Thanks to Peter J. McKinney for this review!
Comments: June 27th, 1995, Eden Prairie, MN DCM Competition
This was my first Drum Corps show of the season so I have nothing to
compare these corps to. I'll just make a few brief comments. There
was some light to moderate rain before the show, but it stopped at
about the time the show started and never started again. The air was
moist and the field was damp throughout the show, however.
Coachmen 30.6 6th Place
This corps was added to the show after the program was printed and I
missed the show (I only heard a bit of it while buying my ticket).
Railmen 37.9 5th Place
The Railmen marched 31 members (9 brass, 4 guard, 10 percussion battery,
7 percussion pit, 1 drum major)
The drumline was surprisingly good for a corps this size. In general
the sound was much better than the marching, both from the horns and
the drums. The drumline is the strength of this corps and I was
disappointed that the last couple of minutes of the show contained
virtually no drumming. Nice show overall, though
Governaires (Sr. Corps) 47.3 4th Place
The Governaires marched a total of 61 members (20 brass, 14 guard,
10 percussion battery, 4 percussion pit, 1 drum major).
This corps, as is typical of senior corps, had a lot of energy and
let it show in their program consisting of Jazz music. The horns
sounded a bit blatty, but were louder than any of the previous corps.
The drum line sounded quite poor off the line, and did not play
relatively easy parts cleanly. By the time the drum solo
arrived, however, they were playing fairly meaty parts much
more cleanly. I imagine they're only practicing the fun
stuff..... ;-) The female drum major was dressed in an all-black evening
gown that matched the guard. She looked good in it, but somehow
it didn't quite fit the atmosphere....
Blue Stars 48.2 3rd Place
The Blue stars marched a program of Classical music with a total of
50 members (18 brass, 12 guard, 12 percussion battery, 7 percussion pit,
1 drum major).
The opener was Armenian Dances by Alfred Reed and the arrangement was quite
similar to the Phantom Regiment '84 version of Armenian Dances.
This show has potential but it needs *a lot* of cleaning in
all areas (marching and music). The drumline was not up to
the level of the Railmen line as far as execution is
concerned...
Northern Aurora Standstill Exhibition
Northern Aurora played music from Yanni with a corps of 52 members
(23 horns, 8 guard, 10 percussion battery, 9 percussion pit, 2 drum majors).
I was really looking forward to seeing this corps march and
was disappointed when I realized they would not. It was
never made clear as to why, but I can only assume it was
because the staff decided the field was too dangerous to
march on because it was wet. I was told by a Cavaliers
staff member that field conditions were the reason Cavies
didn't compete..... (I'll get to that in a moment).
This corps had the nicest sound overall at this point in the evening,
but that may have been partly due to the fact that they weren't moving.
The drumline was relatively clean, but the drum book was
fairly easy. The drum majors played a mellophone duet and
the one of them had a solo later in the show - interesting
touch. Neither of the drum majors were in uniform and one
of looked old enough to be a staff member (which may have
been the case since they weren't actually competing).
Anybody know if NA usually marches with one male and one
female drum major, or just one female drum major?
Minnesota Brass, Inc. (Sr.) 55.4 2nd Place
This local senior corps played a program of Jazz with 73 members (32
brass, 20 guard, 15 percussion battery, 6 percussion pit, 1 drum major).
Minnesota Brass easily won the senior corps' battle tonight. There are
some *fantastic* soprano players in this corps and we were treated to
come great solos and duets. Overall, the most complete program of the evening
thus far. The drill was reasonably solid and there were
enough members to fill it out well. There was a bit of
overplaying from both the horns and drums, but that's to be
expected of a senior corps...
Cavaliers Standstill Exhibition
I was surprised to see this that this corps was scheduled to appear
*before* the colts (it was printed that way in the program) and then
disappointed when it became clear that they would not march. Rumor
had it that Cavies were not marching because they hadn't been able to
make a run-through due to the rain. A Cavalier staff
member sat down near me to record the show and indicated
that the corps was not marching because the field was too
dangerous since it was wet. As a result the show
organizers were withholding a $700.00 fee that Cavaliers
would normally have received. I felt a bit cheated as a
paying customer (this was the "headline" corps after all),
but I can see the safety aspect of the situation too,
particularly if the Cavaliers have a fast-paced drill
(which the staff member claimed they did). When asked why
the Cavies would not march when other corps were able to,
the Cavalier staff member's reply was "They don't have our
drill". It sounded a bit condescending to the other
competitors to me, but it might be true..... One
redeeming feature of the standstill concert on the track
was that my seat was in row 6 on the 50-yard line! Cavies
were loud and *clean*! All of the "power hits" were tight
all across the horns and drums. The corps appeared to be
full-sized and I didn't bother to count the sections. The
drum line was fantastic to watch and hear, playing what was
easily the most difficult book of the evening with
precision. The snare line included many good, simple-but-
effective visuals, many of which looked as if they were
being used as timing devices for entrances. Lots of fun to
watch! Another notable item about the snare line is that
they used two sets of drums. The first 1/3 of the show
they used maroon colored drums that appeared to have Mylar
heads on them. They then removed those drums and picked up
drums with a black and white covering that matched the rest
of the line. The second set of drums appeared (and sounded)
as if they had Kevlar heads. I'll have to pay a bit more
attention next time I see Cavies, but I'm pretty sure I'd
prefer it if they just stuck with the Mylar for the entire
show.....
Colts 69.8 1st Place
The Colts are marching a nearly full corps of 120 members (54 brass, 30
guard, 23 percussion battery, 12 percussion pit, 1 drum major).
The show was nice, but a lot of cleaning work
needs to be done still (it *is* early in the season after
all....). They have a soft ending to the show which left
the audience just as quiet after the show. I'll look
forward to seeing how much they've improved later in the
season. The Colts were the final corps of the evening to
play. In general this was a nice early season show.
Now I'm really looking forward to the Stillwater, MN shows
at the end of July! As a closing remark - I was
somewhat surprised and felt a bit cheated by that fact that
Northern Aurora and The Cavaliers elected not to march this
evening. I have seen and marched in a number of shows that
took place in the rain (including the 1994 edition of this
same Eden Prairie show). Most of the times that I recall a
show being changed or canceled it was because it was
raining buckets at the time or it was because the field was
so wet and muddy that people could get stuck in it or
severely damage the turf. Tonight was the first time I'd
seen a corps elect to not march simply because the field
was damp. Is this a new trend, just a fluke, or has this
been the norm for a while now? On a related note - has
any corps ever marched with short cleats on the bottoms of
their shoes? It seems to me that something like golf shoes
might be a good thing for a corps to use. Granted, they'd
be lousy for a parade, but traction on the competition
field would be much more consistent. I'm sure
cleats/spikes would take a bit of getting used to - you
couldn't be sloppy about picking up your feet or you'd snag
the cleats. Although, if a corps were to practice with
cleats for a while, it might actually *help* marching
technique somewhat by forcing marchers to pick up their
feet properly.
Just my 2 cents worth.... It looks like
the Drum Corps season is off to a great start! Right now,
though, it's time for bed for me!
Pete
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