Rubisco

Also, it feels really strange to me that this contest comes after UIL State. I'm not used to this timeline! It also makes me wonder if that changes the calculus at all. For example, it seemed like Marcus got a bit of a second wind after their success at State in 2021, going on to win the music caption in semifinals at Nationals and placing over bands that beat them handily at BOA San Antonio.

I haven't seen everyone yet, but this seems solid. 😄 Agreed on the inflated numbers. That said, it's always a bit of a mug's game to compare scores across contests anyway. I think I'm most curious to see if Rouse holds on over Vandegrift and Vista Ridge here. That would be so awesome for them! And it would maybe ensure a top 3 placement overall, too. Speaking of top 3, who will that be? There's more wiggle room than usual. I think Vista Ridge, Rouse, Vandegrift, Reagan, Marcus, and TWHS will be fighting it out. For winner, my gut says TWHS on the strength of visual and effect, but I can see others taking it as well. I'm also hoping we see Leander back in finals. I think they have the show for it. I'd also like to see more than one Houston band in finals! Without Pearland, that may be tough, but I have faith.

Good eye, for sure! Bridgeland was 2nd in overall visual performance in prelims and 4th in visual GE. 3rd in visual performance in finals, holding onto 4th in visual GE.

I think this may be true, as long as they don't flatline late season! I'm so very, very impressed by what I saw from the Houston groups tonight. As an old-time Region 9er, it thrills me. 🥰

I think when the best band at a contest has an incomplete show and everyone else has a complete (or seemingly complete) show, it probably does depress the overall high score a bit. To be honest, The Woodlands' ending was a little bit of a buzzkill! That said, my overall impression is that we're probably looking at a rematch of 2013 at Nationals with Carmel and The Woodlands, but with Hebron following TWHS up to Nationals this time, which should make things quite a bit more interesting, given the extraordinary strength of Hebron's music program. That's definitely an area where Hebron very handily beats The Woodlands right now!

@packwick I don't even know what DH means. That's how out of the loop I am! 😄

The results here are not quite what I would have expected, but I'm always down for some shake-ups! I didn't watch prelims. I'd like to at least catch some of finals.

Eh, I thought it was funny. 🤷 Indeed, they do! One of my favorites this year! I heard they had *quite* the electronics issue. I think it shows great perseverance to be able to put on a finalist caliber show when something like that goes wrong. 👍

Is there a YouTube video? I can't find any.

Wow! Thank you for this! I'll have to watch them after work today.

I'm excited to see them. The name stuck out to me -- I think because their guard made National A finals at TCGC State this past season. My gut for this contest is still CTJ versus TWHS, but I haven't really seen enough of either to be sure. I haven't really seen a video of Reagan with good audio, either. 😔 Definitely, I'm curious to see where Pearland and James Bowie end up here, since they're two bands that are attending Nationals and maybe aren't complete locks for National finals yet. Are we in for some surprises, like at BOA Austin and BOA North Houston? A very stacked contest! Best of luck to all!

Sorry, that should read, "by 2.5 points," not over 2.5 points. But still!

It's like a classic UIL recap! 😭 In prelims, Friendswood was 15th in Visual Effect. In finals, they were 1st in that caption by over 2.5 points on the 100 scale! That is QUITE the disagreement! Both of them very experienced judges, too!

But you did! Didn't you? At least, sort of, right? Internet friends? 😅

I'll admit I'm a little confused. Aren't you just reiterating Patrick's point here? That the overlap between the performance captions and effect captions is high enough that GE might not be necessary? Can you provide some clarification?

Me just over here trying to figure out who you're talking about in that last paragraph. 🧐 "But they've... But they've all judged in Texas the past 20 years... I'm so confused..." 😂 I still need to see a more recent video of Johnson and Reagan, with all the costumes and whatnot. I'm also still wondering if Pearland or some other band can sneak into the top 3 here, like a Rouse-style upset. That would be really cool. It's about time for Houston to dominate at their own regional!

Oopsie! Meant to say Strauss, not Wagner, for Hebron. Didn't proofread my wall of text!

