Fort Edward show review

[Quinny]

Ok so this is in memory of last night and my first DCI review ever.. so please bare with me

Ok First of all the weather.. was perfect.. a little breeze not to hot and not to cold.. the stands.. well.. not the greates set up but the corps were so up close, it almost became personal. The crowd though seemingly very excited... seemed a bit quiet. But the stands were full.

My viewing point was on the 40 stage right very low.. so getting to actually see the formations was not possible.. but aside from that great seats.

1st up was THE MAGIC They have a very entertaing book musically.. and some nice moents from the corps. Since I am a guard person I watched the guard, but tried to take in everything. The guard book is still incomplete which made me a little concerned.. but I love the uniforms.. and your opening yellow flags very visual. But the guard as well with the rest of the corps was very very dirty, which was my biggest concern... they have a great program if they could clean it.. then I could see them fighting for semis.. but at this moment there is a lot of work to be done. It seemed the corps lacked confidence, which could cause some of the issues, and I wonder if the book (musically) might be to big for them. I did see however (even if lacking confidence) the whole corps giving it there all.. and performing through it all.

2nd in line was SOUTHWIND The show to me wasn't quite as enteraning as Magic, BUT a lot cleaner in all respects and still quite entertaining. Nice sound from the brass, guard book was complete.. more readable and the corps as a whole was more confident.. though they may have lost a little steam near the end. The guards first unis were ok.. I didnt think they were overly impressive but the second unis were a nice colour but I hated the design, loved the blue/orange flags that had the arrow. There guard had some difficulty in there show but needs to be worked on for the guard to achieve it. Aside from guard like I said the brass sounded really nice at times.. they were a little muddy. Feet also seemed to be dirty at times.. but.. I did enjoy this show.. and I think as they clean we could see them in semi contention. p.s. hate the shakos on the corps members.

3rd was CROSSMEN, definitely a step up from the two prior corps.. VERY entertaining show.. got the crowd going for sure. Ok as a side note.. Im not the biggest fan of voice amplification. I actually found it (in the past) to be a hinderance and annoyance in most shows.. BUT.. in this case Crossmen found a way to make it work properly and it added to the show instead of distracted or took away from the show. The brass had a really nice sound.. but it seemed they were holding back. It felt like they were quiet at times for there size.. but with that said they were very controlled. Guard has a very nice book, love the unis, and as most corps really like the opening flags. the weapons are dirty.. but the flag line is pretty much were clean for this time of year. Clean the weapons and this will be a guard to watch (eventhough I think they already are) Didn't notice feet in this show.. so may have been dirty or may not ... Overall I really enjoyed the show and I think they should make top twelve or be in good contention.

4th was SPIRIT from JSU another very entertaining show. I love the music book.. I knew Crossmen and Spirit would be pretty close in score. I had Crossmen edged above Spirit but I wasn't suprised that Spirit beat them. What I think Spirit might have on Crossmen is they seem to have a little more demand in there book and the Brass had more guts (they were louder) BUT I thought Spirit in some asspects were dirtier and I thought that might hurt them. I did notice in parts of this show that the forms seemed to be off and the marching a little sloppy.. I know I was down low and how could I tell the form was off. But there was a straight line right infront of me.. that wasnt exactly straight and I saw that a few times. As for the guard... again the weapons need a lot of cleaning but the flag book was pretty clean. I love the Corps unis.. but the guard unis didn't to to much for me. Having a jacket on to go with the Corps proper uniforms was cool but after that came off.. I wasn't overly fond of the uniforms.. I just found that (because I was up close) they really didnt suit some of the members (more in design). However there was a insanely colourful flag in the middle of the show that I LOVED. Oh and the girl that did the gymnastics was cool.. always love seeing flips on the field as long as the person doesn't get hurt. Again like Crossmen they should be top 12 or be in good contention.

