REpeat the Ridiculous in Riverside

Western Corps Connection

Riverside City College -- Wheelock Stadium

Sunday, July 3, 2011

I went to my parents' house after church today to hang out with the family before Rudy and Jeff arrived so that we could carpool to RCC.  Thanks to Bro for driving so that we could catch up with each other on the way there.  We arrived at RCC and got in different lines for different food items, since all the lines were getting long.  I asked Bro to find out why the woman in the Phregiment booth was there again, and not with SCV, so he did.  It turns out that she's working the trailer as a personal favor to the corps director, whom used to be the director for Vanguard.  She also used to march for Phregiment.  Well, now it all makes sense, thank you.

We missed the Star-Spangled Banner because we were busy getting our food.  The announcer was already being not-my-favorite announcer before we even sat down.  

SO CAL DREAM

Repertoire: "Dream Riffs: Something Borrowed, Something Blues" -- I. Baroque Samba by D. Meader, II. Autumn Leaves by J. Kosma, III. Nutville by H. Silver

The drum major was getting all into the jazziness of the show, which was fun to watch.  I like Autumn Leaves, especially the mello quintet and solo.  That soloist looked like he was about 8 years old.  You go with that screaming soprano solo!  Three color guard members dropped their flags simultaneously.  It was breezy at that time, so that must have been giving them trouble.

CITY SOUND

Repertoire: "The Sounds of Our City" -- City of Angels by Ozomatli, Saturday Night by Ozomatli, La Pistola y el Corazon by Los Lobos, At Last by E. James,  Sunless Saturday by Fishbone

Where is their color guard?  They have a CG staff, so what is going on?  The DM was wearing a very short, sheer skirt, and, APPARENTLY, she was also much more tan than she was last night.  Her salute was lackluster, which puzzles me, because her conducting is very sharp, unlike her limp salute.  I like the Los Lobos number, which made me say that they were "drum corps mariachi".  They had intonation problems, but I like the soloists, and I with that they were all that talented.  I like the mello solo for At Last.

IMPULSE

Repertoire:  "Tribute" -- Symphony No. 3, Mvt. 4 by V. Giannini, Variations on a Korean Folk Song by J. B. Chance, Corral Nocturne (from Rodeo) by A. Copland, Hoe-Down (from Rodeo) by A. Copland, Copland Finale (The Red Pony, Fanfare for the Common Man) by A. Copland

Go, Justin!  (He's a mellophone player in the corps whom is my friend's daughter's friend.  No, I've never met him).  Arirang!  Rudy and I learned to sing that Korean folk song when we were on a choir tour to Seoul.  That was my favorite song of their show, and it segued well between the pieces that surrounded it.  They need to clean up the Copland, because it's such a well-known piece.  Cool drum feature.

GOLD

Repertoire:  "Reel to Real" -- Lights, Camera, Action all by S. Director (Brass section designer for the corps)

I like their uniforms.  They don't know where they come from, though, because they're listed as hailing from 3 different places in the same program.  The CG was pretending to take pictures of each other during the pre-show.  I was annoyed by the narration, because they didn't really need it.  Good sound.  Go, Tenors!  The gold horns work well with the Hollywood theme.  They applaud themselves politely at the end of the show.  Oh, I get it!  The ticking sound I'm hearing is the sound of a film reel on the projector!

VELVET KNIGHTS

Repertoire:  "Play Ball!" -- The Final Game (from A League of Their Own) by H. Zimmer, The Final Game (from The Natural) by R. Newman, Drum Feature by J. Iraheta and A. Mendoza, Take Me Out to the Ballgame by J. Norworth, Training Playoffs (from A League of Their Own) by H. Zimmer

I like the baseball uniforms, and they still get to wear their Converse sneakers.  The DM salute starts with a pitch -- that's cool.  I like the flags with the baseball stitching.  Cool percussion feature with CG giving coaching signals, and the drummers handed baseballs to the CG.  This is what happens when you let baseball players do contemporary dance.  We were told to stand up and sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, which pretty much guarantees a standing ovation when done at the end.  However, I see that this was not the last song listed in the program, so maybe they're not yet done with the show.

