Thanks to ChiBoyinLA on r.a.m.d for this review! O.K. guys, here's my reviews of the four open class corps that performed in Southern California this weekend. First, the caveats: 1) It was VERY hot this weekend, especially on Sunday (over 100 degrees at show time). I'm sure this effected the performances - I know that it deadened the crowd. 2) The Division II/III corps are not reviewed here. I will note however, that I enjoyed these shows, and it was GREAT to see three new corps in exhibition, including TWO corps from the drum corps void of San Diego that are off to promising starts! 3) I'm a lot more critical (read: brutally honest) than some of the other reviews I've read on RAMD and in Drum Corps World. Based on those reviews, I thought I was going to see four sure-fire finalists this weekend. I didn't. Now, on to the reviews.... VELVET KNIGHTS: First, the good news: The Velvet Knights are attempting to return to their trademark wackiness. Also, the show concept is in better shape than it was at the same time last year. Now, the bad news - and, unfortunately, there is plenty of it. First, the corps is noticeably smaller than last year. The corps marched only about 50 horns on Sunday, and there are numerous, noticeable holes in the drill. There were only 9 girls marching in the guard - enough said. The drumline numbers also are down from last year (6 snares/3 tenors), and so is the quality. Last year, percussion was the clear strength of this corps - definitely a finalist-caliber unit. This year they are not. There's something seriously wrong when the only Division I corps in Southern California is marching only around 90 members. The show has some promise. The new "NASA" flight suit uniforms work well with this show. The guard uni's are great, too: a sleek metallic-silver body suit, with matching silver mini-skirts and silver headgear (picture a metallic swimming cap). "Magical Mystery Tour" starts with a silent rotating/exploding block drill for the first 24 or so counts, and then the corps hits us with the familiar fanfare from 1987 and 1992. "MMT" lasts for a very short time, and then the corps goes into "Also Sprach Zarathustra" i.e. "Theme from 2001". We are introduced to a character dressed in a spacesuit w/jetpack who poses for us ala' Schwartzenegger - this is rather funny. Unfortunately, this is the last funny thing this guy does - for the entire second half of the show, he fake-boxes a "monster" (read: guy with cheesy alien mask) down front on the right 35-yard line. I'm sure that the staff will work these two characters into the show in a much greater degree as the summer progresses, but for now they are really distracting, and really dumb. The corps plays "The Jetsons" O.K., but the horns had a lot of trouble with it on Sunday. The (attempted) screaming soprano licks were particularly painful. The show really bogs down for the next 6 minutes - nothing funny, nothing memorable in the music or drill. It is going to take a lot of work to fix this part of the show. I think the music they play here includes excerpts from the Star Trek and Star Wars movies. Then they start into the "Bottle Dance" music, verbatim. Five guard girls wearing Darth Vader masks come down front and center, and right when the music gets to the part where the bottle dance actually starts (the end of the crescendo....hum it in your head; or, think about where the "Not" sign appeared in 1992), the horns abruptly shift to "Darth Vader's Theme", while the drums play accents on counts "2" and "4", with visuals ala' SCV. This scene is kind of funny, but only to those familiar with drum corps history (I had to explain the whole thing to my girlfriend, who was attending her first corps show). Also, the scene really has nothing to do with anything that proceeded it - nobody could understand why it suddenly appeared in that part of the show. The show ends in a manner reminiscent of "Hungarian Rhapsody #2" in 1992, except this year they use a medley of "Star Wars", "Into the Wild Blue Yonder", and a few others. The closer will be effective once it is cleaned and the horns have some stamina. The outlook for VK isn't great. IMHO, they are a LONG shot to make finals. The show is pretty cheesy, and the corps simply is not as talented as the 1987 and 1992 corps that took cheesy shows all the way to 7th and 10th place. The key to those corps was good execution - that's what made the shows funny and enjoyable instead of juvenile. I don't think this year's VK can make that jump. Also, the almost total lack of a guard just kills this corps' visual program. Finally, the corps' traditional weakness in M&M