Cadets: In their defense

[blakman7]

Hello all,

I know that this is pretty late in the season to be bringing up this topic but I think that not enough people are understanding what they are doing with this year's production. I have recently seen the Cadets show from Massillon,OH. I must say that after hearing all of the talk on this site about the Cadets, I was a little impressed by them. Not impressed enough to think that they are going to pull some last minute DCI upset and win but I was impressed. By adding in the twilight zone melody, Cadets show that this show is still about dreams, the mind and imagination. The 2005 show was entitled "Dreamscapes in Four Parts with a Door" and the 2006 show is entitled "Beyond The Looking Glass" and the connection is starting to become a little more clear. For all who don't know, the 2006 production is still supposed to be taking place in a dream state of mind and what may happen in those dreams. I mean come on, who dreams about tea parties, red devils, mirroring effects and people flying off of pink tables on a daily or even monthly basis? I know that I don't. I know that if I hear about or see people jumping off of pink tables, I say to myself "am I dreaming?What the ####?" This is the same effect that the design team at Cadets is going for from what I get from it.

The new beginning in of the show in my opinion is very, I repeat....VERY effective. And pretty loud too. b**bs. I like it a lot better than the history repeating opening that they had a few weeks ago. The new beginning shows that the show is more of a part dos to last year. For all who aren't familiar with the term....'dos' is spanish for 'two' :P It brings back a lot of last year and I think that it gives the audience more of a perspective of where they are coming from. Even though the history repeating opening that they once had is supposed to be a flashback of last years show, I think that this new opening gives the audience more of a "deja vu" effect. The music is similiar but not same. Just similiar enough make one seem as if the same show is taking place again. Anyone who has had deja vu before can tell you that when it happens, you feel as if you have been in that situation before but then after a while things go back to normal. After the Kill Bill section of the opening, things go back to normal....or do they? In this show, after the deja vu of last year, things are still in the dream state of mind. In my opinion, "The Garden" (name of the main opener after the Kill Bill reprise) is very "trippy", just like their uniforms and the backdrops in the backfield. The uniform backs and backdrops go perfectly with what the Cadets are trying to get across. Think about it, those uniform backs are like 70's hippies trippin on acid and hallucinating. That isn't an insult to hippies, I love hippies. :P But seriously, it all makes sense. Is it weird? To some maybe. Is it out there? #### yeah it's out there. I guess that's the "pushing of the envelope" talking. You know what kills me is that when Cadets played the history repeating production of the show, so many people complained about it. People complained that the lyrics couldn't be heard, people complained that it was ineffective, people complained that it was a weak opening and that it didn't connect to what happens next. Whatever a complaint could be about what the Cadets were doing in the beginning of their show, you name it, it was said. Now that the opening has changed drastically, what do people do about it? They continue to complain complain and more complain. Let's make up our minds people. I can't see anyone in their right mind saying that the new beginning is ineffective. It is in my opinion the best choice that could have been displayed to start a sequel to a previous production.

The drum feature is hard folks. Let's be serious. I think that any percussionist can attest to that. It is rudimentally hard. There are a ton of notes that have to be played clean and it is just not clean yet. Will it be clean? I think so. The drumline is so sick that it isn't even funny. Practice makes consistent, not perfect. No one will ever have a perfect performance no matter what profession one is in. The drum feature in time will get to where it needs to be, that time is just not now.

The ballad........well the ballad is the ballad. It is beautiful, warm and lush. A very good selection for displaying good brass. It shows that all brass can sound amazing. This is going to be my only bashing in this thread. I think that the use of a singer is completely ridiculous and below the "drum" and "bugle" corps principle. Does the singer sing well, you better believe she does. She sounds amazing and has a very powerful voice but folks, drum corps is not a broadway show. That is what Blast is for. Amplification in the pit is effective because the pit is often buried by the brass and battery. The pit provides a ton of musicality to the whole drum corps, even the colorguard. Not a fan of a singer stealing a drum corps production. Like I said, she sounds great but could have been one more brass or guard member. (The drumline is already huge....10 snares, 6 tenors, 5 basses.............well I think it is 9 snares now) The singer's part could've easily been written into the pit or hornline. Even a duet would've surficed. Enough bashing for me.

The end of the show is great. The new ending is very effective as well and holds firm ground to how a part dos of last years show should be. Especially with the loud ending which I am a fan of. In the ending, the theme from Kill Bill is repeated, a part of the production entitled "liquid" from the 2005 show is in there, and some of Madea is in there. It is a basic recap of this years show and last years show, I feel that this is great. Is the execution quite there, absolutely not. We all know how Cadets do it, they usually push at the end of the season. Like I said, do I think that they will win? No but I do feel that they will make some credible improvement before August 12th rolls around. Whatever the score or placement is for the Cadets this year, they are still going to play the #### out of their show. Some people will love it, some will hate it. That is already evident. But the point is is that those kids are playing to the best of their ability and the staff is pushing them to perform and are also trying to make their production the best that it can be. An example of this is Stat of Indiana 1993. Many people as I do feel that that show was one of the best shows that DCI has ever been offered but where did they place? 2nd. Santa Clara Vanguard 1998 played the absolute crap out of their show and still came in 2nd. Now this is not a bash to those corps who won that year but is an example of what scores and placements mean. They mean nothing but a ring because just like with the president elections.......whoever wins, someone is going to be upset about it because they were going for someone else. Sorry folks, it happens. I hope that there is someone out there who agrees with me or even partly agrees with me. Please leave your comments whether they are negative or positive towards my thoughts.

[Wild Nights]

For all who aren't familiar with the term....'dos' is spanish for 'two'

I think after Madison 1996, we're all familiar :P

Seriously though, I appreciate your well-reasoned approach to the matter, and that you're dealing with your opinions in a professional way. When I read posts like yours, I feel kind of dumb protesting singing and whatnot, when all I've got to go on is a video clip (Cadets and SCV managed to elude me this year...until the theater! ^0^ ) So thanks again for the read- I'll keep some of what you said in mind when I go to Regal next week :)