Blue Devils..............89.6 High Brass / GE /Visual Santa Clara Vanguard.....88.7 High Percussion Glassmen.................82.5 Blue Knights.............81.4 Kiwanis Kavaliers........67.6 Allegiance Elite.........51.8 Thanks to Ed Harvey for emailing us these scores!
Quickly--
Great Venue--Great Crowd (except for the folks talking loudly about everything not having to do with drum corps) and a great lineup. The temps were as warm as in Omaha yesterday, but tonight there was a good wind blowing through the stadium to cool the fans overheated by the corps on the field.
Allegiance Elite - Sorry didn't get to see the show.
Kiwanis Kavaliers - Very fun show to watch. The Drumline had some very good moments. The only qualm I had was the fact that the brass arrangements seemed to have been "Drum corps-ized" a bit too much. The crowd did enjoy the music and the Kudos go to the Mello line.
Blue Knights - WOW!!!! Nice job folks! Ralph has done it again with that Drum line, but the brass seem ready to steal some of the thunder. We watched the brass line in marching warmup and what we saw were a slew of members who looked very young. That didn't matter once they stepped on the field, though. I was very impressed with the arrangements. Kudos to the Contra line from Denver. Make those Kanstuls sing, boys!!!! Very, very good--up and down.
Glassmen - Holy Drumline, Batman!!! Talk about clean. Watch out for the G-men percussion at finals!! And the rest of the corps was along for the ride. the Brass did a grand job with the music and the mello line and soprano line did especially well. Didn't notice the guard too much, so I can't give a read on that. keep it up and you will find yourself on Disc 1 and not the last track either.
Blue Devils - I was sitting with 97 BD Ageout and long time friend Chris Burchell, who introduced me to corps when I was 15. He was very excited to be seeing his corps for the first time this year. I was looking forward to seeing the show and was looking to see if they could pull off this idea of the mix of two love stories. I won't say that they did pull it off. The Brass was good (not great) and the percussion was good as usual. However, the marching is not what I have come to expect of this corps who has shown everyone what clean marching is for the past 4 years. This translated into some ensemble brass problems and some general ensemble timing problems. The guard was too present and spent too much time in front and center. The musical arrangements were classic Wayne Downey. However, I don't much buy into the marriage of the two works. It seems like they used the best parts of the Romeo and Juliet to open and close the show very well in a grandiose manner. However, I think that the West Side arrangements (which were unbelievably good) were just interjected with the Romeo by having which ever section wasn't playing, play the love theme to Romeo and Juliet for a bar or two. Overall, a good show. But I don't see a three-peat for the Concord aggregation.
Santa Clara Vanguard - I had heard things about this corps that didn't necessarily put the show in a good light. Boy, were they wrong. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! One of the most intense shows I have ever seen...EVER!!! The brass was very good, minus the persistent ensemble blend problems caused by what sounded like two or three sop players. The Drumline was extremely clean and very exciting, and the guard was very good. Combine this with a visual program unrivaled except for two corps whom I won't see live this year (CBC and Cavs) and you should keep an eye on SCV. Some in the crowd were audibly disappointed to hear SCV in second. I didn't think that they would beat BD, at least not tonight, but I knew it would be close, and Chris Burchell predicted a spread of less that a point (turned out to be .9--Nice job Burchell) Again, my favorite show of the year belongs to Vanguard. Keep it up.
I have heard that a show can go on so quickly that you can't remember it happening when you march, but Vanguard showed me that this was true for the crowd as well. The show was over in the blink of an eye. I was ready to get in my time machine and see it again...and again...and again...
One final note--My vote for t-shirt of the year...heck,t-shirt of the decade goes to a t-shirt being sold by Blue Knights. the front reads - "Welcome Back My Friends--Madison '99--it's about time" If you were one of the fans who griped about Orlando, buy it. Best 15 bucks you'll spend this year. And also buy your tickets to Madison soon! Let's prove to DCI that they made the right decision.
FILL CAMP RANDALL!!!!!!!!! I WILL SEE YOU THERE!!!!
Bluecoats................81.0 Phantom Regiment.........80.3 Magic of Orlando.........75.3 Les 'Etoiles.............66.9 Troopers.................55.8 Americanos...............54.3 Thanks to DCI for these scores!
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