That's Tall, Man!

 DCI Eastern Classic

Saturday, August 2, 2025

J. Birney Crum Stadium

Allentown, PA 

We ate our free hotel breakfast and Bro drove us to Bushkill Falls shortly afterward.  Bro and I had stayed in the Poconos with our family when we were a lot younger, and he remembers riding in the back of another family's suburban.  I only remember that we were staying at a timeshare in the Poconos, and the parents in the family.  So I texted my dad to see if he remembered.  He did, and passed the cognitive test by also naming how we knew that family, as well as how we knew them and who else was there.

We arrived at Bushkill Falls, which had structures that apparently I didn't remember at all.  

Bro and I didn't think that our family would have paid to go on the trails, but now we had our own money, so we did.  I took the green trail, which was much shorter than the one they planned to do because my knees still ached a bit from the previous day, and also, I'm not much of a hiker.  The trail wasn't on dirt, though, and was a wooden walkway, so you didn't need to wear hiking boots or anything like that.  Had my knees not hurt and if we weren't going back to Allentown later for more steep hills, I might have considered a longer path, but I also didn't want to hold up the rest of my party.  So I sat on a bench by a view of one of the waterfalls until I could take this selfie without others staring at me.

I then found benches near the trails exit and sat there until it got too sunny.  I did some shopping and got a magnet and a couple of stickers, as well as a Munk Bar to snack on while I waited for the rest of the family.  They ended up doing the longest trail, which did not take them the approximated 2.5 hours, which made me really glad that I didn't join them.

We then made our way back to the hotel and stopped for a late lunch at Don Juan Mex Grill, where the nephew had ordered nachos even though he wasn't hungry, which ended up being the biggest plate on the table.  Oops. I would have helped him out by eating more than one chip if it hadn't been spicy.  V helped, though.  We didn't want to take anything home because of a policy they had to charge a fee if taking home containers.

We had a little bit of time to rest, which was nice because Bro was the only one not to take a nap on the car ride from the Falls to lunch.  At least I hope he didn't, as he was the driver.  So after a short nap, he was ready to drive us back to Allentown for Day 2 of the drum corps festivities.  We didn't go all the way down to the souvenir trailers this time, so no need to walk up one of the steep hills, except for V, who wanted kettlecorn from the stand that was near that entrance.  They had food at our level of the stands, but not kettlecorn.  I was just happy we had restrooms.

The Star-Spangled Banner was performed by Banner Brass again, the ensemble that was part of the Reading Buccaneers.

GENESIS

Repertoire:  "Kaleidoscope Heart" -- Kaleidoscope Heart by S. Bareilles; My Favorite Things (from "The Sound of Music") by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Kaleidoscope by C. Roan; 7 Rings by A. Grande; Pure Imagination (from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory") by L. Bricusse

I like the inside lining of the rally towels, which you can see when they squat, showing different colors on individual uniforms.  I'm glad those kaleidoscope things spun around because I told the nephew that they would.  Nice, bright colors!  During the drum feature, the brass players held modified rifles like the color guard, and there were different colors in the different groups.  That was pretty cool.  After the show, V whispered to me, "Banana".  So, yes, there were yellow ones.

Spinny Things

Multi-colored rally towels

CROSSMEN

Repertoire: "Crosswalking" -- Walk on By by B. Bacharach; The Beginning by L. Futon; Haitian Fight Song by C. Mingus; Hoe Down by O. Nelson; Unsquare Dance by D. Brubeck; Symphony No. 2 by S. Rachmaninoff; New Birth by The Funky Knuckles

"Wait."  V didn't understand why people kept giggling at that whenever it was repeated, but I liked it, especially when they had to stop what they were doing in response to it.  V explained Bones to them as he had appeared on the track behind the field.  I liked the nice, jazzy beginning to the show.  I also like that they still wear their hats.  Bro liked their uniforms.  I wanted them to make a crosswalk like Abbey Road with those wooden slats.

BONES

THE ACADEMY

Great job, Academy!  The visuals are so nice.  The brass hold their umbrellas on their arms while they play before they do the visuals of opening / closing them in sections.  V asked why they do that so much better than the guard, and Bro said it was because they are musicians and know how to do stuff on musical beats.

A is for Allentown

Closed umbrellas

Opened umbrellas

SPIRIT OF ATLANTA

Repertoire: "Rocket" -- Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine by E. Whitacre; Rocket by Def Leppard; Hyperjump (from "WALL-E") by T. Newman; I Am the Antichrist to You by K. Bashi; Whatcha Want by Lawrence; Intoxicated by M. Solveig; Rocket Man by E. John; Also sprach Zarathustra by R. Strauss

I watched this from the sidelines because I had gone to the restroom.  I like the brass building from the bottom on "Rocketman", and I also liked the solo.  They had cool hexagon things that unfold to show pretty space-themed stands.  They make their Spirit Delta at the end. 

Those platforms...

... turned into this!