hasn't improved. BLUE KNIGHTS Lots of the same problems as VK. First, BK's horn line is EVEN SMALLER THAN VK'S! I counted only 40 horns, with 5 contras(?!). The drumline also is smaller than past years (6 snares, 3 tenors). Unlike VK, though, this Ralph Hardimon drumline can still play, and had several tasty licks throughout the show. Also unlike VK, BK has a good sized coed guard of about 26 members. Also noteworthy were several sets of beautiful handpainted flags. Unfortunately, the hornline doesn't put out any sound. They weren't much louder than Pacific Crest, who had half as many horns. Further, there were LOTS of ensemble problems between horns and drums, and between the battery and pit. The show design also isn't anything special. Many fans (including me) have often thought that BK was always trying to be a western version of the Cadets, but never quite achieving the same level of excellence. This year is no exception, with BK opening with Nelson's "Rocky Point Holiday". Frankly, BK's arrangement of this chart is a bland knockoff of the arrangement that catapulted the Cadets to their first DCI championship in 1983. BK has little new to offer - all of the same "impact" points are there, the mellophone runs are essentially the same, the battery takes the lead in the same spots, etc.; however, BK does not generate anywhere close to the same excitement that the Cadets did 13 YEARS AGO! "Sonoran Desert Holiday" is more of the same. There is some interesting material here, but right now it comes across as lifeless. The guard could do much more to explore the southwestern/desert theme. The bottom line is that BK at least has some potential for growth with this show. The music is far more mature than VK's and offers plenty of room for thematic exploration (as noted above, Cadets proved this many years ago). But BK is not going to make finals without adding a dozen horns, greatly improving their visual program and seriously improving their marching (I haven't mentioned it, but it was not Top-12 caliber). Right now, they are seriously lacking in GE. Of course, they are lucky that they will be battling several other corps with small hornlines for that 12th spot. SANTA CLARA VANGUARD Much more good news here! The corps is FAR ahead of last year's corps at this time. The hornline is much more mature, projecting quality sound with hardly any "laser-tone" standouts like last year. The hornline already is hitting the impacts effectively, nearly matching Blue Devils on the decibel-meter (but not quite!). The snare line has returned to traditional grip, and the entire battery projects a strong presence on the field like the SCV of old. The bass, cymbal and pit sections are as strong as usual. I believe that SCV edged BD in drums both nights. The guard is also quite skillful, and is outfitted in long, beautiful aquamarine dresses that fit the "Ocean" theme perfectly. The numerous shades of blue, teal and green in the handpainted silks also work very well. The corps proper is outfitted differently this year. They retain the white aussies, white shoes and evergreen pants. The tunic has new colors, although the style of the thing is the same as the last 25 years: a jacket with diagonal sash. This year, the sash is copper, the portion of the tunic above the sash is white, while the portion below the sash is the same evergreen color as the pants. This may not sound like a big deal, but to my eyes, the dual- colored tunic made the corps look much different on the field. Frankly, I am not enamored with the new look, but that could be because it is strikingly similar to what my high school band was wearing, circa 1985. The show is solid, but not very innovative. The ocean theme is easy to understand, with "waves" occurring throughout the drill (although nothing as interesting as the waves in last year's Cavaliers drill). The music, though unfamiliar, is very accessible. The show design is light-years ahead of last year's confusion, and the corps also is much better prepared. But there are a few drawbacks to the show. First, the drill. On the plus side, it is clean and easy to read. Lots of block formations, and wide curvillinear forms. On the down side, it could have just as easily been written for the 1986 Vanguard, instead of the 1996 version. I don't mean to slam the 1986 show, rather I'm pointing out that there is little in the way of drill innovation here. The problem with drill are an apt metaphor for the whole show. It seems that the design staff played things a little bit on the safe side. In response to last year's design mess (and the subsequent departures of the director and