- This last pre-show has got to be so emotional for the performers. 

- The baton, always a classic for Phantom

- That first hit for La Fortuna is so loud and so great each time. 

- Lots of great work from the colorguard, especially the rifle line here

- Still think the use of bows is incredibly clever, especially when it comes to spinning. 

- The transition into the different uniforms is such a huge difference! And so fitting for the end of 'Fire'

- With half of the corps still in the opposite uniform, it looks great on the field, especially with this cross on the shield

- The kicked-out leg is a classic too

- Great moment from the drumline on the front sideline

- These flags match the end of this show incredibly well, wow, especially as Joan burns. 

- Thank you so much Phantom for an incredibly emotional show and a wonderful season

- From one show about strong women to another, here come the valkyries

- The performance from this drum major is one of the best of the season by far. She sells her character so well. 

- The same can be said for the colorguard overall, they have SO much energy

- And it's matched by the corps proper, but especially noticed the front ensemble!

- YES! SO MUCH CROWD PARTICIPATION! BOOM BOOM CLAP!

- Love the on-field bass drums, adding a little extra oomph

- The guitar player and the bass player play such an integral part in the front ensemble music on this show, super glad they get their own superstar moment!

- Those wings really add so much to that final set! A beautiful moment for the corps

- Congratulations and thank you so much Crossmen for an incredible season

- Taking the field for the second finals performance in history, the Mandarins! 

- Yet another corps with some great character performances, especially on the guard's part

- Starting the show with hand drumming, some toms in the front ensemble, helps add to the tribal vibe

- There's one sound effect being used over and over again, it sounds like a digeridoo. 

- Front ensemble putting in some work there! 

- Some great work from the colorguard, especially laying down and spinning above their heads

- Lovely solo from what looked like a flugelhorn and the baritone

- Just noticed the bass drum heads, when the light catches them just right, you can see the red pattern on them

- Awesome moment from the guard on the props, passing the rifles down using their feet

- Hanging off of the props on bungee cords is a unique touch to this show. 

- The "death" at the end of this show is absolutely ruthless which fits the character of the show. Just throwing him right off of the prop to dangle

- Congratulations again, Mandarins for making finals for the second time, and for another incredible season

- Here to celebrate 85 years of competition, the Cadets are now taking the field. 

- The Cadets have some of the largest, if not the largest, props on the field this season, with the stairs/bridges

-  What a regal entrance for the queen of this show!

- With her scepter she rules the field and all around it, making her presence known on the front stage

- Some nice moments from the front ensemble while the queen's reign is questioned and the drumline takes over

- Drum feature! With a great guard moment between the rifles and sabers

- Heard a heck of a lot of timpani there for a moment, shoutout to the timpani player! 

- The rendition of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' is so beautiful and touching, especially in the context of the show

- The brass coupled with the colorguard creates such a powerful moment

- This 'Do Better' portion of the show is really different from a lot of the work on the field this year, especially incorporating it into a drum feature

- The drive to the end of that feature is wild! 

- Love these closer flags, showing unity as the queen is recrowned! 

- Congratulations, Cadets, on a great season

- Is it cold in here? Well yes, Lucas Oil is pretty chilly tonight. But the Blue Stars are about to take us into the wild, and there's a snowy mountain on the field

- Hear the glockenspiel on those runs, with keys that small those can be so difficult

- Brass coming out of the gate with some speed too

- Nice visual moment from the hornline doing that choreography across the field, looked great from the high cam

- The colorguard is spread out all over that field, putting in the legwork to get there too. 

- Cool that they're able to hide the entire hornline in just a few tents on the field

- Beautiful trumpet solo on the snowy mountain, too!

- Nice work from the colorguard to start pushing us towards the end here

- Two mountains in the drill on the field! 

- And the sled off into the distance, following the call of the wild! 

- Great show, Blue Stars!

- Congratulations on an excellent season!

- Come on, Blue Knights! 

