Title: Geekly amusements
(This whole entry was written in serious band geek mode, so if you don't get it, don't worry about it. Just humor me here.)
Mmm... DCI. My inner band geek is way satisfied now. (See yesterday's entry for reference.) Santa Clara Vanguard edged out the Blue Devils for the gold. Phantom Regiment got ripped off, man! *ahem* Anyway.
For those of you who may be interested, I'm going to post the scores; for those of you who aren't interested, skip this next bit:
Division II/III
Corps Score Vanguard Cadets - Santa Clara, CA 79.8 Seattle Cascades - Seattle, WA 70.2 Allegiance Elite - Calgary, Alberta, CA 63.9 Open Class
Corps Score Santa Clara Vanguard - Santa Clara, CA 87.1 Concord Blue Devils - Concord, CA 86.4 The Cadets - Bergenfield, NJ 84.1 Blue Knights - Denver, CO 80.0 Phantom Regiment - Rockford, IL 77.9 Colts - Dubuque, IA 75.0 Troopers - Casper, WY 66.7
Okay, a couple of notes here. The Colts played a killer show -- lots of good, dramatic drill moves and tight brass lines. Personally I think they got ripped off at 6th place. Of course, when you have five of the top corps in the world at one competition, someone has to place at the bottom. It was really amazing that Phantom, the Cadets, SCV and the Blue Devils were ALL there. The only time I've seen all those corps in one place were at World Finals in 1993. It was VERY cool.
The Blue Knights show surprised me with how good it was; maybe that says something about my expectations rather than their performance. I've tended to be a Phantom snob the last few years, because my friend Demetria was with them in 1993 in their color guard. I know, I know; it's trendy to dis Phantom nowadays. I'm not going to get into a holy war over it, though; I love seeing any of the corps perform. And I have to pull for the Blue Knights, out of hometown loyalty, if nothing else. Anyway, the BK show was damn impressive. They did some seriously complex drill maneuvers, and the "Suite For Brass and Percussion" theme blew everyone out of their seats. I was duly impressed by their show and will be watching out for them in the future.
Of course, all this has to be predicated by the fact that I haven't been in the DCI scene in literally years, so anything I say probably shows my age (I still think of the Cadets as the Garfield Cadets, okay?) and my lack of perspective on the trends of the last few years. I mean, I was surprised to see rifle exchanges last night. The last time I was into DCI and band, they were considered vaguely de classe. Sigh. I think I'm getting old.
BUT, I got me a couple of band geek T-shirts and a CD. I'm sated. Til next year, anyway.
-- marcie.