many instructors), this year's staff shot for classic Vanguard entertainment, and they achieved that. The show is crowd-pleasing, easy to read, well executed, and a heck of a lot better than last year. They are only about 3 points down from the Blue Devils juggernaut, and that seems about right. But the lack of innovation and (IMHO) difficulty will hurt them in August. Although SCV is much improved from last year, it will be tough for them to move up much further in the standings. Definately Top 6 this year - but a long shot for Top 3. BLUE DEVILS Everything you've heard about them is true, so I'll keep my comments brief. They are clean, every section is outstanding, the show is more accessible than last year and they can WAIL!! From the very first note the Devs leave no doubt as to their intentions: its a 16-count (perhaps longer) blast-chord from the horns, with the battery playing crazy junk up to their ears, while the whole corps is massed near the front sidelines. It goes kind of like this: WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! and then on with the rest of the show. :-) The gangster theme works well: the guard tough-guy struts throughout the show, and the Devs' funky jazz (Mingus!) is a good fit. The end of the show is particularly frenzied, as the guard dizzily spins stark, black-and-white striped flags, drill velocity approaches light speed, and the battery starts playing above their heads. At the very end, the rapid-fire mid-field drill evolutions disintegrate, the guard runs to the back sideline, randomly tossing away their flags all over the field, while the horns and drums run to the front sideline while building a massive wall of sound. As the final note blasts away the audience, one defiant guard "gangster" stands at mid field. It is a very exciting effect, and brings to mind either a jailbreak, or a car chase where the bad guy gets away (the music is entitled "The Chase" - a Wayne Downey original). Blue Devils will be a top contender come August. They will challenge for ALL captions. Without even seeing the corps back east, I feel comfortable putting them in the Top 3. The only question is whether their cleanliness and balls-out power will be able to topple more innovative units and crowd favorites such as the Cadets, Scouts and Phantom Regiment. But, isn't this the same position BD is in almost every year? Thanks for putting up with this review. Comments and/or flames are encouraged. Rob W.
Thanks to Christina Mavroudis on r.a.m.d for this review! Southern California Tour, Part something (majorly long) Good morning, zzzzz...wha...oh - I'm in the middle of a tour..I mean, I'm talking about the past weekend's So. Cal. tour...right? And to think tomorrow we leave for the Northwest tour. zzzzzzzzzzzzz To make this short (I have to wash, bake, & pack between now and 9 AM tomorrow) I'll just narrow the narrative to just a few items---OK maybe more than just a few.... First off - a HUGE "thank you" to RAMDer Stuart Miyasato who met up with the SCV Cadets bus just as we were leaving the Fullerton show Saturday night. Remember the kids hadn't eaten since 4 ish and it was closing on 11 PM with a show inbetween. Bless his heart - he baked homemade chocochip cookies for the entire corps! This was an incredible surprise that the kids were extremely grateful. Wish we could have talked more, Stu! You'll never know what a great pick-me-up that was. Even though we were only gone a few days, it was like getting those treasured care packages. Thanks, again! Next - the Sunday event, Pacific Crest's own show in Glendora near there homebase of Diamond Bar, CA. There were several fun events that day, one of which was getting asked to help with pit equipment. That darn liberty bell weighs a ton and kept ringing at the most inappropriate times. ;) Met up with several directors including PC's director - nice guy, who got called on the PA system while we were talking: "Is your radio on?" He looked at me with a shrug of the shoulders and smile, "They never gave me one." Finally saw the other two new corps from San Diego: Earthquake and West Coast Sound. Saw WCS first as they exited the field - well I guess I can't say I saw their show - just the corps members as they exited. (I was on duty with SCV at the time.) WCS is all in white a la Phantom (we got them now, Nikk!) with a cross-sash of bright confetti bits fabric. They looked good size although they didn't stop long enough for me to count. Uniform, equipment, and decent size recruitment: quite an achievement given that this corps was only formed in April. They weren't listed in the program, so it was a surprise