INTERMISSION INCOGNITO

PACIFIC CREST

Fruit Stripe Gum Flag Toss

This will now be called "Be-bop It!" thanks to V, because it reminds us of that game where you have to push, pull, twist and turn.  Great sound!  Oh, so the twisting of the flag around the pole is actually on purpose.  OK.  And now my ears hurt.  In a good way.  Jeff and Rudy were very impressed with the improvement of the corps.  I have really grown to like the music since I heard it in the previous night's encore.  

MANDARINS

CG was much better tonight, but they really need to work on their unison.  Nice section solos, especially by the contras.  Their flags are definitely practice flags, because the poles are old and banged up.  I hope that they have their new flags when we see them later this week.  Then maybe I can take pictures of them.

ACADEMY

Soprano Soloist at start

So the announcer is doing the Airgram thing, and one of them says, "To the Academy Contras:  Tuba or Not Tuba.  That is the question."  He said it, like, 3 times, then said that we not only get drum corps here, we also get Shakespeare.  The CG pants are too shiny for me.  I really like the color of the drums.  BTW, Josh Duhamel's younger self is still playing the marimba for The Academy.  I now understand those green flags during the percussion feature:  they're repeat signs!  This is such a kickass show.  Rudy was so amazed that all he could say was "Ridiculous."  He later said that he was blown away by the music.  Jeff was digging the uniforms.

!!!! Flag Toss

SCV

SCV Start

Awesome SCV Drums

Marimbas were kicking BUTT!  This is now my favorite show for this year.  I really like those green drums.  So that mello player that was dancing with the CG -- does he actually play the horn, too?  Did the Vanguard yell and Bro did it, too, along with some other people in another section.  Maybe there will be more than 10 of us by Finals night.  ;)

PHREGIMENT

Double Purple Flags

Juliet is Alive at the End...For Now

"SUTA!" from, like, 3 voices in the stands.  It's so different from Finals week.  I love this music, but why didn't I feel the same emotion that I did last night?  Strange.  The horns didn't feel as powerful tonight.  Rudy did not cry, so my prediction was wrong.  He also did not sing the Mozart Requiem after it was done, so my prediction was wrong about that, too.  I've lost my touch.  Anyway, Bro and I are predicting that on Finals night, Juliet is going to kill herself on the DM stand.  She'll probably use a saber.

BD

Soprano Soloist

I told Rudy that the 5 lines on the BD uniform signify the lines of a music staff.  He responded with "Every Good Boy Does Fine."  If you do not understand this, you probably never learned how to read music.  Didn't your mothers ever tell you not to throw the rifle in the house?  The people behind me do not like this show, nor did the lady like the fact that the horn line bowed at one point.  Bro and V have decided that the asterisks they are carrying are for a bunch of footnotes.  Hey -- foot (marching) and notes (music)!  Clearly, it's late as I type this and I've gone loony.  I didn't feel this show tonight, either.  Weird.  Jeff said, "This is supposed to be a competition, right?  It seemed like, with those poles in different spots, they'd be able to make their lines better."  He elaborated more on it later when the scores were given, saying that they got help from the poles.

House with Rifle Toss

For some reason, the encore was not so instant.

SCORES

All-Age

50.75 -- So Cal Dream

The announcer gave the name of the corps before the score, then gave some lame excuse.  Dude.  You have been doing this for many years, and you still can't get it right?!  AUGH!

Open Class

4) 48.25 -- City Sound

3) 59.55 -- VK

2) 66.15 -- Impulse

1) 69.00 -- Gold

World Class

6) 65.70 -- Mandarins

5) 66.85 -- PC

4) 72.30 -- Academy

3) 77.75 -- SCV

2) 77.85 -- Phregiment

1) 80.45 -- BD

ENCORE:  Blue Devils

They did their drumline warm-up, then the horns did the F-tuning.  Then they did a couple of songs from their show, during which the soprano trio did not need their microphone.  No special stuff added.  Lame.

So none of us really liked BD's show tonight, mostly due to the choice of music.  It's going to be interesting to see these corps go back to head-to-head battle with the other top 8 that played on Premiere night.