From: R.Vincent.Lamb@um.cc.umich.edu
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Review of Drum Corps North (Canton Township, MI, August 9th)
Date: 12 Aug 1992 11:06:00 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

As promised, here is my review of the August 9th show in Canton
Township, MI.  This show (Drum Corps North) is usually held at
Rynearson Field at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.
For the second year running, the EMU field has been unavailable
because of renovations.  It will return to Ypsilanti next year.
 
The first corps on was The Spartans, from Nashua, NH.  This
corps, taught by two North Star alumni, Jeff Bolduc and Bob
Mulvanity, performed music from the movie "Hook".  The hornline
and marching percussion wore pirate costumes, the pit wore
"Lost Boy" outfits, and the guard wore, in order, pirate uniforms,
Tinkerbell costumes (actually more like the Blue Fairy from
Pinnoccio), and Peter Pan outfits.  They were out to have a good
time and entertain the audience.  They succeeded!  One of the
hornline gave the drum major (dressed as Capt. Hook himself--one
of the most ornate uniforms I have seen on this side of the Atlantic)
a hook at the start of the show (much like Smee did when Hook made
his entry in the movie) and the whole corps went "Ar-r-r-gh!"
The show then began.  Although they have only 25 horns, they produced
a rich, full sound--probably the most musical class A hornline I've
ever heard.  Although the show is full of applause points, the most
noteworthy was the battle between Peter Pan and Hook at the end of
the next-to-last song.  The guard is wearing Peter Pan costumes at
this time and the Guard Captain climbs onto the podium and duels the
Drum Major.  At the last note, "Hook" disappears, leaving "Peter Pan" 
to lead the corps.  The crowd ate it up.  They should make class A
finals in Madison--by the time you read this, they may already have!
 
Next on were The Patriots, from Rochester, NY.  If The Spartans were
surprisingly good for a class A Eastern corps, The Patriots were
just what I was used to from that level and region--big, but weak and
spitty-sounding.  The Cadets of Greece live on!  They did a Billy
Joel show, with "Zanzibar", "My Baby Grand", "Big Man on Mulberry
Street", and "Legend of Billy the Kid".  It was not particularly
impressive, especially when I compared their performance of
Billy the Kid with the 1978-1979 Troopers (no great hornline
there either).  They may be big (42 horns) but they probably won't
improve much on their placing last year (13 A).
 
I was very interested in seeing and hearing Northern Aurora's
performance, as I wanted to see if my predictions of their
progress were borne out.  I was *not* disappointed!  With their
first note, the corps showed that they were ready for open class.
They slammed it home as loudly and cleanly as I've ever heard
36 horns do it since the 1986 Boston Crusaders.  They maintained
their intensity throughout their hard-sell show, impressing the
(admittedly friendly) audience.   They may not have played as
expressively as the Spartans, but they were loud, clean, and
in tune, all good things for a horn line.  Their drums were also
faily clean.  All sections marched a very clean show.  All-in-all, 
the change to a serious Emerson, Lake, and Palmer show from their 
cute story shows of the past was a good move.  They should easily
the top 25, beating Carolina Crown.  They will also be 2nd in class A
so long as Southwind competes.
 
The final class A corps on were the Cardinals from Scarborough, ON.
They performed a Streisand show (The Way We Were, Somewhere, State
of the Art, and Evergreen).  They were smaller than Patriots and
less visually impressive, but they sounded much better.  I had to
take my son to the men's room during their show, so I have nothing
more to report on them.
 
After my daughter and I took my son to the rest room, I went to
find the Blue Devils to show my children off to my friend
T. J. Doucette, one of BD's guard instructors.  I was betting that
there would be a break between the class A and open corps.  I was
wrong--no break at all!  I missed the first open class corps,
Magic of Orlando.  Everyone told me I missed a very enjoyable
show.  My father, visiting from CA and seeing his first show in 10
years, really enjoyed them.  His highlight was the drum major's
salute--the dm waves a handkerchief that turns into a cane.
Oh, well, as disappointed as I was to miss Magic's show, I thought
it was worth it to catch up with an old friend.
 
Unlike Northern Aurora, who exceeded my expectations, the Glassmen
were a bit of a letdown.  Their show was a bit flat at first,
but livened up during Escapades of Pan.  I talked to one of the staff
members at the souvenier trailer after the show, and he said that the
corps actually performed much better than at DCI Mid-America the
night before (after reading the score from that show, I can believe
it--only a tenth ahead of Boston!).  He said that they are riding 
a roller coaster.  They'd better be up on that roller coaster at
semis, or they won't make finals :-( !  Despite my opinion of their
performance (which I still enjoyed), the crowd gave them a standing
ovation.
 
Boston Crusaders came on next.  They had 44 horns, what they usually
had in '76-'78, but didn't have the big sound they had in the mid- 
late '80's with a smaller hornline.  I still liked them better than
last year, when they played Rocky, and I didn't miss Conquest--
Great Gate of Kiev served them very well as a closer (particularly
with the reproduction of the painting on the field).  Their guard,
though, was *very* good and prettier than ever, especially now that
they wear flattering uniforms and leave their faces visible.  Still,
I've heard cleaner, more expressive, and louder Boston hornlines
(all at the same time) and I've seen better executed shows from them
too, so they will not break into the pack of corps contending for
finals unless Sky Ryders stumbles or Glassmen completely give up.
 
With a loud "Splooie!", the Cavaliers signaled that they were ready
to perform.  Perform they did, as they knew that they could beat
BD (and they had the night before) and win the show.  I have nothing
more to say about their show that I haven't said before and that
others haven't mentioned except that they were very clean and
really sold the show--wonderful guard and, yes, the Cavaliers
are playing some "real music" :-) !
 
All the controversy on the net made me really eager to see Blue 
Devils.  I was imagining the dice to be HUGE.  They were just
individual soloist stands (only 30+ of them instead of a couple,
as I was used to) maybe 2 ft high.  BFHD!  I liked the effects
the corps, both horn line and guard, pulled off with them.  As for
the dancing during the last song, I didn't think they were risque.
Only one of the couples was dirty dancing and not for very long.
Most of the rest of it, I found dramatic and expressive of the song,
not tittillating.  As mentioned in an earlier posting, Phantom
made a much ruder move last year and Bridgemen filled show after
show ('76-'84) with much nastier and naughtier material, so BD
comes off as quite innocuous.  As for the show as a whole, well,
it's actually two shows.  The first 3/4 is a return to the BD of
old and it really sells.  The last number looks like an afterthought
at first (and an attempt to be Velvet Knights), but it works well
as a complete change of pace.
 
I finally met Brad Halls (bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu).  He was
sitting in front of me and slightly to my left when he turned
around and said:  "Excuse me, but are you Vince Lamb?"  He 
recognized me from my North Star Alumni shirt.  Nice to meet you,
Brad!
 
Here are the scores:
 
Class A
 
Northern Aurora     87.7
Spartans            77.3
Cardinals           65.9
Patriots            65.6
 
Open Class
 
Blue Devils         93.4
Cavaliers           93.3
Glassmen            83.0 (Go Bottle Blue!)
Boston Crusaders    81.1
Magic of Orlando    78.2
 
Vince (no nuking the judges this time)
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps