Naperville Review

[billj]

I had a decent view of drill (a little low) and a great seat for hearing the music.

8 Pioneer 71.200

Percussion (both battery & pit) continues to be their strong suit. The marching cymbals were fun to watch. The show has ended up being just about right for their ability. At the beginning of the year, I really didn't like the show - they've re-written & cleaned enough where I liked some parts - I still wasn't grabbed much by the overall show.

7 Esperanza 72.150

Their color guard performed very well - some nice training. Some nice musical grooves. There were some nice musical & visual moments, but at other times, things would get sloppy & uncreative, from a design and execution standpoint.

6 The Magic 76.850

The best thing about them is their intensity, especially in the battery, but at times in their hornline. The hornline actually pumped out some volume a few times. They didn't really have a lot musical nuance thought - pretty much either LOUD or soft. Overall, the drill and music is over their heads & the guard didn't really project much confidence at all. I hope that they can clean up their financial & staff issues and solidify their program in the future. I liked a number of Magic shows in the past.

5 Colts 84.450

Very nice overall design & performance. They really put out some volume, and had a great musical sound. The visual program is pretty good, as well. It's too bad that these guys seem to be a lock on 13th place.

4 Boston Crusaders 88.700

Great balance in design & execution across percussion, brass and color guard. Actually, their guard was really on tonight. The drill & music are fresh. The show doesn't hit you over the head & make you want to throw babies, but it's very enjoyable. The down ending makes it hard for them to get a big crowd reaction at the end of their show.

3 The Cadets 93.050

I've seen the full show from San Antonio a number of times on the DCI Season Pass, so I pretty much new what to expect. First, as seems to be custom, I must declare my allegiance. I've loved many of the past Cadet shows & I agreed with all of their titles except for '93. So, I am not a borg or a Cadet-hater. From a design perspective, the show is essentially a psychedelic 60's version of Alice in Wonderland meets last years show. Huh? Why would anyone think that these 3 things should be combined in a show design? I don't want to hear about how this is art and I'm too stupid to "get it". I guess it's like when I go to the art museum and in the modern art section, I see a picture of a circle, and then I see a picture of a square and the I see a blank canvas - and these must be ART, because someone says that they are, and I am too stupid to "get it". So, yes, I don't like the design.

What else don't I like: amplified singing & talking , cheerleader acrobatics, 3 minutes in the middle of the show where they're not doing much of anything other than moving the table around (but the percussion IS smoking in that section).

The corps has really good performers across the board, but I honestly think I would have enjoyed the show with no door, no characters, and no amplified voice. And I think the panels and the tables could probably go, too. Take all of the distractions away and I think their score will go up.

2 Phantom Regiment 94.650

Awesome. Brass, percussion & guard all performed well tonight. I haven't seen recaps but I thought Phantom should win brass and percussion. They seem to be pulling out all the stops ($1 to Rondo) with design tweaks. The show started right as the announcer gave them the go ahead, The brass adds splash of red on their heart in the middle of the show, which later becomes guard equipment. The ending now includes the brass in a chevron as the main male & female characters run off towards the back corner of the endzone, with a devil character chasing them (it looked a little SVC Phantom of the Opera-like). I just love their brass this year. One of the most impressive & exposed parts are all of the tempo changes in ballad. How they stay together is amazing, plus with the percussion tacit, you can really hear how good their tone is while playing soft. I'd love to see them win with this show. It's quiet a long-shot, and I never would have guess this at the beginning of the season, but the re-writes, plus the amount of improvement in the color guard (since the first show) has put them in a position to be a dark horse this week!

1 The Cavaliers 95.750

There are great. Always a great drill design, always a great color guard - unique designs & great execution. And from a drill execution perspective, they definitely make difficult things look easy. I don't enjoy the brass sound that have as nearly as much as Regiment's, though. And for all of the great visual stuff they have, I must say that I get tired of them hitting a box or wedge form. The ending doesn't do justice to the rest of the show. I want some amazing drill at the end, not the silly (IMHO) conveyer belt thing.

