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July 22, 2007
DCI Denton, TX Review
(Denton, TX) - You better be in shape if you decide to go to a show with me. Why? Well, I usually take in a hybrid show of sorts: half stands, half lots. While the shows are cool, sometimes you want to just see what the drumlines are up to. This just happened to be one of those shows...
So between two lots, my car in a parking lot between them and the stadium right next to that, it made for a lot of trips back and forth and a lot of walking/jogging - two trips to the bus parking lot, three trips to the car, two trips to the stadium, and one trip to the warmup lot. Like I said, lots of walking. So, this isn't going to really be a run down of the "shows" since I didn't see everyone. This was a big contest with nine groups performing, and I missed a large chunk of the shows because I was in the lot taping Bluecoats, Santa Clara Vanguard, and Cavaliers just for you.
So let's just talk drumline warmup. Due to the nature of the venue, there was not a lot of places for the drumlines to warmup, especially since the stadium was isolated off the highway and only one big building between them and the stadium. While I know the corps didn't like the situation, it made it a lot junkies paradise since each group was about 60 yards away from each other. You could see and hear where they were in their warmup and go check out different sections of each. So when you check out the vids and notice one scene has sunlight and another doesn't, you'll know why.
Bluecoats
Watched the bassline sectional warmup because I know one of the two bass techs and wanted to check out his guys. One word: SICK. They are doing some splits that defy anything I've heard in recent history. The drums are gun metal gray sparkle Yamahas with Innovative sticks and Evans drumheads. The bassline is using the MS1 heads which is a normal head without the Evans muffling system. While the typical MS1 is 10mil I know they are testing some new thicknesses (read: thinner) this Summer and look forward to the fruits of their testing for Evans.
The snareline was extremely tight and had a wet snare sound that seems to be very popular these days; no tape on the snare guts, just a small patch of muffling on the bottom snare head (cotton ball size).
Cavaliers
They were last to go, and got such a late start that most of the video was shot in the dark. They are running silver sparkle Yamaha drums with chrome hardware, Innovative sticks, and Remo heads. They are using the new PowerMax bass heads with the overtone ring that allows you to insert foam strips in for muffling. I know for a fact that they are running extra muffling on bass 4 and 5 so take that into consideration if you plan to buy these for your group in the Fall.
There is some really tight interplay between the snares and tenors throughout this video clip. The clarity level is just a tiny notch above Bluecoats and SCV. I love the writing, but I think I'm on the fence when compared to the Bluecoats writing this year. I've never been a listener of Billy Joel's music, but I can get into what they are doing with it here....nice work.
Santa Clara Vanguard
Fantastic! It was nice to see some of the old Vanguard coming through in this group. They played with a relaxed style that reminded me of 2003-2004. All the typical elements are there, solid bassline, nice slightly wet snare sound like the other two, some beefy notes in the tenors and a cymbal line with a definite snap to every move. This is a young group, especially in the snareline with five of the eight just graduating high school. Even so, I will make a prediction right now: if this group sticks together over the next two years they will be competing for a high drum trophy. There I said it! I'll let the vids speak for themselves.
Posted by Ryan on 02:24 AM
DCI Siloam Springs Review
Normally, the Siloam Springs DCI show is a great venue to check out drum corps - flat terrain, lots of shade trees, and a good little stadium. Well, this year they had some field maintenance going on and had to move the show to Fayetteville. How was the change of venue? Well, they have shade trees. No, the stadium is great, the only problem is the school is built on the side of a hill. This made tracking down drumlines an extremely rough process.
More commentary, pictures and videos after the jump...Being as this was the only show that I could see The Cadets perform, I decided to split my time between the stands and the lot. Unfortunately, the way they did the lineup made for some hard decisions. Instead of going by scores or something rational, the lineup went something like this:
Pioneer
Southwind
Colts
[break]
Cadets
Blue Knights
Madison Scouts
See the problem? I would miss the entire first block to tape Cadets in the lot, and then would miss most of Madison in the lot by watching Cadets - ugh. The other problem that only added to the situation was that the school was on one side of the hill and the stadium was at the bottom of the other side. Needless to say I got my exercise Wednesday night!
Just a quick run down of what I saw, whether in the lot or in the stands, here it is:
Pioneer - I was just getting there when Pioneer was on the field so I'm not going to comment on something I didn't see. I know some guy posted some video of the Pioneer drumline warming up so go check that out on YouTube.
Southwind - I watched them from the corner of the stands, and the one word I can use to describe the drumline at Southwind this year is "HOT". They are playing more notes than some of the Top 6 corps out there and their quality of sound is just night and day from last year. I'm not trying to take anything away from the group last year, but the Music City guys have outdone themselves in preparing for the season. Just about every note was crystal clear even from my bad angle.
I'm not sure why their scores aren't going up more, but I think some of it has to do with some judges not being able to just close their eyes and listen for a minute - they can't get past the name. It seems other judges don't have a problem with it and are scoring them on what they see and hear, but then some judges out there still like to put the name brands up front. I'm not naming any names, but go look at the drum scores and you'll see some dips back and forth between them and the Madison Scouts.
Colts - with new uniforms, bright red sparkle Yamaha drums, and a mostly new drum staff, they seem to have stepped it up their performance as a corp this year. The first half of the show takes some time to evolve, but the second half is fantastic. Open exposed rolls by the snares had a consistent sound from start to finish. The drum book is different from past years and I like the new phrasing I am hearing from the drumline. If they make the opener a little stronger, I think this is a Top 10 show.
Cadets - First, I love their musical program this year, but I can't stand the voice overs. It actually distracts me from enjoying the show. Silence has a role in music and The Cadets just don't seem to understand that this year. Almost every tacet spot in Blue Shades has some wonky voice over like "You can do it" or "That's it!" or "Yeahh!". Give me a break!
