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Rubisco
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Posts posted by Rubisco
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Oh, yeah. The Cavaliers are way better than they were last year, when they were quite, "Eek!" both in performance and design at the first show. The drill writing in particular is SO much better. They'll probably place 7th to 9th this year, although I haven't seen enough to really know.
I do wish the designers had done more to illustrate the Shape Shift theme, like have the members transform or something. As of right now, it seems like they could have slapped a number of names onto the show and been fine. Actually, maybe THAT'S the shape shift part. 😅
- SharksAreCool and Tubalord11
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I haven't watched The Cavaliers yet, but I agree with your takes on Phantom and Crown.
Phantom, I think, is better than they were last year, even with the twisted, cobwebby curtains blowing in the wind tonight. I wish there was a little more to chew on intellectually, and having a clear theme might have helped with that, but aesthetically and emotionally it's there. It still manages to feel coherent, while taking you lots of places. So many cool moments, like when the curtains are spinning, and the marching members weave throughout them like threads in some giant sewing machine. The strong sense of visual balance is established right away, too, with the gorgeous opening curvilinear and staging of the guard with the marchers throughout the impact.
Crown for me has a bit of a wild show right now, at least once it gets going. The opening, with its corny, theatrical procession of fabric -- of the portentous sort that we've seen so many times now -- had me checking my watch. But then Music for Prague throws us immediately into the fire, which is thrilling. Lots of gorgeous musicianship from the brass, especially the ballad crescendo, which is expected from them. There was one really cool follow-the-leader moment, and overall the drill is well-written, but not much wowed me. A lot, as you remarked, is familiar from the BOA world. Guard is really going for it, with room for growth in the execution. Really, the entire visual performance, from upstairs to downstairs, needs work, if they want to reclaim a top 4 spot this year. I was also struck by how their show felt more incoherent than Phantom's production, despite having a title and ostensibly a concept.
I would have given Phantom first place tonight, especially with the visual performance being a bit cleaner. I think Crown has a lot to work with, however, if they can figure out how to clean and shape it.
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Ah, okay, well, it would be the cap of 4 per region that would need to be adjusted, I suppose. Based on the current rules, it's not possible to have more than 16 at the area level. Probably, it would be hard to listen to more than 16 in one day, if the recordings are half-an-hour long. Maybe just more of an overall numbers balancing issue between the areas.
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Over 30% of the entire state's 5A Honor Band entries come from Area B. 24 of 79 total. 👀
I'm curious if the number of state advancers continues to increase beyond the max of 4 listed in the rules (for 13-16 bands). It seems like Area B would need a couple extra spots to not be shortchanged.
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Has Aledo been mentioned? I saw on their Facebook they're doing a show called Sonic Boom. If it doesn't include Guile's Theme from Street Fighter II, I'm boycotting it! (Kidding, of course. 😅)
- Tubalord11 and utee94
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More on Vista Ridge:
"Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience."
Musical selections include:
"Swan Lake"- Tchaikovsky
"Grohg"- Aaron Copland
"Hurt"- Nine Inch Nails/Eric Whitacre
"Lacrimosa"- MozartThe Vista Ridge High School Ranger Band is proud to present their 2025 production:
"Perfect Imperfections"
Now there's an eclectic mix of pieces. I bet they'll sound absolutely amazing this year.
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ExpandThis could be just the show CTJ needs to make a comeback
Soooo excited for CR!! As much as it’s overplayed (which I’m fine with), I LOVE pines of Rome, and just like Pearland did last year, Ik they are going to absolutely kill it with this music, so so excited!!
this season is really looking like it’s gonna be another great, love all these awesome show designs
I feel like Cedar Ridge's rendition of Pines may be more interesting than usual. Historically, they've had a pretty playful approach to their designs, which is great. We'll see!