- Blue Knights always have some of the best voice-overs in DCI

- Love a slow and dramatic start that slowly builds, especially those drum rolls

- Anytime the corps is anywhere near the mirrors, and disappear into them is so cool

- That spiral into the circle that spreads across the field was a cool drill moment

- Heard that xylophone lick too! 

- The white rims on the drums are incredibly unique too. Have always stuck out the entire season

- Drumline makes their presence known again before taking a knee and coming back a few moments later, but it's not front and center. Very understated

- Beautiful ballad here from the hornline, the colorguard accenting how delicate it all is. 

- The voice-over hints at what's next, getting a heck of a lot faster

- Great solo from a talented member of the hornline! Trumpet I think?

- Front ensemble getting a little love on the multi cam! 

- Trumpet soloist comes back again! 

- Backed up now by the rest of the hornline and a trumpet feature

- With the corps in black and grey for the most part, those multicolored flags really stick out

- The Blue Knights logo as they say home! What a nice touch

- Thank you Blue Knights and congratulations on a great season. 

8:12 PM - Intermission

Quick intermission! Be back soon, everyone. 

- I spy some giants taking the field...

- Keep an eye on the colorguard for this show. The Crusader's colorguard is one in the running for the Best Colorguard award tonight

- Love how they make their own Goliath out of hornline members, and the way they crawl around the props is wild

- Nice starting trumpet feature as well

- The guard makes those flag features look absolutely effortless. All of their work looks effortless, really

- Splitting the corps up into sections always creates cool visual and sound effects, with the guard taking advantage of the staging too

- Another cool staging moment with the drumline moving in lines through the hornline

- This has got to be one of the favorites, and most popular songs, on the field this Summer. 'My Shot' from Hamilton!

- With a very sweet drum feature in the middle, too

- Yes rifles! 

- And now, there's the colorguard visual on the props, sliding around the props

- These two soloists, the euphonium and the french horn are playing so beautifully. 

- HERE COMES GOLIATH! Towering over the flag moment.

- And as the giant is slain, the "blood" pours down during the corps' famed Conquest shots!

- Impossible to not get excited during the end of that show. 

- Here are the Cavaliers here to take us down the wrong side of the tracks

- Some really cool drill moments to start us off, and a nice trombone moment too

- The uniforms are definitely a lot different from Cavaliers' uniforms of years past, but they suit the show so well. 

- Love the form creating the railroad tracks, using the props as well. 

- The barrels in the back create a cool stage for the featured soloists 

- As usual, the Cavaliers front ensemble is strong, doing some one-handed playing on the marimba with a tambourine in their left hand! 

- Did two snare drummers just switch their drums by throwing them at each other mid quad break? 

- One of the craziest front ensemble moments of the night, playing some wild licks up front, multiple people playing on one board, splitting things. Absolutely insane. 

- Cavaliers brass giving us so much power to push towards the end of that movement

- Great moment from the Cavaliers rifle line too!

- What a great energy at the end! 

- Congratulations, Cavaliers on an excellent season!

- If you just caught that quick camera shot, all members are wearing a patch in honor of the corps' founder, Don Warren, who passed away earlier this summer. 

- Next up, Carolina Crown! 

- Kicking us off loud and proud, Carolina Crown's brass is not messing around! They're one of the corps in the running for the Best Brass award tonight

- A small brass choir on the stage adds a nice color to this movement

- Crown's front ensemble keeping up the pace with some great runs under the horn melodies

- Lots of control from the Crown drumline there, 

- Yet another moment of the Crown high brass absolutely killing it

- Cool drill moment with the changing stars into that shape that looks like an asterisk

- A quiet start to the ballad from the front ensemble

- Flugelhorn duet! You have to love the color of that instrument, it just adds an entirely different color

- The colorguard matches the sensitivity with some slow flag and dance work that slowly builds in strength

- The spiral set matches their props!

