July 2, Riverside (Moreno Valley), CA

Thanks to Lorraine Greenberg on RAMD for this review!

Here is a brief review of the DCW show at Valley View H.S. on 7/2

Division II/III:

1.  Mandarins
2.  Blue Devils B
3.  Pacific Crest

Not to much to say about all 3 corps, except Mandarins show was the best 
of the 3 by far.  Liked their show a lot, actually thought their show was 
the best Mandarins show I have ever seen.  It was very innovative and 
exciting.  BDB and PC were good being so early in the season, but look 
out for the Mandarins in Buffalo.

Division I:

1.  Blue Devils (big shock here)
2.  Santa Clara Vanguard
3.  Velvet Knights

Blue Devils were awesome and then some.  This guy sitting behind us 
yelled, "Play LOUD!" and believe me, they did.  This corps will be hard 
to beat!  Are we looking at another unefeated season?  I think so.  If 
their show is this good now, cant wait to see it at Buffalo!  Their 
hornline is WOW!, the guard is UNBELIEVABLE and percussion is GREAT!  I 
would go into more rapture but this is a show you have to see for 
yourself.

Santa Clara Vanguard's show was terrific.  It's called NOT the Nutcracker 
and the crowd seemed to love it.  The guard rips off their brown dresses 
to reveal orange and brown bodysuits, to which all the men in the crowd 
cheered.  There are many surprises in this show and last years red 
poppies are now black and white strange shapes and spinning circles (like 
you would see in the opening credits on Twilight Zone).  Best Vanguard 
show I've seen since Miss Saigon.  

Velvet Knights seemed to be having more beach parties than practices-only 
kidding!  Their show has something to do with Harlequin Carnival music.  
Didn't understand it.  They were better than 94 VK, but need some work.  
The hornline was comme ci, comme ca, soloists and small ensembles did 
great.  Their drumline was spectacular-liked the turquoise drums.  The 
guard resembled bananas in their yellow spandex. in fact, the corps color 
this year is yellow, with yellow baseball caps and yellow shirts to be 
forthcoming.  Overall, they did a mediocre job, but do need some 
practice.  Liked the drill-cool concept.  Come Buffalo - we will see if 
this corps has what it takes to be in the top 12.

Thats all for now.

More reviews of San Diego (7/7), Long Beach (7/8) and Santa Barbara (7/9) 
to follow.

Lorraine Greenberg

-------------------------

Thanks to A PLES on PRODIGY for this review!

Some thoughts on the 7/2 Riverside, CA show.

First of all, the show was not actually in Riverside this year.  It was 
in Moreno Valley, about 10 miles away.  It was moved from Riverside
Community College, where it's been for about 10 years.  I think the sound 
was much better at that site with the hill behind the backside of the 
field.  At the new site, the backside was just basically open for miles.  
I was in the top row (only about 20 rows) and had a hard time with the
clarity of the sound.  Maybe it was because of the constant wind blowing 
from the back of the stands toward the field.

Oh yeah, the corps:

Velvet Knights:
Much improved over last year in all aspects.  Better show
design, more talent, futher along at this point of the
season.

The music is basically unrecognizable, but that's ok. It's
still a very entertaining book.  I agree with what other people
have said: this is a fun show, not funny (at least not yet).

The drum line is almost awesome.  On the field that is.
They WERE awesome in the parking lot before the show.  Now it's just
a matter of getting comfortable enough with the drill.  They
certainly have the toughest drum drill they've ever had.
These guys really move, especially during the drum solo.  I feel
the drum writing is much more interesting (entertaining) than
it's been the last few years.  The new drum guy (Tom Rettig, I
think that's his name) is doing a hell of a job with both writing 
and performance.  Another former 27th Lancer.  Seems like some
influence from Charlie Poole in the writing.  Nothing wrong 
with that, in fact we need more of it in the entire
activity. Get the entertainment factor back!  The horn line 
seems much more confident with the show than when I saw them two weeks 
ago.  They will be very respectable by the end of the
season. Again, they just need to get comfortable with the drill.
Speaking of drill, the writing is much much improved over
last year.  They're not close to executing it yet, but that will 
come.  The colorguard is also much improved over last year. 
I think that the new CG staff they brought in is just working 
them harder.  As far as the overall presence of the show,
it's there.  There are a number of spots in the show where I said 
to myself, this is a DCI finalist.  I couldn't say that for any
point in the show last year, even at semi-finals.  If they
If they make it into finals this year, which I think they will, it's
because of one main reason.  They hired Tony Hall (Phantom writer)
to write the drill.  It's about time they realized, you get
what you pay for.

