Kneel Before 'Zade

Corps at the Crest - San Diego

El Camino High School / Herb S Meyer Stadium

Friday, June 27, 2014

Oceanside, CA

We didn't go to DCI West at Stanford this year because there's a big change affoot:  Bro and family are moving back to So Cal!!!  Whoo HOOOO!!!  Bro and I watched some of today's corps via the DCI webcast last week.  Prior to that, Bro and I went to Pacific Crest's sneak preview.  We were therefore familiar with most of the shows that we would see this weekend, but the web and the movie theater are no match for what we get to see live!

I started my day by having a yummy lunch with best friend Mich and her daughter at Lucille's, then drove down to my parents' house to meet up with Bro.  He was excited to show me the license plate that he had renewed due to the big move.  He had really missed this license plate when he was living out of state, and we agreed that he would drive to all of the So Cal shows because of it.

We picked up Rudy on the way and caught up to the latest events in our regular lives.  On the freeway, we saw white charter buses, which didn't have any drum corps markings, but Bro knew that they had to be transporting drum corps members.  He was finally proven right when we saw the "drum corps parking" permit on the bus driver's windshield.  We parked at the high school and walked around to listen to some warm-ups, including some time watching marimbas rehearse, which had Rudy feeling very happy.  Bro eventually figured out that the white buses belonged to The Academy, whose members were walking around a bit while waiting for dinner.

Watchmen Marimbas

We tried to find the people that we know from Arcadia High School that are now involved with Pacific Crest, but couldn't find them.  So I shopped.  Because you know how I am.  Plus, I had forgotten my PC sweatshirt at home, and I needed something warm to wear.  Of course, I had to get a Scheherazade shirt from the SCV truck, which was not something warm to wear, and they had a REALLY cute tank top / dress for little girls, so I got one for Miss O.  It's in her favorite color, and she's going to love it!  My shirt has the same design (a single peacock feather), but the back of the shirt has the tour dates.  I saw a hoodie at the PC stand, but decided to wait and see if I'd actually need it later.

We got to the entry gate, and I was very happy that the lady didn't tear up my ticket because it's so very pretty.  I love that they used a picture of SCV from last year's show, even though they hadn't even toured to So Cal with their Les Miz show.  Our seats were on the right 40-yard line, section C, row S, seats 18-20, which was the top row, so we had a wall behind us, which was nice.  Hey, those are the same seat we had as last year!  I thought that we were in another section, but this works.  There was a girl a few rows in front of us that had a cool SCV Les Miz bow in her hair.  I should have taken a picture of it.  A couple of guys noticed Bro's shoes and he heard them talking about them asking each other to talk to him about it.  It was cute.  He ended up talking to them.  Bro and his famous shoes!

Pretty Ticket

I don't know why, but nobody played the Star-Spangled Banner.  That felt wrong.  Instead, Incognito took the field and did their thing.  So I have no idea what the program listing of "Opening Ceremonies" was supposed to be.

INCOGNITO

Repertoire:  "<3 - less than love" -- Romance; Struggle; Trust; Betrayal by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, R. Barclay & T. T. Nguyen

The program says that they last competed 5 years ago.  Time flies.  Bro and I remember them performing with masks, then the next year, they'd be listed in the program, but we wouldn't see them at all.  Kind of fit the name.  Anyway, it turns out that these were the people that we were watching at warm-ups.  The center snare guy is very young-looking, but very good.  I expect to see him in Pacific Crest next year.  Bro says he's too short for them, but I think he's about to have a growth spurt.  Because I'm such an expert on that kind of stuff.  Not really.  I hope they can clean up this show, because I prefer to hear clean Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.  I mean, hello, it's "Romeo and Juliet", so I'd like to be in love with the show. It was too windy for the color guard (CG) lead to catch the flag while on the guy's shoulder.

WATCHMEN

Repertoire: "Lost Souls" -- Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers; They Don't Care About Us by M. Jackson; Hallelujah by L. Cohen; Get Up! by Kom, Skrillex

When we were watching the marimbas earlier, they were practicing "True Colors".  Or not.  I guess we were actually hearing "Under the Bridge".  I'm just going to say that it's the same chord progression and leave it at that.  I smell Mash Up!  The Watchmen are in their first year of our drum corps, although we had seen them in exhibition last year as a brass and percussion ensemble.  They have a nice sound.  Bro was not sure if the last song was actually two songs.  So it was Charles Ives?  Wow, we were really wrong about the songs for this one.  I whispered to Rudy that "Hallelujah" reminds me of "Shrek".  He rolled his eyes at me.  Then a few minutes later, Bro said, "'Hallelujah' makes me think of 'Shrek'."  Sometimes our sibling bond scares me.

