July 10, 1997, Bulter, PA

Bluecoats................77.7
Magic of Orlando.........75.1
Carolina Crown...........70.2
Kiwanis Kavaliers........67.8
Southwind................61.8

Div II/III-
Jersey Surf..............63.7
Lone Star................63.2

Vagabonds................Exhibition

Thanks to Phil Lehenbauer for emailing us these scores!
Thanks to Claudia Whiting for emailing us these scores!

Review - July 10, 1997, Butler, PA

Thanks to Phil Lehenbauer for emailing us this review!


Editorial notes:

Well, it was a chilly night in Butler, PA for this show, but the corps were worth it! It was nice to have a show that did not have an intermission, and the only drawback was the amount of warm-up noise coming into the stadium.

There was the incessant wood block/jam block sound from guard warm-ups that many times covered the softer parts of shows on the field. I'm hoping penalties were assessed, but since it never stopped during the show, I doubt that this happened. Oh well...

Vagabonds
15H/19P/14G
With tunes from the Sound of Music, there were some pleasant moments, but with lots of unfinished guard work, it appeared to be one of their first performances. Horns were better than last year, but desperately need more baritone bodies!

Jersey Surf
30H/19P/8G
An enjoyable show thanks to a decent hornline, but it seems like development is being hindered by a drill that appears much too difficult. With the horns running many times, and a guard with much incomplete work, the show struggles in many places. Some nice solo/screamer work though helps the fun tunes along. I still like the uniform!

Lone Star
12H/15?P/4G
Didn't see too much of them, since I was grabbing warmer clothes from the car, but what I heard sounded okay.

Southwind
30H/32P/14G
Not knowing what to expect, I was very pleased by this show. While as previously stated in earlier reviews, the hornline is hindered by a lack of contra sound, but the playing was pretty good on this evening, especially in the opener. The music of Holsinger (as in Cadets "To Tame the Perilous Skies") is fun and gets the show off to a good start. I would hope they'll fix the spacing/holes in the opening company front, since the large gaps are quite noticeable, but other than that, with continued cleaning the show should come along well!

Kiwanis
47H/29P/24G
They were MUCH improved from a couple weeks ago, thanks mostly to complete guard work. The guard now uses oversized white/gold flags at the end of "Don't Cry For Me..." which help to give the ending a nice flourish. The horn line is better, but still missing some punch in places where you want it. The tone is still a little thin at the top, and could use more contra sound (there were 8 out there, just couldn't hear them!). If they continue to improve at this rate, they'll be in great shape for Orlando.

Carolina Crown
53H/31P/34G
A nice presentation of British music. The entry though the gates to start is a nice touch, but the gates don't serve much function thereafter. The guard was in creme/gold, with a variety of costumes throughout, but the equipment work in the middle section was very dirty! The horns sounded strong, but with intonation problems caused by the cold (as had most of the later corps).

I'm glad they brought back the "Enigma/Nimrod" from last year, since I love that tune!

Magic
60H/32?P/27G
The show gets off to a great start with the "Parade" segment, complete with drum majors enticing the crowd to join in (reminded me of old VK antics) and a sing-along. After this, the Robert Smith music is again original, but pleasant, with an especially nice middle section featuring a mello soloist.

The horn line jamming at the front sidelines at the end of the show with the guard using huge (and I mean BIG!) flags made for a great impact to close things up!

Bluecoats
57H/32P/33G
What can I say? It's a complete package of visual, horns, and drums wrapped up in lots of great music! The horns are probably the 'Coats best to date, and there's plenty of tasty percussion writing. And it's nice to see a guard doing equipment work for a whole show (flags and sabres)! With clean work like the guard is doing at this point (some awesome sabre work tonight!), they're very fun to watch. The drill was dirty on this evening, but there are many nice pictures and lots of well-charted contrary motion segments that make this a strong point. It you haven't seen the Bluecoats yet, you will be impressed!

July Scores

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