- LeanderMomma, utee94 and Tubalord11
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I am overjoyed to see the results of these Texas scholastic guards at Dayton! You know, guard in Texas hasn't always been a big thing. There was a time in the now distant past when Marie Czapinski gave clinics at the Texas Bandmasters Association convention to advocate for color guard, because the state was all about drill teams back then. Fast-forward decades later, and Texas is well-represented at Dayton in A and Open finals; nabs a silver medal in A; earns gold with a record score in Open; and achieves their first World class gold medal by a three-and-a-half point margin, the 2nd biggest ever in the Scholastic World class. (The biggest gap was James Logan 2001.)
There's talk of adding a guard judge at UIL State for some of the bigger classes. Looking at these Dayton results, I think there are quite a few bands that would appreciate the efforts of their guards being rewarded at State! 👍
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It's cool seeing River Bluff and Grain Valley make those jumps up, especially Grain Valley. They both gave outstanding performances.
Congratulations to Melissa! Well-deserved medal! And of course to all of the other amazing finalists.
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The top 3 at each A class site.
Cintas: Pope (93.050), Clovis North (92.900), and Melissa (90.850)
Truist: Grain Valley (90.640), River Bluff (90.560), and Tomball Memorial (90.500)
I hesitate when comparing scores across two different panels, but it's worth noting that Pope and Clovis North are more comfortably Box 5 than the others. 3rd place looks like more of a question mark.
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Tomball Memorial coming out on top!! Guys this might be the strongest showing from Texas like, ever?!? I mean holy cow what a day our guards are having!!! And Little Elm with a 93.3, Wow!
I haven't watched anything today, but I'm looking at these prelims results like 👀. The Open class ones especially. The Texas units are dominating there. 6 potentially making it into a finals of 15? It's borderline like BOA Grand Nationals, if only it were world class and not open! Round Rock isn't that far away, either. We'll see what happens after semis. There could be some significant shifts. I'm not surprised seeing Little Elm on top over Noblesville based on what I saw earlier, but the two-point gap is unexpected. That's typically an insurmountable gap, but we'll see.
Melissa and Tomball Memorial breaking 90 in A class. At least a couple other Texas ones winning their rounds, too. Lots of 89s. We'll see if any of them can make the push onto the podium tomorrow night. That could be challenging.
The Woodlands winning world class prelims by 2 points is just about the least surprising result today. Congrats to them in advance. 👍
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where was Pearland, speaking of? 'nother Friendswood situation?? or just a scheduling conflict??
I don't think there was ever actually a "situation" with Friendswood in TCGC, was there? The decision not to compete in the circuit seems purely a director choice. Klein Oak didn't compete in TCGC, either, when Friendswood's current director won WGI A Class at Dayton with them. Yet Friendswood WAS competing in TCGC until she took the reins. There could be any number of reasons why. Costs, philosophy differences, bad blood, or maybe one of her units got "Twilight Zoned" one too many times, as you say. 😅
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Expandaaaand the guy posted Flanagan too.
https://youtu.be/mtCAfEVviQ0?si=zaWyK4PzYhcFrFdU
the return of the early naughts Hide and Seek guard show!!! ~*nostaaalgia~*
What is it, 2007? Didn't Flanagan get the memo? 2025 is all about 30 years of runnin', 30 years of searchin', 30 years of hurtin', 30 years of pain!
I honestly think those guards should get together for a group photo at Dayton. 😄
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Do they not actually post the final standings on the WGI page? I thought they do, but the page seems to have vanished.
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think there may be a transcription error in woodlands world's DA score. Kelsey w/ a 98 in performance. prob should be 89?? dunno. would bring the score down to a 91-something probably.
fabulous scores from the IA judges across the board. again, just some upstairs design issues. still did at/near the top of the field upstairs however.
If so, their score would drop to a 91.85. The pre-penalty score would be 91.95. With or without the error, the score hovers around a 92.
ExpandAnyone know why the .10 penalty for TW?
If I had to guess, they may have had trouble getting everything off of the floor in time. They seemed to really have to scramble after their performance.
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Lots of strong performances today in Open, but Little Elm was the clear first place for me. Dense and elegant at the same time. Clean hands throughout on some very tricky phrases, with well-blended movement. They really look like a Dayton medalist.
