FUNLINER REACTS | Carolina Crown 2023 

Heartbreaking to hear that cracked note from the trumpet player during the ballad because I watched the vast majority of Crown's performances this year, and she nailed that part ALL SEASON LONG and was probably just super nervous on finals night. Hope she didn't beat herself up over it.

From now on, every DCI show should contain Alan’s vocals it just beats out everything else

You forgot to mention how the 2012 and 2013 crown Mello lick was also in the show only in a minor chord.

Yes, Blue Devils were squeaky clean with the visuals and guard. For my money however, especially being a brass player, Crown made it happen. Interesting too to see a couple of former Blue Devils give serious props to Carolina Crown.

Was there on finals night (Side 1 35yd line second section up). You could FEEL the mellow lick over what was possibly the loudest moment of the entire night. Mind boggling.

Allegedly their hornline next year oughta be just as if not more insane for a couple reasons I've heard, and they were flawless this year around so... it'll be nuts.

Just my opinion here, but I do truly think Crown got the short end of the stick with their Visual scores. Largely cost them the Silver Medal. I went and literally timed how much each top 4 corps marched and played (roughly, give or take 5-10 seconds) and Crown was over a minute more than the other 3. BD was the clear winner, but I do think Crown got robbed of the Silver

There are several callbacks to earlier Carolina Crown shows: 14:15 - 14:21 Brass visual same as 2013 Crown brass visual at the end of the ballad (Love, Mass Attraction) 17:15 - 17:21 Similar progression found in 2009 and 2010 Crown shows, as well as at the end of the 2016 opener, played by the mellos. 17:24 Mello lick from 2012 and 2013 Crown shows (with bonus Superman logo drill on the field to the right, in reference to 2012) 20:04 - 20:17 Similar progression to 2015 show (end of ballad), as you mentioned. There may be others that I'm missing, but I loved this show! It felt like watching Crown back in the early-mid 2010's all over again!

I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this show. By far one of my favorite shows in 2023. All Corps did great but this one just gets my blood pumping. Freaking amazing Brass, well deserved first place in Brass.

The ballad chords feel so good to the ears. It almost feels like the twisting of a knife to the resolution, just keeps it pushing throufhout

I just love Crown, I mean their hornline is always god tier, but with their visual elements and new percussion thangs, I really enjoyed this production that they've pumped out. Glad to know that Crown killed it and I can't wait for next year. :)

Yo... ALan had absolutely KILLER critique... seriously, you should look into judging bro as you have a knack for great insight.

Such a dope show. Brass writing for crown and crusaders this year was heavenly

Their Tristan and Isolde ballad was by FAR my favorite of any ballad this season. And with the brass at peak awesomeness as usual, I was hoping they'd get the silver.

I love Crown so much, but Im just so glad they went back to their traditional show design instead of another show like Right Here Right Now😅

Every time I hear them play, it gives me chills (in a good way). Just absolutely insane how good their brass is!

Alans knows that authentic pronunciation of Guinevere

I’m so glad I watched this. You guys gave me more appreciation for what I was hearing. I expected Alan to pull out a cigarette when it was over. 😂

You guys were sitting right to my right in the next booth over at finals. I turned around and you were gone. Wanted to shake hands. Love Funliner!

Seeing the crown set for the first time at Allentown was amazing

It’s so fun watching you guys react to awesome drum corps because you marched and have a connoisseurs’s appreciation. Especially love your facial expressions during delicious brass moments. Great vids guys!

the french horn soloist was so consistent. 11/10

20:20 - it’s more like a general Crown leitmotif, a general Easter egg to the days of yore.

crown this year were MOVING holy its insane how clean they are while moving that much

13:25-14:25, this is the Crown that I fell in love with. The first show I ever saw was Crown 2010. So glad to hear this sound again from them

Thank you for the video! I would love to see a Troopers video too - they had an awesome show this year!