to see them. (I mistakenly thought they were Earthquake and apologize to the members who were miffed at my assumption.) Earthquake are also good size, although again, I didn't have time to count numbers. Their new director told me afterward they had 36 horns but around 4 of them could not attend the show that night. I also caught them coming off the field and was able to get a shot of them posing in their new uniforms with their banner. The colors appear to be gold, teal and magenta carried over into their cross-sash and souvie t-shirt. The uniform consisted of black pants and white long- sleeved shirts. Don't know what the repetoirs were for either group, but wish them both the best. Their seasons are short - so catch them while you can. No victory concert --- much to the crowd's displeasure ---but a great show nontheless. That night I hitched a ride with some staffers who had to work first thing Monday morning and we got in around 4:30 AM. Misc. Memories Announcer Freudians - the Sacramento announcer had a terrible time in the beginning announcing SCV Cadets as Pacific Crest and vice-verse. The Clovis announcer - one of my favorites - called the SCV Cadets Tchaikovsky piece, "Dance of the Canadians." I can just see our northern neighbors chuckling at the slip. Dog Gone It - Finally got to see the two Dalmations dressed up in the Vanguard uniform. Too cute. Feathers and everything. Caught a long-range glimpse of Blue Knights Dalmation dressed in blue. Any other mongrals out their? Maybe we should have a "Best Mascot" catagory? Gong Done In - SCVC lost their gong to expressive pit folks in the A corps. "It only goes "dit" instead of "goooong" explained one anonymous pit person looking over the war damage. Best Meal - Toss up between the homemade minestrone soup with foccacio bread, and the french toast a fesco. Don't know about the chicken (cooked with homemade BBQ sauce) but heard it was dynamite. Now there's a fun topic: Anybody else have some meal ideas that work for 100 corps folks? ACTUAL Reps - Here's what BDB, Mandarins and some others are actually playing this year: (just found the programs I bought) BLUE DEVILS B "From this Moment On" Cole Porter, "City Gate/ Rumble" Chick Corea, "You Can't Fall Up" ToP, and "Paso Doble" Steve Mason. MANDARINS "Ainitak" by Uakti, "Suite Chinois" from Nouvelle Experience (Cirque du Soleil), "Irna" from Alegria, and "Eclipse" from Nouvelle Experience. SOUND MACHINE Selections from the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" SPIRIT OF SANTA FE SPRINGS "Prelude/First Circle" Pat Matheny, "In Her Family" and "Baroque Samba" SCARLET REGIMENT Selections from "Firebird Suite", "Halloween", "Sabath Prayer" and "Carmina Burana" EARTHQUAKE "I Can See For Miles", "America", "Malaguena" NIGHTFIRE Selections from "Jekyll & Hyde" including "Transformation", "Facade", "Girls of the Night", "The World has Gone Insane", and "Facade" reprise SCORES: -------------------------------------------------------------------- CAVALCADE OF BRASS Clovis 6/28/96 Friday (Sponsored by Buchanan HS) Open 1st 81.3 Blue Devils (Brass, Visual, GE, DM) 2nd 77.7 Vanguard (Percussion) 3rd 66.6 Blue Knights Division II/III 1st 72.4 Blue Devils B (Brass, Percussion, GE, DM) 2nd 69.6 Mandarins (Visual) 3rd 63.5 Vanguard Cadets -------------------------------------------------------------------- GOLD COAST CLASSIC I Fullerton 6/29/96 Saturday (Sponsored by VK) Open 1st 80.9 BD (all captions) 2nd 77.0 Vanguard 3rd 66.7 Blue Knights 4th 63.5 Velvet Knights Division II/III 1st 73.2 Mandarins (Brass, GE) 2nd 67.9 SCV Cadets (Visual) 3rd 67.3 Pacific Crest (Percussion) Youth Bands 1st 62.5 Spirit of Santa Fe Springs (Music-T, Visual, GE) 2nd 59.2 Sound Machine (Percussion, Music-T) 3rd 51.9 Scarlet Regiment Exhibiton Northridge Nightfire Magic Kingdom Korps -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd ANNUAL CORPS AT THE CREST Glendora 6/30/96 Sunday (Sponsored by Pacific Crest) Open 1st 81.9 Blue Devils (all captions) 2nd 78.0 Vanguard 3rd 63.3 Blue Knights 4th 62.3 Velvet Knights Division II/III 1st 75.1 Mandarins (GE, Brass, Visual) 2nd 71.5 Vanguard Cadets 3rd 70.3 Pacific Crest (Percussion) Youth Bands 1st 63.2 Spirit of Santa Fe Springs 2nd 60.6 Sound Machine 3rd 55.8 Scarlet Regiment Exhibition Nightfire (Northridge, CA) West Coast Sound (San Diego, CA) Earthquake (San Diego, CA) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Well - work to do. Have fun and let's hear those tour stories! Catch both Vanguard units at the Redwood City parade tomorrow (July 4th) around 10:30 AM. Later.....
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