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Post by bigtrombone on Jun 23, 2024 7:49:06 GMT -6
We are so back! The 2024 DCI Season begins this Wednesday! Here are the shows to look forward to this week.
Wednesday June 26th:
- Midwest Premiere presented by Fruhauf Uniforms Inc., Rockford, MI, Begins at 8:00 PM EDT
Friday June 28th:
- Corps at the Crest: Student Edition, Walnut, CA, Begins at 6:00 PM PDT - DCI Central Indiana, Muncie, IN, Begins at 8:00 PM EDT
Saturday June 29th:
- Barnum Festival: Champions on Parade, Shelton, CT, Begins at 6:00 PM EDT - Corps at the Crest, Walnut, CA, Begins at 6:00 PM PDT - Drums on Parade, Madison, WI, Begins at 7:00 PM CDT
Sunday June 30th:
- Cavalcade of Brass, Lisle, IL, Begins at 7:00 PM CDT - Western Corps Connection, San Bernardino, CA, Begins at 6:00 PM PDT
Italicized shows will be broadcast live on FloMarching. Any underlined show indicates an All-Age class shows!
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Post by LeanderMomma on Jun 23, 2024 14:14:37 GMT -6
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 25, 2024 16:55:25 GMT -6
I have avoided watching any of them, but Youtube's algorithm has been recommending recent videos of several corps run-throughs including Phantom Regiment, Blue Devils, and Colts, so for those who want to get sneak previews in anticipation of this week's shows, it's out there. At least temporarily.
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Post by bigtrombone on Jun 26, 2024 6:17:25 GMT -6
Show for Wednesday June 26th, 2024 (Happy First Show Day of 2024!)
Event: Midwest Premiere presented by Fruhauf Uniforms Inc.
Location: Carlson-Munger Stadium @ Rockford H.S., Rockford, MI
Weather @ Show Start: Clear, 74 F
Broadcast: This event will be livestreamed on FloMarching. In addition, a free YouTube stream MIGHT be available on Flo's YT Channel.
Lineup (All Times EDT)
8:00 PM - Welcome & National Anthem 8:10 PM - Northern Lights Drum & Bugle Corps - Muskegon, MI 8:22 PM - Blue Stars - La Crosse, WI 8:40 PM - Phantom Regiment - Rockford, IL 8:58 PM - Colts - Dubuque, IA 9:16 PM - The Cavaliers - Rosemont, IL 9:34 PM - Boston Crusaders - Boston, MA 9:59 PM - Scores Announced
Scores will be posted to this thread following the event.
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 18:17:11 GMT -6
And the 2024 DCI season has finally started!
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Post by neop on Jun 26, 2024 18:52:08 GMT -6
First chills moment of the season goes to the baritone and bass bone duet at Phantom Regiment
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 18:58:59 GMT -6
The Freelancers Alumni Mini Corps did a really nice job playing that old warhorse "MacArthur Park" last year. Curious to see what Colts make of it.
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 19:10:16 GMT -6
I'm a sucker for Metheny. "First Circle" never gets tired for me.
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 26, 2024 19:12:36 GMT -6
A smidge late to the party but I am LOVING this era of Phantom. That show is gonna be a beast come August.
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Post by LeanderMomma on Jun 26, 2024 19:14:59 GMT -6
Phantom was PHANTASTIC. 🥹♥️♥️
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Post by neop on Jun 26, 2024 19:27:08 GMT -6
Am I crazy for thinking the Colts will have the Cavaliers sweating this year?
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Post by youraveragebandkid on Jun 26, 2024 19:29:58 GMT -6
Phantom was PHANTASTIC. 🥹♥️♥️ I watched Phantom’s show on YouTube the other day and I loved it SO MUCH 😍 they are going to place super high if they sound this good early in the season 😁
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Post by youraveragebandkid on Jun 26, 2024 19:30:35 GMT -6
A smidge late to the party but I am LOVING this era of Phantom. That show is gonna be a beast come August. I second this! 😁
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 26, 2024 19:32:28 GMT -6
Am I crazy for thinking the Colts will have the Cavaliers sweating this year? No. Cavies were… unique. The props are dope, though.
