Went to the Storm Percussion/Guard Invitational on Saturday, March 6 in Vancouver, Washington. After preliminaries we decided to stay in town and see finals as well. When you're able to see a show twice in one day you really see a group's full potential. For finals, every ensemble tied up some loose ends and a few were bold enough to add extra flare. It was a great day.
And it started off great as well. Once we walked in the doors I spotted an Offworld Percussion rep. Of course, he had some Invader V3s on the table, and a few on stands to try out. Wow! Playing on the demo models made me want one even more. I knew I wouldn't be able to walk away without buying one. To make a long story short, I got a demo model at a great price. The playing surface had some bubbling and the rim looked like someone took a knife to it in three places. Neither will affect my playing one bit. It was totally worth the $20 I paid.
We saw the following groups in preliminaries. Clicking on each will bring up a YouTube video of their performance.
- Sunset
- Canby
- Southridge
- Evergreen (this one's not from Saturday, sorry)
- Skyview
- Westview
- Oregon Crusaders Indoor
Unfortunately, we missed Union and Kamiak early in the day due to hunger. But we did manage to catch their finals performances. Kamiak was especially good. So good that I'm sad I didn't record their finals show, but I had already filled my memory cards. More on Kamiak later.
Saturday was the first time I'd ever seen winter percussion in person. I knew what to expect, but damn, marching percussion in a gymnasium sucks! Hopefully one day there'll be a better venue for it. I love to hear tight bass runs, but if basses aren't playing solo they get drowned out and it all becomes muddy. So unfortunate.
At the end of the day the value of good show design seemed so apparent. Some shows really pull you in. But sadly, most only pull you in for one or two movements. The rest of the time you're searching for some musical theme to grab onto. Even the Oregon Crusaders Indoor show has dry spots. Maybe the dynamics were out of balance. Maybe some melody that's supposed to shine through is being overshadowed. Not really sure. All I know is it lacks some of the pizzazz that Ayala 2009 has.
And something similar can be said about a show's drill. When it's well-planned to coincide with the music, something just clicks. Otherwise you're lost trying to figure out what the formations are supposed to be, or you're wondering why 1 tenor is marching here and the other is marching there. The drills for Kamiak and Southridge really stood out in a positive way.
Kamiak's ensemble was all white. White drums, white mat, white uniforms. And their formations and movements were superbly crafted. So fluid. It seemed as though they never stopped moving. Once they snap into place they're off again to the next spot. When they do quick direction changes it never came across as jerky or out of place. The in-betweens, while they move from formation to formation, are still pleasing to the eye. It had nothing to do with them being clad in white.
Before finals we got a chance to walk around in the parking lots and hear the ensembles practicing. OCI's set drummer was laying down a beat while other instruments joined in. OCI's snares were off on the other side of the building screwing around, seeing if they could do 32nd notes with two drummers. Pretty sure the basses were on the other side of the track doing runs that I only wish I could have been witness to ... another group's pit was closer to me, drowning out the basses.
There's another performance this weekend, not much further away, with some schools I haven't heard before, and a few I saw on Saturday. Kamiak will be there again, which I'm excited about. Hopefully they live up to the legend I've created in my mind, from the one performance I saw.
I knew I'd enjoy seeing winter percussion in person, but I didn't think I'd be so excited to see another performance so soon. And all of this has been incredible food for thought on how writing for an indoor show really should be approached quite differently than an on-field show. I need to start making notes.
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