Special Review - July 25-26, 1997, Whitewater, WI

Thanks to Brian Schriber for emailing us this review!


Editorial notes:

This is the first time I have been to one of the Preview shows. I have been to Warhawk stadium (now called Perkins, but not after the most used Drum Corps after show feast restaurant) a number of times, including 1984 when we marched a show there. This is a really nice stadium, well setup for Drum Corps with a LOT of history. It was hot an muggy though. Ugh! It was brutal. I didn't feel bad going through the shirt changes for a show. Before I launch into this I have to thank Annie and Ben for the tickets and for arranging the flight into Madison as well as the rental car. It was a fun weekend. Well, on with the review.

Southwind - 10th - 66.6
This corps is much improved since I saw them last, The sops are much better controlled and more on pitch. The drill is not bad but it still has some bumps here and there. The drums are OK, so overall this show is starting to come together. I was disappointed the last time I saw them, but they were much better this time around.

Troopers - 11th - 62.7
To start off with Troopers are getting smaller. The horns are weak but the midrange seemed fairly strong. The drumline is very small. The drill is not bad, but Southwind seemed about the same, maybe stronger. This is some classic Troopers as show goes, including the Sunburst. Southwind beat them easily though.

Boston Crusaders - 8th - 74.2
Wow. A very nice horn line combined with some interesting drill. I like the use of the frames throughout, they never quite get in the way like some props have in the past, although they do get close. I was very impressed with this years show.

Kiwanis Kavaliers - 7th - 77.7
Nice horns and kickin' drums. That Bass run is really good, but it was a little harder to hear this time. I have to admit that Evita is really coming across well, and they re-worked the closer so that it works a LOT better than it did before. I am impressed with what they have done. I put them a smidgen over Boston.

Les Etoiles - 9th - 71.8
Even better than last year. The drum move is back along with another drum move in some 6 person contraption that looks like a vertigo ride of some type. By then the crowd is already going nuts. The horn line is improved from last year and the drill is not bad. I would put them above Kiwanis. The judges disagree with me. I can only think it is execution, probably on the field level.

Glassmen - 5th - 82.9
A VERY nice horn line. They only have a small problem in a few sections but much better than Les Etoiles. The drums are tight but do not generate The GE Les Etoiles does. Still it is very nice overall, and should not have a problem getting into top-12.

Crossmen - 4th - 83.7
That wonderful horn balance shines through all during the show and the drumline is incredible. They start with Birdland and it just smoked. I was really hyped about this one tonight. They seem to have a bit more power in the horn line, not much but noticeable. The drill is getting real clean this show is HOT. Beat Glassmen without a doubt.

Bluecoats - 5th - 82.9
Hmm. Last month I said Bluecoats blew Crossmen away, tonight that was not the case. I would not have expected the Crossmen to get close to these guys. They still have a great hornline and drums as well. But Crossmen pulled some GE and got very close. The sound is still biased heavily toward the high end. Bluecoats can probably do better, but I put them a smidgen over Crossmen. For the first time though I feel that Crossmen can beat this corps. The judges thought so too and actually put Crossmen ahead. WOW!

Blue Devils - 1st - 91.2
Oooh. Wow! What a horn line, what a drum line. Very nice drill. This is really a great show. No wait, it was Awesome! The very few mistakes stood out just because they were so few. I am impressed with Devils this year. I like them a lot! This corps is really going to cream Cadets, unless Cadets show improvement from the last time I saw them.

Santa Clara Vanguard - 2nd - 88.7
Very impressive. The horns have GREAT releases and some very heavy hits. I was not expecting a show this good. Drill is better than BD in my opinion, but I give horns to SCV. BD should have drums and maybe GE, but this is real close. Just behind BD, but they can take them. Welcome back Santa Clara.

Phantom Regiment - 3rd - 88.2
Okay, just give them horns. This show was VERY clean until about 3/4 of the way through. Then they showed some guard and drill mistakes. The GE is not as sharp as BD or SCV, in fact unless the show goes practically perfect I think the GE will wither. If it goes right though the GE will be very high due to being perfect. They can win, but it will have to be totally perfect to get past the GE the other corps generate. I put them in 3rd.

Retreat for the night.

Blue Devils started off Canada/America. What happened? The horn line totally fell apart there, but it got it together when everyone else joined in, either that or they let everyone else carry it. It showed some real problems with the horns and the sound. Listening during the standstill I heard some horn problems as well. Not characteristic of a Blue Devils horn line. This could cause them problems at Finals. But when they crank into the show they play it sounds really good overall as an ensemble.

Opening Ceremonies for the night.

