Madison Scouts...........86.9 Crossmen.................83.2 Bluecoats................81.6 Magic of Orlando.........79.9 Spirit of Atlanta........74.8 Les 'Etoiles.............69.8 Troopers.................56.6 Cincinnati Glory.........55.1 Americanos...............53.0 Thanks to Michael And Nancy for emailing us these scores!
I'm going to be brutally honest with my assessment so bare with me!
Illusion Magic: Not bad! Are they all female? Stories of the Danube is kind of thick and not too many impact moments, but they did ok with it.
Cincinnati Glory: Making improvement. This corps has long term potential. They are in an area conducive to good drum corps, and this year's corps is an improvement over last years. I went to college with their arranger and I'm familiar with how he writes: everything sounds like an experiment! They do well with what they have to work with. Good drum line!
Americanos: Seems like it's the same show with a different year. Ho hum.....sorry, I usually like this corps but the show is just too hackneyed.
Troopers: My all time sentimental favorite. I had heard they were really small. They aren't THAT small. I've seen open class corps with smaller horn lines (Troops got 46). They have some severe balance and sustaining problems. I still love them though. I could listen to them do Silverado forever. Still very disciplined and outside of SCV, they have the best high mark time in the business (thank you Jim Jones!).
Spirit of Atlanta: Love 'em. Maybe the most entertaining show of the evening. Great uni's. I love the cream colored pants. Big horn line sound, although a bit on the crass side. The show reminds me of something from the mid 80s. I think that's why I like: in your face, entertaining. Still, a ton of visual problems. Don't march well at all.
Les Etoiles de Dorion (what the hell does that translate to?): Centrifugal force tenors were the highlight of the night. They always seem to have something crazy in their show every year! Hate their Remo drums....yuk! Tons of visual problems, and much like the Troopers, they had balance and sustaining concerns. Black pants don't lend well to their marching either.
Magic of Orlando: I like it. It's a good show. Not great. Will be right there for the 8-12 spots in Orlando. Color Guard is saucy in their uni's (or lack there of)...however, they don't do a whole lot. Wasn't impressed with the precision of the horns tonight, but they do have some nice solo work...they always seem to. 79, was probably a little high tonight.
Bluecoats: I feel sorry for my former corps. This is a great corps.. .possibly one of the best ever, outside of the 1990 corps....however, the design of the show is lacking so severely that they can't go higher than 8th. There's just no depth to the show, visually or musically. I keep wondering how they can continue to field such good corps when they consistently design shows completely void of any effect. I'm most disgusted with the drill. They are frequently out of position for power hits, still using that ineffective "snaking" block, and overusing unison movements. Seems like every other move of the show is a unison move. On the other hand, the horns are very clean, the feet are fairly clean, the color guard and percussion are the best they've ever had. Bluecoats should be ahead of X-men in drums, easily. Tenor feature is awesome. Soloists didn't have it tonight. Seems like the range is just barely out of their grasp.
Crossmen: See comments about Bluecoats. Everyone around me was saying the same thing. Best color guard in DCI possibly, but the show design sucks. Three Pat Metheny charts that they've done before... not even fresh arrangements. Their feet are pretty dirty. Horn line is a shade better than 'Coats. Soloist did some nice work. Again, I was disappointed with the drum line.
Madison Scouts: Very crisp, very loud. Solid on all fronts, although tonight's performance was obviously not as tight as they would liked. 12 man snare line had a huge gaff when they blew a release on a roll right as they were coming forward to the front (collective, awwwwww, from the crowd!). Nice visual package, but nothing innovative. Looks like they'll fit securely into 5th in Orlando. Loved the color guard, but X-men were better. Don't see them making that much improvement to cover the 5-7 point spread between them and Cavs, SCV, etc...
Altogether it was a nice show. I enjoyed the evening. When the sun went down, it was perfect show weather. Only problem (and this is the second year in a row) is that they can't shut off that huge fan behind the scoreboard. Sometimes covered up the corps in soft sections of the show. I was told over the phone before I came that they had that corrected and it wouldn't be on. Oh well, someone screwed up!
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