Friday, July 22, 2016

Thursday July 21, 2016 - Denton, Texas - Northwest Texas and OU are two of the sponsors tonight

I checked times and there was to be a delay - I get tired of the times being all over the place - so I am watching Mandarin - and they weren't even scheduled to be at the contest - at least not on my list.

Probably not good that the two shows today were in Belton and Denton - Texas - how confusing - I am bummed because I wanted to see the "other corps" tonight rather than the corps I keep seeing.  Oh well and so because I had the wrong part of the state I missed the first two corps - Tonight I am watching from the High Camera - usually I watch from the mixed.  I just tried to switch to multi and found out there are two shows on tonight - man I am a real dumb shit to have missed this.  Tickets for this show were $50.00 at the gate - Maybe this is why the crowds are small??

Guardians     Score:  59.15      Place: 1

Pacific Crest         Score:  67.85      Place:  9

Mandarin - looking pretty good tonight actually.  I feel badly for the solo dancer who just runs around the entire show - she has probably run several marathons by now.  Sometimes I think she is more distracting than beneficial.   Score:  70.15     Place: 8

The Academy  - A Drum Copse Bride - Whew it takes along time for them to set up - Wow - loved the opening drill so cool and ended in a heart.  Timing was not good turning the chairs around - Nice grab rifle soloist!!  Love the bones on the bodies ... very cool  - nice resolution of drill into the cross and another messed up heart - The intro of the red flags found th drill forms quite a mess - need to work that section for sure - rotating boxes cool into resolution of rectangle but it was not really clean - What I do love about this corps is how clever they are with drill and visual - Circle at beginning of Unchained Melody - tough very cool - was not set well at all - There are quite a few not so very pretty moments with drill sets and form maintenance - Much easier to see why they are scoring where they are - Last heart movement into it was cool - but once set - there were distance issues within -   Score:   75.15         Place:  7

Santa Clara Vanguard - A Force of Nature -   I admit - I am excited to see this show from the high camera vantage.  Odd - there is no area for a drum major podium - They are standing in the bleachers! -   Love the bird chirping - The original recordings of these songs are really cool too - DAMN - that opening circle is so simple but soooooo effective -   Wow - the storm number was on fire tonight!  Earth Songs gave me tears it was soooooo beautiful tonight - Love the snow flakes made by the corps lying down on the field - This has to be one of my favorite shows and Earth Songs the way the Vanguard plays it - one of my favorite SCV ballads of all times.  I am fairly sure they won't win - but would love to see them in third or fourth - the show is so visual and enjoyable compared to others -                    Score:   83.15        Place:  4

Blue Knights  -  The Great Event -  I like the Moonlight Sonata part and the reversing - OK so maybe after the sun goes down and everything is reversed - the colors come out and things are bright - the backdrops are now very colorful as are the flags The music now is less dissonant than the beginning - and as much as I think they are doing a cool show and how much I love the Blue Knights - This reminds me of their space show from years ago that never did too well either.  It will be interesting to see where they score tonight for sure.                Score:   79.2        Place:  6

Cadets -   Awakenings (honestly I still like Stoned)     Not liking the opening - Love the violin - Yikes rifle drop off the platform and had to bend over and pick it up and then he/she bounced a toss off the amp - that's not good either - I think another disconnect for me is that the Pines of Rome - is happy and bright and they are dark and cold - The number after the tan body suits makes more sense in terms of the music to me - but the movement is kind of a mess in a lot of spaces - circles aren't and forms are really breathing - Wow - just didn't enjoy this show at all - it all most seems like they are trying too hard.                                   Score:   83.35          Place:  3

Carolina Crown - Relentless  -  There drum major is very pleasant after her salute - Ok so the corps members are cactus - I get that now - well certainly way better than the Cadets - Still don't like the stage coach reversing - The color guard looks like it has a couple holes tonight - The corps movement is really cool - I admit that I like the show more from the high camera because you get a better feel for how the show evolves - but I still feel like they kind of missed the mark with this show - they just don't seem to have a clear vision - But it will be fun to see where this goes because it is clearly moving forward.  And man do they play!!!!  They have a beautiful sound!!    Score:  85.61   Place: 1

Blue Coats -  Down Side Up  -    Holy Cow - That show is a visual feast for the eyes - first time I saw it from High Camera and .....  They are amazing - the things they do while playing an instrument is amazing - the contrast of the white/red/ green and then the yellow/red/green make it so nice to watch - they have some visual moves that just blow the roof off the place.  And the color guard is the un-sung heroes -                           Score:   85.25            Place:  2

Cavaliers -  Propaganda -      Who would have ever thought that small megaphones would make wonderful color guard props?!  I thought they were more visual white than red - but you also saw more errors with the white ones.  I think this is just a classy well thought out show - A show for our time - Kudos to the Cavies for showing us that our lives today are filled with propaganda though that is not how we view it - Love the pass through move that ends with the bell - so cool - Wow rifle work during drum feature is amazing - We have lost the way - like the Reagan/Trump sound bite - I like the ending with the signs - not sure if they did that before or not - but I like it - There seemed to be some breathing in the forms and some odd individual errors that I hope they can fix - I still like the show a lot because it teaches a valuable lesson - that we live in a world filled with propaganda -                                                Score:  81.45        Place:   5

Wow - Coats undefeated streak is over - I would love to see the actual breakdowns so I could see how this happened and then how the Cadets squeaked by SCV.  

I would be remiss not to make my usual closing statement - The kids work so hard to make this happen - More kids need to be involved in something like this - it teaches you many things you will never learn playing a sport or in a classroom.  Congrats to all that performed tonight because - the fact that you were on the field and finished the show means you are a winner!!

Here are a few pictures I took during the event last night
Relentless 
Relentless
Down Side Up 
Down Side Up
A Drum Corpse Bride
The Great Event
The Great Event


No comments:

Post a Comment