June 16 Oswego, IL

Thanks to Glenn Johnson on RAMD for this review!


Review of 6/16 Oswego, IL show:

I just got back from the show and it is late, so if my thoughts
are incoherent, please bear with me.

It was an almost perfect night for drum corps.  After a very hot day,
it was pleasantly cool in the evening, and no threat of rain.

The smaller corps went on first:

        Racine Scouts
        Blue Stars (16H/15P/12G/1DM)
        PRC  (19H/14P/9G/2DM)
        Capital Sound (28H/24P/12G/2DM)

It was the first show for these corps, and it showed.  I was surprised
at the small size of Blue Stars.  Conversely, Capital Sound looks and
sounds like a Division II corps.  It is too bad that they will not
be going to Buffalo as they could easily mature into a very good corps
by the end of July.  It was kinda strange seeing young women in Madison-
style uniforms.  Capital Sound's color guard are dressed in red body
suits very similar to last year's Madison guard uniform.  In the pit,
you can see the 7 yellow drums that Madison used in '93.

During the intermission, the Oswego TNT summer band performed in standstill.
I had a chance to chat with three other Cybercorps members:
Steve Jerger, Eric Camburn, and Frank Schoenbach (spelling?).  Frank
was working on the Capital Sound staff.  He said that Capital Sound
would not be going to Buffalo, because earlier this year (before the
merger), the Madison Jr. members were told that the season would end
at the end of July.  Since August vacation plans were made by many of
these members, it would have been difficult to change the schedule.
I also heard a rumor (from Frank), that this will be the last year
for Preview of Champions.  Starting in '96, you will have to go to
Nats (in Orlando) to see all the corps in one series of shows.

Nite Express (32H/22P/11G/1DM) went on after intermission.  I didn't
recognize the music by the rock group YES, so the show didn't do much
for me.  Perhaps by the end of the season, I will enjoy it more.

Phantom Regiment went on next-to-last.  All members are dressed in black,
with a silver sash.  I understand that the hats were painted black by
a Rockford auto painter (for free).  I think that I will enjoy this
show, and it certainly has potential.  The pit is now back in its normal
place.  During the middle section of the show, the soloists are framed
by 5 very large "picture frames" which consist of white vertical poles
and horizontal, narrow pieces of fabric (in the form of a rectangle).
As I said, there are 5 of these rectangles.  Second place:  69.3.

Cavies went on last.  I like this year's show much better than last year.
After hearing the '85 version of Planets many, many times, it will be
a little difficult to adapt to this newer version which is somewhat
different.  The red balls from '85 are back, but they are a little smaller.
Look also for the white PVC poles.  The largest props, however, are several
of these big spheres constructed out of 6 rings.  These spheres are
obviously used to represent the planets.  They are held above the guard
at certain points in the show.  Also, guard members can get inside these
spheres and spin them around.  First place:  69.9.

The full scores were posted earlier.  It is late, so I will stop now.

-Glenn Johnson

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