Sneak Peak at 2008 Corps Programs

Comment now » // June 12th, 2008

Madison

The Madison Scouts tap into the passionate and industrious rhythms of Latin-American compositions for their 2008 production titled La Noche de la Iguana.

Blue Devils 

The Blue Devils program is entitled Constantly Risking Absurdity and takes its inspiration from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem of the same title. 

Blue Knights 

The Blue Knights celebrate their 50^th Anniversary  with their 2008 program Knight Reign.  Their program will feature works such as Cloudburst, Turbine, Jeux D’eau, and Amazing Grace.

Blue Stars

The Blue Star’s 2008 program, Le Tour, Every Second Counts, based on the Tour de France,  will feature original material juxtaposed with familiar melodies by well-known French composers such as Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Widor, and Ravel.

Boston Crusaders 

The 2008 Boston Crusaders will take the field with NEOCOSMOS, featuring music by Richard Strauss, John Mackey, Van Morrison, Mark Mancina, Don Davis and Ben Watkins.

Carolina Crown 

FINIS  (fiˈnē) the end; conclusion.  Carolina Crown’s 2008 program features musical selections and inspiration from Bernstein, Bach, Rossini, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Liszt, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Copland, and Handel.

Cavaliers 

For their 60th anniversary season, The Cavaliers celebrate the ancient Japanese warrior’s culture of honor, courage, and discipline in their 2008 presentation - Samurai. Featuring original music and complex choreography, the show offers a compelling interpretation of the Samurai’s heroic history in four dramatic movements.

Colts 

The Colts 2008 production, NIGHT AND DAY, will feature the music of Bernstein, Rozsa, Porter, and Lloyd Webber.

Crossmen

The Crossmen describe their 2008 program Planet X as a place where the magic, mysticism, and beauty of Gustav Holst’s The Planets meets the groove, style, and passion of the Crossmen’s past explorations of Planet Earth.

Glassmen 

With a deep focus on musical exploration, relentless energy and excellence, the performers in Glassmen’s Kar-ne-val will take you through a series of slideshows, rides, and merrymaking representing the sights and sounds of the timeless traveling carnival.

Mandarins 

The Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps explore the many aspects of the world’s waterways in its 2008 production, The River. The corps from California’s “River City” will float on a musical current provided by Joseph Curiale, Frank Ticheli, Ferde Grofé, and Robert W. Smith.

Pacific Crest 

Pacific Crest’s 2008 program will be Primality: The Rituals of Passion.

Phantom Regiment

Phantom will take the field with their 2008 program Spartacus, including musical selections Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, Various selections from “Spartacus” by Aram Khachaturian, Toccata from “Piano Concert No. 1” by Alberto Ginastera, Dance of Ecstasy from “Danses Fantastiques” by Loris Tjeknavorian, and Battlefield from “KA” (Cirque Du Soleil) by Rene Dupere.

Santa Clara Vanguard

The Vanguard’s 2008 program is 3HREE Mind- Body- Soul, and will feature works such as; The Chairman Dances, The Man in the Bath, Eclipse, and Cloudburst.

Spirit 

Spirit is pleased to announce the 2008 program, pe-ri-4-ry.

2008 Season Right Around the Corner!

Comment now » // May 23rd, 2008

Get Ready to Step Off Into the 2008 DCI Summer Tour

With the Memorial Day weekend upon us, corps members are making their annual pilgrimages to spring training camps in anticipation of the official start of the 2008 Drum Corps International Summer Tour.The summer drum corps season is less than 30 days away, and that means it’s now time to double check your summer calendars and figure out which of the more than 115 competitive events across the United States you’ll be in the stands for this season!

On the Road – Pasadena 2007

1 Comment » // August 31st, 2007

Along with a large number of drum corps fans, I made the trek to Pasadena for finals and between other commitments managed to take in the top 6 corps at both quarters, semi-finals and finals.  While there was the usual wrangling over scores (who was in, who was out, who got screwed, who received a gift score), I found the overall show experience to be on of the best I’ve had as an audience member in many years.

The Rose Bowl is well suited for this event and has a great deal of open space around it for warm-up, market place and parking (as much as I love finals in Madison, Camp

OK . . . so the performances.  Everybody expected BD to win and hey guess what . . .  there they were on Saturday with the gold medals around there necks.  Granted, they played well but I have to admit that I have a bit of a problem with a corps scoring as high as they did with what I perceive as so little content in their show.  The visual package mostly consisted of park-and-blow statements and playing back field.  That and I have a hard time understanding why a horn line that plays as well as BD obviously does limits itself to three dynamic levels . . . facing the box, facing the end-zone and facing back field. 