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 19:45:43 GMT -6
Boston's production is a bit like Reading Buccaneers' 2015 show, "Twist It."
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Post by crowncrawler on Jun 26, 2024 19:50:36 GMT -6
Hot take...Blue Stars had my favorite show of the night
Phantom was very close behind tho
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Post by bigtrombone on Jun 26, 2024 19:51:22 GMT -6
My thoughts on tonight:
- Phantom was good. Very good.
- Rough night for the Colts & Cavaliers screamers.
- I wasn't sold on Bostons show prior to tonight. I am now.
- I quite enjoyed Northern Lights and hope they get the promotion to All-Age next year.
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Post by bigtrombone on Jun 26, 2024 19:56:46 GMT -6
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 26, 2024 19:58:42 GMT -6
I definitely had Blue Stars ahead of Cavies, but what do I know?
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 26, 2024 20:00:06 GMT -6
Rough night for the Colts & Cavaliers screamers. A 16-count double high G is tough for even the best players. I’m betting (and hoping) that note won’t be there come finals week.
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Post by philodemus on Jun 26, 2024 20:05:34 GMT -6
I find a number of things counterintuitive in these results.
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 20:09:33 GMT -6
A few thoughts before the scores are announced. (Never mind, I've been typing too slowly.) To avoid repeating myself too much, I'll just say that overall, there was too much narration, too much vocal sampling, too much synthesizer, too few hats, and uniforms that mostly don't appeal to me. Nobody looks good with one sleeve and one bare arm. It's just dumb. Stop it.
Northern Lights, "Ignis" The title is Latin for "fire." Has any corps performed something from Holst's The Perfect Fool before? (They're playing "Dance of the Spirits of Fire" from that opera, as well as Holst's "Mars" and Stravinsky's "Firebird.") it's a big groups for SoundSport: more than 60 members, surely?* And it's an all-age group with some members who look even older than me. In support of the theme, performers in the pit wore welder's mask or other protective eye wear, and some of the members on the field appeared to be made up as if they'd been covered with soot in a chimney or factory. They wear orange and black uniforms with no hats. They stopped partway through their closer. *(Edit: Actually, I think they had more than 80 members.)
Blue Stars, "Universal" The field is strewn with four half-planets (Jupiter to left, Saturn to right, and two others I'm not sure of: Venus and Mercury?) plus eight telescopes. The drum major's uniform looks like something out of a cheap science fiction book cover. I've heard that quote from Neil DeGrasse Tyson in too many corps and band shows (going back at least to Minnesota Brass in 2014). This took a while to get going but some moments were effective. I really didn't care for how "Stardust" kept getting interrupted. The soloist sticking out of Jupiter's red spot reminded me the famous 1903 silent short film by Georges Melies in which the rocket gets stuck in the man in the moon's eye.
Phantom Regiment, "Mynd" The props have potential. I'm getting pretty tired of Moonlight Sonata; someone please play "Moonlight Cocktail" instead. But lots of nice playing from all the brass, particularly but not only the baritone / bass trombone solo. Something of a Bluecoats feel in that part of the show.
Colts, "On Fields" Surprised that they were in fifth. I had them solidly ahead of Blue Stars and close to Cavaliers. Corps with two different pantleg colors (like Blue Knights and Bluecoats a few times in the past decade) look like they're limping around the field, and that was also true here. Early in the show some of them jumped over each other rather like Cavaliers in 2008 and 2011. The concert euphonium solo on "Fields of Gold" was overmiked at first, under-miked after that, and stuffy sounding overall. Percussion in the ballad feels busy in a way that's all too common in drum corps. The backfield visuals in the war section felt haphazard, as if they haven't figured out yet what they're doing. (Also I feel once you play dead you shouldn't get to move anymore. If you want to move again, your ressucitation has to be hidden from view.)
