Cadets of Bergen County..76.5 Crossmen.................67.4 Carolina Crown...........65.3 Kiwanis Kavaliers........58.9 Spirit of Atlanta........55.6 Southwind................49.8 Tarheel Sun..............49.7 Thanks to Sean Taylor for emailing us these scores! Thanks to Doug Cunningham for emailing us these scores!Review - June 26, 1997, Spartanburg, SC
Thanks to Christopher S. Green on r.a.m.d for this review!First of all, disappointment....The flyers listed Lone Star, Delta Brigade and Gold Coast as appearing. The show program did not!!!!
First things first, this show was a musical feast for fans of good drumlines!!!
Tarheel Sun--good show, nice new uniforms, nice horn line balance, the colorguard was making a great effort to make their emotions readable, The Caribe tag was anticlimactic because On Fire was so nice, I even liked the arrangement better than Madison's.
Southwind--Nice overall concept, great guard unis, Iron Will is a particular highlight since Les 'Etoiles performed it in 1996. Horns produced a nice tone when they were full (not loud), good visual actually individual marching technique was really quite nice for this time of year. The mellophone gets extra kudos!
Spirit--Being a fan of spirit and their unis, they blew me away. This is perhaps the best redesign of a standard uniform to date!!! WOW. The upper brass is incredible despite low numbers, Not a fan of Up the Stairs, but the percussion feature in that song was one of the best designed I've heard in a long time. Definite Semifinalist
Kiwanis--Good show, remember folks, these guys started slow last year and constantly poured it on, watch out!!! Don't like the uni design, although I know how great it feels to get new unis so I won't diss them. Overall the show will really sell when the horns find that spice from 1996 and the power from 95! The bass feature is incredible.
Crossmen--CLEAN!! Birdland is now a real challenge for the brass, wonderful swells and such, the only problem is that the theme is repeated ad nausium, maybe a little bit too much cool stuff. Sunshine is cool and entertained me since I don't like the song! Niner-Two bored me, Birdland is so cool and cute, the same thing is true for this song but it didn't work for me yet, but then again it is Crossmen...you know it will! THe closing drill was fast furious with power sop chords like 95 and it rocked. 1st chillbump right there for 1997
Cadets--WOW, what runs what finesse, WHAT ELSE. The show is really nice and very entertaining but lacks definite flow. My friend from Clemson described it as Special effect, WOW, Cool, transition, SPECIAL EFFECT. I must agree. The guard unis were horrible, the tossed fast and furious through a gorgeous ballad and it was wierd. I must give them credit this show is hard, and yet it was very clean and powerful. The ballad is worth the price of the ticket by itself. I must say this. except for 1992, 1995, and 1996 I have NEVER liked a cadets show upon first viewing, but soon after I fall in love. This show has a title potential and will entertain the masses, maybe it is just me..FOR NOW!!! They are entertaining!
Crown--I wish they had not went last. The crowd was not as responsive as they could have been for the most entertaining show in Crown history! They are very dirty, but considering this year's early start, many holes, lots of new faces, and a difficult show, well I guess I already explained it. This show is powerful, dramatic, funny, reminiscent all at once! I love the new capes in Crown Imperial and the back field slower section in the opener will be one of those spine chilling moments by finals, Terpsichore is wonderful fast and funny. The ballad is back from 1996 and much more choral and twice as powerful! St. Paul's is cool and has a wonderful percussion feature and brass hits. Give them two weeks, the doubts will be gone!!
But maybe I am biased
Christopher S. Green
1992-1994 Carolina Crown Soprano
1996 Alto Section Leader
June 26, 1997, Tulare, CA
Blue Devils..............81.3 Cavaliers................77.4 Santa Clara Vanguard.....75.3 Blue Devils B............71.0 SC Vanguard Cadets.......59.8 Thanks to Tim Haan for emailing us these scores!Review - June 26, 1997, Tulare & Riverside, CA
Thanks to Jeff on r.a.m.d for this review!Sorry if you don't like my review. I had just driven from Las Vegas, a void in the desert, to see this small lineup of corps.
Santa Clara Cadets
I managed to find the stadium and sit down right before their show started. Evita is a nice show for these guys. The selections performed (copied directly from the program) were:
Let me say that this group picked an entertaining program, and once they work out balance problems between sections of the horn line it will be great. Someone sitting next to me told me they are a lot smaller than usual this year. Good job for trying. Being originally from the midwest this was my first time seeing them.
Blue Devils B
Up next, was the Blue Devils "B" corps.
Nutville, Guaguanco/Capricorn Moon, Miniano, and Paso Doble were the
selections played.