Okay, tonight we get a real opening ceremony with lots of stuff and some special stuff by the remaining active 7 corps of the original 13 that founded DCI. We also saw a member of each corps that has ever made finals in the original uniform that they made finals in. It was fun trying to guess the corps on some of the more obscure uniforms, and some have REALLY changed. Bridgemen looked like a yellower version of Cadets, not the Zoot suit I remember. Purple Lancers gave us some problems as well, since Blue Devils uniform looked purple as well. I got a number of them right but had no clue on a bunch. Suncoast, Guardsmen, Spirit, Phantom, Boston, Blue Stars, these were the really easy ones. It was fun. Oddly, we did not see a Star uniform, nor did they announce one.

All through the ceremonies they would go to each corps and recognize the awards they had won, and give a bit of history for each and then they would play something for the crowd. The first up were the Blue Stars, who played the Canadian and American national anthems. Not too shabby but the sops need work on supporting tones. The next corps was Troopers who played a tune I couldn't place but it was probably How the West was Won or some other classic Troop song. I liked it, just wish I could remember the name. Next up was Boston Crusaders who played, what else, Conquest. And No-one did the yells, AMAZING! I actually heard Conquest all the way through. And they did a good job with it!

Now we move on to the big corps, starting with Cadets. Cadets were in a block and did not bring up any horns, which I thought strange until they started singing the Holy Name Cadets corps' song. It was very classy and something very special. Not only can they play and march, they can sing. What can't they do? Cavies were next and they played Over the Rainbow which was really pretty. SCV was the next to play and they did Send in the Clowns. Between Cavies and SCV I was really feeling mellow. If that was not enough the final corps was Madison and they played You'll Never Walk Alone starting at first alone and after a bit ALL the corps joined in. It was very impressive, and most of all there was a soloist over on the hill on the backside who played very well. It practically had me in tears, it was so touching. And this was just the beginning of the evening.

Spirit of Atlanta - 9th - 68.4
From the opening strains of Georgia you know that Spirit is back. They do a very nice job but have a few horn problems in the middle. The drum solo is real hot but outside of that the drums are not spectacular, just good. Still, overall, this is a major jump up from last year.

Pioneer - 9th - 68.4
Very nice horns and improved drums from last year. This is not a bad show, still some solid work needs to be done here. They seem to be having the same problem Southwind had its first year in Open class, they are a little hesitant. They just don't seem to have the confidence they did even last year. This show is also just not as exciting as last years. Here and there you can hear some sop attack problems. They should have beaten Spirit tonight though.

Academie Musicale - 8th - 71.6
Another technically improved corps that just does not have the excitement of last years show. They have some very sweet horns and the drums are very good. I like the drill, they do a very good job with a difficult show. And that guard works VERY hard. I like it overall.

Blue Knights - 5th - 80.9
The first power horn line of the evening. Some very good sound here and a hot drum line better that Academie. This show is Ben Hur, but it has been so long I did not recognize any of it, but Annie did. It must have met with her approval, cause she really liked the music. Without knowing any of the music I will say that it starts HOT and ends HOT but even Annie agrees with me that the middle lacks something. Solidly in finals.

Colts - 6th - 77.9
Wow, finally a hot show that also shows great technique. The horn line wailed through Blood, Sweat and Tears. I like the control and attacks from the hornline. A solid drum line backs them up along with a great guard uniform. Girls in 'Biker wear' really sell this show for me. I think I would put them ahead of BK by a smidgen.

Carolina Crown - 7th - 76.9
Not bad. They have a nice horn line and some good drums but I think the Colts show is better. They are much improved on drill and GE since the last time I saw them. The show is really coming together, but they are behind Colts and BK. It will be interesting going into finals.

Magic of Orlando - 4th - 82.5
This is Hot! The GE is right up there and the horns have power. The drums are very nice. The drill is good but they have a little of last years Cadets non-march disease here and there. Still, this show is fun and everyone has a good time, especially the shades for the DM. It is tough to actually sing along though, especially since I hate people talking during a show. One of my favorite shows this year so far.

Cadets of Bergen County - 1st - 92.4
Oh my god. Awesome does not get close. This is even better than last time I saw them. I was absolutely amazed at the drums, drill, and guard. The horn runs of the opener show off a horn line that is unreal. I don't know if I should give them horns or Phantom. And they still have some cleaning that they can do. Jeez! Just how good can you get?

Madison Scouts - 2nd - 88.1
This was a real treat. I saw them in the afternoon sweat fest when they did a standstill. I wimped out, since I forgot my sunblock at the hotel and was using a borrowed umbrella as a blocker, and stayed in the stands while most everyone else mingled with the corps. The music was very nice and what I saw of the guard was pretty good. I just didn't think it was going to challenge the top corps. Man was I wrong. The guard does a great job here when you get to see the show. The story they run through is real fun and well done. The horns are vintage Madison even though it is not spanish jazz. Its Very different but still hot, intense, FUN! This may be my favorite show of the year. But not ahead of Cadets yet.

