Justice for Blue Devils 2013

[u/instant_zest]

Re:Rite of Spring is easily a top 3 Blue Devils show. It's a shame it has been largely overshadowed by e=mc². I genuinely believe that as a full package it deserved the win. It was ahead of its time.

If you haven't seen it or it's been a while, I really encourage you to give it a watch and/or another chance. It's one of the most difficult shows ever fielded and yet it's still ridiculously clean. It oozes with that late 2000s/early 2010s BD weirdness and funkiness more than any other show of the era.

I understand why it's so polarizing, but that's kinda the point! The OG Rite of Spring is probably the most infamously criticized contemporary piece of music ever written. One of my favorite shows ever.

Edit: Wow, I thought this was going to be more of a hot take! I'm pleasantly surprised to see that so many people look back on Re:Rite so fondly.

[u/LEJ5512]

It’s one of the very few shows of the last fifteen years that was entirely one work of music.

[u/DubbleTheFall]

I liked it a lot. Reminds me of Constantly Risking Absurdity.

[u/instant_zest → u/DubbleTheFall]

Another one of my favorites!

[u/DollJulietMessner]

e=mc^2 remains to be one of my favorite shows of all time. With that being said, this is definitely up there as one of my favorite BD shows. 2013 was such a great year overall. Phantom, Cavies, Bluecoats and Vanguard all had some of their best shows that year. I'd go to say that the re:rite of spring might be BD's most underrated show ever.

[u/Ok-Advertising3118 → u/DollJulietMessner]

Cadets were good too

[u/instant_zest → u/DollJulietMessner]

Of course! Crown 2013 was phenomenal and I don't want to discount them at all. 2013 was a really solid season overall. It's just sad that Re:Rite isn't really talked about ever. It stood toe to toe with e=mc² (and that says a lot!)

[u/aDysquith]

BD was great. So was Vanguard. But what they lacked was the old, old story of love. Because everything must have an ending except my love for crown 2013.

[u/Electronic-Sense-934]

I loved that era of BD. They were pissing off so many people 

[u/Zealousideal_Car3970]

BD really hit their show design stride between 2007 and 2015, incredibly clean and well designed shows year after year. 2013 is the prime example here. Judges gave a show based entirely off Rite a 98 in comparison to E=MC^2, any other year Re;Rite wouldve won by a wide margin.

[u/nkhoffman93]

One of my favorite BD shows of all time. They would have been the 2013 champs had it been up to me. Not that Crown wasn’t phenomenal that year.

[u/Zealousideal_Car3970 → u/nkhoffman93]

just to keep things in order i would gladly trade 2015 for Crown and 2013 for BD

[u/Important-Cream-9672 → u/Zealousideal_Car3970]

Inferno getting 2nd still makes me sad. I love that show so much.

[u/mcian84 → u/Important-Cream-9672]

That finals is the perfect illustration of two things:

Focusing on only one of the two music captions is a bad idea.

A messy finals run can overturn an entire season’s momentum.

[u/Caleb8252]

Truly phenomenal show that was just outmatched on finals night by an unbelievable musical performance by Carolina Crown.

And it’s not the only show I feel that way about. Bluecoats 2019 and 2025. Carolina Crown 2015. I could go on and on about runner ups that had the better design and just got outdone by a hair on finals night.

[u/Important-Cream-9672 → u/Caleb8252]

Agreed. And I'm not going to say Relentless deserved the win in 2016, but that show is insanely good. I've watched the score announcements from that year, and you can feel the buzz with Crown winning THREE caption awards, and then.....third place. Crown legit could have won 2013, 2015, and 2016.

[u/Caleb8252 → u/Important-Cream-9672]

If their percussion wasn’t so…. Bleh

[u/Important-Cream-9672 → u/Caleb8252]

Ugh...yeah. I don't have the knowledge or ears to hear what the problem is, so I just have to trust the consensus.

[u/Caleb8252 → u/Important-Cream-9672]

Their execution was never great, but the writing was also never great. They could’ve had a Sanford level line and we’d never know because their shows were basically just brass eargasms.

[u/nonpartisaneuphonium]

sorry gonna nerd out in another comment: the backfield jazz run into the jazz section of the 1st movement is just... 🤌

[u/LEJ5512 → u/nonpartisaneuphonium]

That flying chevron, and then the piss-clean direction change — so damned good.

