Rubisco

On the up and up. (I feel like I've almost exhausted YouTube. Note that I'm jumping around in the performances quite a bit. I'm a sampler.)

Edited.

Overall, I'd say Johnson is probably the strongest from the videos I've seen thus far. Be sure to watch the other two videos for the other pieces. Metamorphosis sounds a bit clinical in parts, for lack of a better word. I wish the brass were stronger in it. Also, 3rd movement is way too fast. That's a piece that needs to be full of longing. I feel like they're just going fast through the motions on it. Still, very strong overall. I think they'll repeat their finals success this season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vttcX3WUnM8

Really tough march. Did this when I was in high school, and boy it wasn't easy to clean. (I like how much better the quality of the videos are this season. I feel like everyone's gotten an HD recorder.)

Here's a group that a lot of people thought was going to take the title last season. Assuming this recording is of them (haha), it's a pretty strong performance. Not quite the attention-grabbing kind of performance you got from them last season, but still very solid. I'd love to hear their other two pieces. I feel like a lot of these groups are going for cleanliness over passion and fire. Haha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dLSVDwOVX0

I'd like to hear a recording of this one. I think it would be stronger than what you hear in this video, although it's definitely a higher quality video than I had of them last Honor Band season. I'm hearing lots of intonation stuff, and I'm not sure it's just the way it was recorded. (In all fairness, much of that intonation stuff is from the characteristically weaker sections of a high school band *cough*frenchhorns*cough*.)

So, who's actually heard groups this year? Anybody stick out as being particularly amazing? I'm doing my video rounds. Definitely not the same thing as listening to groups live, or listening to their recordings.

Heh. Apparently an opinion can't also be disrespectful. Well, at least the Texas music education system is outstanding. Shame about the rest.

Ha. I'm not kidding. Where were you when the SA results came out? Granted, GN results didn't exactly follow SA results to a T (see Blue Springs). Also, you apparently didn't see all those comments I made about how all five of the bands that went up this year were finalist worthy. Perhaps you don't frequent the BOA forums, where I've been a member (under different names) since, like, the year 2000. Shame, shame, shame, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. You better get used to differing opinions. When you grow up, you're going to encounter plenty of people that don't think the same way you do.

I'm still wondering whether or not The Woodlands will break their every other year GN pattern to go back and defend their title next year. It would be wonderful if they go with Hebron, CTJ, Bowie, and Vandegrift, although it might not be feasible. I'm more confident about those five making finals than I was about the five that went this year (though not by all that much).

I haven't watched anyone yet, but I'm sure the Lucas Oil acoustics are helping out the TX bands. Alamodome is kind of crap in that regard. Every year I'm impressed by how much better the bands sound moving from the Alamodome to Lucas Oil.

Just found out by looking at the live feed that the two judges that I always strongly disagree with are both judging in finals. This includes the guy from last year who had CTJ last in music GE. Strangely enough, he's judging the exact same caption this year. Some variety you got there, BOA. Haha... I don't think the finals results are going to be what I expect (a devastating blow to my ego, I know ), but at least it doesn't change the fact that it's going to be a really, really awesome finals filled with jaw-dropping performances. Best of luck to all! Don't view the thing as some end all, be all competition. Really, it's about showing off all the hard work you've done over the past few months. Just have fun with it, and remember to watch your drum major! Heh. The echo in the Alamodome can be brutal!

The reason this band will probably win Saturday night is because their show is absolutely thrilling. I can't think of a more exciting show this year, though the next two days might convince me otherwise. I just love how pretty much every beef I had with TW's show has been fixed, and then, on top of that, they've added touches here and there that I wouldn't have thought to add, but which enhance the show greatly. I absolutely love the streamers on the gates in the ballad. What an elegant solution to making that whole segment more visually interesting. And I'm happy they got rid of the arcs and replaced them with those angles, which look much cleaner. Then just the little things here and there. Changing flag tosses, changing musical cues. Oh, and the whole new part to the closer. It's just wonderful. With two more weeks to clean up the visual and the music for nationals, I think the sky's the limit. Can't wait to see the rest of the competition tomorrow and Saturday! It's gonna be an intense couple days filled with great performances.

