natertater21000

Just wanted to say that for someone who's been on/following these forums for close to 7 years now these podcasts are an awesome addition. I love it, keep up the great work. Band wouldn't have been the same without y'all.

Frankly I very rarely like avons brass sound from a tonal standpoint, compared to groups like Hebron, vandegrift, marcus, flower mound, and even ctj it just sounds like they are blasting at times. After seeing the video of Avon from the Indy regional I do think,this is one of there better brasslines, but they've never had the refinement of those other groups at least to my ears.

There are a lot of different reasons that ill let those a tad more knowledgeable in the subject answer, but one reason is that Lucas oil is acoustically and spacially probably the best stadium for the marching arts.

Not sure I'd have a scoring bubble anywhere this year.

Oops wrong quote but you get the idea

I would actually argue that in recent years, especially at San Antonio Texas scores have been on the lower side as far as inflation goes. Something makes me think that after marcus put up a 96.1 in San Antonio in 2012 that judges were told that a soft cap had to be set on San Antonio so that score progression up to grand nats would look more reasonable. Just a theory, but it is odd that no one has gone into the 94s or above since finals in12 and prior to that it happened all the time with bell and the woodlands and Marcus. I personally don't think the woodlands in 13, ctj in 14 and flower mound in 15 and 16 should have scored as low as they did.

Just some food for thought, props don't always equal more GE. It all depends on how you use them. Speaking from personal experience Leander actually lost visual GE points in our 2013 show because the judge felt that our props constricted the drill writing and didn't allow us to have challenging/effective drill. He was correct though.

I really hate that flagging a high school marching show video for copyright is even a thing.

You never know, I would have said the same last year, but cedar park walked away with the 2016 tmc title.

It has more to do with the people ahead of them, I could see them over reagan and leander, but not the rest of the 6 except maybe the woodlands. Their placement in my prediction is more of a wild guess that they'll surge again late in the year. 7th or 6th I feel is their cielling with how competitive it is.

Dang I completely forgot about Keller, this regional really deserves a pre lims, semis, and finals.

1.flowermound 2.Avon 3.the woodlands 4.Claudia Taylor 5.Hebron 6.vandegrift 7.Leander 8.reagan 9.Marcus 10.Bowie 11.cedar park 12.round rock 13.ld bell 14Hendrickson This is the best guess I have for finals placements at this point. This is likely mostly wrong but hey this contest has become nearly impossible to predict.

Wow what a contest, this was one I had to sleep on to gather my thoughts but I really enjoyed watching all of finals. What a great showcase of great bands. Loved dan talking about how they were worried about even having the regional and then they put on a fantastic show but anyway on to band talk. I thought Vandegrift, Reagan, and Leander were all in a league of their own last night when it comes to having a full package of show design and performance level. I generally agree on the order and captions of the three but not on the score gaps. I expected vandy to beat Leander after watching finals but not by 2.5 points. Bowie was a complete surprise to me, they stepped their game up big time from austin. Same with Hendrickson. Round rock perplexes me. I really dont think they should have gone down in score from Austin but after thinking through each band that overtook them I can't say I disagree. I'm sure they'll dust themselves off and be fine by grand nats though. Great leadership in that program. The woodlands show has a lot of potential and I could see them getting a late season boost with it in the coming weeks, it'll be really interesting to see if this will turn out more like 15 or 16 for them. Alright the big question. What do these results mean for predicting San Antonio?? Honest answer for me is I don't know. They might mean nothing, last year reagan won this regional and dropped to 8th by San Antonio and the woodlands who were where Leander currently is surged to 2nd. However they could mean that this is finally vandegrift's year to place in the top 5 in finals at San Antonio. Only time will tell but I do know one thing. San Antonio finals this year are going to be absolutely wild from top to bottom.

It's going to be very interesting if this is more an ld bell resurgence or a marcus stumble...we'll see tonight.

I think its worth noting that 5 of those 19.7 points were gained from pre lims to finals of nats, which while extremely impressive is much more an outlier than the rule at least in the research I've done.

Why would top half of finals at grand nats make you think motivation had gone down? I don't think anyone in or out of the band program expected them to be that low at grand nats, they had medaled at San Antonio just a week prior. As for uil I could have told you that would happen in June of that year, Leander doesn't fit as well into the uil grading rubric. The culture shift that happened in 14 isn't going away anytime soon, and definitely not because of one lower than expected placement.

As for the closer, its very rare any band has a closer on the field at this contest, usually the most that's ever seen is a quick tag ending made from the opening closer statement (however Leander won this contest in 15 with no closer on the field) as for the less sophisticated music, how so? It's another minimalistic opener just like 16 and 15 and 14.

That would be the upset of the decade, I don't mean that in any negative way towards Richland they are a great program, but that would be an exciting outcome to watch unfold. I love seeing the old standard placements shattered!

I completely agree, it will be really interesting to see how polished of a product they will be able to put out this early. I don't know that I've ever watched a full 8 minute show at Austin.

Well its officially only one week away so here are my predictions 1: CTJ-first and foremost they have their entire show on the field, and its a challenging one. I personally feel that if they can get as clean as possible in the next week, no one will be able to touch them in GE due to them having a completed show. 2:Leander: I really like this show, and I feel as though they are even more locked in than last year at this time. Its really going to come down to how much show they can put on the field and how good of a run they can have in finals. I think its possible for them to win but ctj has the edge. 3:vandegrift- this one was a toss up, personally after watching the show I still just don't feel like vandy has found that really intricate visual design to fit their amazing playing and clean marching. Just like last year I think its on the right track but just not quite there. All it would take would be a less than nails run from Leander and ctj for them to win though. 4:Round Rock- I have yet to see them but seeing that it is a grand nats year for them I'm sure they will bring something special to the table, they technically won this contest in 15 before the penalty and while I don't see them medaling I think 4th is theirs to lose. 5:Cedar Park- rounding out my top 5 is cedar park, while they managed an incredible late season push last year they tend to be pretty dirty early on, and from a strictly design standpoint I currently find this to be their weakest show since 14 but odds are they will prove me wrong by November. For now however I think 5th is a good fit for them. 6:Hendrickson- haven't seen anything from them but I feel like they are going to come at this season guns blazing after last season's success. 7:Bowie-they may not be what the used to be but they still know how to march and play with precision. I feel like they are still a lock for finals. 8:Winston Churchill- I loved last years show and I'm hoping they find a way to keep improving and stay in the hunt for finals in all BOA contests this season. 9:vista ridge- the videos I've seen look good and they've made finals multiple times before they are the most likely bubble finalist. 10:Rouse- I really feel like this is their year, Jason Robb and company have been working hard to push them to the next level, I think this year they find it. Captions Music:Leander/vandegrift Visual:Leander/CTJ GE:CTJ

Conroe schedule is already out

Leander's opener in 2014 was 180 and in the last two weeks we kicked the last 30 second or so reprise up to 192.

Personally ill hold off on predictions until a week before the event (otherwise known as once I can find a video of everybody that I think will be in finals) but I will say this. I think if the competition were this Saturday Leander would be on top. They are firing on all cylinders early. Whether or not they keep that up or if vandy or ctj can pull ahead remains to be seen. Gonna be another crazy year.