Tim Hinton Drum Corps Review 2010

A lament on the state of drum corps in 2010.

I am sad that we live in such a “short attention span” society.  No one has time to listen to an hour long symphony and hear it develop and grow over time.  Who has time to read an 800 page novel and be moved by the development of characters and story over a span of time?  We all go to the movies to watch some exciting action sequences, but the current fad of short cuts and fast flashes of action shots makes it totally impossible to follow the action.

I gave up watching “So You Think You Can Dance” because it’s impossible to watch the beautiful choreography because the camera must constantly swoop and revolve.  The camera shots flash and change so quickly you can’t even follow the movement.  (Not to mention my inability to tolerate all the pre-teen girl screams that constantly pierce the air.)

So call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I lament that our younger generation can’t sit still and hold a thought.  Apparently we must constantly bombard them with activity and changing images all the time.

So this brings us to Drum & Bugle Corps in 2010.  An unfortunate trend that has been developing the last few years has taken hold in many of the top corps, and is being rewarded by the judges.  Many of the top shows as now so busy, and have seemingly 5, 10, or 20 things going on at the same time, that it’s really quite impossible to watch.

This trend started with WGI and many top color guards.  Rather than controlling our focus and shifting the top responsibility from one group to another, now many of the top guards seems to have numerous things going on at the same time.  I realize that this can be viewed as “innovative” or “complex,” but I find it often is just a muddy mess.  If I’m going to be engaged and moved by a performance then I need to be taken with them on a journey, guided by the performers and the design to know what to watch, what to feel, and then grow to a place where I’m emotionally involved.  I want to feel something.

I’m not the only one to say that these “super-complex” shows leave one cold.  It’s like watching a video screen with constantly flashing images that change constantly.  What am I to see?  How can I focus?  Even a three ring circus rotates from ring to ring.  But recent designs have the entire circus performing at one time.  Where to look?

I find I can tolerate this easier in the color guard world because the venue is smaller and the number of performers is less.  I can sit in Dayton and pretty much take in the entire performance stage at one time.  I still don’t enjoy the multiple focuses, but I can work my way through it easier.  That said, my favorite shows are not the ones that throw it all at me at one time, but the ones where I can feel something.  I don’t want to just watch a machine being busy.

On the football field with drum corps and marching band, the stage is simply humongous.  It may be complex thinking to have 6 events at the same time at the beginning of the Santa Clara show this year, but it just gave me a headache.  Okay, I could even go with the idea for 90 seconds, but you’re not going to keep my attention this way for 10 minutes.

So we have shows with everything going on at once, and very little if any clue as to where the designers want me to look.  It’s impossible to take it all in, and I find myself uncomfortable, working constantly to make decisions and try to see it all.  Then add some obtuse music with no melody and you have the start of Excedrin Headache #42.  (I like Bartok, I just didn’t think they honored the originals very much.)

There are some corps which do a much better job of finding a middle ground.  I found that Carolina Crown seems to be adding this advanced movement complexity but still stops and gives me a breather by allowing me to know where to look quite often.  Body moves are not so frantic and are tastefully matched to the music.  There are still many times when it seems too much, but I find it less egregious than some of the other groups.  But, sorry to say, I still was not moved by Crown’s show.

Cavies seemed to take these ideas but work them in the framework of their traditional show style and construction which I love.  I may have been uncomfortable watching their show, but it was because they wanted me to be.  It was their effect, their intent, and it came much closer to moving me.  That said, I found it odd that at the end of their show I only remembered the guard, the flags, and the rifle moment.  How odd that no Cavies drill “coolness” left an impression on me this year.

Santa Clara just seemed angry, and all the red and the constant barrage of multiple focuses just left me flat.  I also bristle at the idea that an existing piece of work can’t just be played and enjoyed.  Sorry, Crossmen, but I found the butchering of Metheny’s gorgeous melodies hard to take.  (Hey, just my opinion.)

So who did I enjoy?  I spoke with my 80 year old father who sat with us at the show and, interestingly, he liked the same two corps that I did.  Maybe this makes me an old soul, or maybe it’s because, like him, I like the shows where they played melodies I could recognize, and played the music (for a while at least) without having to muck it up with needless creativity.

Madison was the most enjoyable show this year, in my opinion.  Smart, smart, smart for that corps, and the music sounded great.  The concept for the guard and movement worked really well, and the energy from the field was unsurpassed all night.  It wasn’t just a glut of frantic movement, and it wasn’t 20 ideas competing for my attention at the same time.   It was great music played well.  It was exciting, and it was old school “ENOUGH” that it was a tip of the hat to the past as well as working well in today’s activity.

I also loved Blue Knights.  The music sounded great, was treated with dignity, and was beautifully interpreted with color and movement.  The show built visually, musically, and especially EMOTIONALLY to a climax in just the right way.  At the very end of the show I was “Swept up” in the moment and couldn’t wait to leap to my feet and enjoy it with them.

The most rewarded corps of the evening left me the most dissatisfied.  The Blue Devils’ use of mirror props was innovative and interesting, but then pairing it with the most extreme use of this cacophony of focus and movement create a show that, quite frankly, I could not watch.  I just couldn’t see the performers.  Certainly I realize that the show concept with the mirrors wanted to challenge me as they moved in and out, played at reflections, etc.  But when this became all that the show was, they lost me.  The guard uniforms were so disjunctive that I felt I couldn’t see what they were doing.  Throw in the mirrors and it all became a wash to me.

But as I left the stadium late Saturday night, I was sad because I had been swept away exactly twice that entire night.  I was actually astonished that I sat through 8 hours of drum corps and was swept up emotionally twice.  End of Blue Knights.  End of Madison.  Then…..

I also left the stadium thinking that there were maybe 2 or 3 shows that I would care to ever see again.  This is a shocking reaction to an entire day of drum corps.  I simply have no interest in seeing it again, on video or otherwise.

This makes me sad for the direction of the activity.  I hope to hear from my friends in the band and corps world with their opinions.  I am happy to learn, to hear differing views, to find out what others are seeing that I’m not.  But this orgy of movement and competing multiple focuses….seemingly for the sake of just showing how complex you can be, and to be rewarded, is leaving me cold.  Drum Corps that makes me feel nothing??!?!!!??

There was a time in the early 90’s where a debate swept the activity about the performance of challenging and “high-brow” music.  I felt that this development was good for the corps, and I think that the activity found a way to take this “new” music and find ways to keep the audience engaged.   I hope that this new trend finds a similar way to moderate and not leave generations behind.  Are we only writing for a video-game generation who needs constant stimulation and can’t hold a thought?

I expect to get some reactions, possibly justified, that I’m just not sophisticated enough to “get it” or understand.  Hopefully those that claim that my 33 years of watching drum corps leaves me unprepared to evaluate this trend will take the time and courtesy to explain to me what I’m missing, how I need to learn to watch, or why this crazed focus frenzy is an improvement.

For me, if I have to choose between watching the frenzy of camera cuts in “The Dark Knight” or watching the classic perfection of a car chase in “The French Connection” I’m going with the old school without question.  Move me emotionally.  Allow me to follow your thoughts process.  And please don’t make me say again, as I did after the Devils on Saturday, that “I just didn’t take enough drugs to understand or enjoy that show.”

Let me hear from you with your thoughts and opinions.

Tim Hinton