Phantom Regiment - "Swan Lake"

Flags in a semicircle to begin the show close to the 50, harp from the synth to begin the show, mello soloist with brass playing backfield, guard beautiful, brass sounds SO much better than Cavaliers, build into a Swan Lake hit, was wanting a little more.

Drum feature into the next section, drumline surprisingly dirty in comparison to The Cavaliers, pit sounds greatNot a huge fan of the drill thus far, Guard staging is interesting. Brass trading a theme between sections. Don't like the Uniforms on the field, makes the drill look very cluttered. Show loses steam at this point, guard picks up BEAUTIFUL pink silks! Swan shaped form for the impact here.

VERY disjointed transition into another drum feature, drums dirty again compared to Cavaliers. The corps sans high brass has changed into ALL black, half of the guard as well. Very dramatic! Lots of tension musically! Lots of mixing between the black and white. Brass brings out big tubes for the guard to change uniforms in. Trying to make the uniform change more dramatic, not pulling it off too well.

Swan Lake theme re-appears with a bari soloist it sounds like. One guard and one hornline still with white, corps is all in black now. Phantom.....this doesn't look or sound like you at all, not a fan at all at this poitn. Even the drill which I loved last year is lacking to me, this corps has an uphill battle this season. ANOTHER drum feature. Music doesn't match the color scheme at all. Very dissapointed here.

Strengths - ..........brass stronger than Cavaliers, guard.

Weaknesses:

Show design, all GE, Percussion.

Personal Score - 65.5

Oh phantom. Proving all those who freaked out at one weak park performance wrong! Brass seemed considerably stronger than cavaliers and over all visually as well. Though I think the story needs developing. Percussion was good but doesn't have cavies. Guard very close. Will be a great passionate show by finals.

We'll have to disagree, they proved me right. Strong performance, weak show design. Lots of conflicting musical and visual ideas.

They always start off MUCH weaker in design and finish MUCH stronger. Not sure why but compared to most it's drastic. It still wasn't as bad as I feared.

The Cadets - "Promise: An American Portrait"

The intro of the show starts off with a slow build with narration into a HUGE hit of Lincoln Portrait! All pre-show until right before the hit. Guard looks STUNNING in all blue! BEAUTIFUL Flags! MASSIVE STEP UP HERE in all captions! Crowd going nuts at the end of the intro! BRASS WOW!

Lincoln portrait of the show is moderate tempo, a narrator with a GREAT voice quoting Lincoln on the stage up front, which is a great shade of maroon, brass backfield into a big push to finish this phrase. Brass is STUNNING!!! Tempo picks up to finish out the Lincoln portrait of the show, BRASS FEATURE! They sound amazing! Fast drill to finish this out! Transition into the Roosevelt portion of the show.

War sounds from the pit and pre-recorded stuff are ominous, a somber soprano soloist begins this portion. Very dark,a nd suddenly uplifting. Great narrator comes in again with that great voice, now quoting Roosevelt. Not too much field coverage. Guard, soloist, and tenors all utilizing the stage. Here comes their monster drumline while war time quotes come. WOW. Drumline sounds great! Fast paced drill. Brass books it right up to the front sideline to finish and move into the Kennedy portion.

Appalachian Spring soloist into the next section, a ballad it seems. Guard with BEAUTIFUL yellow and white silks. Here comes the drumline while the brass is still in ballad mode. WOW! This drumline is killing it! Likely second drum title for them. Brass field left, drums stage right. Amazing feature, WOW! These guys are so much stronger than the previous corps, not even funny. JFK quotes while this is all going on. A mix of Obama/Reagan quotes into an old school MASSIVE Simple Gifts closer! Corps covering the entire field. Gradually builds into an old school company front! Crown will have to be ON to beat this.

No weaknesses, they're a corps in the hunt. Crown will have to be on.

Personal Score - 74.9

Oh boy. I strongly disagree with anyone who said cadets are having a weak year. Nothing seemed weak to me! My only complaint would be regarding the stage which is too big and under utilized and a tad bit too much narration! Awesome though in every aspect of the corps and in contention!

Phantom's design is a lot weaker than last years was at the start, worst since I've started following the activity for their first show. They performed well, show just isn't going to have the gas to make it very far.

Hey we completely agreed on cadets lol

Carolina Crown - "Out of this World"

Field very cluttered to start. AWESOME version of "Space Oddity" being sung to open the show, HUGE brass hit into "Interstellar Suite" percussion already being featured more than last year. Guard is great, brass is BLAZING! Guard on Trampolines, not very coordinated.

Metals drum feature cool at first, seems to drag on, percussion is improved, but not nearly as strong as Cadets. Brass is all on Sopranos and Mellos for a great echo effect. Drumline back on drums for the rest of the feature, dirty in comparison to Cadets! Drill doesn't seem quite as strong as Cadets. Field just looks too cramped and I think it's limiting visual development.

Ballad starts off with a solo piano from the pit, brass building into a BEAUTIFUL mix of music from "Lost" and "Space Oddity", absolutely gorgeous writing! Brass is solid! Guard staging seems limited by the props.

Closer seems short, but FULL of notes, brass is on fire! Cadets sound just as strong, but Carolina Crown with more demand. Guard looks great. HUGE last hit! Cool drill!

Everything seems great sans the amount of stuff on the field. Considering The Cadets were on fire and the drums are the only caption getting scored:

Personal Score - 73.9

Crown came to defend! I think they are not as ready as Cadets but it's going to be a contender no doubt. To say that percussion is improved is an UNDERSTATEMENT! it won't catch cadets Percussion. Guard and brass. .. SWEET!

My picks cadets, crown, phantom, cavaliers, Troopers.

I know who won in the review category lol nice job my friend

Here we go, scores!

I win lol I got them all right though I was surprised crown to cadet was as big as it was

Geez... The .1 point difference in percussion!! If the other sections had been judged I'm sure crown would have come out on top

I don't know, GE is really where they got hit which has been stronger, brass wouldn't have been a huge difference in my opinion and guard would have been a toss up. If visual performance remotely related to GE cadets would have also had the advantage. Cadets were just more prepared in my opinion

Yeah I just looked back at the recap. The GE heavily favored Cadets... Brass would have gone to Crown probably but not as much as GE went to Cadets lol