liebot Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 (edited) Note: I currently march a Division 2 drum and bugle corps. My comments do not represent my organization. Just my own opinion. I also can tend to be harsh; please know that were I to watch my own corps I would be just as critical. Please do not take any of my comments to mean that I think East Coast Jazz is better than the corps I saw last night. I do not. So I showed up the venue late (not intentionally, but because the person I was coming with was driving from Lexington and I was late to the place were supposed to meet) and got in just in time to see Spirit from about the 20 side A. The stadium is nice, with lots of great seating (after the intermission we moved to the 45 side B, about 30 rows up), and it was acoustically good as well. Now, onto the corps... Spirit: First off, let me say that the look much better now that they've moved away from the Cavaliers' visual technique; the corps as a whole looks more powerful, but they still need to learn how to maintain height and stop bouncing on big step sizes. I enjoyed their show musically, but it seems like little more than four good songs thrown together. Now 10 years ago this would've been enough (and should still be enough today), but corps nowaday feel the need to try and tie everything together with some meaningful "theme." Spirit's is pretty obvious, but kind of weak, and the guard members marching around in circles at the beginning really makes no sense to me. Moving on... their brassline sounded pretty good, and I loved the soloist in Blues in the Night. Unfortunately I was on the 20 so I can't give a better review musically, but I thought this was a step up from last year. Crown: Their brassline seems to be living up to all the hype that they get on DCP. They had some of the best attacks and releases of the whole show, and were beautifully blended (with good tone) at some impact points. Unfortunately, most of these spots were in the first 1/3-1/2 of the show. My memory of Spirit is kind of foggy, but Crown looked like they were the corps that had the most trouble getting through their show. After the first tune members' shoulders were all over the place, they had bad posture, their feet were slow and they were blowing through direction changes. The person I came with (who marched three years at Cadets) remarked that they need to be doing sit-ups and laps every day from now until finals. It sounds like a good idea to me, since they were really suffering endurance-wise (their feet were also pretty consistently bad). As for their show... I liked it. They threw a whole bunch of visuals and dance moves in there, and they seemed to add some effect (though most of them fell towards the front 1/4 of their show... maybe they haven't had time to put the rest in?), and from what I recall I enjoyed their music. The ending left me a little bit flat, but I'm sure things will change come finals week. If they can improve their endurance and learn how to march, I could see Crown moving up this year (and having another great show). Cadets: If you are closed-minded when it comes to vocals, you will absolutely hate this show. Hate. hate. hate. hate. hate. If you're not, you might enjoy it (as I found myself doing). I was blown away by the things they were attempting on the field, and once they get clean they'll be in the running for a title. Their drum feature was insane, but unfortunately had a huge tear last night (see the thread in the main forum or Hoppy's blog), which kind of muddled my read on it. I hadn't seen the show before, so to me it just came off as being really, really dirty. The demand was mind-blowing though, and the feature will have the crowd going nuts in Madison. Their hornline sounded like a Gino hornline, which means they're loud and their trumpets sound kind of harsh, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. They marched well, and certainly had the cleanest feet of the evening (with the usual Cadets' bouncing). I feel like I could dedicate a whole other topic to discussing the content of their show, but I'll try and keep it [as] brief [as possible]. I absolutely love the opening, with the air-drumming and fake horning playing of the ending of last year's show. I was very disappointed that they didn't play more of "White Rabbit," but forgot about it as the show progressed. The narration/speaking doesn't really add anything to the show as far as I'm concerned, and I couldn't hear the vocalist in the ballad, but both were much less intrusive than last year... which was a good thing. The ballad was... good. But not great. I liked last year's better. The percussion feature was cool (see above), but I didn't really get what the hornline and guard were doing with the tables. It just seemed like every time I looked away from the drumline to watch the corps during the feature they were standing around... Maybe I'll pay more attention next time. They did a really cool effect (which I missed) where they played a lick down the line (starting from one side down to the other) and the snare drummer on the end tossed his stick back to the guy on the other side who caught it just in time to play the last note... or at least that's what I'm told, since I was unfortunately looking at the tables at that time. I liked the ending, though it seemed like a bit of a waste to basically repeat the end of the 05 show. The ascending dissonant mellow notes at the end during the twilight zone theme was bad###, though. So yeah, I liked their show. 50% of DCP will probably hate this show. On to Phantom. Edit: I also forgot to say that the two-sided uniforms do nothing this year. They don't use them as effectively as they did last year, and the floral backs of the uniforms don't have the same visual impact as the ones last year. Phantom