Cavaliers - 3rd - 87.2
Pure class. Another great guard and the standard Cavies drill. A very nice show but the horns are behind Cadets, Madison, BD, Phantom, and SCV. The drums are fairly close to the top line though. This is a nice show but it needs some real cleaning to challenge. I think it could though.

Retreat for the night.

Well, Canada/America went very well. Much better than last night. Cadets did the same space music retreat that they did in Durham. Once again I picked out Jetsons, Star Trek, Empire Strikes Back, and Mars. This was really nice and when they resolved into that huge loud chord it just blew our face off. Once it was cut off, someone in back yelled "The audience is listening!", no doubt the THX thing. Of course he was right, it is awesome. The retreat was a bit shorter, and they don't do much of the show, but they make up for it with the fun and some tunes that are not part of the show.

Thoughts on the placement at Worlds.

Looking over the placement of scores as they happened at Whitewater this is what the races come down to at Finals. Now in this first group of 3 corps the battle is to retain DCI status. I really only see Spirit in the race to stay there. After all Tarheel Sun is beating Southwind right now, and they are in a horse race with 2 or 3 other Div-II corps for their championship.

This next group are all fighting for Friday night spots and I think They will probably come through in the order they are in. Boston is real strong and I just don't see any of the other corps catching them. That leaves Pioneer the hard work to get Friday. They can do it, but they have a lot of cleaning to do. They also need to remember to relax and have fun like they did over the past few years. The only lock here is Boston.

And now we turn our attention to the race for Finals night and those last 2 spots in the top 12. This is going to be tough since we have a lot of good corps here. I think Crown is in the worst shape, they need a lot more cleaning, but the GE is not enough even with that. Kiwanis can make a run, but that means getting by Colts, and I don't think they can do that. Colts and BK are both looking real sharp right now. I think they will make it, with Kiwanis pushing hard that last week.

These are basically the corps in the hunt for 7th place. A month ago it looked like a lock for Bluecoats, with Magic and Crossmen trying to keep pace. Now Crossmen are in the drivers seat and looking REAL good, with Glassmen and Magic being the contenders in my opinion. Bluecoats will need some real work, so right now I would say that Magic is really ahead of both Bluecoats and Glassmen (score notwithstanding). Glassmen should move ahead of Bluecoats very shortly.

And now the drive for the top spot. Right now ANY of these corps can pull it out and win. But Cavies and Phantom have so much work to do to contend that I am putting them in line for 5th and 6th. Phantom should be behind Madison, unless they pull out a perfectly clean show. Even then 3rd may be all it could do, due to the lack of GE in the show itself. Cavies need to be a lot cleaner to beat Phantom (A LOT cleaner) But the show is very well done. I put Cavies as 6th, unless something happens on the last few nights. Madison and SCV are fighting for 3rd right now, and I give the nod to SCV. Both have great shows, but unless BD and Cadets fall apart they won't come out on top. I like Madison's show more, but SCV smokes in execution. BD and Cadets are blowing all the competition away. Right now I would give it to Cadets, because they have a more difficult show and do it as clean or better than BD. Cadets have everything working.

The 'Original-Every-Night' T-Shirt Guy
Talisman - Brian Schriber
Crossmen 84-85

July Scores | July 25, Whitewater scores | July 26, Whitewater scores


Special Commentary - July 25-26, 1997, Whitewater, WI

Thanks to Bobbie for emailing us this Special Commentary!


Editorial notes:

Field&Floor Ezine 10

Field&Floor addresses all the young performers in Whitewater

All the good friends of Field&Floor just spent a wonderful weekend watching and enjoying your performances. We all took vacation time, traveled into southern Wisconsin, fed on the generous mid-western buffets, even weathered Orlando-like humidity just to watch you, to enjoy you, to applaud you, to stand and offer ovations to you.

Thank you, from the 15,000 of us, from all the gathered fans, the friends of Field&Floor.


But that's not why we're writing today. It's not to just thank you that we've gone to such efforts to get this message to you today. No. In addition to our little, insignificant congratulatory message, we just wanted to mention how important each of you -- each member of each corps -- is to your staffs and to the leadership of Drum Corps International.

We know you're aware than YOU, the kids (well, young performers) are the MAIN reason that this activity exists. It's for your education, your benefit, that your talented and motivational staffs work with you all this time; and it's also the reason the professionals at DCI manage your tour schedule, set up all the marvelous venues in which you perform, and send the word out to the world about the drum and bugle corps activity.

I'M STAFF
Bob (not his real name) and his wife have been spending their summers and their money traveling to watch you for more than 25 years. They buy blocks of the most expensive tickets each August for the next year. They gather their friends from across the country to join them in some of the best seats in every house -- including Whitewater. As you wonderful young people of Kiwanis Kavaliers set up to perform selections from Evita, one of your color guard instructors pushed people aside as he ran up the center aisle of the stadium to stand at the top of stadium -- blocking the aisle. As your show began, he began to talk.

