinions but since this one is more in-depth and more people seem to be reading this thread I thought I'd toss in one last thought concerning last night's show that I just remembered. Aside from all my other comments on Phantom (no nuance, too tight drill, etc.) I realized that all the things I did't like about Phantom's show aggregate into one main concept: I've seen this show at least 15 times before. Not literally, but I don't know how many DC shows I've seen over the years that involved tight drill, so-so integrated guard, and a loud as #### hornline throughout the whole show. I enjoyed getting my ears rung as much as the next guy but I'm getting old enough that when I go to a show I want to see something that I haven't seen before. and the Cadets can fairly regularly deliver that. Just a final thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randyg88 Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 I agree with the posters who have complimented this person on the review. I am amazed that a 17-year-old person has such an all-encompassing viewpoint, knows and applies historical insights, and has the guts to say what they mean. Well done! If you have not considered a career in writing, you should. Randy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS0527 Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Fantastic review! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanOwenSullivan Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 CadetsCharacters talk back and forth with nonsensical statements that MOCK and RIDICULE the performance aspect of the show. The thing is, these statements don’t make sense. A male guard member exclaims, “I swallowed that two hours ago.” I have no idea what this means, nor did a single person in the audience. (Frankly, I have no desire to hear about a male guard member “swallowing” anything, if you catch my drift.) NO ONE got was going on and everyone was wondering why a great feature was being ruined. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR CHARACTERS TALK IN A DRUM CORPS SHOW. It’s adding something completely foreign, annoying , CHEESY, and just plain STUPID. The ballad was completely beautiful until the singer came in, Best ballad I’ve ever heard, ruined. I come to drum corps competitions to hear drums and bugles. I didn’t. I heard an amateur, averagely talented singer on amplification system. The singing adds nothing to this piece, she completely sticks out and doesn’t blend in at all, and she’s so LOUD. It makes want to cry, because the Cadets have a product that could be AMAZING and for no reason whatsoever they’ve decided to ruin it. And it’s not just me, the majority of audience members feel the same way. I am the HUGEST Cadets fan in the world and I can’t enjoy this show. At all, no matter hard I try. And THAT’S when you know when you’ve ruined the show. I imagined this ballad in my head with the brass only and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. However, with the singer, the ballad was terrible, disgusting, horrible at best. The rest of the show was amazing and I loved it, loved Jubilee Games and how the ending from last year crept in. By the way, the story made no sense, and the dialog IN NO WAY helped explain it. What, then, are they there for if they can’t even do THAT? I had no clue what was going on…loved the music the brass and percussion played though. Needs to be fixed: Remove any sort of vocal performance entirely from the show. This MUST be done in order to give the show any sort of credibility or audience acceptance whatsoever. This show in its current form is the worst drum corps show I’ve seen in my entire life, and close for many people. It has the potential to be the best, most amazing show in the world for so many...incredible shame something like this is going on and I’m deeply saddened. Requirements (met requirements are in bold) 1. The guard memeber saying "I swallowed that 2 hours ago" is a clear reference to the book "Through the Looking Glass" relating to the eat me/drink me material. Just because YOU didn't understand it and immaturely thought it some perverted sexual joke doesn't mean that's what it was. A lot of ppl around me understood it. There were ppl pointing and saying, "Oh there's the rabbit", "There's the Queen of Hearts", "The girl in yellow must be Alice". So don't speak for the entire audience b/c your statements aren't true. Thanks! 2. I agree the vocals duriong the percussion are distracting at best but I think if they take some lines from the book and realte them to the Cadets production this year, they could really ADD to the GE. To say they "ruined" the percussion is an overstatement though. For one, each charcter says a line. And it happens BETWEEN the actual riffs - not during. Secondly, the speaking parts are so few comared to the actual song. 4 lines. Compared to about 4 minutes. No way would I come close to saying they RUIN the percussion break. 3. You hit the nail on the head with the vocals during the ballad. It's such an amazing ballad, they really do need to drop the vocals and let the horns shine. Cheers, Sean w/Stp: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpsRelic Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Thank you for a well explained, most concise, enjoyable and pasionate review. I appreciated your sincerity your cheers, jeers, tears and laughter. I'm glad to see that there are others like myself who can get so emotionally emersed and caught up in those incredible moments of Drum Corps Nirvana (which IMHO, can forever be found in Mad City, at Camp Randall.) I must say, you're quite the youthful Drum Corps guru. You're maturity, understanding of musical performance, wisdom, commitment and passion for the Drum Corps activity is most welcomed. I'm happy to embrace it. I look forward to your future reviews. Have you thought of submitting your review/comments to Drum Corps World? I believe Steve Vickers would welcome a scribe as well versed as you. Best Wishes and Cheers to all Drum Corps. Dennis Simplex Minutemen, Bass drum/24" Concert Cymbals 1965-72 BOD: Arizona Sun 1992-93 Volunteer: Academy 2002-present Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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