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August 21, 2005
Pearl DCI Tour Videos
OK...so tour is over, doesn't mean you can't enjoy some more tasty beats, right? I'm sure you already know about the Vic Firth DCI site? OK, how about Pearl's vids from their groups? Ah-ha! Oh...OK, well either way, here's what the Pearl-sponsored lines served up this Summer. They all sound good, but Phantom was drumming hard! Just listening to the drum book, I would have NEVER imagined those were Gershwin tunes. Yes, I saw them this Summer, but their hornline sounded great and could actually overpower the drumline in spots so you didn't always hear all the parts (which I think is a good thing). It's no fun to hear a drumline over play a horn section the entire show, but you've heard all this in my Broken Arrow show review...oh wait, nevermind.
Pearl's DCI Summer Tour Videos
Posted by Ryan on 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2005
Cadets Win! Tie for Highest Finals Score
In a commanding performance, The Cadets have won the DCI World Championships with a score of 99.15 - tying for the highest score posted in a Finals performance. The next closest corp, The Cavaliers, were 1.525 points behind The Cadets which is a wide gap at Finals. They lead all three nights of the World Championships and never looked back, posting perfect 10s in three subcaptions - the only corp to receive a 10 in any box on the sheet tonight. Also, The Cadets drumline won the drum caption all three nights by posting scores of 19.60, 19.55, and 19.70.
George Hopkins, director of The Cadets, was said to have felt "relief" after hearing the scores. He mentioned that it had been an up-and-down year for them. At the beginning of the season, they were still putting the pieces of the show together, were missing guard equipment, and were pushing the envelope when it came to electronics (amplification). He also mentioned that The Cadets will continue their theme of "storytelling" as show concepts for next year.
Rounding out the Top 12 included (in order 2-12): The Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Madison Scouts, Carolina Crown, Santa Clara Vanguard, Boston Crusaders, Blue Knights, Glassmen, and Spirit from JSU.
Posted by Ryan on 12:41 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2005
DCI Quarterfinal Results
1 The Cadets 98.050
2 The Cavaliers 96.500
3 Phantom Regiment 95.275
4 Blue Devils 94.225
5 Madison Scouts 92.525
6 Bluecoats 92.400
7 Boston Crusaders 89.425
8 Carolina Crown 89.350
9 Santa Clara Vanguard 87.675
10 Blue Knights 87.400
11 Glassmen 87.125
12 Spirit from JSU 85.625
13 Crossmen 83.125
14 Colts 82.975
15 Capital Regiment 79.925
16 Southwind 79.525
17 Mandarins 78.550
17 Seattle Cascades 78.550
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A tie at 17th makes it an 18 corp Semifinals for tomorrow afternoon.
Posted by Ryan on 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
Good Morning, it's QuarterFinals today
Yeah, yeah...I know, I still haven't posted my review from the Broken Arrow show, and look, here is Quarterfinals! Well, I still plan on posting it later today, but the main focus right now is DCI World Championship QuarterFinals.
So today, we are going to cover the events at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA the best we can. The gates open at 12:30PM EST and show begins at 2:30PM with Kiwanis Kavaliers stepping off first. We've got a couple different places covering the events and we are going to point you there so you can stay informed and involved.
So first off, if you want to know the schedule for the day, check out DCI.org's Quarterfinals schedule [PDF]
Want to see some of the I&E Competition from the other day? Santa Clara Vanguard has posted a video of SCV members performing their pieces. It's 11MB, so check it out if you've got the bandwidth: SCV I&E Performances
If you've got the patience (their site is slow), Blue Devils have a mini site focused on the events at Foxboro: Blue Devils Foxboro 2005
And finally, if you happen to be around a Regal Cinema, you can watch the last block of Quarterfinals tonight LIVE, that starts at 5PM EST. The first corp to step off during the broadcast would be the Mandarins at 5:12PM.
We'll keep you posted as we find out more during the day...
Posted by Ryan on 09:06 AM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2005
Pittsburg, Kansas Review
Pittsburg, Kansas was the stage for the first meeting between the Cavaliers and the Blue Devils. Having only been back for a few days, the Blue Devils are ready to show American audiences what European has been treated to for the past few weeks. Where is Blue Devils' show in regards to the competition? Are they tweaking a polished show or are they trying to fill in the holes? Have they been on track to stay with the competition while out of the country? Here's a first hand account of the evening and what took place...
The evening started with a solid performance from Pioneer which was seen from the tunnel so I won't comment on their show. Their strong showing set the stage for a great evening of drum corps as the Colts were next to hit the field. The corp from Dubuque had a great concept and music to back it up, but had some front-to-back phasing issues with the pit. The colorguard turned in a respectable performance as they have been doing all summer. I like their version of Estancia and they score points for having a drum book that blends well with the horn book. Smart writing, the pieces just need to come together to complete the package.
Capital Regiment was on next...there show was about Time and they have this gigantic sun dial that gets moved around constantly during the show. The same two people pushed it around the entire time, and I kept sitting there wondering if they had to pay the corps fees to push a prop around all Summer? Is that mean for me to say? I'm just curious....as for the drumline they have definitely stepped it up in the past two years and showed that last year was not a fluke. The drumline plays so well that it makes the hornline sound small. The case of something being so good that it makes the others pieces look out of place. Good and bad I guess.
The Blue Knights followed suit and displayed a clean show. It seemed flat in places and I respect them for their precision, but I have had a hard time in the past getting "into" their shows. The drumline really set themselves apart from the previous drumlines tonight by having some of the thickest rolls of the night. Their unique color of blue on their drum shells this year throws me off. I can't decide if it is a blue-green or a green-blue - it's not your normal dark blue (or black) you're use to seeing on their drums.
Glassmen were next and the drumline had a great show, but I wasn't impressed with the music arranging and thought some of the style choices for the music was a little odd, yet the drumline handled their end very well. Nice musical colors with the added Remo TSS drums mounted to the front of the snares, and bassline had some killer runs in the show. Like last year they've got a drum shell color that changes based on the light. Though this year's is a blue instead of the copper. Even close up, the color changes from an almost black to a midnight blue with some colors in between. Definitely pimp, but not over-the-top gold teeth pimp, very tasteful.
Blue Devils were next and WOW, what a hard show. The drum book is esoteric and very demanding, passing rolls around the drums, dynamics moving the sound all over the place, and some tough drill to top it off. If they can smooth out the kinks, I say top 3 drum finish, but it's a gamble with other groups like Cadets, Phantom and Bluecoats playing at such a high level. I'm afraid the Europe trip has hurt their potential to stay with the upper echelon - I would say a top 5 finish, but no closer than 3rd...too much ground to make up at this point.
The Cavaliers finished out the evening with a great show that looks polished. The drum book has the familiar sound of previous years and I guess it works well for them. The middle tune about the Chicago fire was well constructed. The closer was great, but seemed long in the tooth, as it kept ramping up more and more.
The Cavaliers ended up winning the night as their show is currently at a more mature stage. I think the European tour has hurt the Blue Devils and I think it would be hard to push yourself as you don't see much competition - it's like taking a month off to do standstills. Can Blue Devils push hard enough to catch up? At this point, I'm not sure. I think if they would have come back in mid-early July they would of had a better chance. I guess we'll see as more scores start to come in.
Posted by Ryan on 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