Rant

I sat in front of a mom that had a kid in a corps at the show (I won't mention the corps, but it starts with a P and they came in 8th place). She spent a lot of the performance pointing out her kid to someone she was sitting with - it went something like this: "there she is - over by the 35 yard line" "where - over there?" "no, on the other side" "are you sure that's her?" "yes, i think, so". This talking during the performance was mildly irritating, but I wasn't that into this corps, so I let it slide. This family continued to talk during other corps performances, and then after the break, we were lucky enough to get 3 or 4 kids from the corps squeezing in behind us and sitting in the aisle. They were totally just having a good, old loud conversation over the first minute of the Crusader's show, so I turned around and told them that if they want to talk they could go in the tunnel. That shut them up, sort of, except in-between each corps, I had to hear smart @ss comments from the kids about how "we're not really watching the show, but SOMEONE is, so you'd better not talk now". I'd had enough of this & told the kids that I didn't pay $80 for my family to come listen to their cr@p (NOTE: I did not use any profanity). The mom proceeded to tell me that I was the rude one, and how dare I talk to her daughter like that. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. They clearly didn't get it. I sadly expect this type of embarrassing parent & member behavior at marching band shows, but seeing it at a corps show surprised me. Shame on the parent and the kid - that's a bad reflection on the corps.

Edited August 7, 2006 by billj

[CavAlum]

Email the corps director. This immature behavior ruins the event for paying spectators.

[Cardman]

Wow. I would have slapped them across their faces like Moe from the 3 stooges...(not really...)

[arno0940]

Thanks for your review. Could you elaborate on the Cadets show LAST night? You talk alot about the Cadet's design choices and amps, tables ect. How did they perform LAST night? What changes did you see from the last time you saw them?

[ScribeToo]

Last night was my first viewing of the Cadets show.. and I actually liked it quite a lot. There's only a little "narration at the beginning" -- before the big hit.. the singer gives the Twilight Zone speech.. then there's no more speaking or singing again until the 2nd piece. I actually thought it could have used a little .. something. (shocking I know.. but I actually found myself thinking, "maybe they took out too much?").

The crowd, overall, really seemed to like it.. it's not like Naperville, Ill, 13 miles from Rosemont and 30 miles from Rockford is any kind of Cadet fan stronghold.. but people were cheering and laughing and seemed to be really enjoying it.. and I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. In fact, I liked it much better than last year's show, which I never got into at all.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ballad.. the singer is phenomenal.. and anyone who thinks she or her voice is just "mediocre" is smoking too much happy weed. That girl has got some pipes.. and if you think it's easy to walk around while singing a long, single line (even if it's just aahhs.. or long vowel words), I challenge you to do it.. walk around your house singing half note major scales at 64bpm in one breath and let me know how that works out for you.

I also have to make mention of one thing.. there was a guy sitting near my tunnel.. he was really enjoying one of the shows.. really really digging it.. (I wish I could remember which corps it was)... then in the middle of the show, he gasped and said, "OMG they're Mic'ed!" then made the exasperated sound and sighed like he was annoyed. I wanted to turn and ask him, "what changed about the show that you suddenly now hate it? The way they sound? The music they're playing? What? Has any of that magically changed from two seconds ago when you were totally digging this show?"

[ScribeToo]