GOLDEN EMPIRE

Repertoire:  "A Journey Begins" - Movement I: "A Journey Begins"; Movement II: "The Balloon Ride"; Movement III: "Thinking of Home"; Movement IV: "Uncharted Waters", derived from Al Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178

Golden Empire is a brand new drum corps, and wow, they were impressive in their So Cal debut.  Nice, big sound!  Rudy saw the color guard and said that he wanted Thin Mints.  I didn't know what he was talking about.  He said that they looked like Girl Scouts.  Then when he tried to explain himself to Bro, he gave up.  I think Bro looked at him like he was a puzzle that couldn't be solved.  Then the CG brought out beautiful flags with a big yellow clock on them.  I whispered to Rudy, "Those are lemon cookies."  Rudy tried to hold back his laughter at our inside joke and then I started with the giggling, told Bro, and Rudy and I just shook with that silent laughter that we used to laugh when we sang together at St. James.  Ah, the good old days.  Rudy hoped that in the future, the corps would include a tapeworm in the show, and we'd know for sure that it was all written just for us.  (You're lost, aren't you?  See the description of this blog).  The purple sky flags were beautiful, too.  I pointed out to Bro that two of the trumpet players were short.  He answered, "Twins?"  I didn't think so, because one seemed to have darker hair.  "Wait," I said.   "Are you looking at the trumpets?"  Turns out that he was looking at Bass1 and Bass2 on the drumline.  The corps was standing in straight lines, which were NOT on the yard lines.  Great all around.

Golden Empire

CITY SOUND

Repertoire: "Big Easy Blues" -- Do Whatcha Wanna by Rebirth Brass Band; St. James Infirmary  by T. Andrews; Beale Street Blues by W. C. Handy; Brooklyn by Youngblood Brass Band

I'm still thinking that their drum major (DM) should be wearing a tight, short skirt.  Yes, even if he'll be in drag.  I'm traditional that way.  Rudy said that the stage must be their speakeasy.  I told him about the speakeasy door made of cymbals that Spirit of Atlanta made a year or two ago.  The trumpeter's shako is coming off.  It was still hanging on at the back of his neck due to the string, and it made him look like a drum corps mariachi player.  Rudy said that they had more CG than brass.  He told me that he counted, which saved me from counting them myself.  He's very helpful.  

GOLD

Repertoire: "The Journey" -- Movement One: Every Journey Begins With a Single Step...; Movement Two: New Places, New People, New Things; Movement Three:  One Journey Ends and Another Begins by S. Director

The synthesizer at the beginning hurts my ears.  One of the tuba players lost his plume.  nice flag work with the white flags while they are in a triangle formation.  They have rifles in not-round hula hoops.  What is the plural of apparatus?  Apparati?  Apparata?  Whatever, they have different kinds of equipment.  CG does not have their uniforms yet.  Are they waiting for their Asian acrobats this time?  The drums match the DM uniform yellow stripe.  Great sound.

IMPULSE

Repertoire: "Revenge of the Fifth" 

Yay, "Duel of the Fates"!  Not.  Actually, when Bro and I were at the sneak preview, that's what I thought I was hearing at warm ups.  It was actually Beethoven's 5th.  When I explained this to Rudy, and he heard the music today, he said, "Really?"  Like I'm a dumbass.  Yeah, he's probably right.  Anyway, Impulse still hasn't released their repertoire info, not even on their website or on corpsreps.com.  How is she gonna spin with that sling?  The gals a few rows in front of us yelled, "WAY TO GO, BROKEN ARM!"  The people of the pit bow at the end.  Their music needs tuning, especially because it's familiar to most people.

<INTERMISSION>

I was getting cold, so I went to the Impulse stand to get a black zip-up hoodie.  I think I'd been looking at it since last year's show, and I got an approval from Bro, so now I own it.  I also looked for a pen because mine was stubborn, but nobody was selling any.  The guys got food for us.  Back to the show: World Class!

THE ACADEMY

Repertoire: "Vanity Fair" -- Rondeau - Theme from Masterpiece Theater by J. J. Mouret; Crown Imperial by W. Walton; What a Wonderful World by L. Armstrong; Dance of the Hours by A. Ponchielli; Jazz Suite No. 2 Waltz 2 by D. Shostakovich; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by F. Liszt; Symphony No. 7, Mvmt. 2 by L. van Beethoven; Paris Sketches by M. Ellerby

Rudy was annoyed because the announcer said "Thuh" instead of "Thee" when introducing the corps.  Bro and I were ignoring the program and our memories, wondering what their show was when they marched on to the field with scarves on their top hats.  Bro figured, "Southern England" once we actually used our resources.  Nice entrance onto the field, like a fanfare.  Why orange, WHY?!  The blue is so beautiful!  Mirrors.  Get it?  Vanity!  The hippos are dancing!  OK, there weren't any hippos, but that's what I picture during the Ponchielli piece.  Nice touches of the different hand movements, because the white gloves stand out against their black uniforms.  I also like the contrast when the corps members are dancing with the guard: the guard is wearing predominantly white, so when they step out from their positions behind the corps, the white really pops out at you.  MARIMBAS!!!!  OMG, that was awesome, the way 4 of them were on one, and they moved over, and...wow.  Music is YAY!  The Union Jack flags at the end were jarring to Rudy.  I like this show a lot.

Bro is calling an audience member "Ducky" because he's got his tag hanging off his hat like he's Minnie Pearl, and the tag says "Ducky".