The musical moment at 20:40 that you guys were talking about is, I THINK the Dies Irae, the hymn of death. Which, fun fact, BD also played in 2015 during their rendition of Sweeney Todd (which used the does irae motif heavily)

insane - you guys are awesome

So the reason why you think the snare sounds "dirtier" than others is because of the way Mike Jackson tunes his drums. For example: BD always has very tight snares which has little snarey sound to it while Crown has looser drums compared to BD. The tightness of the drum also blends better than say the very "snarey" sound Crown uses.

#brosmajesticfr

That narration was spot on

i bought a mellophone from them and received it today. i feel honored to own it. carolina crown

I didn’t pay much attention to other corps shows this year, but I remember standing in the end zone in Little Rock and hearing 12:55, it sounded uniquely rich and full live, but also so delicate. Really special moment

1:49 killed me 😂

Absolutely loved this show. Especially in contrast to last year's offering. The only time I heard them hit the ballad impact was when I saw them live in Allentown, that just never seemed to hit. As much as I loved this show, I thought that Boston had them Saturday night. Those are probably my two favorite shows this year, in a year where I have a LOT of favorites. Like, at least the entire top 7, and several more. Edit to add: The synth mix was on Flo, because I heard stuff from nearly every corps that I had never heard before Finals night. Like, a lot.

My favorite corps: year after year, they have a distinct creativity and sound that the non-technical drum corps fan can appreciate and admire. Just call it superior entertainment.

i forgot it was at the beginning of the closer ig. idk which part it is if u go by parts instead of opener, ballad, closer. stuff like that.

I kinda predicted most of the finals placements (except bluecoat and crown) including BDs score and Crown brass score in your DCI finals predictions. overall, cool!

There is also a point early on in the show where they pay off some homage to 2012/2013. Its great! Edit: NOT early on, my bad! From your vid it starts from 17:24-17:27

Gave my mom a rundown of shows. Crown was the first one she watched. She really liked it. I like the music of this show greatly. Don't care for the show's thematic draping but that does not detract from it's musical and visual effectiveness - that's just my stupid take. The kids and staff did a great job with it.

The flo recordings had very front ensemble heavy mixing. At least from what I watched on finals

Brandt Crocker count your days. you might get replaced(no not really)! my goodness that read at the beginning of video about their show was incredible!! lol

This show took a bit for me to warm up to but by the end it was my favorite show of the season.

A great show concept. I love the story and visuals. I was expecting to see a dragon or something. The musicality is fantastic. My only issue, and it may be how the mics were set up, it's a universal issue - I want my 'power bass' to be created by the low brass, tympani, bass drums, etc - not by someone pressing a button on a keyboard in the pit.

those releases are what make crown so dominating... i remember in 06 matt used to tell us that our releases should suck the air out of the stadium.... crown brass is hands down the best brass line in all of DCI... if they could bring they're battery up to the brass lines level, they would be unbeatable... they really need a scott johnson

That freakin hit at 9:17 too right after that run got me every stinkin' time.

This is random, but what's the name of the outro music? It's a vibe

Not sure if you guys have seen the semi finals recording but I think semi finals was definitely there best run. Double tonguing feature was tight. Synth wasn’t too loud, heralds were tight, and brass feature was strong.

Their tubas are so powerful

I feel like the synth and electronics as a whole are extremely loud throughout this recording. Glad you said something about it too

first

A Bulldog and a BlueDevil? Go Dawgs

Yeah the flo stream had the synth super loud and the rest of the perc pretty low.

Little bit of timing fuzz just like BD. Crown should have won! Love the naration in the beginning. Awesome!

the color guard guy that stabs the "king" ig. his name is ben. he is a tek at my high school. i love him hes so funny.

You guys need to go back and do some older shows especially during the off season. 2006, 2007, 2008 Phantom Regiment were unbelievable shows. Closer of PR 2007 when they are jazz running while playing with the most volume of the entire show. Cavaliers 2000-2003 Vanguard 2018, just to name a few.

