natertater21000

OH that's right! Can't believe I forgot that one. I really thought Hebron had it in the bag.

I am so excited for that extra week, because the last time we had that extra week... Was 2013 when the woodlands won and round rock and cedar ridge really turned their shows into something special. My perfect end to this season in my head includes #teamtexas forcing the rest of he country to go back to the drawing board. That's a really tall order but I honestly feel like the last two years of Texas band have been THAT much better. We'll see....

Everything I've seen so far makes me beyond excited but also nervous. Texas bands have a historically bad habit of biting off more than they can chew for grand nationals. I'm not saying anyone I've seen so far has for sure done it, but everyone is vulnerable to doing it. Even flomo had this issue in 17. It's times like these I look back to the woodlands in 2013. Nothing (and I say this with complete resiect to that ensemble) is terribly difficult. It's hard no doubt, but it toes the line perfectly between being just difficult enough to nail the content requirements and still being achievable at an absurdly high level within the time of one season. I'm really hoping for this perfect combo to come through for every Texas band.

Boring as a spectator sure, but as a music educator? The level of consistency in the success of the two districts is incredible to watch and its something I definitely don't want to see end.

I can't speak to the acoustics as a listener but as a performer NRG is the worst I've marched in as far as a listening environment is concerned.

Vista jumps Hebron and reagan after winning state, but niether leander or especially vandegrift jump ctj after state. I think Vista is where they should be but that just feels inconsistent.

Most Texas bands that attend grand nationals make the same mistake that every drum Corp in recent years (except the blue devils) make the year following a championship. They just try to do too much. They look at their winning formula and say let's turn this up to 11.the only issue is they didn't need to. Flower mound could have easily won in 2017 but the show asked too much of the marchers and you could hear it. They sound tired at the end of that show. I mean I sure would be after marching around with a giant colored tile on my head playing FFF for a majority of the show. I whole heartedly believe that if a Texas school designed a show to win/medal at SA but just with 10% more difficulty(the amount that could actually be cleaned in that last week/week and a half) they would dominate grand nats. I think Hebron, reagan, and flomo this year were perfect examples of this. They both had designs that weren't too over the top and had just enough dirt left at San Antonio to polish up and gain that last point by nats.

100% agree, the coolest thing about the blue devils show in 17 was that a standing ovation happened right in the middle of the show because of how moving the ballad was. As a performer it sucks when everyone holds their excitement in. To finish a big hit or a movement and then see the crowd erupt is one of the best feelings in the entire activity.

It's almost as if leander's theme bled into the schedule. Couldn't imagine more polar opposite shows following each other haha.

And an 82.6!! That's nearly 10 points higher than last year. You can't quite compare year to year(although I'd argue 17 and 18 scores are very similar) but however you slice it, that's a big leap. Congrats on your hardwork and successful season!

I say gold honestly. It's just pristine.

No its box 5 media

I'm teching this season so I'll be on the other side, always excited for this event!

Those were good times

I think it has to do with how they achieve their general effect. Ctj uses explosive excitement and speed to gain effect while marcus and flower Mound gain it through absurd levels of clarity. All three have top notch visual designs. The GE through clarity just carries over more to uil where clarity in its own right is all that matters. For instance the music effect of Marcus 12 (at least for me) doesn't come from the music being exciting in and of itself, but from how stupidly clean it is.

I quoted this one only because it's way shorter but to comment on the leander show analysis there is some romance there but it really is still just playing off of the opposites. I honestly think leanders ballad is the best example of music effect this season so here's a breakdown. Ballad begins with a horn player(brass soloist) playing you are my sunshine BUT in a minor key and he is accompanied by a Woodwind choir. We then move to an Oboe solo (Woodwind soloist) playing moon river accompanied by a brass choir. Then both soloists and choirs build to the romeo and Juliet love theme as we see a male band member and a female guard member (still opposites) run across the field to meet one another. As they do this all the woodwinds along side 1 change to the visual shape the brass were in on side 2 and vice versa. From an arranging and visual design perspective it's top notch imo.

Well the "bad judge rule" was used (even though that particular judge ranked leander over Westlake) but I think what most are referring to is simply the difference in judging between the circuits. Leander's show is not very friendly to uil to put it lightly.

Not to mention how incredibly different the judging systems are between uil and boa.

It all depends on what you're going for in your show. No headgear allows for performers to be much more emotive with their facial expressions. Like Nny14 said above I doubt it'll ever become the norm, but when it works in a show it really works!

Until flo learns how to work multi cam well, it's high cam all the way.

I'll never forget watching Marcus in 12 at SA and thinking a clarinet section feature was a mic'd soloist for about the first 8 seconds until I saw the whole section playing. My jaw immediately hit the floor.

For me personally there isn't "that one show" that is so good I expect a record to be broken. Honestly it makes it more fun because there are 4 or 5 bands I could see take gold under the right circumstances. Side note: not to take anything away from ctj, but I wish scores had been pushed higher in 16. When I think of the most dominating San Antonio performance, it's flomo 16 hands down. Honorable mentions to Marcus 07/12 though

Based off of the early season regional scores we are on track for another very high scoring SA super. The reagan, vandy, Bowie scores from Conroe this year match up almost perfectly with the reagan, vandy, leander scores from Conroe last year.

As cool as that would be for Vista, I don't see them overtaking ctj, flomo, reagan, or Hebron. Time will tell though.

Honestly I tend to throw out area results in terms of order in the context of trying to predict San Antonio. They rarely ever correlate to San Antonio scores, more times than not being wildly different. I still remember when myself and 90% of these forums wrote off the woodlands for a 10-14 finish in 16 after Northshore beat them at area, and we all know how San Antonio went that year. Or when Bell failed to advance in 14 but still made a fairly strong showing at SA. That being said I see Vista placing in the top half, but I would have said that regardless of area results.