Drum Corps: A Spectator Sport

 DCI Eastern Classic

Frday, August 1, 2025

J. Birney Crum Stadium

Allentown, PA

I woke up first in the morning and finished yesterday's blog before going down to breakfast, and the rest of the family joined a few minutes later.  We decided to go to Hershey because none of us had been there before.  The drive took almost 90 minutes to get there.  Parking was free for 3 hours, and we were able to park close to the entrance to Chocolate World.  Mmmm.... chocolate!

We took the tour, which was a ride in a 3-segment vehicle.  All 5 of us were in the same vehicle, and we learned how chocolate is made at the Hershey plant.  We didn't actually see any chocolate being made live, but more like digital simulations, with some Pokemon characters.  Yes, Pokemon is everywhere, even in a collaboration with Hershey!  My favorite part of the tour was at the beginning with the singing cows, with a little calf named Cupcake.  The cows were singing about being happy for chocolate being made, of course, and it didn't take very long before I was singing along with the melody.  

Then came time for the ride photo, and somehow everyone was ready to pose except for V, who was overthinking the whole thing and didn't know when to smile.  She looked happy in the photo, but she wasn't looking at the camera at all, and it was hilarious to see only her not looking at the camera.  Bro smiled like a kid in a photo of another car that we saw.   If the packages hadn't been so expensive, I might have bought one.  There was a watermark on all of them, so even if you took a photo of your photo, it was a bit blocked.

We went shopping after that and I bought some chocolate.  I know that's not a surprise, but it was really difficult not to buy just one of each thing there.   They had plastic bags available to make your own mix of different candies, but I didn't want that because they didn't have miniatures of the one I like the most.  My favorite Hershey bar is the Symphony with almonds and toffee, but they only had a giant size, and I decided to just get it at home.  They did have stuff I'd never seen, like different flavors of hot chocolate mix, like s'mores, mint, and others.  I wish they had a sampler available, because I didn't want to buy 4 boxes of hot chocolate mix.  They had some protein powder which was too big to bring home, but I did get a protein bar to try, as well as plant-based Hershey bar, and Reese's pieces with chocolate cookie inside.   I also got a bunch of stickers and a little replica of the Kissmobile, which we had seen outside before we parked.   We also got some pressed pennies of the different icons, including the mascots we had seen all over the tour and the area.

We did not go into Hershey Park, which has a brown and silver roller coaster, which are the colors of the classic Hershey bar wrapper.  We did go into the store, and I bought a couple of keychains of a collaboration of Anirolls and Hershey.  

We were done in under 3 hours, so we were able to park for free.  Yay!  Otherwise, we would have had to pay for all-day parking of $60.00.  That's, like,  A LOT.  We stopped for a late lunch at Fabio's Italian restaurant.  The nephew and I shared a white pizza, which was super cheesy and yum.  We didn't expect to finish it, but the slices were huge, so he sliced them into smaller pieces for us all to share later after the show.

Oh, yeah!  The drum corps show thing for which we had come to Pennsylvania!  We went home and got our stuff ready.  The stadium has no parking, so we parked in the residential area above the stands.  We walked down the hill to go to the DCI Marketplace, and we got shirts from Phregiment with a cat in Japanese-style artwork, with drum corps instruments.  We each got a different design, except for the nephew.  He opted for the SCV show logo shirt.  I also got a shirt with cowboys on horses from the Troopers.  They had shirts of the 4 past years, which are linked together, but didn't have my size, so that made up my decision for me.  Bro got a carabiner with a bottle opener on it from the Mandarins so that he wouldn't have to hurt himself opening the beer he bought on our first day.  

We went into the stadium and walked up the big hill and the stairs to our seats.  It's been a while since the last time we'd been to this show, and they now have aluminum bench seating.  I'm just glad that we have restrooms on the upper level because I did not want to go all the way back down to field level.  We also had food available, but because there was no intermission, we mostly didn't want to get anything.  The niece did buy some lemonade and candy, and I got a water because I needed sometihng after the crazy hill climbing.  Our seats were in section Q, row 10, seats 28-32, on the right 40-yard line.  I was on the aisle. 

Hi, Dan Potter!  Yes, we were indeed at a big corps traditional stadium, J. Birney Crum!

The Star-Spangled Banner was performed by a brass ensemble from the Reading Buccaneers.  Well done, thank you!

SPARTANS

Repertoire: "Mistica" -- Prologue from "Lady in the Water" by J. N. Howard; Todo Tiende by Ojos de Brujo; I Put A Spell on You by A. Lennox; Canção Do Mar by D. Pontes; Primacy of Numbers by P. Glass

I shall call this "The Not-Ariel show", because I felt like we were under the sea.  I loved the colors of the show, including the very pretty pink drums.  I like the brass ensembles during "I Put A Spell On You".  Very pretty screens and flags.  Yay, the capes!

SEATTLE CASCADES

The big props only worked for part of the show.  I guess I didn't see the yellow ones, but the others in our party did.  I could have sworn that they were all supposed to turn the same color at the end, but I've never had photos of that, so I don't remember what color it was that they had at the end.  I wonder if they ever worked.  There is too much pre-recorded singing, but they've improved  since the start of the season.  