Honestly, the only band out of Texas that could win nationals this year is The Woodlands. It'll probably be Avon or Carmel, though who knows what will happen. So many things go into a national championship. It's difficult to predict. Honestly, I'm somewhat in love with Marian Catholic's show this year. Maybe that's weird, but I love it.

To the best of my knowledge, the one time BA and Marcus competed against each other, Marcus came out on top (GN 09). Not sure that makes BA a consistently better band than Marcus. Just because Marcus doesn't go to GN often doesn't mean they probably wouldn't have won it twice already if they had gone every year.

I just watched the videos from BOA Allen. I actually think LD Bell is a lot better this year than they were last year. They have a lot more power in their sound, and visually, it really does have some nice moments. I would have scored them higher than Marcus, to be honest. I'm just really underwhelmed by where Marcus is right now. The show is just so painfully obviously not up to the extremely high standard they've set for themselves. Only during the big hit of the ballad did I think, "Oh, this is the Marcus I love." I hope they're able to add some more interesting and difficult elements to their show before SA and Nationals. They need to grow, grow, grow. Hebron's win was well-deserved. I would have placed them first as well. They're just really outstanding this year. I'm not sure I saw such a big difference between the Conroe and the Allen finals performances, though. Actually, the main thing I noticed was how much better the audio recording at Allen was than it was at Conroe. That's not to say there wasn't improvement. Hebron seemed to play more energetically; the articulations throughout the opener were certainly more vigorous. Then they also had the new guard outfits and the additional closer material. In any case, I think they'll do quite well at San Antonio. I'm not sure exactly where I'd put them. I think they have a strong shot at the top 3. Really, at this point, I think it's an all-out brawl for second and third place between Bowie, CTJ, Hebron, Bell, and Marcus. Barring strange judging (which is always a possibility), The Woodlands will win. I feel pretty confident about that. Then again, there are a couple duds on the judging panel this year, including the guy that placed CTJ dead-last in music GE last year during finals. I just really hope they aren't judging in categories where they could really wreak some havoc (*cough*GE*cough).

I should clarify that my "sounds a bit weaker, but other things going for them" comment was for Bowie, not both CTJ and Bowie.

I would recommend the prelims video of TW. It's better not just in terms of sound quality, but also the performance. No musical tears. Also, it looks like it was filmed from higher up.

I don't mind baiting people with my preliminary thoughts. I won't bother mentioning shows I haven't really seen yet. (This includes Marcus and Bell, as well as a whole host of others). Going through the list, I realize I haven't seen many shows from groups that are typically strong contenders for finals. *Finalists unless heck freezes over* The Woodlands James Bowie Claudia Taylor Johnson Hebron Round Rock (I sort of put these in order of what I would expect for placements, though Hebron could play hopscotch with both CTJ and Bowie, who I think sounded a bit weaker than their competitors at BOA Austin, though they have plenty of other things going for them). Having seen a live, direct comparison of TW and Hebron at Conroe (second-to-last and last performances, respectively), I don't know if Hebron will come out on top. I can't recall a recent time when TW hasn't added over 10 points to their early regional score. They are (or at least were) the definition of a late-blooming band. If they keep up the trend, the late season score will be in the mid-90s, which would be expected of a national champion, though who knows what will end up happening. At the very least, I can attest that TW is the strongest TX group I have seen so far this year. Of course, this is just my opinion.) *Probable Finalists* (random order) Cedar Ridge Cedar Park Vandegrift Flower Mound Ronald Reagan Other ones, I have no idea. Need to see the BOA Allen stuff. Add Marcus and Bell, and you've already got 12 of the 14 spots taken. You have to sort of judge on potential, which can be difficult. I expect some drastic changes between now and then. Also, I'd like to applaud the prelims judges at this event. Judging 65 bands sounds absolutely miserable. A band has really got to stick out and proclaim itself as a finalist.

