hurcs04 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Just Curious .... B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUGI Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Just Curious .... B) Didn't get to see all the corps but Cabs and Cabs Alumni were awesome. I am still new to DCA and Saturday was the first time I have seen Cabs. Total classic act, I really dug both the current and Alumni corps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott414 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Living on the west coast makes it hard to keep up with the corps... Clifton review please!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlsnaredrummer77 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 (edited) (See the Dover show reviews for numbers of instrumentalists) First up was the Hurricanes. Their show theme is "Jesus Christ Superstar." The Hurricanes have a great soprano soloist who really amps up the crowd. The drumline plays a lot of notes, more like a traditional corps, but the snares (especially) had some execution problems. The tenors, (only two) however, were on target most of the show. The Hurricanes gaurd is young and talented. The gaurd seemed to handle its equipment well and did a great job with the theme. AND, they fit into their uniforms!!! Truthfully, I think the corps did a nice job with a musical selection that did not seem to excite the audience. Carolina Gold followed the Hurricanes. They are a nice mid-size corps. The Gold plays a Tower of Power funk show. As before, the funk wasn't quite funky, (more pit?) but the audience was buzzing when they were done. With a competant brass line of around 35, the Gold has a great soprano soloist who doesn't seem to march the drill or even wear the uniform. That seems a bit strange, (injured?) but this guy can play. I think the Gold's drumline executed worse here than in Dover. They are clearly a "young" line and they don't have the quality of sound that some of the mature lines possess. A lot of their exposed phrases sounded murky-particularly in the tenors (tuning issues?). The Color Guard was ok, but not outstanding. Overall, the Gold seems to be an audience favorite, (I'm really digging them) but it will take a bit for them to mature as a playing (read: scores) unit. (I think they were fairly recently a mini-corps, so the improvement is pretty amazing). The Bushwackers were up next. They performed much better than in Dover and their show is really a winner. The drill is challenging and there is some great coordination between the color guard & brass. The brass of about 45 played their charts well. Qualitatively, the percussion section seems to lag a bit behind the brass. Nevertheless, as at Dover, I felt the energy really increase on their closer "Rocky Point Holiday." A complicated drill, difficult brass parts and a rapidly moving percussion section highlighted by the guard's transition to beautiful silver flags at the end was impressive. I think this time the audience "got it." The Reading Buccaneers were up next. Impressive in all sections, the Buccaneers had the largest (battery) and brass (60ish) of the evening. Their show features a fast moving drill that really covers the field and the battery plays aggressively with a lot of poise. Their show had some exposed sections that sounded clean. The brass also sounded pretty clean to me, although the "Bolero" piece did seem to have some missed notes in exposed sections. The guard was pretty amazing with some nice rifle work. To me, it seemed that the Bucs had captured all captions, although I thought the Cabs might have beaten them in percussion. Overall, the Bucs are a class act and it was pretty clear why they were defending champs. The home town corps the Caballeros finished off the evening's competitive portion. The Cabs feature a large, loud (sometimes out of control) brass section, exciting charts and a murderous (good) battery. I don't think I can say enough good about their battery. Their aggressiveness drives the corps. However, the color gaurd was only ok and the drill was clearly an area in need of work. It just looked packed in and sloppy. Basically, I think the Cabs marched their way out of second place tonight. As the home team, the Cabs really stirred the audience-as they had in Dover. While the Cabs seem to be an audience favorite, their execution in brass and m&m seem to be their weak spots. Still, in some ways, this corps may have been the most entertaining in the show. Well, those are my impressions. I don't claim to be a judge and I enjoyed the show overall. Edited July 17, 2006 by pearlsnaredrummer77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuccaneersChic05 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Thanks for the review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuardOdyssey Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 (edited) [Carolina Gold followed the Hurricanes. They are a nice mid-size corps. The Gold plays a Tower of Power funk show. As before, the funk wasn't quite funky, (more pit?) but the audience was buzzing when they were done. With a competant brass line of around 35, the Gold has a great soprano soloist who doesn't seem to march the drill or even wear the uniform. That seems a bit strange, (injured?) but this guy can play. I think the Gold's drumline executed worse here than in Dover. They are clearly a "young" line and they don't have the quality of sound that some of the mature lines possess. A lot of their exposed phrases sounded murky-particularly in the tenors (tuning issues?). The Color Guard was ok, but not outstanding. Overall, the Gold seems to be an audience favorite, (I'm really digging them) but it will take a bit for them to mature as a playing (read: scores) unit. (I think they were fairly recently a mini-corps, so the improvement is pretty amazing). Thanks again Pearlsnaredrummer77 for writing a contest review. Your personal review of Carolina Gold is noted, and appreciated. Carolina Gold began as a DCA mini-corps in 2001. The corps has competed in both Class A and Open Class since 2002. In 2005, Carolina Gold placed 8th in OPEN CLASS FINALS at the DCA Championships in Scranton, PA. Carolina Gold is a proud member of DCA and DCI-Atlantic. Sometimes Carolina Gold is referred to as "Gold", it's not necessary to place the word "the" in front of our name. Glad to read you are digging the show. We'll be looking for any future reviews you write in regards to Carolina Gold's progress as the season marches on. Edited July 17, 2006 by GuardOdyssey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Carolina Gold followed the Hurricanes. They are a nice mid-size corps. The Gold plays a Tower of Power funk show. As before, the funk wasn't quite funky, (more pit?) but the audience was buzzing when they were done. With a competant brass line of around 35, the Gold has a great soprano soloist who doesn't seem to march the drill or even wear the uniform. That seems a bit strange, (injured?) but this guy can play. Great review! I agree with you...our funk isn't funky enough...yet. That's the fun of playing a book like ours...style is everything. The parts of the show we're playing stylistically well are a bug hit with the audience and the judges (What is Hip?) and the parts that we're not quite there yet (Toad's) are a bit of a struggle. We've made great strides since Dover, and we'll continue to improve over the coming weeks. As for the pit-bound soloists, I thought a little explanation is in order. We have two soloists that are in the pit for most of the show. Paul Rowe (who actually does march the first seven pages or so while another soloist plays in the opening duet) is our brass caption head. When you have a musician of his caliber, you don't waste it, even if that means he doesn't march much. It's really hard to clean music when your caption head is on the field. John Gifford (the one you mentioned who was not in a uniform) is one of our visual staff members. Again, it's a matter of using your resources. How do you clean drill when you are marching a spot? As for his lack of uniform, he wasn't the only one. You may have noticed that the cymbal line and one or two other brass players had no real uniform top either. That's what happens when you grow as fast as Gold has. The uniforms are coming, and we'll have the whole corps "clothed" by the Charlotte DCI show at the end of the month. Heck, the drum majors only this weekend got out real uniforms! (thank god, too....I felt like a sausage with my really tight uniform at Dover). We actually have several staff members performing on the field this summer. It goes with the territory of building a corps. Eventually, Gold will get to a point where it's not necessary, but for now it is to put the absolute best product on the field. On a related note, I want to give a public "Thank You" to the Reading Buccaneers for allowing us to use thier drum major podium at Clifton. Special thanks go to Kim Tapper and Hank Manfra for making sure it was where it was needed as we took the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSGreen Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 FYI. Gold was founded in Fall 2000, in 2001 we were a mini-corps, in 2002, we took 3rd in Class A and in 2003 we moved to Open Class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott414 Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Thanks for the review... Living on the left coast makes it impossible to see the corps on a regular basis....thanks again!! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushsop89 Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Thanks for the review. Things are really heating up. And it was great seeing Carolina Gold make it up for a second show in July!!! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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