Rant

I sat in front of a mom that had a kid in a corps at the show (I won't mention the corps, but it starts with a P and they came in 8th place). She spent a lot of the performance pointing out her kid to someone she was sitting with - it went something like this: "there she is - over by the 35 yard line" "where - over there?" "no, on the other side" "are you sure that's her?" "yes, i think, so". This talking during the performance was mildly irritating, but I wasn't that into this corps, so I let it slide. This family continued to talk during other corps performances, and then after the break, we were lucky enough to get 3 or 4 kids from the corps squeezing in behind us and sitting in the aisle. They were totally just having a good, old loud conversation over the first minute of the Crusader's show, so I turned around and told them that if they want to talk they could go in the tunnel. That shut them up, sort of, except in-between each corps, I had to hear smart @ss comments from the kids about how "we're not really watching the show, but SOMEONE is, so you'd better not talk now". I'd had enough of this & told the kids that I didn't pay $80 for my family to come listen to their cr@p (NOTE: I did not use any profanity). The mom proceeded to tell me that I was the rude one, and how dare I talk to her daughter like that. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. They clearly didn't get it. I sadly expect this type of embarrassing parent & member behavior at marching band shows, but seeing it at a corps show surprised me. Shame on the parent and the kid - that's a bad reflection on the corps.

Bill,

I'm really sorry you had this experience at our show.

If I may make one suggestion, if this ever happens again, especially at this show, PLEASE come get one of the ushers in the yellow vests at the tunnel. We will be happy to help you out! Kids on the stairs would have been a fire hazard and would have needed to be addressed immediately. Without the right color swipe on their hand, they would have been asked to vacate to the GA seats on the track. If you were in the GA seats and these were members disrupting the show for you, we could have asked them to move to seats where there are less people around to be bothered by their chatter. Nothing I hate more than kids or people who can't be considerate in the stands. Members or not.. and MEMBERS especially.. I also agree with the other poster that you may want to drop a line to Roman.

One of the things I like about this show is that we (the ushers) are allowed to ask and do what we would ask and do if we were spectators. The ushers are seasoned drum corps fans and we'll always do our best to help you out.

Next time, come get one of us!! You don't have to suffer!

[dc oldtimer]

Regarding the Cadets; I was in Rockford early in July and was at the show last night.

I can tell you that they made A LOT of changes, some very small but effective tweeks to help with their clarity. In Rockford I absolutly HATED their show as did my long time Cadet fan fiance. They were not 'On" in Rockford by all means and everyone got caught up in all the crap going on on the field.

Last night was a different story. It seems they have moved most of the theatrical stuff further back on the field and moved the "drum corps" closer to the front. This has helped the staging and keeps the focus where it belongs; on the great horn and drumlines! These kids can play and I couldn't understand why their design team seemed to want to cover all that up with the "crap". I'll call it that because once you block all the other stuff out you will love this show.

I wouldn't say I loved the show but IMHO they went from a 7th to 8th place corps to a top 5 in one month just making a few staging changes. Also, the ending is much better and clearer. Add to all this that it seems they have opened up the drill a little more thus covering more of the field. Earlier they were too confined to the center of the field probably because they wanted the corps to be more a part of the theatrical stuff going on. Once they separated the two I now enjoy this show. Although I still needed to try really hard to block out the crap.

[mobrien]

From where I sat (high on the fifty for Boston, PR, and Cadets), the Cadets performance level was fine. Horns and drums sound good, the guard (when you notice them) were executing well, but no better than Cavaliers, certainly. The thing that's sinking this show relative to the others in the top is the staging. The performers are doing well with what they've been given, but what they've been given sometimes shoots itself in the foot in the effect department, and the integration of the elements within a larger whole is lacking to an unhappy degree.

Note to the sound board op - don't rush the cut-off on the characters' lines. Last night, it was "thought you all might like to sit and have some t--", and "buuut, where are w--". Balance on the vocalist was a little off at the soundboard, she'd come in as too dominant, momentarily back off, then come back overbalanced a few seconds later. She sings beautifully, and musically, that number is the highlight of the year, imho. Visually, the table progression doesn't read and the references to last year's show aren't working, because they're staged so far back that it's difficult to read what the costume pieces are. Even if you CAN see the princess/dunce cap, you'd have to know last year's show for it to have any meaning. That whole thing should be staged up front, since it IS what the music is supposed to be supporting, and burying it against the back wall of the stage isn't working. Again staging is killing them.

