Cadets of Bergen County..83.0 Magic of Orlando.........74.4 Crossmen.................73.5 Carolina Crown...........70.0 Academie Musicale........66.6 Boston Crusaders.........64.5 Les 'Etoiles.............58.1 East Coast Jazz..........55.8 Thanks to Gary Twiraga on r.a.m.d for these scores!
Open Class Blue Devils..............83.8 (all captions) Santa Clara Vanguard.....79.3 Div II Pacific Crest............74.5 (percussion) Mandarins................74.4 (music, visual, ge) Blue Devils B............73.0 Earthquake...............66.9 West Coast Sound.........55.2 Thanks to SCVfan on r.a.m.d for these scores!
Blue Devils: Brass sounded even cleaner than last week, but I hope they highlight the percussion more as the season progresses- they are usually hanging around in the backfield and sometimes you forget they're there. There's a new ending, which recreates the ending of the movie Casablanca- a female guard and male guard dance together, she leaves him and the rest of the guard on one side of the field to join another male guard who's in the middle of the corps on the other side of the field. They dance, he lifts her up, then they and the corps march off the field. Meanwhile, the lonely male with the rest of the guard wander off the other side of the field, all the while "As Time Goes By" is being played by the pit. Almost effective, but anticlimactic. When BD played their encore, they got a weak applause. Ending needs resolution!
SCV: Had some great moments in the marching drill- the drill was the most exciting aspect of the show. The brass had good balance, played well. Percussion had wonderful entertaining feature. The problem is that the show doesn't have a tangible theme- nothing really grabs you in it.
Div II- Had some real competition here!
Pacific Crest: Great sound from the brass and great arrangement of the Frankenstein score. Once again, the percussion impressed both the audience and the judges- they rock! The slow movement of the show is a real tearjerker- beautiful. They need more difficulty in the drill, though.
Mandarins: Exciting opener better this week- difficult section of staccato notes shows improvement. Percussion feature once again a crowd pleaser with the Asian drums, but was a little messy this week. Their drill is more difficult than Pacific Crest's and is well performed. I was surprised they lost, though only Pacific Crest could have beaten them!
BDB: Nice drill, fantastic soloists, and percussion line is bold, precise and entertaining- lots of attitude there! Guard routine looks nice, but needs less drops and other errors. Brass arrangement was a crowd pleaser, but they tried to blow everyone away and ended up blatting too much.
Earthquake: Improved from last week- closer of Eleanor Rigby was great. Also good were the soloists and middle brass runs. In the slow movement "Turn, Turn, Turn" the pit work sounded as if there were "too many notes"- it began to sound mushy. For the second week of their first year of competition- they were impressive. Everyone is looking forward to years to come!
West Coast Sound: Got there late and missed these guys. Sorry! :(
Christine Becerra
Racine's 4th Fest celebration was great as usual. Wisconsin's largest 4th of July Parade was won by the Racine Kilties Sr. The parade was witnessed by an estimated 150,000 people.
The DCM show that evening was sponsored by the Kilties Sr., and was free to the public (even the programs were free). The city showed its appreciation by completely filling the Pershing Park stadium (and another 500 or so people watched from the hill behind the stadium). The show was not judged, so I can't give you any scores.
In order of appearance:
BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON:
This Scottish color guard opened the evening with an impressive
military flag presentation recounting the history of the American
flag. Very Nice!!
COLT CADETS:
These kids looked very young. They played their hearts out, and
were warmly welcomed to Racine by a very appreciative crowd. I
didn't see their show, but my wife said they were very entertaining.
RACINE SCOUTS:
The Chrome Domes played their hearts out for their home crowd. I
really liked the new black pants. They give the corps a more modern
appearance. Their show includes 3 large black backstops which the
corps members use to hide, and reappear from the crowd throughout
the show. The music seemed very difficult for this young corps,
but the horn line was accented by some very nice solo work,
particularly from their mellophone soloist.
MEMORIAL LANCERS:
This corps was the biggest surprise of the evening. They are much
larger than last year, and from what I've seen this season, they
may be the most improved corps in DCM. Their music was very
accessible and appropriate. My favorite number was their closer
"St. Louis Blues". I found myself hummming it at the intermission.
They are strong in every caption. The horn line is very good and
includes some great soprano solo work. The drum line is tight,
and the guard was great. I really liked the red full length dresses
that the guard wore. This corps received a well deserved and
enthusiastic standing ovation after their show. I can't say
enough good things about this corps!!!!
BAYOU CITY BLUES:
This Senior Corps from Texas rocked the house! There powerful
24 man horn line sounds more like 40 or 50. Their drum line
is larger this year, and were also very good. The drill was
simple but appropriate for this corps that can park and blow
with the best of them. Their opener, Theme From the Magnificent
Seven (the old Marlboro commercial song) brought back memories
of my first year in drum corps (1968 Racine Jr. Scouts). The
very nice arrangement was done by Paul Chaffee (way to go Paul).
From start to finish, this corps had the crowd in the palms of
their hands. They received numerous standing O's throughout
their performance. These guys are GREAT!!!
RACINE KILTIES SR.:
I'm a bit biased (I march with the Kilts) so take this for what
it's worth. It is almost like a spiritual experience playing
with the Kilts before the home crowd. Our corps is bigger and
better this year, but you would have thought we had just won
Nationals the way the crowd reacted to our show. These are the
types of shows that make all the work seem worth it. The crowd
wouldn't let us leave the field until we had completed 3
encores. Thanks you Racine for such a wonderful reception!
The show concluded just as the Racine 4th Fest fireworks started. Much of the crowd watched the fireworks from the stadium while they listened to Racine's Penguin Players sing patriotic songs. All in all, it was a good day to be in Racine!
John Caspers
Racine Kilties Sr.
Minnesota Brass Sr.......64.5 Americanos...............57.8 Govenaires Sr............56.8 Capital Sound............55.9 Edmonton Strutters.......39.8 Thanks to Frank Schoenbach on r.a.m.d for these scores!
Marion Cadets............47.0 Delta Brigade............45.4 Bluegrass Brass Sr.......35.2 Wabash Crusaders.........28.1 Bandettes................23.0 Thanks to Frank Schoenbach on r.a.m.d for these scores!
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