Phregiment Phandom

If this had been a normal summer, tonight would have been DCI Semifinals night.  I got a hot dog at lunch today because, APPARENTLY, I miss stadium food.  When I sent a picture of my food to Bro and V, Bro thought that maybe he should go buy a personal pan pizza and eat it 3 hours later.  I laughed and laughed.  Tonight, I'm watching DCI's broadcast of the Hall of Fame ceremony.  Congratulations to Robbie Robinson, Sal Salas, and Tony DiCarlo!  I got a big smile on my face when they showed part of SCV's Les Miserables show and their Scherazade pillows during Sal Salas' section.  I'm digging the fact that the Hall of Famers are toasting the new inductees from their homes.

Today's drum corps memory is about Phantom Regiment, or whom I like to call "Phregiment".  Back in June, which feels simultaneously like 5 years ago and just last week, I wrote that "Harmonic Journey" was one of my top 3 Phregiment shows.  Were you curious about the other 2 shows, or did you already know?  

I think that I enjoy Phregiment so much because of their focus on symphonic music for many of their shows.  Their musicality is lush, and I really liked their traditional helmets and plumes, as well as that beautiful color guard.   I think that they're my favorite non-California corps, with a close second going to The Academy.  So I'll share with you in no actual order my favorite Phregiment shows.  

1989: New World Symphony

I've never actually watched this show until a couple of weekends ago, when Phregiment was streaming a bunch of shows, but I really like New World Symphony, and if I was Dvorak, I would want Phregiment to play my piece just like that.  I guess those poufy hair things were the fashion at that time, because they look like SCV's CG from their Phantom of the Opera show that year.  This show took 2nd to SCV's Phantom.  Either way, a Phantom was going to win that year.

2011:  Juliet

I love the story of Romeo and Juliet, even with its tragic ending.  This was played from Juliet's perspective, and, SPOILER: she kills herself at the end.   This came 3 years after the Spartacus show, and then there was Turandot.  Their corps director said that they've gotten pretty good at the dying stuff now.  I love the drama, I love the CG uniforms, and I love the music. I also love that they incorporated their signature song, "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" into the show.

2007:  On Air

I like this entire show, but my favorite part was the Flower Duet from Lakme.  Here's a video of the drill design with the duet audio.  I always need to bring you a different perspective, right?

2005: Rhapsody

A boy in the color guard!  What?  Lots of umbrellas.  Gershwin.  I would have been thrilled if this show had won in 2005.

Bro found my trip reports from 2005, so I'm sharing the Phregiment portion with you here.

Allentown 08/06/2005:

PHREGIMENT

"Rhapsody"

Repertoire: "American in Paris" and "Rhapsody in Blue" by G Gershwin

 

They have a LOT of umbrellas.  A LOT.  The sole male color guard member was great with all aspects of his performance.  He danced like Gene Kelly, and at one point, even tap danced!  Yes, on the grass.  OK, he wasn't actually tap dancing, but he did the movements while the drummers tapped the side of their drums, which made the effect of tap dancing.  They had a lot of costume and umbrella changes.  The music is very clean, but they need to straighten out their drill lines at the end of the program.  This is a wonderful show, and got both V's & my votes for favorite show tonight.

Quarterfinals: 08/11/2005

"PHREGIMENT    95.275

Beautiful sound, and clean runs.  Where are all of the other umbrellas?  I swear that there were more of them at the end when we saw them in Allentown.  Ryan said, "Even the pregnant lady stood up!" (to applaud)."

The pregnant lady, by the way, was V, with Brady in vitro.

Semifinals: 08/12/2005

"PHREGIMENT    96.075

In yesterday's report, I forgot to mention the rain sticks. In order to get the audience to participate, Phreg is asking people to stop by their trailer to buy a rainstick, so that we can make it sound like rain before the show starts, since they have those umbrellas.  We went to the trailer, but they were actual rainsticks, which were $26.00 each.  The guy in front of us yesterday told some BS to the people next to him, saying that Phreg strategically placed people in the stands to play the rainsticks.  I wonder how much other stuff he makes up because he doesn't actually know the truth?  Anyway, $26 was too expensive, so we didn't buy rainsticks.  I said that if they were, like, a $1.00 or so, we would all have them.  Ryan said that he'd even settle for a Pixie Stick at this point.  

Oh...umbrella formations!  I missed the second one, because it went too fast.  Great contras, great keyboards, great everything.  LOVE this show."

Finals: 08/13/2005

"PHANTOM REGIMENT

Fantastic music!  Oh, and nice diagonals. :)  Girl, do NOT drop your flag!  It's FINALS!!!"

2003: Harmonic Journey

I wrote a whole blog post about this one.  

2008: Spartacus

This was my vote for favorite drum corps show that's not SCV.  The Khachaturian ballad was exquisite, the battle was awesome, and the slaying of the drum major at the end was iconic.  They all stayed in character from before they got onto the field until the very end.  I loved the mood that they set at the beginning, such a perfect way to start the show.  Not only was there drama on the field due to the storyline, but the competition itself had its own drama.  Phregiment was in 3rd place on Quarterfinals night, 2nd place on Semifinals night,and 1st place on Finals night by 0.025.  It was like they were killing the competition one corps at a time.  The crowd was absolutely electric that night, and they got the participation they wanted for the General Effect boost when people started standing up in the stands and yelling out "I! AM! SPARTACUS!!!!"  I was one of them.  What an awesome show.  It was fun to see some of the folks talk about it on Zoom during that Phregiment stream that I watched.  

Blog post from my first viewing, at the Rose Bowl:

"I. AM. SPARTACUS!" (Or, as I heard it the first two times: "Hey! You! Whatcha Got?!" Yes, that's what I actually thought I heard. Perhaps the corps should enunciate the first two times a little bit more). "

Blog post from Quarterfinals:

"Very, very, very cool. Violent, but cool. I'm Spartacus, too!"

Blog post from Semifinals:

"The violence never stops."

Blog post from Finals:

"Most gorgeous solo of the entire day: that mellophone solo during the ballad. Bro wondered if this soloist was part of last year's Lakme duet. Hmmm....it's possible."

"1) And with a score of 98. 1 - 2- 5 (collective gasp), PHANTOM REGIMENT!!!!!!!"

I don't know what their corps yell "SUTA!!!" means, but SUTA, Phregiment!  Keep on bringing that baton.

Next Up:  Not Finals