Emerson gives Santa Clara Vanguard 2016 vibes -- the Rumble, Unravel, and Rise show, but with an eerier atmosphere. Like that show, they start backstage and slowly make their way forward. The performers embody the creepy cool character of the show exceptionally well. The white flags with the black stripes look clipped when spun on the white part of the floor. Really interesting effect.
Pearland gave a great performance. They have such a lovely, well-staged and choreographed production. The opening with the blue flags is immediate goosebumps. I thought they were cleaner than Emerson when viewed upstairs on Flo, but the content may limit them. Emerson's show is just a bit more interesting and creative compared to the vast majority of scholastic guards this year.
- packwick, jmartin1056, Origin and 1 other
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I only caught a few of the guards today, all of them in Scholastic A. I thought Melissa killed it.
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that 65ish in movement TWHS A got may have nearly prevented them from advancing to state
What's the process for advancing units to state across the two contests? I can't seem to find it on the website. Is there a set number of guards that advance from each contest, or do they combine all the scores together? The latter seems kind of insane to me, given the inconsistencies we've seen from TCGC judging.
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Ah, the forum is back. I thought it might have died for good!
ExpandAgreed about our Texas guards performing in San Antonio.
For example, Jordan HS went from 3rd in SA seeding last week, to 23rd this week.
That is a KILLER!!!!Unfortunately, the rankings for all of those units will probably drop even more after next weekend. But there are some other Dayton-bound A class guards that will be at the Southwest Power Regional and could earn high scores at that event.
Expandsomething i also picked up for the first time when watching arcadia last week and watching carmel today was how both have a full line of dancers that never really pick up and spin a piece of guard equipment. not exactly on the sheets as a POC, besides maybe difficulty and risk, but at the world class level i find it kinda odd. heck, even most of the top scholastic As i've seen have all of their members spinning at some point. like, beautiful shows, both of em, lots of craftsmanship, but kinda playin' it safe.
"Playing it safe." That about sums up why I'm not loving most of the world class shows this year. The same criticism you make here could be leveled against Pride of Cincinnati, for example, who have performers who only pick up flags at the very end. And Pride of Cincinnati doesn't have recruiting issues, I can assure you! To put things into perspective: TWHS does more full-ensemble spinning and tossing than Pride of Cincinnati does this year. Let that sink in. Also, maybe that's why you find the TWHS show a little too busy at times. 😉
To my mind, the world class is supposed to be about performers and designers taking big risks. But that doesn't always or even often happen. And perhaps the biggest reason is because the people judging send mixed messages with what they reward. Truly, I think if Paramount had their full 40-member guard cleanly toss and catch 8s on rifle with 3-turns under them, they still might not win equipment over a guard that tosses no higher than small ensemble 6s, as long as that guard does things a little more fast/slow, heavy/light, and so on and so forth -- the subjective "dynamic efforts." It's like when Hebron loses ensemble music performance to Carmel. It is what it is, I suppose. 🤷
- packwick and TWHSPercDad
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YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM TO SEE THEM LIVE!!! Will probably be crying after finals lol
I'm actually most excited to see some of these DFW guards we haven't gotten a glimpse of yet. In particular, I'm hopeful that Emerson kills it in their new class and is in the running for Dayton finals.
Texas scholastics are all quite strong this year, it seems. I wish we had an Independent World guard to match! Of course, I'm still looking forward to seeing Mirage and Menage. I bet they've made lots of improvements since that first regional. 👍
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i wanna say that that's just how good wgi's judges are, but the reality is that the standings send a strong message to all of em, esp in a class like SW where it's easier to keep track of all the guards.
I agree. There's quite a lot of pressure placed on judges in WGI to conform to the overall consensus opinion. Few want to risk being the "weird one", because that means potentially tough conversations with both the team and the chief judge.
