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Troon @ Allentown - Saturday


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It's been since 2007 since I've seen a live show. I've continued mostly lurking on here, and went to the theaters a few times between then and now, but I didn't even watch any shaky cell phone YouTube clips the past year or two. So when my wonderful wife, who's had absolutely zero DCI exposure (aside from me telling her repeatedly how REALLY REALLY AWESOME it is,) offered to take us to now-somewhat-nearby Allentown for an anniversary gift, I nearly hit the ceiling in excitement. I want to note with some pride that I have scrupulously avoided reading (or watching) anything about this year's shows aside from show titles and repertoires. No, really!

I welcome any and all feedback, even if we disagree, but please remember...it's all just opinion, folks.

We were seated around the 20, and about midway up the lower level. I was quite happy with our seats, but be aware they were pretty low for getting a read on the drill. And away we go...

PIONEER:

No one is as good at being Pioneer as Pioneer is! One thing I admired about their show was that all sections seemed pretty well balanced in terms of performance - because no one section stood out as a weak link, the overall whole was greater then the sum of their parts. And you know what, something I was reminded of as we watched their drumline and guard warmup in the park...As easy it is to rap on these guys, even the lower ranking corps are still pretty #### impressive!

CASCADES: Not a great night for them. Their first impact felt like it was barely half strength. The lack of colorguard is seriously hurting them. Seven is a number so small they did little to add to the show visually, through no fault of the performers. Not surprised they got passed by Pioneer.

CRUSADERS, OREGON: But a GREAT night for these guys! I'm going to go with some critique first, but I don't want it to take away from how much we were blown away by them. The props are ridiculous. Fences. Lamposts. Coffins. Rocking chairs. Refurbished ottomans. Space Shuttle launching gantries. A complete industrial oil refinery...The show title and subtitle are ridiculous. "My Heart, My Battle, My Soul: A story of love, loss and longing." By my count, that's about a dozen or so words too long. There was a lot going on in terms of attempted story telling. A LOT. And I could barely follow any of it. The jazz funeral march (if that's what it was) in the background was intriguing, but I kept expecting it to take over what the rest of the corps was doing. Yet it didn't. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like that. But every thing I just mentioned as a critique are design issues. (Speaking of what I can only euphemistically call an different "issue" for my desire not to be banned from this forum for life, those uniforms...Seriously?!?!!) The performance was so strong it blew away any design issues. They were bold, loud, and proud! The first corps that wowed my wife, who stated "Wow, now that was a superior corps!" I couldn't have agreed more.

JERSEY SURF:

And now, for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...Surf, you gave me things to make loud obnoxious noises with for free. Therefore, I am automatically your fan for life. Well, they went all out with the soul theme, and made it as funky as Drum Corps could possibly be (which is all relative, but even so...) In addition to getting the crowd on their side, they certainly had a lot of great technical things going for them as well. Blasted us good with their spot on opening impact, and certainly didn't let up the volume. That electro horn thing was weird and wild. Keep getting your groove on, Surf!

PACIFIC CREST:

After the wildness that was Soul Surfing, I have to be honest, Crest's considerably more traditional show left us feeling pretty flat. The heart in the front corner was completely underutilized, and seemed to have been plopped down only to remind us that this show was about love(ish.) What I liked: Sonorous music, corps moved themselves with a very solid upper body carriage, giving them a tall look.

CROSSMEN:

What was their theme again? I was a little unsure...;/ I do get that a show about protest isn't going to be subtle, but the voiceover brought it way over the top. I enjoyed their drill very much, though, it had a good coherence to it (for lack of a better word.) They had one of our favorite guards of the night too, that did an awesome job filling out the field with really expressive work!

BLUE KNIGHTS:

Three cheers for my home team! Pluses...GREAT sound from the brass, loved the guard outfits, especially with the skirts. I'll spare you the obvious joke about wanting the narration to most certainly have no beginning and a swift ending. Beyond unnecessary, and quite cringe worthy. Other things - the details were killing them that night. A few too many really exposed guard drops, some forms that may or may not have quite clicked. About midway through a skirt came off somehow and lingered perilously on the 40 until the end of the song, very nearly causing a brass player to tumble. They're certainly getting there, and the show is by no means easy, but compared with Madison and the Cavies, they just don't seem to be quite on the same level this year I'm afraid. Still, an emotional brassline, and a joy to listen to! That ball is just so...large...

MADISON:

Hard not to love it. My wife's favorite of the night, and certainly one my top picks too! I was prepared to cringe a little at just how far they were taking the whole military theme, but honestly found myself loving it. Terrific integration of electronics, (more on that later,) and they the drill and visuals did a great job of focusing the eye. Awesome, awesome high energy guard!