I figure that since all three of the early regionals are done, we might as well start looking ahead. BOA SA is only a few weeks away, and there's a good chance people won't see many of the bands again until they see the finished (or mostly finished) products at San Antonio. Here are the participants as of 10/03. A total of SIXTY-FIVE bands have signed up, including all of the heavy hitters in the state of Texas, as well as Blue Springs from Missouri, who is a very strong possibility for finals both here and at nationals (though I haven't seen their show this year). This is probably the largest regional ever and *maybe* the most competitive ever as well. Honestly, with the recent turn of events at BOA Allen, I have no idea what to expect. I'm gonna have to wait to see the on-demand videos from Allen, which will probably take until next week to upload! Participants as of 10/03 Aledo H.S., TX Alvin H.S., TX Anderson H.S., TX Azle H.S., TX Blue Springs H.S., MO Brazoswood H.S., TX Calallen H.S., TX Cedar Park H.S., TX Cedar Ridge H.S., TX Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX Coppell H.S., TX Cy-Fair H.S., TX Dickinson H.S., TX Douglas MacArthur H.S., TX Flower Mound H.S., TX Floresville H.S., TX Grulla H.S., TX H.M. King H.S., TX Haltom H.S., TX Harlingen South H.S., TX Hebron H.S., TX Hendrickson H.S., TX Hidalgo H.S., TX James Bowie H.S., TX James E. Taylor H.S., TX James Martin H.S., TX Keller Central H.S., TX Keller H.S., TX Kempner H.S., TX L.D. Bell H.S., TX Lake Travis H.S., TX Leander H.S., TX Lehman H.S., TX Llano H.S., TX Lopez H.S., TX Macarthur H.S., TX Mansfield H.S., TX Marcus H.S., TX Morton Ranch H.S., TX North Shore Senior H.S., TX Pearsall H.S., TX Pflugerville H.S., TX Plano East Senior H.S., TX Richland H.S., TX Rio Grande City H.S., TX Robert E. Lee H.S., TX Ronald Reagan H.S., TX Round Rock H.S., TX Rouse H.S., TX San Angelo Central H.S., TX Sandra Day O'Connor H.S., TX Seven Lakes H.S., TX Spring H.S., TX The Woodlands College Park H.S., TX The Woodlands H.S., TX Tom C. Clark H.S., TX United H.S., TX Vandegrift H.S., TX Vista Ridge H.S., TX Wagner H.S., TX Waller H.S., TX Weslaco H.S., TX Westlake H.S., TX William H. Taft H.S., TX Winston Churchill H.S., TX

I'm not convinced difficulty plays as big a part in general effect as people think it does. GE has always been more about flow, originality, and "selling" your show. That's not to say a well-performed difficult show wouldn't be recognized by these judges; I just pretty firmly believe the previously stated factors are a much larger component. If TW overtakes Marcus through GE, it likely won't be primarily because they performed a difficult show well.

Recaps have already been posted on the BOA website. A big congrats to Cedar Ridge for being third in both prelims and finals. Interestingly, The Woodlands got the same score in prelims as they did in finals (84.95), and even though they lost the two performance captions to CTJ in prelims, they still beat CTJ by over a point in that round. (This sort of confirms all the good things everyone's been saying about TW's GE.) TW was actually ranked first in both ensemble visual performance and ensemble music performance in prelims, but lost those two captions based on the individual performance scores. This means 5 of the 7 judges had them first in prelims. That number drops to 3 for finals.

Oh, man. Lots of really, really strong shows this year. Many groups seem to be coming into their own both in design and in performance. Hebron's show is absolutely wonderful (and super colorful!). This could be breakout year #2 for them. Top three at Conroe is a very, very strong possibility. I might even prefer this show to CTJ's, which is a super compliment, but I haven't seen enough CTJ to really make that judgment. (That's what BOA on-demand is for!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxDSTbWYIFE

There's definitely Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" mvmnt. VI in the opener. I still don't know what that brass fanfare stuff is, though. It also sounds minimalistic. Oh, figuring out this stuff drives me crazy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBXAS6ryR9o

Different Trains by Steve Reich. That's at least what the mallet percussion in TW's show is playing. It sounded like Steve Reich, so I looked up Steve Reich and trains on YouTube. Hahahaha... They're combining it with something else like they always do. Need to figure that out. On a side note, Steve Reich seems to combine well with other music, like when LD Bell did his stuff with Pan's Labyrinth music back in '07. That was a super cool intro, especially with that folding box drill.