We see this pressure between rounds a lot, too. Look at the A class results from Austin, for example. 1st place in finals was The Woodlands, but look at their prelims results. Yes, most of the judges had them 1st overall in prelims, too, but the two who didn't: Movement with a 20th place overall, and one of the GE judges with a tie for 13th overall. Both of them are new or relatively new to WGI, and both drastically fell in line after finals despite judging the exact same captions -- moving the unit up to 2nd and 1st, respectively. How much do you want to bet that those two judges saw the prelims results (or just the finals schedule) and went, "Uh-oh!"
Happens all the time! This, of course, could lead us to argue that prelims results shouldn't be released before finals, and that the finals schedules should be randomized, to improve judging autonomy.
- Tubalord11 and TWHSPercDad
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thiiiink undaunted will prob make finals this yr in IO too, if they get more consistent. def a step up. hovering around 80, which is where i woulda scored em too. also, as far as standalone guard songs go, theirs is easily my favorite ive heard this season so far. sooo evocative.
https://youtu.be/cagjZsQf4tk?si=p5sPVQNU-angGl2U
only 7k views while Tay-Sway gets a billion. Ugh!! i hate the world!!
I loved it when the stage finally opened up in Undaunted's show and the bronze and blue flags came swirling out. So beautiful. The song is absolutely amazing. Somebody on one of her YouTube videos commented that she's like a cross between Nina Simone and Sufjan Stevens. Apt!
- TWHSPercDad and packwick
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Quick question. So, how good are past scores used to guess how good a guard is going to be the following year? I'm asking because I remember Hebron being pretty dominant and scoring well in SA last season, but now they're not placing as high. I'm guessing the question is no, maybe it's different with each class, and obv for marching band certain groups do better some years, but then I feel like, especially in 6A and for the SASR, the finalist have been pretty consistent over the mast 8-ish years but regular regionals and the other UIL classes are consistently changing, at least bottom half, kind of, so maybe it's like SW is pretty close to the same finalist but then SO and SA is a complete toss up each year. Sorry for dragging out the question, I'm just curious as to what's a good way if there are any to predict how upcoming seasons will look, but Ik that's hard w/o any insider info
Guard programs in general don't have the same infrastructure in place that overall band programs do, which leads to inconsistencies from year to year. A lot of guard programs don't have great vertical teams, or even existent vertical teams, for example. Plus, funding can sometimes be a bit iffy. So, the talent ends up being not-so-stable from year to year. Not to mention that being a guard director itself isn't always the most stable job.
- TWHSPercDad and Tubalord11
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DCI 2025
in Drum Corps Forum
Posted
I think we're in for a very competitive season from top to bottom. I actually would have had Blue Devils over Boston last night, although it was close. There's nothing in Boston's show that reaches the magnificence of the beginning and ending parts of the Blue Devils' show. The problem is all the stuff between the bookends, and making it feel seamless.
But then I also thought Boston and Bloo had pacing issues. The shows at the top all feel a bit busy and overstuffed to me. Bloo has absolutely amazing moments sprinkled throughout, minimalist soundscaping stuff akin to their 2015 show, but those moments aren't connected so great, and the visual is a tad cramped and cluttery at times with all the boxes on the field. It's a little reminiscent of Blue Devils from last season. I find myself wanting more formal beauty from Bloo again, of the sort we got during their ballad last year. I want the visual to breathe more.
Boston's show, it's one of those shows that's well-performed, but I don't remember it so great after watching it. I think I was expecting more memorable space age visuals or something. As of right now, I view it as a great drill, great music show, with an amazing color guard. But I want to be more hooked. I want some strange, contemporary freshness. Also, I want their low brass to maybe pull back a little. It's a little... Texas loud Boom-y? 😅
SCV has stepped it up -- one of the ones that I think is better than last year, along with Devils, Phantom, and probably Crown, once they clean their visual. SCV has flashes of that gorgeous Gaines formal drill, mixed with the more gobbledygooky contemporary style. I'm not sure SCV's performance will be polished enough by the end of the season to challenge the top 3, however, outside of percussion. Color guard, for example, is noticeably weaker.
I'm genuinely curious how far out from the top 3 Phantom and Crown will land. I don't think there's any one show right now that screams gold medal -- just some gold medal worthy moments here and there.