I’ve been writing my reviews of this past season’s shows in reverse order of finish. I wanted to make sure the Open Class corps got the love they deserve, especially if I lose momentum and don’t get through everybody. It’s happened before. Then I pulled up YouTube and saw this in my feed:
Yep, for the fourth straight season, Phantom Regiment has dropped an official video of their performance at DCI Finals. This season’s show, Mynd, was also the 2024 FloMarching Fan Favorite, and for good reason. Nowhere else will you witness such an ovation just for revealing a conductor’s baton, before the first note is even played.
Once the baton excitement died down, the show picked up. Starting with a slow rendition of the Moonlight Sonata which slowly gained speed, the corps built into their first big hit of the show, preceded by a member of the corps suspending themselves from within one of the multiple “mind” cube props, before flailing as if in a panic and dropping to the ground, as if their own mind was overwhelmed by what it was experiencing. With the wall of sound Phantom put out this season, this is entirely understandable.
The sparks start to fly during Paul Lovett Cooper‘s Equilibrium, first with the snare line during the transition into this movement of the show, followed by the horns laying down a ton of notes courtesy of JD Shaw. The drill during this section is also full of energy, with many rotating forms at high velocity to blow our minds away as we watch.
The show goes introspective during the next movement, much like our minds do at times when we need to look within, maybe to remember an event in our past or to contemplate a decision which may affect our future. The corps gathers within the combined “mind” props, forming a tight block, visually and musically, for another glorious drum corps moment.
As the corps separates again, it’s the tenors who get their time to shine with a lengthily and impressive feature leading into Gilles Rocha’s Fly Or Die. You may not expect Phantom Regiment to go all jazzy on you, but this is as much in the corps’ blood as Romantic classical music thanks to past selections such as Maynard Ferguson’s take on Pagliacci and a ton of Gershwin. Of course, when you have a bass trombonist and baritone who can solo like what we experienced during this part of the show, you go all in on the jazz and just let them fly (and not die).
The closer of the show starts with Pillar III fro Andy Akiho, a drum corps veteran himself and someone who’s music has found a home many times in drum corps ever since the Bluecoats first brought it to the field as part of Tilt in 2014. Pillar III gives the full percussion, both field and front, the spotlight with intensity and tension, something the brass adds to when they come in as they build to the finale, the reprise of Moonlight Sonata. This is the moment where the crowd all but leaps out of the stands, coming to their feet for the final two minutes of the show as the corps does their tribute to the Cadets’ Z-Pull and then pushes forward as the mellophones destroy everybody’s hearing, the mind cubes spinning on the front sideline with color guard members hanging from within.
Seriously, it’s almost as much fun to watch the audience react as it is to watch the corps turn Lucas Oil Stadium into a pile of rubble:
1993 and 2003 are both examples of Phantom Regiment reinventing themselves while staying true to who they are. Both are also examples of the start of a build to an eventual championship (1996 and 2008, respectively). Could 2024 be the start of the next run for a title? My head is cautious, but my heart is optimistic that this is the case.
