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Allentown Day 1 Review


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Those who have been around a while know what a tough place Allentown is to play- and at a week before finals. . . what could be more perfect? A tough stadium to fill up, a tougher crowd, and tour weariness can be at an all-time high. The web cast was great (at least for me). BRASS, PERCUSSION,MUSIC ENSEMBLE PEEPS, use this video for the next week’s planning. On the web cast I heard every tiny little timing rub, brass stick out, tuning issues, etc., much more so than any other web cast. Glad the rain went away!

My impressions:

Pioneer: Have improved well over the season. The biggest issues still plague the performance: gross over balance of percussion, programmatic holes, lack of quality depth in the brass line. The guard has progressed markedly over last season. The Joy theme is a good one and at times, sells well. The big stadium was difficult to fill with energy and confidence today. Have a great rest of tour.

Cascades: Perhaps the greatest GE aspect of their show is that the program is written in such a way that each section will be able to max out their performance and all contribute to the art of quality and finesse. I hope this is a snap shot of an effort to take your time and do it right! Rebuilding is never easy. Nice sounds and visuals in spades. Thanks, Cades!

PC: As the score indicates, a clearly measurable jump in quality all around. The programmatic decision to base the show on marionettes is great. The theme is developed

in great detail and the crowd responds to those efforts. Big sound and great color palette with intelligent consideration to the theme.

OC: They do a great job of pulling you in to the program emotionally, even in what I consider to be one of the hardest venues in the activity. I think the amount of voice over is just right and you can’t beat that iconic voice. I don’t think the raven’s wing work, but other than that, great show and great performance tonight. Crowd response was great and not matched until BK. They have improved the most of these first four corps. Though I now don’t think higher than 15th is possible, if this corps was a little more talented and mature, they could place higher. Great promise for the future.

Colts: As with OC, more talent and a bit more maturity and this show would be placing several places higher, and challenging for 12th, if the story line was more clear and the voice over re-worked to let us not have to either listen past it, or struggle to fully understand the dialogue and its tie to what is happening. While I think intrigue and repeat viewings to catch and appreciate everything in a show can sometimes be well advised, this voice over in its current state pushed us away more than it lets us in. Fantastic visual book. Not buying the new ending and it makes the story line more vague.

Blue Stars: This is an example of needing multiple viewings to fully appreciate everything. The home theme is clever and dare I say, cute. A word I usually do not like in drum corps, though it sometimes is a welcomed change. In this case, it works well. So much to look at though I don’t think cluttered except in a few spots of the show. Didn’t seem to get the emotion up tonight. In this stadium, that’s often the norm.

Boston: The show comes across as an experiment to me. That is not a bad thing necessarily depending on the corps long range goals. Like with Colts, perhaps there is too much undertone subtext to let us be completely bought in to the production. They are certainly working hard to perform the show. I agree with others in that I am not sure it can get much cleaner due to demand. There were a few rough ensemble tears tonight and a few obvious brass ticks. Interesting and dark.

BK: They performed well, emotion reaching me all the way through the performance. While death, teenage angst, and depression are not my favorite go to show themes, this certainly transcends the usual unconvincing, syrupy, and tired approach to a risky show theme. As another poster described, there is something fresh, new, open about this show. Though there are not necessarily new ideas being brought to the table, it all works well together and takes you on a delightful journey. There were some mental mistakes tonight. Perhaps affecting their loss to PR, though I do not think they should ever place lower form here on out unless Phantom figures some things out.

PR: Though usually a fan, though rarely an over enthusiastic one, this would be my bathroom break corps come finals night. I just drones on to me. The uniform thing is clever , but it isn’t enough to make me look past the fact that the show just doesn’t communicate for me. I hope that Regiment knows that when criticism does come their way, it is often similar to mine. So, lets try to keep our identity but move forward with design, or get left behind.

SCV: Loud, colorful, and super accessible. Though the show is predictable to me and shares some design issues similar to PR, unlike PR, SCV sells the show, communicating emotionally with the crowd. Love the theatrical elements and sense of strong identity. Fantastic drum line. Wish the writing was more musical and didn’t cloud the rhythmic clarity with the brass book.