MANDARINS

Repertoire: "Unbreakable" -- Movement 1: Forged Steel; Movement 2: Diamonds Under Pressure; Movement 3: Struggle;  Movement 4: Courage and Inspiration by K. Poulan, T. Nunez, K. Shah

Unlike my experience watching this on the web, the narration wasn't bad except for that last soliloquy.  OY.  There was a lot of triple tonguing like crazy.  Crazy soprano solo, too.  Rudy really liked the show.  I need to not hear the narration.

PACIFIC CREST

Repertoire: "No Strings Attached" -- Shadowplay (from Cirque du Soleil's "Ka") by R. Dupere; Firefly by R. George; original music by J. M. Meehan; Overture (from "Orpheus in the Underworld") by J. Offenbach

Rudy:  "That's kinda jazzy".  Now Bro and I will always think of those stupid DirecTV commercials when we watch this show.  The CG got used to those big white flags, not wrapping them around them around their bodies like they had done at the preview.  The ending flags have scissors on them.  They have lots of fun little touches, little puppet-like moves that I enjoy.  I think they should add a can-can, though.  Bro said that the + on my hand represents their set pieces of marionette handles.

Pacific Crest

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD

Repertoire: "Scheherazade: Words to Live By" -- Scheherazade by N. Rimsky-Korsakov

WOW!!!  A few months ago, when SCV announced their show, I went coco bananas.  I LOVE this music, and had just come off of the high of the Davis and White winning the Ice Dance competition in the Olympics to this piece.  Sigh!  Anyway, they had a twitter Q&A, and this is the exchange we had:

@PellaPusher McCool: we hope so, and to help with that, there're t-shirts avail. at the souvie truck. Weber: hope it was cry in a good way
— Santa Clara Vanguard (@scvanguard) March 1, 2014

Yeah, I'm a fangirl.  I forgot to yell for Justin, a friend of a friend of mine.  She'll be with us at Glendora, so I know I won't forget then.  Bro and Rudy marveled at the double decrescendo.  Also at some diminished 7th chord or something that I didn't get, because I'm not a chord person.  I love everything about this show: the colors, the music, the uniforms, EVERYTHING!  I even liked the trombones.  They're shiny and LOUD.  The crowd went nuts.  The ending now is surely not going to be the same as the version at Finals, because this is SCV.  The guy with the scimitar was only there for like 10 seconds, and I'm sure there will be more to that.  I want that lamp!  It's shiny and gold, too.  There's a lot of gold against the white and it's gorgeous.  The shadow of the drum major in the backfield is really cool on the set.  Oh, there's a lot of set dressing, but I'm good with it because they're not moving it around all over the field.  This is nothing like the 2004 show, and I'm fine with that, though I did love it.  Bro said that one of the drum features is directly from that show, though.  I'll have to listen for it tonight.

SCV Backfield Drum Major

CROSSMEN
Repertoire: "Alma Gitana: A Gypsy Soul" -- Bulgaria by P. Erskine; Erghen Diado by the Bulgarian Women's Choir; Emmanuel by O. de Brujo; Habanera (from "Carmen") by G. Bizet, East Village Opera Company; Caravan by J. Tizol & D. Ellington

Gypsy wagons!  When the bass drums are marching in beside the wagons, their drums look like they're the wagon wheels.  At other times, the drums look like a cross-sectioned orange.  I couldn't see the "40" formation that I saw last week on the webcast.  I guess we're not up high enough to see it.  The snare drummer lost his aussie.  I like that whole tambourine/drum feature.  Welcome to California, XMen!!!

BLUE KNIGHTS
Repertoire: "That One Second" -- A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics by J. Horner; Brief Eternity by B. McFerrin, R. Treece, D. Roster; Hand of Fate - Part 1 (from "Signs") by J. N. Howard; To Build a Home by Swinscoe, France, Page, Watson, Smith

Bro finds their uniforms relaxing.  Rudy couldn't remember seeing this corps before, even when I told him about the knee-pop salute.  Welcome back to So Cal, BK!  How does her skin feel like paper?  I felt the skin on Bro's hand, and it was nothing like the paper in front of me.  Somehow he didn't slap me when I kept doing this.  I guess he really was relaxed.  Beauiful sound.  Way too much narration.  Rudy says it's from a movie, but he doesn't know which one.  Why didn't they use all of the screens that they put on the field?  The shadows were cool on them, but still.  Oh, that's a second hand for a clock!  I like the dots on the CG uniform.  Very BK, but subtle.  If they could take out the narration, I'd like this show a lot more, but they like their narration, so that ain't happening.

Scores

Open Class:
4) 40.9 City Sound
3) 46.4 Impulse
2) 48.0 Golden Empire
1) 53.45 Gold

Hey, what happened to Incognito?  Were they only performing in exhibition?

World Class:
6) 62.2    Mandarins
5) 62.85 Pacific Crest
4) 63.35 The Academy
3) 66.4   Crossmen
2) 69.15 Blue Knights
1) 74.3  Santa Clara Vanguard

YES!  Kneel Before Zade!  

The drum majors were doing a meet and greet afterward, but we didn't stick around.  Instead, we listened to more drum corps on the way home, so that I could hear 2004 SCV.

Next up:  Citrus College