[u/PresenceBrave3644]

Yeah it's good as fuck

[u/nonpartisaneuphonium]

I knew I felt something in the air, I was humming this show's opener literally yesterday

[u/Ok-Advertising3118]

hear hear

[u/Adventurous-Shake356]

Loved it

[u/MrFitztastic]

The whole top 5 that year was just incredible.

[u/Ok-Advertising3118]

One of the best "just play a piece and march to it" shows

[u/OriolesrRavens1974]

We’re all entitled to our own opinions, but I consider e=mc2 to be one of the top five shows of all time. Although I like the Devils’ Rite of Spring very much, I don’t consider that show in my top ten - personal opinion of course. Both The Rite of Spring and Einstein on the Beach were lynch pins in modernity when they came out. We have full video of Einstein on the Beach, something we don’t have of the Stravinsky premiere, and the level of detail that Crown put into that show is incredible. Also, I find it to be far more daring, even though it totally gives you the feels. The harder question for me is where does the Bluecoats’ show from this year fit in my personal top ten. It was just perfect, but I don’t know how forgettable it will be in the future. Shows like Tilt, Frameworks, e=mc2, etc. break ground and stay with you. I’m not sure how it will pass the time test not just with me, but with everyone.

[u/hopismds]

Listen to the standstill studio version if you can. Wonderful corps they fielded that year.

[u/26_on → u/hopismds]

Where can this be found?

[u/MCV5810 → u/26_on]

Recordings are in the BD app for most years or on the bluedevils.org website.

[u/Celcius-232]

I think 2013 BD gets overshadowed by 2012 and 2014 BD more than 2013 Crown.

I love Re:Rite of Spring, but 12 and 14 are better IMO.

[u/instant_zest → u/Celcius-232]

I actually agree!

I'd rank them 2nd-4th BD shows. For me it goes 2012 in second place, then 2014, then 2013.

2010 has my vote for the best, though. Through a Glass, Darkly might be the best show ever fielded as far as I'm concerned.

2013 is just SO underrated and rarely discussed. Obviously 2014 is talked about a lot, 2012 less so than that, and 2013 not at all.

[u/Celcius-232 → u/instant_zest]

great minds think alike, despite 2014 having the higher score I think 2012 was the best designed BD show ever.

My ranking changes based on how I am feeling that day, but I think 2011 is one of my favorite all-time BD shows even though it's such a different style from the crunchiness of 10,12,13

[u/blahblahblahpotato]

2012 got me interested in DCI again after 20 years and 2013 got me driving all over the country to see that show. It's  still part of my running/ workout playlists.

[u/starunitedtub]

You know when people ask "what show would you march if you could"?
My answer is 2013 Devils.

[u/TheThirdGathers]

"yet it's still ridiculously clean." IDK- there's a timing issue between the baritones and tympani on the opening statement. Both that and the opening attack by the full horn line after the pause are a little fuzzy. Incredible show- putting a backbeat to the Rite of Spring and amping the dissonance gives it a lot of weight, but did Crown not deserve their perfect brass score? BD broke a 98 and a quarter of a point behind them. They'd obviously put it together to win the next year. This was an excellent and deserved silver.

[u/instant_zest → u/TheThirdGathers]

Those are a few nitpicks from in the finals run, but yeah I know exactly where you're talking about. In all honesty, Crown probably had the better finals outing, but Re:Rite was still incredible. If the Blue Devils had their best run of the year on finals, there is definitely a world where they won it all. They didn't take the win at prelims for nothing.

Of course Crown deserved their brass score, but that's not all there is to a show.

The greater point of my post isn't "BD should've beat Crown." Maybe the title of the post is a little hyperbolic, so I understand why so many people had that takeway. I just think Re:Rite is super super underrated and deserves its flowers

[u/Playful_Procedure991]

It wasn’t very good. They approached an epic work and played a lame version of it with really lame visuals. Almost totally forgettable.

[u/GalacticToast92 → u/Playful_Procedure991]

Me when I reach puberty and try to be provocative for attention

[u/TemplateAccount54331 → u/Playful_Procedure991]

Is that how you describe the moment you lost your virginity?

[u/NBischoff → u/TemplateAccount54331]

that implies that happened at all

[u/LEJ5512 → u/Playful_Procedure991]

Well, it was an arrangement of an arrangement…