MADISON SCOUTS

Repertoire: "The Nature of Being" -- Sati by Salim–Sulaiman; Bučimiš (Bulgarian Folk); Pyramid Song by Radiohead; I Remember by deadmau5; Toxic by B. Spears

Those props just make me want to say, "Boing,boing, boing!"  I don't like those colors, though.  Oh, it's a double helix!  I didn't know until they showed the banner with an actual double helix.   Why "Toxic" though?  Bro said it was because the toxin broke up the DNA.  Yay, they're wearing hats!  We wish they had been the signature white ones, though.

DNA Banner

MANDARINS

I warned my family that if the corps members fall, it's on purpose.  I love that guard spinning their rifles while they're upside-down.  Their drum feature was well done.

THE CAVALIERS

Repertore: "ShapeShift" -- Original music by K. Shah, J. Bocook, J. Brickey & L. Allman; Baby Shower by B. Wallfisch; A Fateful Meeting by J. N. Howard; Leviathan by J. Psathas; Hatching by K. Bowers; Empire of Angels by T. Bergersen

That's a cool show.  When their props form a circle, the color guard member gets inside and they start spinning the prop, reminding me of SCV's Ouroboros show.  Yay, I love the Cavaliers bass drum cadence!

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD

They now use the pink dots as focus points when people are standing on them.  The ending now has a color guard member lifted up on pink tubes, wearing one of the big pink hats and spinning around.  DRUMS!  This show is so interesting with their cool Babylon-esque chords from the front ensemble, and the drill during the silent beats between the chords.

Watermelon Pringles

Spin around!

End of Show

CAROLINA CROWN

Repertoire:  "The Point of No Return" -- Carmina Burana: No. 21 (In trutina) by C. Orff; Music for Prague 1968 by K. Husa ; Carmina Burana: No. 10 (Were diu werit alle min), No. 18 (Circa mea pectora) & No. 20 (Veni, veni, venias) by C. Orff ; Symphony No. 5: Adagietto (Sehr langsam) by G. Mahler; Étude No. 13 (The Devil's Staircase) by G. Ligeti; Carmina Burana: No. 1 (O Fortuna) by C. Orff 

Why the hugigant props, Crown?  WHY?!!?  Very nice dynamic contrast in the ballad from the horns.  Aw, I loved the Devil's Staircase show when SCV did it, so it's nice to hear it again.  Great horns!  V didn't think the props looked very safe because there were impaling things and it looked like you could just fall off.  Also, the stairs looked precarious.  The crowd loved it, though, and Dan Potter said, "Listen to that crowd!"  Apparently, the ending was new to everyone.

Closer look at uniforms

Dangerous

Pretty drum heads

BOSTON CRUSADERS

When Dan Potter started to say the name of the show, a bunch of people in the audience said, "BOOM!!!"  Ooh, the Q-Tips light up blue now!  They take the balls off of the sticks and roll them all over the field toward the end.   The guy behind me said to this friend that he liked the playfulness of the show.  Hey, that's kind of what I said when I first watched it.  I loved all of the parts where it seems like they explode.   

Look at them glow!

Contras Up

Contras Down

End of Show

Dan Potter:  "OK, you can breathe now."

Scores

10) 77.45 -- Genesis

9) 81.325 -- Crossmen

8) 81.475 -- Academy

7) 84.638 -- Madison Scouts

6) 84.775 -- Spirit of Atlanta

5) 89.75 -- Cavaliers

4) 91.80 -- Mandarins

3) 93.45 -- Carolina Crown

2) 95.40 -- Santa Clara Vanguard

1) 96.375 -- Boston Crusaders (big aw from the crowd because Bloo got 96.475 on Friday)

We walked up the steep hill to get to our car, and Bro said, "That's OK.  This is the last time you'll have to do this."  Yeah, I'm getting too old for this stuff.  But maybe ask me in a couple of years, and I might have forgotten this.  :)  

We were hungry, and decided to go to McDonald's.  The one closest to the stadium was predictably crowded, and the one near our hotel would close by the time we got there.  V found one that was open 24 hours and on the way.  Bro's navigation system brought us through a residential area with very wide streets, but we finally got there, and Bro proceeded to order.  It was kind of crazy because it seemed like he just kept ordering sweet tea with everyone's combo (but mine), and I thought I only heard V ask for it once.  Or maybe twice, I don't know.  It took a long time until they could give us the food at the window, probably because they didn't really have a lot of space for themselves to hold so many sweet teas.  I reminded Bro that V had also ordered a soft serve cone.  When the guy handed it to him, Bro was startled, and said, "That's tall, man!"  He gave Bro a smile and a thumbs up, and we laughed and laughed all the way home, V trying to eat it so it wouldn't fall while laughing hysterically.  I mean, you need to see this thing!

That's tall, man!

I think it's taller than her face!

Miraculously, I think we got everything that we ordered correctly.  We still laughed as we ate our food and debriefed about the show before getting ready for the bed.

Good night, Allentown, and thank you for not raining on the drum corps!