Bob turned to him and said: "Be quiet."

Staffer: "I'm staff."

Bob: "You damned staff are what's wrong around here."

At that point, your staff member -- your leader and mentor -- red-faced by now, moved towards Bob as if he might hit him. At least your staff member shut up so we could try to enjoy your show.

Although this scrawny young man was the worst, fans sitting with and around Bob were met with the stoic, condescending, "I'm Staff," from the Bluecoats, Les Etoiles, Crossmen, and Blue Devils, when each was asked to either move and quit blocking the main aisle of the stadium, or to be quiet during a show.

DCI, SHUT THE [expletive deleted] UP!
Early in the evening, as chatter floated out from the press box, Sally (we have no idea what her name really is) turned and asked a gentlemen if he was a judge. When he said "No." she -- this mother of performers, this corps mom, this fan -- said, in the most polite way: "If you have to talk during a performance, would you please talk more softly?" Applause drifted through an entire section of the stadium.

But, alas, it did no good. The level of conversation increased with each successive performance, until . . . during a ballad section of the corps show, another fan -- across the way from Sally -- stood up, turned to face the press box, and in obvious exasperation, yelled: "DCI, shut the [expletive deleted] up!"

We heard no more conversation from the press box that evening.

This is how much your staffs and the leadership of DCI value what you are presenting on the field, how much they value the experience, how much they want you to succeed both personally and as individual corps.


DANGEROUS EROSION
Although things settled down a bit on Saturday night, what with the historical homage which opened the evening, all the friends of Field&Floor expressed emotions ranging from disappointment to downright outrage themselves at the state of our stadiums. We also realized that what we witnessed -- which was mighty close to a melee -- was not the result of poor parental breeding, nor was it an isolated incident.

What we witnessed was a visible sign of the dangerous erosion that now exists between all the adult factions in drum and bugle corps: DCI leadership, corps staffs, and fans. And all in the name of educating and giving each of you young performers a positive, role-modeling experience. All the leadership wants is for you to have good venues and shows in which to participate; all your staffs want is for you to have a good marching/competitive experience; and all that the fans in the stands -- the friends of Field&Floor -- want is to enjoy it all, while helping underwrite the experience.

Instead, we have almost come to physical blows.


Instead of lowering the boom on DCI and demanding some action (which is what we considered during the weekend) calmer, at-home, minds have prevailed and we come to all three adult factions within the drum and bugle corps community with requests. We'll hang onto that we're all in this together as long as we can. But a word of warning: if we don't see something done -- and quickly--we will easily postulate that the 15,000 number we've volleyed about will diminish exponentially yet again.

TO THE FANS IN THE STANDS: We're there with you -- we ARE you. Don't lower yourself to the level of behavior exhibited by corps staffs. Please continue to simply ask or request that noisy folks please be quiet during shows. Even though we can't fault the fellow for the outburst, we hated that young children in the audience had to hear such language. One of our closest friends of Field&Floor walked up to the press box after one show and confronted the talkers directly, quietly, sincerely, but insistently. It worked, and no one knew anything had happened . . . well, except that things got quiet.

TO THE CORPS STAFFS: Who died and made you queen? (As if you needed another reason.) Unless you want this fine activity to become a private affair between corps and judges, grow up. As long as you push and shove your way past paying fans to take the top, middle row in stadiums, then fantasize that "Bryan" can hear your squealing to "Kick Ass," we'll continue to tell you "Shut up and get out of the way." Or worse. Whoever chose the lot of you as leaders of young people made a mistake. What we have endured for entirely too long is pitiful and pathetic behavior.

TO DCI: Apparently you will have to play referee here. But we think we have an idea--who hasn't had this idea a thousand times before?--that will take care of the situation. Create a staff box in the stands, an area of 20 or so seats that are cordoned off for the staff to come and go from with each corps. Then make them sit there, and there only.

See everyone in Orlando, and on the 50! The good friends of Field&Floor.


Are you getting Field&Floor ten times a year, and as a cyber e-zine countless times throughout the drum and bugle corps and color guard seasons?

NO? If you want to start getting the most fun in pageantry in, well 25 years, just email us at bobbie123@aol.com and give us both your cyber and postal addresses. We'll take it from there.

Field&Floor is put together by a bunch of friends -- and Bobbie', of course -- who love the pageantry biz. We just don't much like what the adults who run the industry are doing to it.

So we keep our eyes on things by reading the official 'zines, attending competitions; reviewing videotapes; making appearances at the major events; and commenting on it all! Just for you!

We'll try to stay on top of things, and have issues for every season and for any reason.

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