Walnut, CA review

[PeeWee]

First off, Mt. San Antonio College is a much better venue for drum corps than Riverside Community College. The stands go up higher and have seat backs, the field lights are brighter and more numerous, and there was even a nice cool breeze blowing into the stadium.

I've also cut & paste my Riverside review into here and merged it with the Walnut review. The corps were the same both nights. I only do so because, well, Ryan, you're a stud on that microphone, so this is for you man.

Div. III

Velvet Knights - Yes, they're back! No, not the VK of old that we're all use to, but they're back nonetheless. Sneakers, black shorts, red sweatshirts, sunglasses and black caps. About 52 members in all. There's not much humor in their show yet, and they stood still for their closer. I think they should merge with Mystikal and Impulse and form one large corps, but that's just my opinion. One of their tunes was Magical Mystery Tour - brought back some memories. It's good to see them on the field again...even though it's...uh...not really them...well, I mean sort of...but...

Hawthorne Gold - they are large and look very sharp. But they don't produce a lot of volume (less than VK). I almost felt like they were their high schools summer band program or something.

Mystikal - I think they've shrunk since last year. Their colorguard was very good with lots of difficult work. Their guard was the same size as their hornline.

Impulse - They've taken the "funny" right out of their corps this season and are playing very serious music. Funny works better for them. They have always marched and presented themselves very well. I think the West Coast judges jip them every year.

So Cal Dream (senior corps) - very good volume considering the size of their hornline. (And no, I don't want to join them - I only march in my "old age" when the Vanguard beckons).

Div. I

The Academy - I still agree with their placement tonight. I liked the southwest theme of their show last year better, but this is still a good show. Lots of dynamic range, and a drill that will certainly challenge them. Their colorguard was much better prior to the last two years - not sure what happened there (staff change?). Their opener was very "bleep blop" which is not my favorite kind of music, but they were able to sell me on their swing section - very strong and the crowd loved it! Their hornline has a nice, mature, rich sound, especially when compared to Pacific Crest or Mandarins. Their performance level is also very mature. I didn't agree with their move to Div. I this year (didn't want to see them suffer the same fate as other corps), but I think they're ready. Hard to believe that after all the years Arizona has been trying to get a corps going they finally succeeded with this new juggernaut. Hornline does a lot of jazz running. They look like a herd of gazelle, but it works for me. Achilles heel? Perhaps their colorguard, they just aren't together.

Pacific Crest - Although I enjoy their jazzy Las Vegas theme, the narration (yes, they have quite a bit) was not necessary. The one line everybody liked, though, was, "Las Vegas - where money talks. It says, 'goodbye!'" At one point, two guard members are dancing with two giant dice and they stop on snake-eyes. Their closer sums up their show nicely. They have one big glaring problem though - no dynamics in their show. It's all LOUD just like the Blue Devils (see below). Very boring after the first 3 minutes or so. It loses your attention...literally. Sorry PC, I really like your corps in general, but this show just isn't for me this year.

Mandarins - First thing I noticed - the entire corps is very orange! The colorguard is wearing this orange shiny costume and they are a flag unto themselves. During their bamboo forest piece (approx. 12 bamboo poles placed 5 yards apart), a section of their colorguard uses some bamboo pole props, but I don't think their designer has really figured out what to do with them yet. I had flashbacks to Velvet Knights and giant pencils. High energy level and good flag colors throughout the show. Crowd on hand (very full-sized crowd btw) really liked their Japanese traditional drums on the front sideline. They never seem to march a full size corps though, but their drumline looks full and their hornline is the biggest I've ever seen from them.

Santa Clara Vanguard - They put in their closer tonight! Woo-hoos! And yeah, was it dirty. They had a back-sliding parallelogram (I think) that looked more like Mick Jaggers lips! Sly Sybilski was standing next to me and I could see him twisting and contorting with pain as he watched forms that just never clicked into place. Vanguard has some 8 count "fast drill" like the Cavaliers (with an enormous amount of drill sets to learn) which is going to take some time to clean. They will probably be the only other corps besides Cavies to march what I call "3 dimensional drill" this season. I sure hope the other corps begin to catch on. And their music...OH MY GOD!!! It's packed full of emotion. Don't believe me? Buy the pre-season CD for $10 from their website or souvie van and listen for yourself. They will give Phantom Regiment a run for their money as High Brass winner this year, mark my words. Vanguard's colorguard is showing off their upper body strength this season, the rifle tosses (sometimes in succession) match the music perfectly, and the white "!" on their side is put to good use. I'm not a drummer, but was told by some drummers (Blue Knights, Bluecoats) that Vanguard shouldn't be losing drums to BD.

