‘The Bluecoats’ get it done in the Motor City

DETROIT -- Midway through her corps’ first performance of the 2019 season, Bluecoats drum major Peyton Grunzke had the opportunity to turn and face the audience behind her.

Grunzke, with black polka dots lining her white suit from head to toe, spun around on her podium, threw a peace sign up with her right hand and let out a mile-wide smile.

Even if it was just for a second, she wanted to enjoy the Bluecoats’ performance — a high-intensity show jam-packed with a setlist seemingly right off of The Beatles’ greatest hits and uniforms straight from the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

That energetic debut performance earned the Canton, Ohio corps a score of 71.150 and the top spot amongst a six-group field Thursday night at the DCI Tour Premiere presented by DeMoulin Bros. & Co. The season-opening win was the third in as many years for the Bluecoats.

View all scores from the DCI Tour Premiere

“We’ve been working toward this for over a month, and we all love our show and are super invested in it,” Grunzke said. “It just feels so good to get to share that and to have the energy of the crowd to feed off of. It’s been really fun because we knew the music but we’ve also learned a lot in the process of preparing the show.”

After finishing second to the Bluecoats a year ago by just three-tenths of a point, Carolina Crown (2nd, 70.900) again finished runner-up at Ford Field this time by just a quarter of a point. Crown, though, boasted a first-place finish in overall music including brass.

“You know we start off really loud, we do a lot of intricate stuff in the middle, have some loud moments, and then just end with a bang,” Carolina Crown drum major Doug Bell said. “We had a lot of excitement, a lot of high energy coming into this show. I think it really came through in that performance, and that was raw, raw energy right there.”

Using pieces from the Oscar-winning movie “Rocky” and Tony-award winning musical “Hamilton” for their 2019 program, “Goliath,” the Boston Crusaders finished in third place with a score of 70.050 despite concluding the night with the top score in the visual caption, besting the Bluecoats by a slim margin of five hundredths of a point.

Boston’s victory in color guard marked a carryover from earning the George Zingali Best Color Guard Award to finish off the 2018 season.

“I had chills down my spine on the opening impact,” Ballinger said. “That’s just crazy to me. I’m not even looking at [the crowd] and I could feel them going crazy for it.”

Performing at the DCI Tour Premiere for the first time since its move to Detroit, The Cadets picked up a fourth-place finish (67.100) with their victorian-esque production “Behold.” The Allentown, Pennsylvania corps maneuvered four large curved staircases around the field, at one forming a massive bridge.

“We use them in so many different ways and create so many different shapes,” The Cadets drum major Loren Gregory said. “It was really cool to see the crowd reacted to building a bridge and the other ways we use them.”

With a score of 65.450, the Blue Stars bested Phantom Regiment by more than two points for fifth place, a role reversal from last year’s Tour Premiere. The Blue Stars improved by an impressive tally of 3.450 points between their season-opening effort 2018 to 2019.

With their show “Call of the Wild,” which covers a theme of wilderness exploration and winter adventure, the Blue Stars thrilled the Detroit crowd.

“LIke any other show, it doesn't really come together until we’re wearing the uniform and until the props are set,” Blue Stars drum major Taylor Smith said. “After the past few days, having it all come together like this, it’s really made the show what it is. There's something really special about that.”

Phantom Regiment (6th, 63.250) premiered their show “I Am Joan” on Thursday, a poignant production centered on female empowerment. Drum major Claire Wilcox began to get emotional as she descended the ladder of her conductor’s podium after the performance.

Wilcox’s face drew to smile discussing the passion behind the show theme, grinning even more as she spoke of Regiment’s opportunity to share an important message to a much more substantial audience.

“It’s powerful,” Wilcox said. “It’s almost nerve-wracking because it’s a very vulnerable thing to put out there to say that this is the world we live in and this is how we want to see it change. It’s really awesome to get to do that with the thing I love.”

With the opening night of the 2019 DCI Tour in the books, there’s still plenty of highly-anticipated action ahead in the season’s first weekend. Events including DCI West in Stanford (June 22) and DCI Crossroads in Zionsville (June 23) events will be webcast live on FloMarching.com.

View the 2019 DCI Tour Schedule

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