CAVALIERS:

Keep in mind that the last show I saw live form them was Samurai way back in 2008...This is such a different corps visually. Fiedler's drill always had such beautiful unity and deceptive simplicity to it, but this time they were all over the place. There was just too much happening at once, and most of the time, I just wasn't clear on what to watch. This might have been different had we been higher, but it just plain felt cluttered at times. Enjoyed the creepy theme, I thought the cloaks did a great job setting the tone. LOVED the human pyramid...Brilliant!

CRUSADERS, BOSTON:

A talented corps to be sure, (I'm not percussionist, but their drumline seemed to be rocking it,) but even as passionate as the performance was, we were both weirdly bored (my wife visually, myself musically.) Again, that's 100% a design thing, not a performance one...it just wasn't my cup of tea. Still, the corps seemed exceptionally committed to what they had, and gave it up for the audience.

(Trivia quiz for the corps history buff...when was the last time there were two corps with the same name but different locales competing against each other in the same division?! I'm sure I have no idea, but I'm curious!)

CROWN. CROWN. CAROLINA. ONE. TWO. NEGATIVE TWELVE. BANANA...

Because I really didn't want to put my biases on her impressions, I really didn't tell my wife a word about what was coming. I hadn't seen the show either, but I've at least heard of Phillip Glass and Einstein on the Beach, and was fully expecting counting and stream of consciousness gibberish. But you should've seen her bewildered look once the counting began...and her ears fly back when the brass opened up! In addition to just plain relishing that incredible sound, I very much want to watch this show again. Something about the music sunk deep into me, counting and all. I'd explain more if I could. I know the scores right now more or less indicate Crown could win it if there percussion really cranks it up. I very much hope that's the case! Oh, almost forgot: Uniforms, atrocious. Show, great!

Oh, and if you're a fan of this show and haven't read or seen the very brief play, "Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread," you owe it to yourself to do so right now. You won't be disappointed. ;)

BLUE DEVILS:

This was the conversation we had about BD immediately following their performance...

ME: So what did you think of all that?

HER: Well...it was avant-garde jazz...

ME: Oh! You got it!

HER: Yeah, but I didn't LIKE it!

I will say I enjoyed this one more then a few of the past avant-garde explorations they've taken, maybe because I love Rite of Spring (thank you Walt Disney's Fantasia! Kept expecting giant dinosaurs to stomp across the field...) and recognized so many of themes in there. I'm not sure how I would've taken it had this not been the case. Visually...I know this isn't too new for them, but good grief, they ran around a lot. A LOT. Much more then they actually marched anywhere it seemed. The poles cluttered up the entire field to no end, and the guard throwing the balls to each other just seemed silly. But of course...their talent cannot be denied. I'm not only blown away by how they do such complex stuff musically and visually both, but by how easy and effortless they make it all seem when it's anything but.

And that was that. Some general thoughts...

My own placements, based 100% on my own completely subjective bias.

1. Crown (Barely, this was a tough call!)

2. Blue Devils

3. Cavaliers

4. Madison

5. Boston

6. Blue Knights

7. Crossmen

8. Jersey Surf

9. Oregon

10. Pacific Crest

11. Pioneer

12. Cascades

The Mrs.' favorites:

- Madison, Oregon, and Surf. About Surf, she said "That's the show I would've wanted to march for sure!" Her favorite guards were Crossmen, Madison's and Crown's.

- Although bass volumes are waaaaay too high almost across the board, whether I like them there or not, compared with a few years ago, corps are getting SO much better at USING the electronics. I'm talking about the technical things, like levels, mixing, what patches and effects they're using, etc. I didn't hear a single mic frak of any nature, and when you compare that with when electronics was first introduced, that's amazing. Or maybe everyone just got lucky that night.

- The corps that we enjoyed the most visually seemed to be the ones that put the focus on small to medium groups of performers the most. I have a theory that this actually had to do with our medium height in the stands. Call it Drum Corps Special Visual Relativity...

- Also compared with a few years ago, the majority of corps seem to have taken the disgruntled fan complaints to heart and are playing stuff in a far more melodic, less overarranged way. So much so that the one or two corps that didn't seem to be in on this trend really stuck out. (I'm not going to name names...) I loved LISTENING to most of these shows just for the sake of enjoyable music far more than I can ever remember. Good stuff!

Edited by troon8
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Great review! Your observation on BD is very true. They don't march as much as they run, or jazz run. They have really been trying new things visually, and I have enjoyed a lot of it. They've also been big into props, whether it be chairs, mirrors, poles, cubes, etc.

I agree about Crown also, the music stays with you. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the win in Indy.

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