natertater21000

Not really any disadvantage to putting them up honestly. Cedar park and vista ridge both have entire YouTube chanells for the singular purpose of putting up performance videos. Plus it gives interested alumni like me a chance to see them perform. Completely agree on the guard. Incredibly polished for August.

Leander preview is looking and sounding very good, personally I think it sounds and looks a lot more polished at this point than it did last year.

Honestly for me it's too early to predict a majority of placements for the super until the smaller regionals have been completed, though I have a few. Avon will be in the top three, the visual is just too many leagues above anything in Texas from a demand and execution stand point. While I personally am not the biggest fan of the ensemble balance they go for they still play clean enough to stay in the fight musically. It's really gonna come down to show design. Vandegrift will finally enter the top 5, it seems crazy with their performance standard but they've never actually placed above seventh or broke 90 (outside of 2016 pre lims) I think this will be the time for them to finally crack it, making them the third LISD band to do so in the last 4 years. Third and final prediction for now is that we will see a new face in finals at SA this year, I don't know who but I can feel it. So many options... Rouse? New braunfels? Has dripping springs ever made it? Anyway I'm excited to crunch the numbers on yet another season and watch the trends and data change.

The ballad had to be the most visually mezmorizing moment of the season.

You could argue that they have had this identity since 2013 but I think that last year vandegrift truly mastered their own niche and this preview shows the continuation of it. Really powerful refined classic music. Now I just hope they can match their visual package to their musical one, they were very close last year. Between them Leander and cedar park I feel like we could see an lisd band winning the Austin regional for a while.

Here are the spring previews for both leander and vandegrift.

With the exciting news of Avon coming to San Antonio I've been thinking about just how they will stack up against the best in Texas. Personally I think the visual caption is Avon's to lose but I'm almost completely certain in the other direction on the music caption. This could just be a personal thing but I've never liked the way Avon sounds. Too much emphasis on power and not on tone and balance. However the top 7 to 10ish bands in Texas have both in spades. While Avon won music last year at grand nationals I feel like in a field of bands like Texas their sound quality just won't match up. Thoughts?

Also you can see the obvious inflation of scores at that contest due to the fact that Union Actually scored lower at grand national semis three weeks after St Louis.

I wouldn't say having them in second would be underestimating Richland, they are good but as far as the 5A bands go cedar Park is on an entirely different playing field. I wouldn't be surprised if they win state with straight 1s.

It's interesting that you say they because aside from the ending the shows from Arlington and San Antonio look roughly the same.

Rouse is my most anticipated band to see in all honesty. I think they may even pass up vista ridge in the LISD ladder this year. They are in the prime place for a performance level boom much like vandegrift in 2013 and leander in 2014. There is nothing I love more (except I suppose the success of my alma mater ) than seeing a lower level band rise to great heights.

....I think that's easily said after the fact....

Personally I didn't really notice a difference, nothing was added from SA to nats for cp. Maybe it was because I had seen the show so many times but it honestly felt like the same show a tad cleaner. They were fantastic, but I just didn't get the feeling they were top 5 or 8 points better than they were in San Antonio.

I honestly think it was very different. Cedar park got a huge GE boost from the out of state judges that propelled them throughout the weekend.

Both, just depends

One thing I've noticed is that for some reason leander these past 3 years can never seem to get consistent music GE scores. I think it may have something to do with the not as well none minimalist music they choose but it's very frustrating and it's what caused cedar park to overtake them. The weirdest part is that it's completely independent of their music performance scores. Leander won music in 14 but got a 13th in music GE. In pre lims of this year at San Antonio leander was second in music by only .1 to flower mound but received 11th and 9th in music GE. However in the opposite rounds of each of these contests the scores flipped and performance was low but GE high. The annoying part is that had the performance scores and GE scores ever lined up leander would have won both finals in 14 and prelims in 16. Personally I love their musical selections but I don't think it's helping.

The sound is so off in Leander's performance I'm mad

Wasn't able to watch on stream so could someone say what made Leander's performance weaker than pre lims? Was it timing issues or just less energy?

I just find uil incredibly inconsistent after places 1-3. It's always just a crap show from at least one judge. Unpopular opinion I know, but I will never agree with saying uil and BOA judging systems are equal in consistency or proper overall placements.

To my knowledge this is round rocks first time. Really happy for them.

Judge 5 had some odd scores. Especially for vandegrift and leander. 15 and 17 in visual for those two...

Gotta feel good for Bell to redeem themselves like that. My heart goes out to my friends in and from vista ridge. Loved the show.

Agreed, I think the best they can hope for at uil is a surprise bronze like ctj in 14. The show just isn't built to win on a uil score sheet.

Leander had a really incredible run. Great starting point for the next 5 days.

Then it's as if they didn't mix it at all. It sounds muffled and once anything from the pit comes in it's all that is heard.