frachel

The next Jacob Collier maybe? (7) Miles Music Kid - YouTube

Any of the top corps could tackle the music just fine imo. They're all just groups of highly talented, mostly college-aged musicians who can all play (or should be able to) any style they need for the performance.

Knowing what the show is "about" has not once made a show "better" for me. I also couldn't tell you what 90% of the shows I've seen were about with just 1 viewing and no research. I still enjoy the activity, and find things to like in almost every show, but I simply don't find it an adequate forum to do more than tell a basic story (like Crown's Relentless, for example). For example, this year - I didn't know anything about Matisse. I saw BD at Allentown and thought it was a great show, but even after learning after-the-fact some details, it didn't change anything for me to know what the props represented, or that the uniforms contained cut-outs from prior year uniforms (talk about an inside-baseball thing.. great for the members, hopefully meaningless to the judges).

Personally, I'd like to next year's show to have a little less percussion-only time.

Just when I thought the synth goo maxed out with Phantom, in comes Crown.

I want to break free of this narration.

Same here in fort myers, ears close to bleeding lol.

Quick straw poll of the folks around me. Nobody liked the narration, and it was too loud and sometimes ear piercing when it first enters out of nowhere.

Warm up sounds are much worse than usual imo. Not only percussion but numerous “full corps yells” happening out there somewhere. Very annoying.

It’s actually quite cool. Nice breeze and not humid, surprisingly.

I've never had an issue with parking since I've been going to Allentown in the late 80's. I always come down Hamilton and go up one of the steep streets across from the park (up by Youell's Oyster House) and have never had an issue in all those years. Is it because of the steepness of the roads and it not being "super close" that people say the parking is bad? I am literally parking within a block of the same spot every single year with no issues ever.

Since 3 can be a harder # to find, I'll also take 4 if someone has that many.

As subject says, looking for 3 tickets for the Friday night show in Allentown (Aug 4th)

Even though I went to a tiny HS in the late 80's, the directors and instructors were almost all drum corps members/instructors (Garfield, Bridgemen, Caballeros, Buccaneers) that you would recognize today still. They definitely encouraged doing it, but there were only about 3 of us in the 6 years that I was affiliated with the band and its members that ever marched drum corps.

You have multiple brass playing the same parts because you need to hear it from 50 yards away, unamplified. You also need the body count for the "visual" pageantry stuff (formerly known as marching). If you have amplified pit instruments playing the same part, you don't need multiple to be "heard" because you're amplified and you're not contributing much to the visual package. Point is almost for every suggestion people say "oh that's not a big expense in the grand scheme of things/compared to <whatever>" so leave it alone, but you end up with a dozen things that individually aren't that big an expense but together start to make a dent.

I can't find many people in my circle that feel the front ensemble "blend" has ever been good.. year-after-year of "thunderous goo" posts and complaints about ear-piercing pits.

Yes, do both of those things.

"I and my family" is perfectly legitimate English, if that's the grammar you were referring to. It's not normal convention to put the "I" first, but it's allowed.

Not picking on BD, just happens to be a video I just watched - lead trumpet soloist cam - plays for maybe 4:00.

For me, there was too much "dead air" in the show during the lengthy percussion sections (whole beginning of show and then the lengthy amount of time leading up the brass-waving-streamers). I know it wasn't actually 'dead air', but it knocked me out of the excitement. The pit/percussion music during those sections didn't seem to really "build up" or excite me.. there were a few times it was increasing in energy/volume/excitement, then it just died down again.. too many hills and valleys. I'm a brass guy though, so I find most interludes of percussion boring, and Crown's were just excessively long for me. I will say though I found it MUCH more boring on Flo than in person, but in person I definitely was wandering during those length sections.

I really liked the show as a whole this year, definitely deserved to win, but my view about how little the brass played (trumpets at least) was just reinforced by watching the gopro trumpet cam vids that are appearing. Just watched a BD lead trumpet soloist cam and man, just so very little time spent playing the instrument 😞

A straight line while not playing and you can dress down while marching.. that's impressive nowadays?

more than a few trumpet misses this evening throughout, but don't want to point out specifics..

Too long of what feels like a vamp waiting for the horn uni change.