 I had the opportunity to see Cadets from many vantage points.  Thursday night during the “re-chalk” incident, found me on the goal line of side 2, Friday night I finagled my way into the press box and at finals, I enjoyed a 50 yard line seat on in row 66.  I can honestly say without any hesitation that The Cadets fielded one of the most amazing corps I have seen.  I only wish they would not have talked over it.  This group of kids ran their tails off (many times topping 220 bpm) in a highly demanding drill and still managed to outplay every corps on the field (sorry BD . . . I’m paid to write what I think). 

The Cavaliers owe their third place finish to their clean form development and strong color guard (not to mention the design team).  Had this corps taken on a lesser designed show, chances are they would have found themselves somewhere around 6^th or 7^th place.  In fact, the horn played so weakly at semi-finals, many of us in the press box were wondering if they wouldn’t drop a place or two. 

The Phantom Regiment roared into 4^th place with a well conceived show that was played so extremely well it must have been difficult to put them ahead of the Cavaliers.  The last statement of Firebird had them running the length of the field and back with no perceivable loss in power or tone quality.  I think if they were able to clean up the feet a bit more and make sure more bodies were in set forms, hey could have placed higher.

Rounding out the top 5 was the Santa Clara Vanguard.  True to form, SCVG presented a high energy, crisp performance that was played and marched at the highest level.  The only problem is that I can’t remember much of it.  I’m afraid the GE was fleeting and the show left no real impression.

The darlings of this year’s finals were Carolina Crown and with such good reason.  I believe them to have had the best designed show on the field and every year these kids march and play a little better.  Their show concept of Triple Crown could have come across as so hokey yet Crown’s extremely talented designed team pulled it off without a hitch.  The biggest treat for me with this show was watching the best guard in DCI this year (Cavaliers my sweet . . . .).  No other group moved with this kind of unified technique nor did any of them explore space the way Crown did.  The guard designers down there found planes that most designers aren’t even aware exist.

I’m already looking forward to next season to see how things shakeout.  There are so many questions.

• Have the Cavaliers ended their amazing run or was 2007 just a blip?
• Will 2008 be the summer that Blue Stars make it back to finals?
• What about Madison?  Will they survive this staff change or will they become the next corps to fall away for good?

Remember boys and girls.  Audition camps begin in 83 days and we get to start this merry-go-round all over again.

It’s good . . . but is it Drum Corps?

Comment now » // August 17th, 2007

I was sitting in the press box at the recent DCI show in Indianapolis when the women to my left made the comment “now this is what I call drum corps”.  It was an innocent enough statement that I’m sure we have all made numerous times during any summer season. However, this time the thought really held my attention and got me to thinking what makes drum corps . . . well . . . drum corps?

With the Cadets continuing to push back the levels of conventional performance practice, this question seems to be bandied about more and more as the season goes on.  How does the spoken word fit into the drum corps experience?  What about pit amplification?  If we look forward, will we soon have a day when we see a show with lighting effects, electronic keyboards, or (Heaven forbid) woodwinds?!  Is the unthinkable happening?  Is drum corps as an activity evolving into . . . marching band?For better or worse, drum corps is slowly losing its hard core edge and morphing itself into a kinder and gentler activity.  The common phrases “on the field” and “the field is yours” have been replaced with “please welcome” and “tonight’s encore performance will be performed by”.  Members are now “students”, a corps is now staffed by “educators” and the Cadets were recently reprimanded for preventing non-cadets from breaking their ranks.  What happens next?  Every marching “student” receives a participation trophy just for putting on a uniform? 

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those crusty old vets that yearn for the days of the single valve bugle, compulsories and the tick system (although I do miss the balls of a horn line in G).  I’m just a former marching member and designer who laments the passing his beloved activity from its days of honoring its sub-culture status to one that seems more in-line with Madison Avenue and the corporate interests of the music industry.  

I guess this change is to be expected. In order to continue growing, DCI needs the two things all businesses need . . . money and a broad appeal.  As more potential customers play Bb trumpet than a G bugle, I guess I should be surprised that it has taken this long for DCI to move more into the mainstream of commercialism.  However, I don’t know if I will ever grow accustomed to lack of edge in both the performance and performer and I dread the day I hear Brandt Crocker utter the words “Remember, your all winners in life!”

And The Finalists Are . . .

