July 20, Houston, TX

Thanks to Terri Gailey on r.a.m.d for this review!

Here's my $.02 worth from my second deck 50 yardline standpoint:

Lone Star: Percussion still getting stronger; hornline still has problems
with people overblowing and sticking out.  Guard needs timing work.  I had
a problem with such a young looking guard trying to be sexy - it just
seemed wrong to me.  Overall they've improved significantly since last
year in all captions. That's a good sign, so I hope they keep it up! 
Musically speaking, I just didn't get much from the show (from a design
point of view), but the members put out a good effort, so kudos to them!

Pioneer: Some entertaining moments, but it seemed like the staff hasn't
really taken advantage of the potential here.  These kids could really
pull some good stuff off if they were challenged to do it. I liked the
sabre/rifle work during the segment when the guard wore the plaid skirts
tied around the waist. That was the guard's shining moment for me. Closer
was really good at the push with the crossing diagonals, but then the down
ending just took the air right out of it for me.  Down endings are really
hard to pull off, and this one just didn't seem to come off just right.

Southwind: Okay, I am going to get really cruel with the design staff
here. First, why, why, why did they put in all those ridiculously
out-of-character CofBC style mello runs (popularized also by Star) in a
supposedly "southern gospel" style show?  They just don't jive with the
rest of the music.  Second, why did you even bother to put in those big
"tension" chords also made popular by CofBC and many other corps in their
"symphonic" shows? Again, they don't jive with the musical style. Now that
I've gotten that off my chest, I want to say that the kids on the field
did the best they could with what they've been given, both in instruction
and design. The high point of the show was the percussion feature
"Resurrection."  Good drumming, good music, interesting and appropriate
guard work and drill. 

Magic: Time for confession. I've never liked a Magic show... until this
one! Wow!  The music selection works very well for them. The horn line has
improved dramatically over the years, and finally I heard their snares
sound like snares instead of formica countertops!  Guard work is good
(well, those ladders are a bit odd), but the guard uniforms really
distracted me from their work. I'm not a big fan of skin tight anything on
anyone (no matter how perfect a body is), so I was not really impressed by
their gold lame stretch pants and the head pieces with stars sticking up. 
Blech. (don't worry Magic fans, I didn't like Southwind's guard uniforms
either.)  The marching mounted cymbals are not effective to me, but it was
a nice effort at doing something unique.

Cavies: good dynamic control throughout the show, but as usual their
design team's seemingly random cuts from long and intricate musical works
drove me to frustration. The Copland Sym. 3 seems really out of place in
the context of this show. Sorry Cavies designers, but I just don't like
your choices this year. And get rid of those lattices! (just had to say
it. I tried really hard to figure out some significance or reason for
using them, and I couldn't. What's up wi' dat?) Of course, as always the
kids performed the hell out of their show, so their execution certainly
pulled them up out of the design problems.

Phantom: I was nearly moved to tears. I love the music of Shostakovich,
and not once did I feel that they butchered one of his works.  Thank you
Phantom designers for remembering the integrity of the music. The guard is
beautifully outfitted, and certainly took my high caption award for most
sophisticated. Percussion sections are excellent. Horns are of course very
good, but they had a rather edgy quality about them, with a few moments of
individuals sticking out. The few "walls o' sound" in the show are
wonderful, but not overdone.  The soprano unison lick from the 5th Sym.
are difficult as hell and pulled off with much pinache.  Phantom won my
heart while Cavies won the show.

Carolina Crown:  I liked the contras sneaking around behind and near the
chess pieces in the opening segments.  The Elgar bit from Enigma
Variations has great emotional potential, but they didn't seem to have the
air moving through the horns to pull it off last night.  Some good music,
but I was distracted by the chess pieces after the first bit of the show.
The low brass solo near the end of the solo didn't come off tonight, but
polishing will fix some of those problems.

-- 
Terri Gailey
Graduate student
University of Texas at Austin, School of Music

Nighthawks 1983-84
Troopers 1985-86, 1988
Troopers staff 1992





Thanks to Rob Michal on r.a.m.d for this review!
Hey, what ever happened to entertaining the crowd?  The shows were really
kinda borring and bland.  I expected Cavies to do awesome drill moves and
was let down by their less-than-standard show.  Phantom was my favorite
with their 70 brass players (the red dots on their uniform made all the
difference with me!)  Magic and Crown and Pioneer was very hard to follow.
 That's not the type of show you'd go home whistling!  Southwind was
entertaining and Lone Star impressed me with their continued strive
towards . . . well, getting better!  

All together, the shows strayed from the music norm.  If they wanted to
entertian the audience (I thought that was what DCI was all about), they
did a poor job of giving the crowd what they wanted to hear.  There's no
way I could remember anything of anybodys show.  It reminded me of BD's 91
show and SCV's 95 show--'cause what WAS that anyways!?!?  They were too
avant-guard for my tastes.  But what do I know?  My favorite year was
'93!!

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