- Love the magenta flags, they really stand out against the green field

- Everyone loves a good Crown set! Gotta do it to 'em! 

- Based on the performer's faces, I guess that was a good one!

- Congratulations on a great performance, Carolina Crown!

- Starting with the drumline front and center, such a talented group this and every year

- Some great hornline power to start the show, too!

- Never realized that performers are actually playing on top of those props as they move around

- The neon guard uniforms are such a standout!

- Love the personal attitude that a show like this allows performers to bring to the field. Hair colors, eyeliner, everything!

- The sousaphone and trombone moment is such a surprise, especially the sousaphone

- Did you catch that horn flying around on the bungee cord on that prop

- Straight fire from that quad feature, and all of the different drumline features

- Here comes that final push, bring it on Santa Clara!

- THERE'S THE VANGUARD YELL!

- And the cymbal line 'V'!

- Yet another incredible run tonight

- Thank you so much and congratulations on an incredible season, Vanguard!

- When the Bluecoats start 'Bloo'ing you know the crowd's reaction isn't far behind

- If you're not familiar, they aren't "Boo"ing the corps, they are shouting "Bloo!" in support of the corps

- The trumpet soloist opening the show was great, as were the waves on his suit. So fun!

- What a build-up to that first chord!

- Our first character, from 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' so fitting, with the image on the poncho

- Nice set-up from the Bloopit for the rest of the corps overall

- The timing from all of the horn pods on the front sideline must be wild! 

- Check out that trombone with all of the effects on it, it's hardly recognizable and the final mixed sound is crazy

- The Bluecoats colorguard looks like they're having an absolute blast, and how could you not, with a show this fun and performing as well as they are

- So many peace signs in this show! Almost every time they end a movement, their hands are in the air with peace signs

- Such a beautiful ballad, everyone loves 'Blackbird' and has some type of emotional connection to it

- There is so much going on during the jazzy section of 'Come Together' that I'm not sure what to watch! It's all so incredible

- Ending with 'Hey Jude' is so brilliant and fun too! It gets stuck in your head for the rest of the night

- The crowd has been on their feet what feels like forever, do you think they liked the show at all? 

- Brilliant show, Bluecoats! Congratulations on an excellent season. 

- Here we go, last competitive performance of the day! 

- Still one of the most effective starts of the season. Starting off with some bold high rifle tosses before running straight through them

- You can even hear the electric violin from the front ensemble

- Their brass line sounds so incredible tonight

- VERY nice bassline moment

- Another absolutely insane moment from the colorguard featuring the props

- Our second sousaphone of the night! That's not something you see every day in the drum corps world

- Love a delicate saber toss moment with the colorguard

- The tapshoes! Dueling with the violin is so fun!

- Some great colorguard work pushing towards the end here. 

- The hornline matching the energy and talent as the crowd gets to their feet!

- What a show! And congratulations on an excellent season, Blue Devils!

Thanks so much for following along on the live blog with performances this evening! It's been a blast to watch and share thoughts with you all this weekend. We'll be going over to awards shortly. 

2019 DCI Finals Scores

1. Blue Devils - 98.325

2. Bluecoats - 98.238

3. Santa Clara Vanguard - 96.6

4. Carolina Crown - 96.563

5. The Cavaliers - 95.4

6. Boston Crusaders - 94.488

7. Blue Knights - 92.050

8. Blue Stars - 91.225

9. The Cadets - 89.838

10. Mandarins - 89.30

11. Crossmen - 87.550

12. Phantom Regiment - 87.238

Caption & Specialty Awards Awards

Jim Jones Leadership Award (Best Drum Major) - Claire Wilcox

Best Colorguard - Boston Crusaders

Best Visual Performance - Blue Devils

Best Brass Performance - Carolina Crown

Best Percussion Performance - Santa Clara Vanguard

Best Overall General Effect - Bluecoats

It's been an incredible night following along with you folks! Thanks so much for watching with me tonight!