Comment now » // August 6th, 2007

Here we are coming into finals weeks and the race appears just as tight as it did back in June.  Based on the scores over the last week, it looks like The Cadets and Blue Devils are beginning to separate themselves from the Cavaliers and appear to be destined to go head-to-head for the title of Division I on Saturday.  Speaking of the Cavaliers, they appear to have a solid hold on third as they have been keeping a decent cushion between themselves and the Bluecoats and PR.  Slots 3-6 appear to be up for grabs for PR, Bluecoats and Carolina Crown.  It should be a good race as all three corps have been surging coming into California.  I would look for SCVG to hold off the charging Blue Knights if only on GE visual and Boston should slide into a comfortable ninth place.  It looks as though The Colts and Glassmen will find themselves performing on Saturday again this year leaving the last spot open for the strongest between Spirit, The Academy, Blue Stars and the Crossmen.  Barring a drum corps miracle, both fan favorites Madison and Troopers will be watching finals from the stands this year.  The Troopers started strong but have been maxed for a couple of weeks and though Scouts have been steadily improving with their show re-writes, I don’t believe them to have enough content to get them over the hump.

CORPS                   Last Score

The Cadets              95.800

Blue Devils             95.775

———————————

Cavaliers               94.475

———————————

Bluecoats               93.475

Phantom Regiment        93.275

——————————–

Santa Clara Vanguard    90.675

Blue Knights            90.125

——————————–

——————————–

Glassmen                86.750

Colts                   85.325

——————————–

Spirit from JSU         83.800

The Academy             83.450

Blue Stars              83.300

Crossmen                83.175

——————————–

Cascades                80.975

Troopers                80.600

Pacific Crest           79.875

Southwind               78.800

Mandarins               77.975

Pioneer                                   73.275

On the Road – Indy 2007

Comment now » // July 28th, 2007

I just finished taking in the Cavaliers and the dome is still buzzing.  Granted, being this close to home for the boys from Rosemont have a largely partisan crowd but their performance was one of the best I’ve seen all year from a GE stand point.  Being in the press box here at the RCA dome gives me an excellent vantage point to view the wonderful drill design.  The new ending to the show has really gelled and the Cavaliers seem to have taken the performance up a notch again tonight.

The Blue Devils were, of course, their usual wonderful selves.  I still have a serious hang-up about the color pallets and staging but one would be a fool to state that they do not perform the book extremely well.  It was by far the cleanest show on the field tonight.

Phantom lifted the roof off this place and really pushed the ending of the show.  Firebird is ballsy and is quite an adrenaline rush that is only matched musically by the strong visual finish complete with the “Phantom” wedge (ala 1989 Dvorak).

Tonight was my first opportunity to see and hear the Scouts.  With all of the negative chatter I’ve read on the web boards, I couldn’t wait to get a chance to judge for myself.  I must say that I enjoyed it.  I know . . . I know . . . they have serious deficiencies in design and the show feels monochromatic both visually and musically.  Having said so, I really liked the energy that

Brass Spectacular! - Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Pittsburg, KS

Comment now » // July 25th, 2007

RECAP: 7/24/07 Pittsburg KS

Place               Corps                                      Score 

Div. I 

1                      Blue Devils                               92.75

2                      Bluecoats                                 90.60

3                      Spirit from JSU                        80.85

4                      Madison Scouts                       78.35

5                      Cascades                                 76.30

6                      Pioneer                                    69.30

Rumble in the Falls - Tuesday July 24, 2007 Wichita Falls, TX

Comment now » // July 24th, 2007

RECAP: 7/24/07 - Wichita Falls, TX

Place               Corps                                      Score 

Div. I 

1                      Blue Devils                               91.700

2                      Carolina Crown                        89.150

3                      Blue Knights                             85.050

4                      Glassmen                                  82.350

5                      Crossmen                                 79.050

6                      Cascades                                 75.150

Drums Across Kansas - Tuesday July 24, 2007 Wichita KS

Comment now » // July 24th, 2007

RECAP: 7/24/07 - Wichita KS

Place               Corps                                      Score 

Div. I 

1                      The Cadets                               92.200

2                      Santa Clara Vanguard               88.550

3                      Blue Stars                                 81.100

4                      Troopers                                  74.700

5                      Mandarins                                73.500

6                      Pioneer                                     68.800

The Bob Costello Festival of Drum Corps - Monday, July 23, 2007 Enid, OK

Comment now » // July 23rd, 2007

<Recap not Available>

Place                Corps                                       Score

Div. I

1                      The Cadets                               91.400

2                      Phantom Regiment                    89.400

3                      Colts                                        80.600

4                      Blue Stars                                 79.950

5                      The Academy                           79.350

6                      Mandarins                                72.450