June 12, 1998, Portage, MI

Cavaliers................64.8
Phantom Regiment.........62.4
Colts....................56.5
Pioneer..................49.8
Phantom Legion...........40.6
Mirage...................No Show
  we may have lost them... :(



Thanks to Brandon Hilton for emailing us these scores!

Review - June 12, 1998, Portage, MI

Thanks to Eric Camburn on r.a.m.d for this review!
Thanks to Brandon Hilton for emailing us this review!

I have a few brief comments on things.

In general McCamly field is a really nice venue. Clean, decent sized seats, wooded area, a nice hill outside the stadium to sit on. The stands seemed pretty full. Also the ticket prices were great - $10 for reserved seating if you ordered ahead of time. I ordered only 2 weeks ahead of time and was sitting right on the 50.

General comments re: the corps:

Much remains unfinished. I think Phantom was the only corps whose guard had real costumes. Many guards marking time for good segments of the show.

Cavaliers 64.8 My guess is that the musical selections this year will have much broader audience appeal. People might actually be humming the opener on the way out of the stadium. The ballad is gorgeous and reminiscent of many classic drum corps ballads. Machine (the closer) is awesome. It's clangy and dissonant but it's also fast, energetic and exciting (IMO). The drum book for Machine has mucho notes and there's a nice fast drum break in the middle. There was no drill for the last 3 minutes of Machine. The corps formed a block on the 50 and played the rest of the piece to finish the show and still got a great crowd reaction despite the fact they ended the show standing still. The show contains many great references to shows of the past. Two I remember are two lines of flags lining up on the 50 and doing the hands unfolding up and down thing (you know what I mean right?), and flag tosses across the hornline. The drum line was very clean for this time of the year and the hornline (sometime Cavies weakness) had a nice smooth, balanced sound to this drummer's ear.

Phantom Regiment 62.4 Phantom is sporting a splash of red this year. To go with the Roman theme, musicians had a drapy red kercheif around their neck. I think maybe it's supposed to signify a toga? The guard wears togas that give the appearance that they have no sides to them. Whoo boy! I enjoyed the musical selections. "Pines" is wonderful. Terrific hornline as usual. Phantom's sops are already soaring in the stratosphere. I was surprised by the drum line. They went with a tiny battery again this year (7-8 snares, 3 tenors, 4 bass) and the line sounded very choppy. The closer drill has a nice kind of retro look to it. The battery is lined up on the 50 and the hornline is about evenly split on either side. The battery, in a diamond, starts at the backfield, moves up near the sideline throughout the piece and then marches backwards towards the backfield again. It's actually a nice visual break from all of the sideways crabwalking you see.

Colts 56.5 Nice arrangements Chuck? Were you there last night? The third piece has a really cool tango feel to it. This show is a pretty big change from last year's fast and loud offering. There are many pretty moments in this show, almost reminiscent of an early 90s BK show. I need to hear it a few more times before I can comment in detail.

Pioneer 49.8 Fun fun show!!! Every single tune in this show will be recognized by almost everyone in the audience (Irish washerwomen, Danny Boy and ????) Hey you Kevlar/Mylar debaters, Pioneer has attempted to bring you together in peace. Their line is split, half use Kevlar, half use Mylar. They play some split parts throughout the show to nice effect. I didn't really notice that they were using two kinds of heads until they trooped the stands so I didn't pay attention to what the snares sounded like when they played in unison. As Frank said, this show should be a crowd favorite throughout the year.

Phantom Legion 40.6 Very dark, moody show this year. Very little crowd reaction. What happened to the faux palm trees?

Mirage: I don't know about Mirage but I thought the Glass crew were supposed to be at this show. It was originally scheduled as a DCI show at Otsego and somehow mutated into a DCM show. Anyone know what happened?

Eric Camburn
DC fan and Cavie alum (gotta acknowledge my bias)

Recaps - June 12, 1998, Portage, MI

Thanks to Brandon Hilton for emailing us these recaps!
              Gen Effect        Ensemble          Performance  
               Mus   Vis   tot   Mus   Vis   tot   Brass Perc  Vis  tot    Score (pen)
Cavaliers    | 13.1  12.9  26.0   9.5  11.0  20.5  6.8   6.5   5.0  18.3   64.8  (0.0)
Phantom      | 12.5  12.4  24.9   9.3  10.0  19.3  7.0   6.2   5.0  18.2   62.4  (0.0)
Colts        | 11.8  12.2  24.0   8.4   7.9  16.3  5.9   5.3   5.0  16.2   56.5  (0.0)
Pioneer      |  9.4  11.2  20.6   6.8   7.1  13.9  5.3   5.0   5.0  15.3   49.8  (0.0)
Phan. Legion |  7.8   8.1  15.9   6.3   5.3  11.6  3.8   4.3   5.0  13.1   40.6  (0.0)

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