Watching this at home on finals night was pretty disappointing. You could obviously tell that DCI was back in a big way this year but the audio quality coming from Flo Marchings stream left a massive amount to be desired. They never really figured out their audio mixing as the night went on leaving different levels of clarity, depth, and power from corps to corps. Some corps, mainly the earlier performances, were so badly mixed that the group I was watching with could pick out 6 or 7 individual players from the left side of the field throughout the entire show. Flo really needs to put some effort into listening to the audio that they are broadcasting so all corps sound good from the start next year.

I feel they’ve done a better job adjusting their show through the course of the season, I feel like the past couple of years they haven’t been really adjusting their shows, and when they did it didnt really work too well. This year their changes were often pretty little (minus the crown set being added when it was) but the changes they did make worked really well alongside them having done it more than past years and I feel that those small changes they made plus the improved show design in general added up to significantly improve the show and really helped them get out of their 4th place curse.

God I hate how flo mic’d this run you can’t even hear the brass at points

This show makes me wish I didn’t age out in 2022

Yeah Flos audio mixing was not great throughout the season. I was up in the nosebleeds finals night on side 1 and the electronics did not get in the way. Other groups definitely did in person (one of the top 5s speakers was literally shaking our seats in their last sustain….come on now).

In lieu of the Cadets news last week, you should do a reaction to Cadets 2011

yall have got to react to hebron 2023!!!

How to you have the money to enter the world class DCI bc I can’t afford open class dci sadly

9:42

Where's malik?😂

This show felt like the same vibe of 2016 crown. Hot take but screw the beige uniform crown. give me brown crown

👑👑👑👑👑👑

Don't worry the synth wasn’t actually that loud in person

At finals I feel like they weren't as clean. Feel like constantly had one or two trumpets in the lower part were constantly coming out of the texture. I also feel like there was a lot of tuning issue in the second and third trumpets. You can hear it on the video but in person I could hear it the entire show.

33rd?

Camelot, campy King Arthur, Round Table, but no "Knights..." from Monty Python. 😢

22:40 since when was there a harp sound effect there??

Flo marching SERIOUSLY needs to stop nerfing the drum corps audio. Id rather have raw sound peaking the mics than this ANY day.

No headcams

Can you guys react to orange park high school marching band 2023

We need spinnerman

Please look at Star of Indiana 1990 and 1991. Please Review Cadets 1990 and1993. Please review Blue Devils 1994. Please review Phantom 2008 too. This show is reminiscent of shows in the 90s and early 2000s.

#bromajesticfr

second

MANDARINiS PLEASEEE

Couldn’t really care for their visual package (and hence, the show) BUT I will be listening to this recording a lot! My “Band Nerd” playlist is full of DCI’s most symphonic shows. This one will be on repeat for the foreseeable future; along with BD’s this year. On the other hand, I loved Bloo’s visual package but will have no interest in listening to the recording (“a chapel a chapel a chapel…”).

9

Some of the seeming dirt in percussion and brass on this recording comes from the awful dome dynamics, and possibly poor mic placement by Flo. Domes ensure no rainouts, but they’re terrible for acoustics. Often make clean phrases sound dirty, especially when running or widespread forms. And poor mic placement exacerbates that. Even in large open air stadiums clean sounds can ricochet and seem dirty even when it’s clean.

Can y’all do Music City 23? 🌹

Georgia 🙄

I think that a new system needs to be forced upon DCI where the reigning champions can only perform in exhibition in the following season. This will force the judges to face their obvious biases and corruption and reward other corps than Blue Devils. We should also see that the judges are held more accountable and made more transparent in their actions. Their decisions have created the drum corps experience we have now and we should not be held hostage by a few old men’s fetishizing of Blue Devils over the hundreds of other performers on the field each year.

seventh

third

Fourth

10th????

#bromajesticfr

Fourth

#brosmajesticfr

#bromajesticfr