Ok, enough of that. The drumline has new Yamaha drums with a brown to gold fade stain that looks amazing up close. As for the drumline they are playing some great stuff. Other than some clarity issues during the drum break tonight, I think its a solid show with some great music and some surprising visual aspects. They are worth seeing if you can get out to a show in the next few weeks.
Blue Knights - a solid show with some great visual bits throughout. The drumline turned a great performance and they have some very nice Pearl drums with what looks like an aqua marine fade stain on the shells. Not my color choice with the cobalt blue, black, and white uniforms, but the drums still look cool by themselves. Great bass splits between one and two and some nice tenor licks filled out the rest of the section. I also noticed they have one of the largest front ensembles I have seen in a drum corp in quite a while.
Madison Scouts - this is the show everyone is talking about - good or bad. Frankly, I like the show, and the intro has a very cool and mysterious feel to it. That said, the rest of the show doesn't live up to the build up provided by the intro - that's just my opinion. It kind of makes you expect more than just a rock-n-roll Rush show. As for the scores this year, I've heard the Scouts weren't entirely happy with the visual/drill book and rewrote it, learned it, and put it in starting around the Atlanta show a few days ago. So, there are still some dirty spots in the drill and it doesn't seem to "pop" as much as other shows probably just because of the newness of the material. I will say there are a few runs in the horns that are not very clear at this point in the season and is uncharacteristic of the Madison Scouts. Looking at the scores, they are moving up quick, but I don't know if it is quick enough. They are racing against time and at this point I speculate that they will fall into the 13-15 range by Finals week.
The drumline and colorguard are holding things together. The drums put in a respectable performance and played strong throughout the show, but there were balance issues in the front ensemble that were caused by the amplification mix being too hot. Normally I wouldn't mention that, but if corps are going to use it, then its part of the review if it hurts or helps the group. We could go into a whole other tangent about drum corp amplification, but this isn't the time. I understand that marimbas are hard to hear outside, but in the amplification game, to me less is more. Several other corps tonight pulled it off, but I didn't even mention their use because it didn't detract from the show.
That's it, look for a few more reviews in the coming week or two as we get closer to Finals in Pasadena. Until next time, keep drumming and go check out a show!
Posted by Ryan on 02:20 AM
DrumlineBlog in Denton, TX TODAY
Yes, I will be in Denton, Texas tomorrow for the DCI show. I'm looking forward to seeing the great lineup, but I will most likely be roaming the parking lot with my video camera. If you are a reader of the blog, and want to say "hey", I will *probably* be in a bright red FC Dallas jersey. I always love running into people at the shows and the crowd in the lot is my kind of people - dedicated, loyal, and they know where the real show is at.
Posted by Ryan on 12:16 AM
July 01, 2007
The Secrets of Drum Corp: Rehearsal Days
So those that have marched drum corps in the past already know this, but I thought I would let everyone else in on a little secret. You ready? Here it is: you can see drum corp shows for free. Click for more information (and to see some brand new videos)...
Yes, that's right I said it. How? It's called rehearsal days. Ever notice on the DCI.org Calendar that corps don't do a show every night? Ever wonder where they are and what they are doing? Well, start checking out the individual drum corp websites and look through their Summer schedules. There they list where they are every day, including rehearsal days.
If a corp is rehearsing in your area, go check them out! Most are very cool about people watching and you can get some good insight into the daily grind that a corp member goes through - it's not all stadium lights and screaming fans 24/7. You never know what you are walking into, but most likely it will be set-to-set drill cleaning or a chunk of music stuck on repeat. That's ok, because it's free.
Just to show you what you can find, check out what I saw a couple of days ago just one mile from my house. Enjoy people:
Blue Devils 2007 Rehearsal
Blue Devils Drumline 2007 OnField Warm-up!!!
Posted by Ryan on 11:23 PM | TrackBack
Drumline Blog Turns 3 Today!
Drumline Blog turns three years today, wow time flies. I'm having fun and I hope you enjoy reading it. The plan is to keep on heading forward and trying to cover the drumline news the best we can.
You know I think sometimes I should post more often, like make it an everyday thing, but I don't want to burn out and I don't see the point of making news out of nothing. If there's something worth posting about then I'm on it. Sure, I may miss some things from time to time, but I'm not CNN or some 24 hour news blog so I try my best. I hope that is enough to keep you coming back.
There's a lot of shows in July, so let's get to it! See you in the parking lot.
Posted by Ryan on 11:06 PM | TrackBack
What is up with the Madison Scouts?
What is going on with the Madison Scouts these days? I know they had some major staff changes this winter, but I didn't think it would be like this! I started seeing the scores come out at the beginning of the season and thought to myself, "must be a slow start, I'm sure they'll pick up speed". But I haven't seen them move up like I thought they would. The kicker that got this post started, was the scores for the June 29, 2007 show in Madison, WI - a home show nonetheless. Here is how it went down:
- Blue Stars - 71.00
- Madison Scouts - 65.75
- Southwind - 64.50
- etc...
OK, the Scouts got beat by a recently converted Div II corp by 5.25 points at a home show - that just boggles my mind! On top of that, Southwind's percussion section (which I think they are doing a fantastic job), beat Scouts in drums with a 13.7 over a 13.3 - the feeder beating the eater! And that drum score is just not one night, this has been going on all season.
UPDATE: the scores just came in for tonight and at the Mankato, MN show, it looks like Southwind passed up the Madison Scouts with a 66.950 over a 66.20. UNBELIEVABLE. If anyone would like to comment, has seen the show, or has an explanation, please use the contact form using the link above.
