Jump to content

Diners, Drum Corps & Drives


Recommended Posts

DCI East, especially Saturday, is such a special atmosphere. Tents and parties populate the park across from the stadium. For so many this is their only show of the year, and they travel in from all over the northeast. There is also a huge Canadian contingent. I would venture to say that 80% of the drum corps savvy crowd are fmm's, so old school always wins over the fans in Allentown. We once again hung in the park until INT, and made it in to see BK from the upper walk way. A very interesting visual program.!

Madison had the place buzzing right away with the pre show run to the end zone. When they came off the line the crowd was theirs. I thought they handle the delicate war subject matter tastefully and respectfully, but it does approach the line so I can understand the criticism by some who question the program material. A pretty emotional moment when many stood and or sang along with YNWA. Anything that celebrates the heritage of 75 years of drum corps is a winner here! Was pretty close to best crowd reation from what we saw.

IMG_0061.jpg

Cavs had a nice run tonight, visually they have some individual performance issues, which seem more noticable with the robes. They had a little more brass excitement in spots, but there a times when it gets hard to stay engaged. They have come a long way to get to this point.

IMG_0069.jpg

BAC is really making a move, and the East crowd always shows them some love. Conquest didn't hurt!

IMG_0075.jpg

Crown...they performed well tonight, as they have been. I am going to say I was very disappointed with the additions to the ending. They wheel out 2 huge drums and try to sneak a guard guy inside the side 2 one( the John guy from the bench) and have him roll along like hamster wheels. Then i think they were trying to kind of teleport thing by having a guy go into the one on side one and come out of the side 2 one? The side 2 guy came out way too early i think so it was kind of confusing. As it's happening our narrator returns to repeat the "everything has a limit except" line. The biggest brass chord in DCI this year and we had to come back with the voice over it? Not what i had hoped for hearing about the drums earlier on the day. Maybe it will be effective when performed better, but i fear another miss in their attempt to put an ending on that will take them over the top. The voice felt like they were thumbing their noses at me because i have not been a fan of it in the ballad all year. Hope it gets done better than what we saw tonight. Crowd was up before my love for you was even uttered, but not sure it was a bigger reaction than Scouts.

IMG_0083.jpg

BD was smokin tonight and deserved the win. Guard was noticably cleaner, and I expect them to continue that trend in the next week with TJ on the case. Crowd of course was meh about the show. They are building momentum every day, have all the key staff in place, and they do know how it's done! Albert Lo almost got run down by the wedge form that books it into the side 1 corner. He was running fast and they almost got him, and they were playing! Should be worth a couple demand tenths right there I would think? lol

IMG_0100.jpg

We got some great news from Kingston NY, where the Cabs won their show, over 1 pointing Statesmen. Proud of our pit boss girl and tuba rook!

Tried the other diner tonight. Food was good but service was slow, like they didn't anticipate the several groups of drum corps peeps that showed up?

44A65231-AC23-4057-B9C7-79CD4092A550-17896-0000107E9FF914AF.jpg

Tonight is the last night we will have the 2 youngest girls with us. They are both sweethearts, and it was so great that they could be back with us this year!

A1023833-1A03-4AEF-AE9E-3420AF835D95-17896-0000107ECA32B6AB.jpg

Edited by truman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have been torn about who we would go see practice tomorrow before the show. We decided to go to the one corps that we all enjoy watching every time.

I will be posting from Robesonia tomorrow, as we close the book on a fairy tale 10 days of drum corps!

Edited by truman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This drum corps vacation looks like an absolute blast! Great pictures and reviews, thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Running a little late, but on our way to PR! Good thing we weren't there around swords, cause my wife woulda gone "queen" on me this morning! :tongue:/>

Thanks for the excellent view and thoughts on both nights!

BD vs Crown is like Ali vs Frazier - this is a dogfight for the ages!

If you love SCV playing theatrical material you have to love ( I do ) the masters of dissonance playing the all time dissonant classical piece - BD you have to keep an open mind to - I loved Re-Rite of Spring - I caught Mr Lo being hunted down also - only flaw I saw with BD was some wavy " straight lines " - really shocked me.

Thanks for explaining Crown's new end - I thought those black forms were drum covers? There is so much going on these little nuances are unknown to many of us. Crown's brass is simply majestic - end zone to end zone with symphonic sound many orchestras do not approach. IMHO Crown does narration better than anyone.

Cavaliers and BAC shocked me - I loved these shows - I think their performance levels are higher than they are being credited for.

Blue Knights and their giant sphere were really a hoot - and their sound doesn't hurt at all.

Crossmen were really good - although Vietnam era dorks like myself would prefer a little more diversity in their protesters.

Madison IMHO really got the crowd up and the place rocking! I do feel there reverence is being dimmed by love of Carolina - Allentown waits for the giant moment. I am having to expand my list of favorite corps this year.

Jersey Surf is really coming along well - Hoffman must be smiling somewhere that his idea for the 1976 Bridgemen uni's finally made it - color coded sections!

The power failure to the field amps provoked an attempt to start a " no more amps " chant- it failed on it's own!

I can only eat a small shaved ice - the large is the size of a bowling ball!

Great show both nights and thanks again for your insights!

frankiE

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! What a great trip! Thanks for sharing your pics and thoughts. We will try this next year. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Mike

Bill, did you see this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...