July 1, Mt. Prospect, IL

Thanks to Eric Camburn on RAMD for this review!

I just got back from this show and have a few brief comments.
I won't comment on everybody, just on things that really stuck
out. It's late and I'm tired, so I'm just going to cast a big
IMO over everything that's written here.  OKay? 

Capital Sound - Capital was very ragged when I saw them 2 weeks ago
at Oswego.  They have made tremendous improvements since then but
still have a lot of cleaning to do.

Americanos - The sound this 12 person horn line gets is amazing at
points.  Entertaining show except there are two wooden ramp like
things placed backfield that are covered with what appear to be
white bed sheets.  These ramps are barely utilized in the show.
Perhaps they will be incorporated more later.  Is there more drill
to come???  Last minute or so of the show the whole corps simply
marks time. Drum line, especially snares, were pretty muddy. 

Pioneer - Watched them practice a little before the show.  Their staff
seemed really jazzed with how the corps was performing. The first
two pieces, Emerald Dance and Year of a Comet, have some very 
pretty moments.  Looked like some nice staging of the guard.  
I could barely discern the melody of the Enya piece which is unfortunate 
because it's a pretty piece too.   

Glassmen - Gotta throw my chips in with Jeff Wise regarding these guys.  
The jazzed up version of Ode to Joy just sounded plain cheesy 
to me.  There has to be a solid four minutes of the show where
the drum line is either dancing (first two minutes of the show 
I think) or resting.  When they do have their drums on, the battery's
parts seem pretty devoid of meat. There is a really interesting effect
at the end of the third piece where a solo is played on a set of 
orchestra bells from the back right hand corner of the field.  

Cavaliers - Music and drill have been vastly improved in last two 
weeks.  There appear to have been some rewrites, with the end 
result being more big impact moments.  The drum line plays
their very demanding book extremely well. The Cavliers treated
everybody to a victory concert after retreat which included
Over the Rainbow. 
 
Eric Camburn



Thanks to Joe Bruno on AOL for this review!

Nice show -- great weather (actually a little cool by end of the evening)
-- nice crowd for this DCM show.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I SEE THIS SHOW FROM THE ANNOUNCER'S TABLE
(this time on the "20" -- left side of the pit), THE WORST SEAT IN THE HOUSE!

This was my first look at Vanguard, Capital Sound, Kiwanis Kavaliers, Colts
and Glassmen. Noticeable improvements in the shows of Americanos, Pioneer
and Cavaliers.

Vanguard works hard, but will have a difficult time making DCM Senior
Finals.

Capital Sound (merged Madison Jr.'s with Capitalaires) looks sharp in
traditional D&B corps uniforms.  I was impressed with their performance,
though score wasn't impressive.  This corps has something to build on, 
and should do well in Div.III standings by later in the year.

Americanos continue to improve on their latin performance.  I was shocked
to learn that the staff never bothered to play the Sergio Mendez CD "Brasilerio" 
from which their percussion features were drawn.  I have the CD and the
percussion knocks people over when played on a big system with sub-woofers (etc.)
The kids seem to be having fun, and the brass performance continues to improve.
Nice show!

To give you an idea of how the Kiwanis Kavaliers performed, remember that
the Pioneer beat the Troopers last week by over 3 points -- and Kavaliers
were 3 points behind Pioneer here.
Nice show -- nice color -- good crowd reactions.  They can score well in
DCI Div.II -- should easily be a top 25 corps this year.

Pioneer has added some visuals to the show which still need polishing. 
Yet their music and visual performance draws good crowd reaction.
This has got to be Pioneer's best brass and percussion line ever.
Percussion line moves and plays with the confidence of a Div.I corps.
Good improvements in the brass line in just a week.  But they've got to
keep up the hard work if they plan to repeat as DCI Div.II Champs in Buffalo!

Colts have a nice corps and a nice show (Sunday in the Park with George),
but there seems to be some of that old "Esprit de Corps" missing from this show.
The performance was good, and technically, I thought the Colts might
finish in 2nd.

Glassmen are enjoyable, playing some "religious" Bach.  They still need to
clean a lot of the show, but the idea sells well to the crowd, and the corps
works hard to present a show that most should really like.

Cavaliers were "on".  The show was so much sharper -- crisper than it was
only last week.  I wish I could see what their visuals really look like
(remember, I'm on the 20 -- left side of the pit).  But the corps members
seemed to perform much more effortlessly than before. While some may
not be familiar with "The Planets", I've heard this drum corps before, and
I'm starting to get intoit.  Cavies were the cream of the crop tonight,
and as sharp as theyperformed, the would seemto have the edge on the "big 5"
in the midwest, going into the DCM Championships in DeKalb in 2 weeks.

But then again, a lot can happen in 2 weeks of drum corps!  That's
actually 20% of the season!!!

Looking forward to announcing the DCM Finals in DeKalb, July 15th!  I'll
see you then!

Joe Bruno

Seattle Web Factory

Web and Page design ©1995 Seattle Web Factory