Blue Devils - Yes, they are relatively clean, colorguard, drill, and drums. Yes, they are winning with that right now. They had some cool "ripple" drill moves in the opener, and cool bat wings on the colorguard. Their colorguard in particular was extremely clean to me tonight. One thing I noticed over the course of the show, though, was that they don't seem to be doing much in the way of innovation. BDs drill is just not there after the opener goes away. Just no eye candy for the next 7 minutes. The rest of their show? LOUD LOUD LOUD LOUD LOUD and still more LOUD. Do they even know what pianissimo is?? I had others agree with me that, aside from the opener (which you assume is giving you a taste of things to come), Blue Devils show is, unfortunately, forgettable. BD's drumline was very tight - they sounded like only a handful of drummers though, even though I could see a full battery. I promised Veronica I wouldn't post certain things :D , so that's all I have to say about that.

Predictions:

The Academy will make Top 12 (probably 12th, but hey, they still get to perform on Saturday night)

Blue Devils will not have a "good" year (potentially 4th or 5th place, which most corps would kill for, but not BD). They'll be competing for High Drums though.

Santa Clara Vanguard will be back in the Top 3 (and that's good enough for me). They should be competing for High Brass, perhaps High Colorguard, and definitely High General Effect (is that even a caption award?).

Edited June 25, 2007 by PeeWee

[NeutralNovice]

Sweet review, thanks! I absolutely can't wait until August 4!

[StarVoyager]

Thanx for the review Mike. :D

[Ryan H. Turner]

Good review PeeWee--if only of 33% of the show. But hey, at least you said SOMETHING. ^OO^

[Jomusichn]

Did anybody else think that it was funny when the crowd shouted "Impulse!!: when they formed their exclamation point in their drill?

[PeeWee]

Did anybody else think that it was funny when the crowd shouted "Impulse!!: when they formed their exclamation point in their drill?

LMAO!!! I didn't notice that if it was really there, but THAT'S the Impulse I'm talking about! To me, they are the successors to VKs thrown.

I read a post from another SCV alum on here that thinks the "VANGUARD!!!!" yell is kind of silly. I think it takes things like this to really put it in perspective for you. Yeah, it may be kind of silly, but it's still cool to do. Kind of like yelling "Blooooooooo" when all of the drum corps greenies are looking at you like you're being rude for booing the corps. :o :angry2:

Edited June 25, 2007 by PeeWee

[mellofan]

I read a post from another SCV alum on here that thinks the "VANGUARD!!!!" yell is kind of silly.

My daughter is in her second year with SCV and from a marching member's perspective, she loved that yell at Finals last year. I imagine that hearing the crowd yell at finals is amazing. She wrote a paper for her AP English class about doing the show at finals and her thoughts as she ran her show. The climax of the paper was the "VANGUARD" yell. Of course the teacher didn't have a clue about what it meant.

[Thom]

LMAO!!! I didn't notice that if it was really there, but THAT'S the Impulse I'm talking about! To me, they are the successors to VKs thrown.

I read a post from another SCV alum on here that thinks the "VANGUARD!!!!" yell is kind of silly. I think it takes things like this to really put it in perspective for you. Yeah, it may be kind of silly, but it's still cool to do. Kind of like yelling "Blooooooooo" when all of the drum corps greenies are looking at you like you're being rude for booing the corps. :angry2:

Yes it did happen...I almost hit the floor I was laughing so hard.

It was kind of a mix of Vanguard and Impulse mixed together. Very funny.

[DCIHasBeen]

No Kingsmen Alumni this year?

[DCIHasBeen]

I read a post from another SCV alum on here that thinks the "VANGUARD!!!!" yell is kind of silly. I think it takes things like this to really put it in perspective for you. Yeah, it may be kind of silly, but it's still cool to do

Yeah, I saw that comment as well. Frankly, at a time where the utter disregard for the sensibilities of fans is by-and-large ignored by design teams, it's nice that Vanguard programs some audience interaction directly into the show. "This I Believe ..."