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Saturday, August 6th “DCI Eastern Classic” J Birney Crum Stadium Allentown, PENNSYLVANIA


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4 hours ago, BlueStainGlass said:

Weird hill to die on when like 2 weeks ago we had a split regional in Atlanta with different judges.

it's drum corps. there's a always a reason to complain about something

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4 hours ago, DWW11 said:

Wow!  Great to know. Thank you!  Used a cart at the airport last month and it changed my life!

yeah not sure who to call or contact but i saw several.

 

but after 3 years i was never so glad to walk that hill in my life!

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A few observations from Allentown Saturday night. I was there with my daughter, and my friend and his 2 sons came. My daughter goes to Allentown with me each year, but that's the extent of her drum corps exposure. My friend marched in the '87 Bridgemen.. I'm a brass guy, he's into drums (not heavily, but that's what he did in HS and marched), his one son is in the pit in his HS band, and the other son doesn't do band.

I've seen a bunch of Flo shows and videos all year, and as one would expect it was 1000x better in person - almost to the point where I may not watch videos until after the season because it really lowered my expectations going in and I was almost predisposed to not like a lot of stuff.

Some general agreement from the group -

Nobody could tell you what most of the shows were "about" once they were over. The exceptions - Colts (or was it Troopers - who had the oil rig and the Cellist? that one), Blue Stars and Cadets.

Without any prompting from me one of the sons asked me why they bother with tubas since the synthesized played the bass so loud.

PC is way too "inside baseball" - I knew the props and different musical licks from other corps they incorporated so it made the show a little more enjoyable to me for that reason, but nobody else had a clue.

Favorite show of the kids - Colts (or Troopers - sorry i can't remember - the one with the oil right and the Cellist), Crown, Cadets, Cavaliers.

Show that nobody could remember anything about on the drive home - SCV - except everyone loved the ending and remembered that.

My own personal observances

The top 5 brass lines were WAY louder than you'd ever know by listening to Flo. Crown was the volume winner.

I didn't mind the Cadet's narration (I'm quite anti-narration) - though for the 1st minute or so of the show when it wasn't working the show was just fine as well - my opinion is that the show would be just as good w/out it and the narration doesn't add (but in this case doesn't detract either).. I will say during first minute or two my eyes were transfixed on the sound-board guy and his partner unrolling new cables and sprinting down the field to plug them in to get it working again.

My favorite of the night, surprising myself, The Cadets.. followed by Crown. Crown still had too much dead-air (to me since I want to hear brass).. I tried the app, but it didn't work well. It synced and did the flashlight blinks during the countdown, but that was it.

And lastly - how did they not choose Allentown as the song to play? That seemed like it woudl be a no brainer 😞

Edited by frachel
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23 hours ago, MikeZ said:

I understand the issues and limitations of JBC. But as someone who waited 24 years to get back there, I had a blast this weekend. The bathroom situation is awful, the bleachers suck, parking is difficult, etc and I didn't care one bit. I can see if you attend Allentown annually how that stuff could get tiresome. I loved that i got to take my wife on her first trip to Allentown. We sat in row 2 between the 45 and 50, ate funnel cakes, watched Tony try to tell the PA announcer when to talk and not talk, got overwhelmed by Crowns hornline, and basically had what will be the best weekend of the year for me. 

 

Z

 

I understand the issues some have with JBC (the hill, parking, bathrooms) but I love that warmups are in a park and not a parking lot.  While the parking can be annoying, the atmosphere feels a little like a college game day compared to other venues.  I’ve only attended a few years and I still feel a sense of nostalgia going there.  It’s unique compared to all the other shows.

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4 minutes ago, DrummerParent said:

I understand the issues some have with JBC (the hill, parking, bathrooms) but I love that warmups are in a park and not a parking lot.  While the parking can be annoying, the atmosphere feels a little like a college game day compared to other venues.  I’ve only attended a few years and I still feel a sense of nostalgia going there.  It’s unique compared to all the other shows.

Still hear way too many warmups happening when the corps on the field is in a ballad or soft section..

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32 minutes ago, frachel said:

Show that nobody could remember anything about on the drive home - SCV - except everyone loved the ending and remembered that.

Same here. Saw them live too but the only thing I could remember without watching it again is the props

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4 minutes ago, DrummerParent said:

Good point- especially if the wind is blowing from that direction.  There’s enough to dislike also with JBC to move the show.

I still love going there.. Been there every year since 1987 (except when they didn't have it there). I have my set parking street, my pre-game Yocco's.

The removal of the back bleachers and moving the sidelines further away from the stands (prob about 10 yards further than they used to be) has made a huge difference though - especially for smaller corps.. not as intimate and even though the brass is loud in the top corps, I want them 10 yards closer like BITD to blow my face off 🙂

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On 8/8/2022 at 12:18 AM, Jeff Ream said:

really enjoyed Genesis and Surf...man if Surf had say 20 more horns...oof.

I really like Surf’s show too.  Just entertaining and fun.  No story to try to understand.  They did really well with what they had.  I’m with you, another 20 or so brass would really help that show along.

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