Cavaliers, "Beneath the Armor" The armor on the uniforms appeals to me, the draping over the uniforms later less so, although the alternating black and sea-green in the company front works. Simple props, few in number: good. What does the pseudo-Cheap Trick vocal add to the show? The answer is nothing. The big photos of members' faces are cool.
Boston Crusaders, "Glitch" So far the theme isn't really coming through except in brief moments, like the deliberate glitches in the intro. Stuff that was annoying me in other corps' performances, although present here, was less bothersome because the overall package was stronger. The different colored uniforms work well. And good job with the hoops. A faint echo in this show of Avon's 2023 show: substitute hoops for frames. The montage section is a bit dull, curious to see what they do over the season to make it interesting. If you're playing Cindi Lauper, I'd rather her "She Bop" than yet another take on "True Colors."
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Post by realjsnacks on Jun 26, 2024 21:35:50 GMT -6
I can’t be the only one who gets mid 2000’s Broken Arrow vibes from the Colts uni’s this year
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Post by N.E. Brigand on Jun 26, 2024 21:39:09 GMT -6
There was a score announced for Northern Lights, but I didn't write it down. I think it was in the mid 70s. I know nothing about how SoundSport scores are tabulated.
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Post by philodemus on Jun 27, 2024 6:00:58 GMT -6
Cavaliers, "Beneath the Armor"What does the pseudo-Cheap Trick vocal add to the show? The answer is nothing. It's thematic, I think. My take on the Cavies design is that they are making a statement about masculinity - an approach for which they are uniquely suited in the modern drum corps idiom and which has worked for them in the past - and the way in which men must construct an armor of conventional masculinity around their inner selves. In that context, the line "I want you to want me, I need you to need me" could be making a point about how the desire of others, traditionally women, is one thing that validates a man's feeling of masculinity. He literally needs women to need him in order to feel like a real man. Of course, there are probably better ways to make this very smart point than using this very silly song... but I think that's what they were going for.
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Post by philodemus on Jun 27, 2024 6:04:26 GMT -6
Was anyone else struck by how much intellectual work must have gone into Boston's drill writing to keep all of the various colors working? At each stage, there was always a discernible pattern to the colors, never just random clumps of pink legs mixed into a big block of yellow legs or something. True, dividing it by sections probably helps, but I'm sure there were moments where Leon - is it still Leon? - was cursing Pyware to make that happen.
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Post by dbalash on Jun 27, 2024 7:43:09 GMT -6
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 27, 2024 7:51:10 GMT -6
Was anyone else struck by how much intellectual work must have gone into Boston's drill writing to keep all of the various colors working? At each stage, there was always a discernible pattern to the colors, never just random clumps of pink legs mixed into a big block of yellow legs or something. True, dividing it by sections probably helps, but I'm sure there were moments where Leon - is it still Leon? - was cursing Pyware to make that happen. The crazier thing is, I didn’t see any discernible way that the colors were divided by section. A few players in each section seemed to be sporting every color. Had to rewatch the ballad hit (the long curvilinear form) to be sure.
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 27, 2024 7:54:02 GMT -6
Boston Crusaders, "Glitch"If you're playing Cindi Lauper, I'd rather her "She Bop" than yet another take on "True Colors." But then of course we would be missing all of that contextual relevance thematically.
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Post by paddy on Jun 27, 2024 8:26:18 GMT -6
Was anyone else struck by how much intellectual work must have gone into Boston's drill writing to keep all of the various colors working? At each stage, there was always a discernible pattern to the colors, never just random clumps of pink legs mixed into a big block of yellow legs or something. True, dividing it by sections probably helps, but I'm sure there were moments where Leon - is it still Leon? - was cursing Pyware to make that happen. The crazier thing is, I didn’t see any discernible way that the colors were divided by section. A few players in each section seemed to be sporting every color. Had to rewatch the ballad hit (the long curvilinear form) to be sure. It is still Leon May writing drill. Michael Townsend and Keith Potter are also involve in the design/creative side of the visual program. The colors are not by section except percussion is in black and guard is in white.
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