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July 14, 2004
Drum Corp at it's Best
Went to the local show last week. It was a great lineup - Cavaliers, Troopers, Bluecoats, Magic of Orlando, Southwind, Capital Regiment. Cavaliers put on a clinic and tons of people went and checked out the corp warmups in the parking lot before the show. Here's a quick rundown of each corp...
Bluecoats blew me away with their show which I usually don't get in to much. I think I was most intrigued by the addition of Mike McIntosh to the staff. You can definitely hear the "Cavie sound" in the drumline book.
Troopers can drum! Even though the hornline is small, the drumline looks like it was transplanted from a Top 12 corp. They with out a doubt out drummed some of the bigger corps.
Magic of Orlando surprised me in that I thought the momentum from last year would keep them rolling, but it looks like they have hit the reality of being a Division I corp again. nice show, just needs some cleaning....the snare sound was real wet - that could have been some of it.
Southwind - sporting new uniforms (yea, no more yellow!), they have a solid show. It will be a great package when it is cleaned up, just dirty for this time of year. After seeing them for the past three years, I have high expectations for this drumline. At this point it just doesn't seem as strong as previous years.
Capital Regiment - what a surprise! I can't believe they were digging in the ranks of Div II/III just a couple of years ago. I expect to see them break into the Top 12 someday soon.
Cavaliers have another stellar product for 2004. Is it as good as 2000 or 2003? Hard to tell at this point and I hate to make a judgment halfway through the season. I'll just say that the Cavaliers seem to put the ideas out first and then clean it. So first impressions of newly added material is that they are dirty. Are they dirty? In certain places, yes. Most exposed is the drum break with question and answer snare rolls from the split snareline. It seems to be hit and miss, but I wonder if some of the problem is the direction they are facing (backwards at an angle) and the use of projectors. I'm sure they'll figure out a solution soon enough (if not already).
Posted by Ryan on July 14, 2004 12:05 PM