MUSIC CITY

Repertoire: "It Tolls For Thee" -- Beginning of the End by C.J. Barrow; Requiem by G. Verdi; Requiem by W.A. Mozart; The Ninth Hour by C.J. Barrow; The Yenth Hour by C.J. Barrow; Doomsday by E. McAlpine; Doxology by T. Ken; Apocalypse Please by M. Bellamy, C. Wolstenholme, and D. Howard | (aka Muse); It Tolls for Thee by C.J. Barrow

Bro does not like their uniforms.  What happened to the Music City that had really cool-looking uniforms?  The props of the big bells were interesting, as was the big clock tarp.  The nephew decided that the name of the show was "Clockwork" before we heard the real name.  Very cool flags with bright orange strips of color on them that made it look like flames when they waved them during "Dies Irae".  V said that the bells being rang were the same color as the one depicted on the clock.  They made different formations of the Roman numerals of the clock.  Big black wings depicting ravens at the end.   

Didn't notice the clock on the hat and uniform
until I saw this close-up.

PACIFIC CREST

Oh!  It's a cake!  For gluttony, I guess.  They didn't have that before.  Neither did they have the big green serpent flags.  When did they take the apple off the tree for her to dance with?  

TROOPERS

Repertoire:  "The Final Sunset" --  Original music by P. and S. Rennick; Embarking and Setting Sail by T. Bergersen; Many Mothers (from "Mad Max: Fury Road") by Junkie XL;   In This Heart by S. O'Connor; Funeral for a Friend by E. John; Symphony No. 2 in C Minor by G. Mahler 

V and I miss the big sun pinwheel.  SUNBURST!  Love that they did that after the recorded announcer saying "From Casper Wyoming, the TROOPERS!"  Someone lost thier hat.  The cellist is back!  She's so awesome.  There was a pine box funeral for one of the guys in a duel that I guess I missed, and it ended with him walking to heaven.  As is typical for me, I didn't like the happy-ending show of the series as much as I did the dark ones.

Start of Sunburst

BLUE KNIGHTS

This was my intermission show because of those blechy colors, except for the pretty blue flags.  (There was no intermission for tonight's show.) They've added tarps of drops of water.  I wonder if any of them were in their dot formation.  

COLTS

Repertoire: "In Restless Dreams" -- The Sound of Silence by P. Simon; Assassin by J. Stratton: 5 Peace Band by J. McLaughlin; Sleep by E. Whitacre; NO one To kNOW one by A. Akiho

Too.  Much.  Talking.  Cool pyramids, though, which V did not like.  I love the way the Colts always use the different colors of their uniforms to change their look on the field when they turn from one side to another.  I did not like the pattern, however, because they looked like the worm from "Beetlejuice" to me.  Very nice silent flag toss with the multi-colored flags.  Awesome low brass duet!  They ended with an eye formation, and I giggled when Dan Potter said, "From Dubuque Iowa" with the accent on "I".  Maybe that wasn't on purpose, but I liked it.

Red

Yellow/Green

BLUE STARS

Repertoire: "Spectator Sport" -- An Outdoor Overture by A. Copland; The Winner Takes It All by ABBA; The Distance by Cake; Team by Lorde

I loved the ABBA piece, especially the solo.  Cool ways of depicting different sports, like lying down on the field to form the tennis court, with a beat for each hit from the tennis racket.  Very nice sound, Blue Stars!  Oh, those are lockers behind the stands.  They made their trademark star formation at the end.

PHANTOM REGIMENT

Repertoire: (untitled) --  Raindrop Prelude by F. Chopin; Fuse by N. Omiciolli; Funeral by the Sea by R. Djawadi; Transcend by T. Sammons & M. Penland; Breath of Souls by P. Lovatt-Cooper

I just think the show designers were just done trying to think of titles and decided to let the audience figure it out for them.  So I didn't, because that's their job.  Wow, this was a beautiful show, whatever you want to call it.  Love, love, love that Phregiment brass line!  Sheer curtains all over the field were apparently a mess when it was windy, according to Bro.  Getting all of the brass players in that small circle is always impressive.

BLUE DEVILS

My goodness, that oboe!  I really like this show -- the music, the not-craziness, everything.  Go, rifles!

BLUECOATS

Repertoire:  "The Observer Effect" -- Binary Data by A. Peduto; Drumming by S. Reich; Dream State by Son Lux; Solitude by M83; Motto by D. Selipanov; Endlessly by Son Lux

I like that opening -- like when people start telling each other stuff and more people join in the conversation.  I also like the glass-looking boxes.  Before they started playing, the drummers were all in the boxes.  The ballad was meh, and I almost fell asleep.  I did not like that weird electronic sound.  But the drums were cool, especially the tympani at the beginning.

Scores

11) 76.40 -- Cascades

10) 79.40 -- Spartans

9)  81.30 -- Music City

8)  83.85 -- Pacific Crest

7) 86.70 -- Colts

6) 87.225 -- Blue Knights

5) 88.625 -- Troopers

4) 88.90 --  Blue Stars

3) 93.225 -- Phantom Regiment

2) 94.65 --  Blue Devils

1) 96.475 -- Bluecoats

We went up another steep hill to get to the level of where our car was parked, and drove home to finish our leftovers before going to bed.

Up Next:  Allentown Day 2