Rubisco

Absolute goosebumps from Avon’s performance. By far the best they’ve ever performed that show!

Yeaaaaah. Pretty easy to see why Carmel and Broken Arrow went one-two in semis. As many have said, Carmel’s visual program is peerless. Loving the Sci-Fi angle BA has adopted.

Okay, Carmel it will be, probably. Not surprising. Amazing visual program. Let’s just hope there’s at least one TX bands in the top 3!

And when the activity does move indoors, that opens up the possibility of American bands competing against the likes of Nishihara from Japan. Wouldn't that be something?

Or maybe something like Center Grove's show. Similar, WGI-ish feel.

The future of marching band looks something like O'Fallon Township's show. Very striking visual program, although it's a risk, since the white really makes visual dirt pop. It seems like a combination of the Bluecoats' recent productions and Onyx's 2012 WGI championship show. I do think WGI Winds is coming around at just about the right time. Obviously, football will be around a while longer, but unless they figure out how to play the game without giving kids brain damage, it probably won't last. Then bands will have to find a new outlet for performance, and that will probably be a WGI, indoors sort of thing.

I didn't see Round Rock in prelims at SA, but they sure looked and sounded like a National finalist today.

Ensemble visual should be well into box 5 for The Woodlands. Much, much cleaner performance than at San Antonio. That said, the music ranks as one of the weaker Woodlands shows I've heard. Obviously, they sound good, but they don't sound great, like they did in 2013. Ballad sounds great, but there are rough patches in the other parts where it really doesn't sound like a full ensemble contribution to the sound -- like, for instance, at the very beginning. Also, I feel like if you're going to mic a woodwind ensemble doing those runs at the end, they *really* need to have that technique down.

My feeling is that Broken Arrow will do better than expected. Hopefully it’s not at the expense of having a Texas band in the top 3!

Another thing to note is that Avon beat all of the Texas bands attending Nationals in all three captions. That’s not a good sign. Then again, San Antonio results don’t exactly have a history of matching up perfectly with Nationals results, as last year demonstrated pretty spectacularly.

Three slight surprises. 1 - Leander in 14th. Completely disagree with this placement. The scores for them are all fairly baffling. 2 - Reagan overcoming the top half and bottom half split to place over Flower Mound. I wouldn’t have had them above Flower Mound, but I absolutely would have had them in the top half over Cedar Park. 3 - CTJ over Hebron in music again. Based on the recaps, CTJ won music both rounds on the strength of individual performance. Hebron was first in ensemble music in both rounds, but only 5 hundredths of a point ahead of CTJ in finals when it should have been more like 3-4 tenths. Not that that would have changed the outcome. CTJ’s GE score would have been enough to overcome that, just like it was enough to overcome a 7th place finish in ensemble visual performance.

I'm going to retire for the evening. I don't really have the patience right now to make it through the retreat. I'll see the aftermath tomorrow. Great job, everyone!

My personal favorites were Hebron and Avon. But obviously I can see why somebody would prefer CTJ or Vandegrift or Flower Mound.

What a strong finish! CTJ is definitely a crowd-pleaser. They just blow your face off. Obviously, Hallelujah is the highlight, but I'm going to have Aquarelo do Brasil stuck in my head again for the rest of the week. CTJ performs such a difficult visual program for a Texas band. Unfortunately, as a result, there was quite a lot of dirt that will probably keep them from winning this event, but we'll see.

Another fantastic performance from Vandegrift. Easy to see why they were in the top 3. Visual program lacks a bit of clarity in parts, but man, that music. I love the silent fake-out before Ode to Joy.

Stunning performance from Avon. Absolutely stunning. What a visual program. And that guard. Holy cow! I don't see this out of the top 3.

Great show from Flower Mound. I do think the music and visual program lack a little bit of finesse, but I don't think it will hold them back at Nationals. The sound is just so big sometimes that the details get lost. Some of the visual moments also lacked clarity, especially towards the end with the color overload. Love the ballad. Maybe my favorite one of the year. Very DCI-ish.

K. There it is. Thank goodness!

Really hope the sound turns back on for Flower Mound...

Marcus was fabulous, and I think they're starting to show a real willingness to adapt with their visual program. In the past, they've really relied on cleanliness at the cost of difficulty. This year, I think there's a better balance. Obviously, it's not as clean as the cleanest Marcus shows, but it in a lot of ways it's more interesting. And they sound great, of course.

Absolutely blown away again by Hebron's music. The ending actually made me tear up a little bit. I can't recall the last time that's happened! I'm just so completely moved by the musicianship of this group. Music education is alive and well in Carrollton, Texas.

As several outstanding groups learned after prelims results, no group is really safe from elimination at the BOA San Antonio Super Regional. There's no shame in not making finals here. The bottom part of this finals will likely be stronger than the bottom part of Nats. I still think Nats is harder to win, but there's often less depth to finals.

Lots of really top notch groups in this "bottom half." Stunning performance from Leander. I love the idea of stripping away the layers to see what's underneath. Cleverly done.

I thought Reagan's show was lovely. Very well performed. I do wish there was a little bit more variety in the drill program.

I had to run off to work, but seeing Hebron in first and Vandegrift in 2nd isn’t particularly surprising given what I saw. No Round Rock or Bell is pretty surprising, as is Cedar Park in the top half over Leander, Reagan, and TWHS — at least based on the reaction here. Avon tops visual. No surprise. They’re probably right outside the top 3 with Flower Mound.