July 13, Allentown, PA - DCE Div I Championships

Thanks to Chip Frontz for directly emailing this review to us!

Beautiful drive up PA Route 501 to I-78, with sunshine 
blessing the farm fields of Pennsylvania. Didn't know there 
were so many different manufacturers still in Allentown: 
Nestle has an absolutely huge facility there, and Stroh beer 
has a big plant with a huge picture window showcasing their 
large brewing vats. Oh, for those of you toting children to 
DCI East Focus, Crayola is opening a plant up in Easton and 
they seem to have some interactive-display museum area (sort 
of like Chocolate World at Hersheypark, but not edible).

I got to the show late, and only saw four corps: Boston, 
Bluecoats, Crossmen, and Cadets. I had very good seats 
bought at the gate: 28 rows up on the L 45 yard line. If 
you're used to a big crowd at DCI East, then a fair to 
middling one can look dissapointing. If people really 
wanted, everyone could have packed in between the 35s, but I 
think some people wanted some elbow room more than they 
wanted to be between 35s.

I did catch part of Academie Musicale's show from outside 
and on the track. The arrangements of the music seem to be 
well done and showcase the corps' strengths. The drumline 
really lets the crowd have it at certain points. The 
hornline gets into it too with some nice work.

Boston Crusaders did not happen for me at all. The hornline 
has some full, loud moments, but intonation was a very big 
problem, especially in the middle and upper ranges. The 
arrangements of the music are fairly standard, but there are 
some questionable voicings that just make you wrinkle your 
forehead. A high point, however, is the percussion feature 
"Children's Dance" from Howard Hanson's "Merry Mount Suite." 
My wife, who eschews drum corps, has often said that this 
piece would be great for a corps to play. The drill still 
needs to be learned. I can't comment on the guard since I 
wasn't high enough at this point. The thing that I don't 
understand with this show is Star of Indiana has already 
done essentially different arrangements of the opener and 
the closer to near-perfection. A lesser version just is not 
going to excite anyone on the DCI stage.

Bluecoats, playing after the break, had some interesting 
changes in their show from last week. During the beginning 
of the Labor Day segments, the guard uses garbage cans as 
props - clashing the lids together to create added 
percussion sounds. Too bad they couldn't have swept the 
tenor solo tonight into them--it was DIRTY! Guy next to me, 
a 'Coats alum of the mid to late 80s, shook his head back 
and forth. The Bluecoats brass line is good, with a nice, 
full, even sound, but it is clearly still a step down from 
the Top 6 standard--some "gacking" is evident in the soprano 
section and a long held soli brass chord at the end of 
"Labor Day" was full for the first four seconds, then holes 
appeared everywhere. They still don't have a tag; down 
ending. I really think the show will be received better and 
score better once they add that. The show appears to be at a 
crossroads and I still think there's a lot of creative stuff 
they can do to firm up the show concept; calendar flags 
might be nice for transitions, maybe more visual 
representations of the holidays. What about Father Time? or 
the Old Year crowning the New? Cupid and his/her arrows? A 
flag presentation in the Fourth of July segment? They do 
carry a flag but it's like a cartoon mockup of the Stars and 
Stripes.

Oh well....Crossmen had a lot of fans in the audience 
tonight. They have really improved from two weeks ago when I 
saw them in Newark. The opener begins with the hornline and 
guard in a file down the 50 and silent drill to a large 
block form, where they introduce 80 some flags while the 
percussion explode. It gets your attention. Nice work, too! 
Drumline--yeah. Really, for those of you who haven't seen 
the show, this is not just your standard good Crossmen 
drumline. It is a step up and then some. The brass is 
playing some very difficult charts which really makes their 
fingers and chops work. What they need for the opener is to 
just lay back and play it in the groove they're in--don't 
push it. It's hard, it's hard! Nightingale grew on me a 
little . It needs to be really clean to work well; release, 
etc. Birdland is still dirty visually (feet), still coming 
apart a little bit, but still cooking. Tenor solo! From up 
high, you can see the holes in the drill where a full horn 
line would be and you wish, you wish... The brass really are 
playing OK, though. This is a QUALITY 40-some member horn 
line with a good fortissimo sound when necessary. Three horn 
players were standing backfield during "Birdland"; I don't 
know whether they marched any of the show or were there for 
the whole thing. The guard is of high quality. IF Crossmen 
continues on this pace, they could place seventh and will 
CERTAINLY place in the top 10.Cadets of Bergen County was, 
obviously, the show.