I must say they have some screaming sops in this corps. The selections were very entertaining, and the sound from the horn line was very good for its size. The blend from top to bottom was great most of the time.
Blue Devils
As Time Goes By... Inspired by the film Casablanca
Well, well I must say that the Blue Crew is certainly well prepared! I
was a little worried about the scores being inflated out here. Well, I
still think they're a little inflated, but not by much.
First of all, for those who have the CD, the opener is a little
different. The effect is the same. Start soft with a solo, then turn
around and blast you! It was nice to "feel" a little drum corps after
such a long time. I really like their show, and being a low brass
player, really dug the lead bari stuff in Conflict in Casablanca.
What can I say but the horn line totally rocks, the percussion is no
slouch, and the guard is very tasteful. I love it! The solos in this
show are incredible. Now that I've gotten that out of my system, the
drill 'seems' to be less difficult than the competition tonight, and I'm
wondering if the demand of this show will carry them to the top in
August. I really felt their score was about three points too high, but
they were technically more adept in their presentation tonight. First
place at both shows... I also need to comment. In a horn arc the music
is absolutely incredible!
Santa Clara Vanguard
Fog City Sketches - Music from Bernstein
To everyone who is picking these guys being any lower than sixth, wake
up! This show is entertaining! This show should
appeal to SCV fans of old and new. It is awesome! It starts out with A
Lonely Street from On the Town. This was performed by them back in '84
or '85, and is beautiful. Nice mellophone parts. The middle-ish part of
their show was The Cities Edge and City Dreams, and A Day In the Park,
The Anxiety Within, and The Golden Gate from Age Of Anxiety.
It seems to me that The Garfield Cadets played some of this stuff back in 1986, and it seems like something the Cadets played a bit of in '85 with their Jeremiah Symphony. Well, SCV does it justice. All in all, a very entertaining package. The last part of their show is Fog City Sketches. The guard uniforms look very classy, and no one should even think of them dropping placements unless someone from below is MUCH improved. The most noticeable areas that needs addressing are in the drill. There were a lot of people out of step, but in their defense the drill seemed to be much more demanding than Blue Devil's drill tonight. Once this is cleaned up a bit, watch out! Third in Tulare, but I felt they should have been much closer in score to the Cavies and Blue Crew... The horline is pretty good, the percussion is pretty good, the guard is very tasteful, the show concept is AWESOME.
Cavaliers
I must admit I am a bit biased here, but here we go....
I like the silent drill in the beginning. It is fun. Their Fire Bird
presentation is much different than in '88. The Right of Spring solo
in the beginning is nice. It definitely seems like this trip out west is
a mini-vacation for the guys. There were definite phasing problems in
the marching and a lot of people were out of step. This will be fixed
soon if I know Jeff Fiedler. At the second show, there was a marked
improvement in both areas. I don't remember seeing so many people out of
step back in '90 when I marched, but I felt the demand in drill was
keeping them from being as clean as the Blue Devils. The ending needs
some work musically. Maybe they should add the '88 tag, it sounded great
then. The drum line rocks ( they split up the battery during part of the
show. I noticed minor tears in Tulare) The guard is good, but I think
needs a little work. The horn line sounded very good most of the time,
and it's nice to see the demand up to where it should be for a top six
corps. It was fun seeing them. The second viewing in Riverside was much
more enjoyable visually. There are some interesting drill movements
throughout. Second at both shows. I felt they too should have scored a
bit closer to the Devils at both shows...
I arrived late to the Riverside show, so I only review the a few corps.
Mandarins
They were small, but had a very well designed show. The uniforms a very
nice. I really feel they need to work on the blend in their small, but
spunky horn line. I noticed several rather large ensemble visual
problems, especially when marching through the pit. I didn't really feel
their score was warranted, but this is a corps that will put it all
together and be great at the end. First place... Oh well, I guess some
groups can get points for being who they are.
Pacific Crest
Well, they have a very nice and mature sound. They took high music from
Mandarins. Their Frankenstein presentation is working very well for them
IMHO. The contra section really rocked tonight. Their sound was so much
more mature than the other corps of their size, and they were pretty
clean visually. I really felt they show have beaten the Mandarins (
scored higher than Mandarins), their show design is not quite as
sophisticated. I believe it was executed much better technically.
Well, these are my first two show out West since moving here. I must
say, they are definitely smaller than the ones in the midwest. I really
missed not seeing VK or the Freelancers. I was thinking of how nice it
would have been to have the greatest years of those two corps at these
shows. It would have been awesome! Come back guys. I was talking to a guy
who marched with the Freelancers in '82. He said they had a ton of money
then. On a positive note. I got great seats both nights.
Jeff
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