PR's show has grown substantially. The horn line had some fairly big issues controlling sound while moving quickly, imho (you could hear the effect their feet had on the volume of whole notes, volume dropping and pumping as they moved). My 11 year old (who's pretty astute, having seen and discussed drum corps since she was five) thought PR should have won :P . I think they have a chance for Saturday night, if everything clicks in (though the visual program is safer than Cavaliers, and the previously mentioned breath support issues make the hornline less effective when they ARE moving fast).

Boston is very pleasant. I liked them more then I did watching stream from Atlanta. But the show is fairly generic. Put Crown's or Colts' unis on it, and it would exactly fit the current crop of middle-tier shows. Pleasant, not very memorable, no personality to speak of. I liked Boston better when they had some toughness. It's like someone has taken the big city attitude and replaced it with the suburban ethos ('be nice").

Watched Cavies from the side, so no comments on drill. In general, the pieces of the Machine are still working fine. Performance seemed a little flat to me, but the skill of the performers is such that they're still dominant even when they're not quite on fire. Drumline is playing MUCH better than at Michigan City 5 weeks ago. Guard is excellent, and the quality of their work is easy to see since it's been staged in such a way as to make it accessible to the audience (ahem....). Still their title to lose this week. With some work on the final minute, finding a way to tweak it, it could open the gap with PR (and I'm seeing PR in second this week, with BD just missing the mark for third).

Stands were packed. This is an excellent venue for drum corps, in a great setting. Congrats to Craig Rasin and the show committee at Cavaliers; another great job.

Edited August 7, 2006 by mobrien

[Matt_S]

I also have to make mention of one thing.. there was a guy sitting near my tunnel.. he was really enjoying one of the shows.. really really digging it.. (I wish I could remember which corps it was)... then in the middle of the show, he gasped and said, "OMG they're Mic'ed!" then made the exasperated sound and sighed like he was annoyed. I wanted to turn and ask him, "what changed about the show that you suddenly now hate it? The way they sound? The music they're playing? What? Has any of that magically changed from two seconds ago when you were totally digging this show?"

Ha! That's too funny. The funny thing is, you know there are plenty of people like that, and a few I can think of even on these boards. Sad to think that some would take a performance that they clearly enjoy, and choose to be put off by it just because they noticed an amp. Heh, we should do some taste-test style research, blindfold this guy and other ampers, and then see which shows they preferred. They might *gasp* find that they still enjoy amped drum corps.

[afd]

Rant

I sat in front of a mom that had a kid in a corps at the show (I won't mention the corps, but it starts with a P and they came in 8th place). She spent a lot of the performance pointing out her kid to someone she was sitting with - it went something like this: "there she is - over by the 35 yard line" "where - over there?" "no, on the other side" "are you sure that's her?" "yes, i think, so". This talking during the performance was mildly irritating, but I wasn't that into this corps, so I let it slide. This family continued to talk during other corps performances, and then after the break, we were lucky enough to get 3 or 4 kids from the corps squeezing in behind us and sitting in the aisle. They were totally just having a good, old loud conversation over the first minute of the Crusader's show, so I turned around and told them that if they want to talk they could go in the tunnel. That shut them up, sort of, except in-between each corps, I had to hear smart @ss comments from the kids about how "we're not really watching the show, but SOMEONE is, so you'd better not talk now". I'd had enough of this & told the kids that I didn't pay $80 for my family to come listen to their cr@p (NOTE: I did not use any profanity). The mom proceeded to tell me that I was the rude one, and how dare I talk to her daughter like that. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. They clearly didn't get it. I sadly expect this type of embarrassing parent & member behavior at marching band shows, but seeing it at a corps show surprised me. Shame on the parent and the kid - that's a bad reflection on the corps.

[/quote

Boy have times changed. I remember in my marching days that corp members were NOT allowed in the stands and if we wanted to watch the rest of the show, we had to watch from the back side (other side). I agree with other the guy who posted and email the corp director of that corp and complain about behavior of their corp members in the stands.