That clarinet feature in Cy-Fair's show is so impressive, even with the poor audio quality! That technique! Wow! This is a fascinating show. It seems to be about metamorphosis, but instead of your typical beautiful butterfly emerging, we get a white moth. 😄 This all seems a bit darker and more subversive than what we usually see. We could be merrily frolicking in the fields with caterpillars or whatever, but the music here is often quite anxious. Just listen to that opening brass statement. Crawling in my skin, indeed! Even that color scheme in the 2nd video -- the black uniforms with the red "hooks" -- it's a little unsettling. Is that what they're supposed to be? Hooks? I'm not sure, but they're interesting. I have no idea what Cy Woods' show is about just watching it, but it's all very clearly performed, musically and visually, at least considering the date it was performed. The guard continues their rise. I love the groovy second section with the spinning circles on side 1 and collapsing triangles on side 2. That middle section of the triangle that simply shrinks, it's just kinda dynamic. That oboe soloist in the ballad is wonderful -- the piece is Danse Bacchanale by Saint-Saens. The climax here with the spiraling swing flags interspersed with the band as it's stretched out all across the field is pretty breathtaking. There's just a control and balance to the design overall that I really like. You're not left guessing about the designer's intentions, at least at the level of the drill. I think this Flower Mound show will end up being a stronger vehicle for them than last year. Obviously, without sound, it's hard to tell, but already the visual program is more appealing. Last year, the band was quite literally boxed in with brick walls. 😄 This year everything just breathes more, it feels like they're making fuller use of the field, even though it probably has the same coverage. Like in previous years, they're often stretched across the field doing some lovely, dynamic folding drill. It's a little more of an old-fashioned, more symmetric approach to drill design, as others have noted but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The splash of color from the set pieces is beautiful. I love when they pull them apart -- it's very dimensional, very interesting when mixed with the marching members. The guard is strong, and is frequently staged front and center. This is a smart decision because they have one of the strongest guards in the country. If you've got it, flaunt it! These gals are attempting some very tricky spinning skills, very fast with those flags. It's not quite clean yet, but I think they'll have it within a couple weeks. Hebron's show, I'm just imagining it with the outstanding music I heard a few weeks ago, the heroic Wagner brass followed by that tricky Gavin Greenaway Disney firework piece with its ever shifting meters -- 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8 -- Greenaway just wanted to use them all, I think. 😄 Hebron has black monoliths backfield. Get it? Monomyth, monolith. I'm not sure what the 4 large circles are supposed to represent. Perhaps it's the cycle of the hero's journey? His eventual return home? Or perhaps each represents a stage of the journey? Hero leaves home, encounters some trial, comes back changed -- that's the gist of it. Anyway, the drill performance is excellent for early season, truly impressive, and it's pretty consistently engaging as well. It works nicely with the set pieces on the field, like when the soloist is wheeled forward on one of the circles through the marching members. Guard is still a little bit weaker, execution is a little lacking. I think the main priority should just be to get the work clean for upstairs rather than dazzling with difficulty, because at the end of the day, I think there are a lot of visual judges who won't care how difficult your guard work is, or won't really be able to tell. Trust me, I know a few. 😄 Marcus, this is another soundless one. It starts out very clean and controlled, but then they intersperse these more chaotic moments. It's a little confusing for me, honestly, but it probably works with the theme, whatever it is. (No, I don't know what the theme is, I'm sorry!) It's all very dramatically performed. Really great energy from the performers, you feel that upstairs. The guard is looking very strong, definitely one of the best guards in the state. There's a cool moment in there where they spin one of their white set pieces around to reveal percussionists on a stage. I love this theatrical, Broadway stuff, I gotta say! Great aesthetic effect! Speaking of Broadway, the king of the Broadway show, The Woodlands, is still doing jazz, but this time with a Spanish flair, thanks to Chick Corea. Suitably, you've got those absolutely gorgeous curved benches inspired by Barcelona's Park Guell. The level of detail to both the set pieces and to the show overall is fantastic. The design is always clear, always in balance with the total elements on the field. This is my first time seeing a high cam of the opening fast stuff. With the guard as strong as it is -- currently the best in the country -- and with the design as strong as it is, it's like watching a great Avon or Carmel program, but in Texas. The music is wonderful as well, it just takes you places. I'm happy to see they're mostly caught up, too, although they have some cleaning to do. The show seems a step up difficulty-wise, so I'm wondering just how polished they'll be able to get this show. I also think the ballad, while beautiful, could be more dramatic in the climax -- maybe more conflict and resolution, some rubato as well. Guard costumes are interesting. They look like a sleek homage to their 2013 costumes. I'm on the Bridgeland train this year as well. The angle of the earlier video with sound that I watched wasn't as good as these videos without sound. Thematically, it's not really anything special. "Another show about blooming flowers, how boring!" But it's less about WHAT the show is about than HOW it's about it, to paraphrase Roger Ebert. This visual program is dynamic and beautiful. It's layered, but without totally losing focus. And that guard, I think the only cleaner guards I've seen at this point in the season are from The Woodlands and Carmel. Now, their work isn't as challenging as some others, but look at how cleanly they're executing already, and look at what a big impact they're making. Like, literally, the guard is gigantic! 😄 Those full-field flag features -- eat your heart out, Wes Cartwright! I love during the slow section when the drill collapses into that density with the different colored flags all swirling around it. Just beautiful! When they spell out "Hope" at the end of the ballad (well, it's either that or "Hop" 😄) it could be cheesy, but it's actually kind of sweet in this context. The music is great and effective as well, but the last I heard it, it did need some major cleaning. The musicians weren't always in control, or in tune. They just need to dial that in. Hmmm... Who else? Avon, I love how playful this Pictures arrangement is, like I couldn't even tell it was Pictures at first. They've saved us all from yet another boring Pictures arrangement. I love the energy, the speed, the commitment. Look at how those performers move in that opening choreography. Just stunning! Who else does stuff that complicated and that clean? That said, shortly after that opening that draws you in, the performance quality drops pretty significantly as they start to struggle with the challenges. It's not the prettiest visual design I've seen from Avon either. I'm not sure the empty picture frames add much to the program besides to signify that it's the band inside the Tableaux. The pacing is a little strange as well, but that comes from Pictures itself, with its back and forth slow movements and up-tempo movements. I'll reserve judgment on Avon for when this one's cleaner. And that's really where Carmel dominated at Kentucky. They were just a lot cleaner, musically and visually. But then they also have that gemlike Gaines drill with the Saucedo arrangement that ALWAYS plays with tempo, with meter, with style, with dynamics -- the stuff that makes music really interesting. It just holds you from start to finish. This is a team that knows 110% what they're doing. And that guard, well, they're totally unsettling with their plague masks. 😬 Let's just say that they seem to be saying that this "prophecy" might not be a pleasant one for Texas bands at Nats, although I'm hoping for something other than yet another Carmel win. Also unsettling is how big and strong the guard is, but I guess that's also par for the course for Carmel. Kind of an unsettling show in general, but I can get behind it! 😄