As the Cadets wheel in their backfield props, you can see 
the "inside of the barn" set that they will use during 
"Hoedown" in genesis. "The Promise of Living" has a new, 
fresher tempo to avoid penalties. It's still andante, but 
just a little less so. I love this piece and it really 
showcases the brass, which is doing great things. During the 
perc. feature, two male guard members with rifles walk the 
50 with malice in their eyes and live ammunition in their 
guns. Actually, it's the drumline that's live. Oh, baby! 
Tenors could have been a little more on but hey, it's July. 
At the end of "Rodeo", at the penultimate pause, at least 
fifty people shouted "Beef!" What ordinarily would be an 
unwelcome interruption is not so because of the humor 
inherent in the production itself. An allusion to "Lincoln 
Portrait" completes the transition to "Red Pony", and the 
closer is the best Cadets closer in years because it is a 
higher point then all of the higher points before. It 
features a seemingly ten-second snare roll in motion which 
brought oohs and aahs, wicked drill, the Cadet musical and 
visual "fugue" into the kick, which contains a wall of sound 
which shows no traces of being tired. Great stuff. Without 
seeing the western and midwestern corps, I've gotta think 
Cadets will be able to surpass anything else that is brought 
to Orlando. Of course, I could be wrong.....

The program book for the "DCE Championships" looks as if it 
is a Cadets program book transplanted for the DCE 
Championships. Every single sponsor advertisement is from 
northern New Jersey, and at least half of them read "Good 
luck Cadets!" One ad reads "Ambassador salutes our fine 
Cadets of Bergen County. Walk tall and play proudly at 
Clifton Stadium and the closing ceremonies at the Olympics!" 
There are no ads from anywhere else that mention any other 
corps. The program was of poor quality--in fact, I've seen 
high school competition programs that were packaged better. 
I don't generally buy into the cynical assumption that the 
Cadets feature DCE and not vice versa, but the program, and 
the evening, did absolutely nothing to discourage that 
belief. It seems as if YEA! and its two corps were not 
located in the East, "The Big East", or at least its Div. I 
segment, would die.

Now that I've finished being a traitor to my region, I'll 
sign off. Hope you all in the West, Midwest, etc. enjoy your 
weeks in the sun of Drum Corps; can't wait till early 
August!

Chip Frontz
Crossmen Baritone, 1992


Thanks to Bob R. Gupta on r.a.m.d for this review! DCE championships in Allentown ------------------------------ Tropical Storm Bertha moved out of the area just in time as the conditions for the show were very good. Cool, not too humid weather and I think the field conditions were good since I didn't see anyone lose their footing. The crowd was pretty small though, but this gave us plenty of elbow room - our tickets were smack on the 50, top row - great vantage!!! Not too much time, so I'll only give impresssions: Kiwanis Kavaliers ----------------- This show was entertainment from beginning to end and the guard portrayed their version of West Side Story very well. I really felt they should've ended up a couple of places. Boston Crusaders ---------------- Had a few backdrops with pictures on them which were really *vibrant* - almost electric. They had this really neat appearance which looked like they were lit up! Don't remember too much more... Academie Musicale ----------------- The kids in this corps perform really well, but I felt the show was a little dry. They did have this one really cool drill move which was half the corps in a company front moving forward cut time while the other half is in a company front which moves double time and passes the first group - great variation on a standard move. Bluecoats --------- Looked like several changes were in place from 2 weeks ago - many in labor day which added guard playing garbage can lids. Really like the beginning count down to New Year's day. No real improvement on the flow between holidays and hopefully we'll get to see the *real* ending soon. There are some really good moments in Bluecoats drill and if they just put all the pieces together, the show has some great potential. Crossmen -------- Things are beginning to clear up in their very entertaining show, and the horn line plays pretty well standing, but we'll see in August if they can do it moving. Opening statement is great with horn line and guard spinning flags in a gigantic block of color, but I felt horn line put the flags down too early - may be more to come here. Nightingale is really flat though, and you can't hide (lack of) horn line performance here. Then, all of a sudden, the corps really wakes up and jams thruout Birdland!! Lots of good stuff - still very dirty - many changes to go - but Crossmen are known to push to the end... CBC --- I could watch the beginning alone a thousand times and not get bored with the power and simplicity of it. For the people who count how many seconds a corps marches, I hope they count how many notes this horn line plays! Every section is phenomenal and performing an incredibly hard book well. There are still many parts that are muddled but are on the verge of being tight - and when these are clean - watch out! I'm not predicting a winner, but I am predicting some high scores come August (99+) - you heard it here first!! Westshore - senior corps exhibition ----------------------------------- Since the show was pretty small, it was great to get to see this corps. They just came out and wailed some great jazz and had great visuals to match. Next show - DCI East!! -bob Garfield 86-87 Crossmen 83-84

July Scores

Seattle Web Factory CyberCorps Web Page Designers.
CyberWebMistress Cathy Doser
email: cathy@doser.net

Last updated: July 20, 1996

Web and Page design ©1995 Seattle Web Factory