5th we had BOSTON CRUSADERS you could see a bit of a jump between them and Spirit/ Crossmen .. It was close between them and Crown I thought. I had Crown edged in front of Boston but wasn't suprised that Boston beat Crown. I thought this show was very cool.. and entertaining...When I first saw them come on though.. I was looking at the props and I was like.. not looking forward to the props.. cause I find they can distract from the show, but in this case they didn't, for me at least. The way they brought the props together at the end was cool. Brass had a very nice rich souind.. VERY balanced.. and at this point of the show.. I realized that even being down low I didn't notice that any of the front ensembles were to loud which made me very happy. The guard used a lot of weapons in this show especially riffles. The good thing is that this was the first corps were I thought that the wepons were pretty clean. and so were the flags. It seemed though that a few guard (not a lot) were sort of stiff in performance.. and I caught one looking around (shows lack of confidence). But other then that no real issues.. The guard unis were ok.. didn't love them didn't hate them.. But I love the flags in this show.. very well designed. The only thing I didn't like about this show really was the quiet ending.. Im just not a fan of quiet endings.. because sometimes it doesnt make you stand up and cheer... sometimes you sit thinking, oh thats it? But other then that great show, this show could nick top 6 I think.

6th was PHANTOM REGIMENT definitely thought they deserved to win.. beautiful show .. very dark which is in Phantom form.. not sure if I liked it as much as last years show but I really enjoyed it. The lower brass is so nice sounding and a good blend for what this corps would want. Love the Phantom unis but I always have (except 2000). The story being told is done really well. I know the the story of "Faust" is supposed to end tragic and in this case it doesn't.. but I remembered marching in 96 and doing west side story.. and our Maria and Tony lived.. you can put any twist on any show and as long as the crowd and judges appreciate it... then it works. The ballad was beautiful.. and I mean beautiful, done very well.. made shivers go down my spine when it came to a climax.. VERY well done nicest moment of the night. The guard unis (well the girls) were very nice... the guys how ever, even though meant to be dark and evil looking were a bit much for me with the leather hoods and such.. I was glad they took them off.. loved the opening flags.. but I wonder if the ballad flags are supposed to be solid yellow.. or are they still using practise flags because the actual ones are not done yet. Same with the solid red flags in the closer. Ok again the weapons need to clean... but the Flag book was IMO very clean tonight.. the cleanest of the the guards.. and the guard (as well as the whole corps) really performed, nice job.

7th and final corps was CAROLINA CROWN I thought they may have edged Boston but not suprised that Boston edged them. This show was very nice and pretty entertaining as well.. The purple plums are cool... but with the guard unis also being purple I thought at times it was a bit much but it still looked good. Again very nice sounding brass line.. but im not sure if it was as strong as Bostons or not.. The one thing though is that I thought Crown performed a little better then Boston.. I love the guard unis.. very well put together and thought out.. and loved all the flags and this was the other guard (along with Boston) were I thought the weapons were pretty clean (minusing a drop or two) Didn't notice much about drill in this show.. so I dont know what happened there. But nonetheless great show and I could see them having a shot at top 6.

All in all I enjoyed all the corps and I am looking forward to seeing how they progress. As for retreat I wasn't to happy there.. I love and miss the full corps retreats.. They are just really cool and prefer them to drum majors only, any day.

Ofiicial scores

1. Phantom Regiment 81.75

2. Boston Crusaders 79.35

3. Carolina Crown 78.75

4. Spirit from JSU 75.25

5. Crossmen 74.20

6. Southwind 66.30

7. The Magic 60.45

My Scores

1. Phanotm Regiment 81.45

2. Carolina Crown 80.00

3. Boston Crusders 79.60

4. Crossmen 74.50

5. Spirit from JSU 74.25

6 Southwind 66.00

7. The Magic 64.65

[Quinny]

and btw.. forgot to mention.. I know nothing about percussion so I really couldn't comment on them.. accept the drum features sounded cool to me. If my brother was with me.. then he could put his 2 cents worth in about the drums lines.. unfortunatley I can't so I appologize.

[Guizeppe]

Nice job. Enjoyed the read.

[Crownmember]

Nice review....seems like Crown and BAC might be in another battle, probably up to finals! I sure hope I can see em sometime soon!

[Quinny]

I think so.. it seems like they are very equal to each other on the field.. the judging could go either way.. I would be suprised to see them neck and neck all season

[Quinny]

wouldnt be suprised I mean

[TexasPRfan]

Very nice review. Lot's of constructive things to say about every corps. Thanks for providing a great perspective!

Harvey

[Phansouth]

PR's guard is starting to make up some ground finally. Glad you noticed. Crown's guard has beaten PR's quite a lot the last few years.

[thx3838]

PR's guard is starting to make up some ground finally. Glad you noticed. Crown's guard has beaten PR's quite a lot the last few years.

phantom is still going to need to make some changes...at the last show crown beat them handily in guard, a half of a point seperating them and crown, and same for crown to cadets