Thank you, Bill! 😄

My work followed me home yesterday, but I did manage to take a glance at the recap late last night. It was 😲😲😲. What a fantastic achievement by Rouse! Topping a recent National Champion!

Don't let our discussion of panels freak you out too much! We talk about "locks", but there's a reason I'm putting that in quotation marks. Nothing is guaranteed. Every contender for finals needs to make a strong statement about themselves. Even bands that haven't made finals here before can achieve that with enough work.

In BOA's defense, I feel like we said this about last year's panels, too, but it didn't end up being that bad. Then again, there are probably 25+ bands in Texas that wouldn't look totally out of place in BOA San Antonio finals, regardless of whether they belong there over a slightly cleaner/more effective band that misses finals.

On the other hand, I feel bad for some of the up and coming bands stuck on Panel 2 with all the "locks", knowing that those 5 auto advance spots are probably taken, and then some. It just feels like the chances of breaking through for those groups are smaller. Bridgeland, Wakeland, etc. come to mind.

My thought exactly! Kind of like what happened with Flower Mound in 2021. Unfortunately, UIL's judging system is too different to draw a good comparison for BOA Grand Nats. Then again, BOA San Antonio results haven't been particularly predictive of BOA Grand Nats in recent years, either. Historically, I find myself in closer agreement with the Nats panels. I think Vandegrift probably benefits from being on their own little island on Panel 1 -- as the only top half finalist from last year in that panel. (I'll qualify this as "presumably" on their own island, unless BOA Austin this weekend shows me otherwise.) I strongly suspect we'll see Vandy land in the top 2 or 3 after prelims. Granted, there's an excellent chance that would have happened even without the weird two panel system. Yet again, the two panels seem unbalanced, with Panel 2 much more "finalist lock" heavy. But I also think this creates some great opportunities in Panel 1 for new finalists, with 2 of the 5 automatic advance slots up for grabs. I've got my eyes on Cypress Woods in particular. They've got a great performance time, too.

I missed tonight's BOA contests, but a friend shared some recordings with me. (Thank you!) Avon and Carmel were both great, but my gut says the door might be ever-so-slightly open for a Texas win at Nationals this year. Of course, it's early, and Avon and Carmel both enjoy a very significant rehearsal time advantage, so my feelings could easily change.