BD: The show continues to be tweaked, and for the better. They were really selling it tonight and the brass were impeccable. This stadium reveals every tiny brass crack, frack, growl, pitch issue, articulation flaw, etc. They sounded amazing. Guard was wonderful with the rifles on fire! Still want the “simply moving props” movement to require some skill set that an untrained 19 year old college student who is pushing new computers into the student union couldn’t display (though they have fixed most all of that). The three sabres that turn and march into the form near the beginning I wouldn’t call crafted either. There are so many details detailed that these things stick out to me in a big way. However, considering everything else going on, they hardy matter from a scoring stand point. Drum line also amazing. If having to choose between them and SCV, would go to BD because the book works better within the whole picture of the show.

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Excellent Review!! Looking forward to part 2

Your comment re BD "This stadium reveals every tiny brass crack, frack, growl, pitch issue, articulation flaw, etc." caught my eye. I understand you were watching it via broadcast - is the same true for those experiencing the event live (I suspect so because you can only lose (or maintain, never gain) fidelity via a broadcast)? Maybe Allentown would be an excellent place to have finals once the Oilcan contract is over. Shoot, find a midwest & west coast equivalent-type stadium & rotate finals between the 3 locations. Just a helpful suggestion from a dinosaur who believes in outdoors drum corps.

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Excellent Review!! Looking forward to part 2

Your comment re BD "This stadium reveals every tiny brass crack, frack, growl, pitch issue, articulation flaw, etc." caught my eye. I understand you were watching it via broadcast - is the same true for those experiencing the event live (I suspect so because you can only lose (or maintain, never gain) fidelity via a broadcast)? Maybe Allentown would be an excellent place to have finals once the Oilcan contract is over. Shoot, find a midwest & west coast equivalent-type stadium & rotate finals between the 3 locations. Just a helpful suggestion from a dinosaur who believes in outdoors drum corps.

There's an expression among those who frequent Allentown (corps and band) on a regular basis..."J. Birney Crumb, she never lies". Great hornlines sound glorious there, and pretenders are exposed. I was surprised how well that translated to the Fan Network. Even reading last night's Day One thread, you'll see folks talking about it.

While it's a great venue when you are in your seat (the best in DCI, IMO), the place sucks in almost every other respect: Restrooms, concessions, disabled access, parking. It's all horrible, but for those that attend East or band shows, its worth it. it would be completely unacceptable as a Championships venue. In addition, there is absolutely no cover in case of bad weather.

Edited by Kamarag
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great review. I agree with you on the venue (I go every year, too). I love the setting & all the alums & tradition. I hate how far the field is from the stands and how distant the corps typically are emotionally and physically.

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We'll I always called it the Wrigley Field of drum corps...cramped seating, terrible parking , bathrooms that were built in 1948. Gone is the grass field that a helicopter once flew over to dry it out before DCI east in the 80s , it is now field turf. Also gone is the backdrop of a huge "away" bleachers with its own press box that was the backdrop for so many drum corps photos. Gone are the wooden benches that used to splinter into your skin if you wore shorts. After the renovation, they moved the field further back from the stands to accompany an 8 lane track. Since it is a very gradual incline up 37 rows to the top of the lower bowl, you are much further away from the field the higher up you go. But as a performer you feel the opposite. You feel like the crowd is enveloping you with the curved lower bowl and the upper stands . You are at the bottom of a hill looking up basically. There is no other venue besides Whitewater , that oozes so much drum corps history especially Eastern drum corps history as Allentown was also the sight of many memorable DCA championships as well as one that got rained out. Kudos to the Bridgemen alumni...for a very entertaining performance exactly 37 years after winning the very first DCI East in Allentown in 77.

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BariBone, your respect for the legacy of Allentown is important. Warts and all, it will be a sad day when it goes dark for drum corps. I am very torn over what the renovations have meant. 6800 seats were removed, actually. More importantly, the crowd's 'intimacy' with the corps has been lessened. Just one more detail that NEEDS to be told. Even the upper level was planned to be torn down. Only a strong push by DCI enthusiasts saved it. But, here's what made me most proud of that scary episode. It was DCI (the corporation) who helped pay to refurbish and save it! That's largely unknown, but MUST be said, as far as I'm concerned.

Another curiosity, Allentown was the ONLY city to ever present all of the world's top drum corps in the same summer. There were years when the full DCI Top 25 and the DCA Championship were held in that stadium within weeks of each other. That's one oddity that is not likely to ever be matched!

She's a Grand Old Lady that had a full life, and is still kick'in to the best of her ability.

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  • 2 weeks later...

J. Birney Crum is not a perfect venue for drum corps for all the reasons stated in this thread. But the place just oozes drum corps history. My dad took me there when I was a kid and I now I bring my son every year.

Its all about tradition.

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