Santa Clara:
A typical Santa Clara show.  If you saw them perform in
street clothes and didn't know who they were, very shortly you
would say, of course, this is Vanguard.  The show design is more
abstract than usual though. At this point, I really don't
know what the hell they're doing.  I need to see it again to
figure it out.  Whatever they're doing, it is pretty entertaining. 

There are some nice high points.  The hornline seems more
solid than usual for them at this time of the season.  But is
going on with the drum line?  Six snares and two quads?  When I
saw at practice two months ago they had a full line.  I hope
they are just waiting to add the other people to the show.  If
not, they are in trouble.  With this drumline, I don't see too
much higher than about sixth. The people they have are playing
fairly well, it's just that there isn't enough of them.  The
colorguard is performing at typical SCV guard level for this
time of the year.  Very competent, but nothing special.  As 
far as the guard uniforms, they do some nice costume changes
thoughout the show. 

BUT, how should I put this, OK, I'm glad they left on a substantial 
amount of uniform after the last change.  I don't mean to be unkind, 
but this guard probably has largest number of "beefy" woman I've ever 
seen in a colorguard in 30 years of watching drum corps.  When I 
saw them in the parking lot warming up with just their last layer body suit, 
I said to myself, Oh my god - I can't believe Santa Clara would
choose these body suits for this particular guard.  But at
least they have the class not to have them on the field like
that, I would be embarrassed mainly for the girls
themselves. It has nothing to do with them being female, I would not
want to see overweight guys in those body suits either.  I will
probably get flamed for these comments, but I'm sorry, I
call it the way I see it.  Would you rather have all phony
nicety-nice commentary like in Drum Corps World?

Blue Devils:
Another horn title?  Another guard title?  Another trophy?
All three are possible.  The guard and trophy part of it may
depend on the fact that the Cadets have an earlier than usual start
this year.  We all know how the Cadets can clean a show in
the last two weeks of the season, but give them two months to
clean?  It could be very challenging for BD this year.

Sure, the Devils have opened a big spread over Santa Clara now,
but it seems to be closing.  And if SCV can get their drum house 
in order, the spread should close even more quickly.  Yes, BD
has a super talented horn line but I think the key to their
success this year is how far can they take the drumline.  In the
parking lot before the show, the DL didn't seem to be up to 
the level of some of the great BD lines of the past.  But man,
when they are on the field, watch out!  They really know how not 
to leave their best performance of the day on the practice
field.

The horn line is great, no doubt about it.  But, they don't 
seem to be quite up to level of past BD hornlines, even last
year.  Maybe it was the sound I was getting because of the
acoustics of that field.  They didn't seem to have as much
of that classic BD "smooth blend".  I need to see them a couple
more times to decide. BD seems to be so far ahead of the
rest in execution right now, their biggest problem may be not
peaking too early.  The other corps have a lot more room for
improvement right now.  The question is how much and when
will their peaks happen?  Will they pass BD by Aug. 12?  I think 
it's possible.

One more thing about Blue Devils.  They are using human skulls
as guard props.  Is it me, or is this just too weird?  At
the very least, is this in bad taste?  I personally don't
believe the devil worship mumbo-jumbo.  But could this be
interpreted by some as devil worship, especially on tour in the Bible
belt states?  Maybe I'm making a big deal over nothing, but the
drum corps activity doesn't need any more black eyes with the
fans.

I think they should get rid of the skulls, NOW!

Pete

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