Regiment: HOW CAN THERE BE A HAPPY ENDING TO THE FAUST TALE???????????? This was the question that ###### me off most after seeing their show. Talking to a friend I know afterwards, I surmised that Margaret (Faust's love) is resurrected as an angel at the end, and Faust comes back to life as a human?? or something like that? I don't know. Basically PR's staff decided they could twist the tale however they wanted to, and the friend also told me the design team was still trying to figure out what they wanted to do. It shows. I didn't really like Phantom's show. Ave Maria was a disappointment (expectations too high? it is one of my favorite pieces of all time), and Scythian Suite was just... not exciting for me? Their show made very little sense to me, and their drill seemed a bit contrived (the only real unique thing was when two circles separated, one containing Faust and the other Mephistopheles... or maybe it was Margaret... I don't know) and didn't really make sense with the music. They ended standing still playing a big loud chord, with no real motivation behind it except that it was, well... big, and loud. They marched decently, though I can't stand their technique and they look like a mess when they try to take big steps going backwards... They certainly had the endurance that Crown was missing, however. Their low brass sound was gorgeous as usual, and their trumpets were ok, though a little bit harsh. Their mellos were up front for a feature with a couple of loud rips in it - I wasn't really digging their tone that much. Cadets certainly deserved to beat them (anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong), and unless they fix their design problems and Cadets stay dirty, they won't be catching Hoppy and his kids anytime soon. I see them battling it out with Bluecoats for the 4 and 5 spots. So there you have it. Feel free to disagree with me. However, do so with full knowledge that any opinions you have that clash with mine are wrong. That is all. Edited June 30, 2006 by TSRTS13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbc03 Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Thanks for the review :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS0527 Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 There have been versions of the Faust story that have a happy ending... Mahler set it as such in the 8th symphony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liebot Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 Then Mahler's dumb. :P I don't know, I guess when I think Faust I think bad ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS0527 Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 I'd say that Mahler would never had written a sad ending... But then I remembered the 6th Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocketman Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Then Mahler's dumb. :P I don't know, I guess when I think Faust I think bad ending. But you see, the problem is, you know! The average Joe Six Pack couldn't care less about the validity of the "theme". If they like the music, it's all good. RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 but corps nowaday feel the need to try and tie everything together with some meaningful "theme." Spirit's is pretty obvious, but kind of weak Far better, in my opinion, to have a theme like Spirit's (or Southwind's), that ordinary folks can understand, than something really far-out and esoteric that you really have no hope of being able to portray on a football field in 11 minutes. Now I love Crown and thought their show was fantastic, but they're show description was, like ... gimme a break. They're gonna tell us all that in a drum corps show? The high-concept themes really don't mean much. It's either a good show, or it's not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phand Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Nice review...and probably the first on here this year that I agree with 100%. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liebot Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 Far better, in my opinion, to have a theme like Spirit's (or Southwind's), that ordinary folks can understand, than something really far-out and esoteric that you really have no hope of being able to portray on a football field in 11 minutes. Now I love Crown and thought their show was fantastic, but they're show description was, like ... gimme a break. They're gonna tell us all that in a drum corps show? The high-concept themes really don't mean much. It's either a good show, or it's not. My problem wasn't that Spirit's theme was obvious, but that it was weakly portrayed. So perhaps Spirit might have done better to choose a more esoteric theme that they could portray more clearly. I'm sure they'lll fix it before Madison, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 I enjoyed their show musically, but it seems like little more than four good songs thrown together. Now 10 years ago this would've been enough (and should still be enough today), but corps nowaday feel the need to try and tie everything together with some meaningful "theme." Spirit's show theme is no different than any other corps'. The title of the show is "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue", which is of course an abbreviated version of the old saying..."Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue". Something old = Old Man River, That Old Black Magic Something New = The Notebook Something Borrowed = Waltz of the Mushroom Hunters Something Blue = Blues in the Night, Blue Shades Makes sense to me. At least as much sense as the tunes thrown together with a title from the reigning champs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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