BandFan59

It would be great to have Grand Nationals a little more centrally located so that other bands could afford to attend, but there isn't really a location in the country close to as good as Lucas Oil Stadium when it comes to marching band. They have the massive convention center connected to the stadium with tons of warmup space and indoor fields, plenty of hotels in the proximity of the stadium itself, and lots of practice fields at high schools close to the stadium. In addition, MFA is headquartered in Indianapolis, so I'm sure it makes it easier for them to have Grand Nationals located close to them.

As of right now I believe we have: The Woodlands Round Rock Claudia Taylor Johnson Hebron Pearland I think CTJ is going to be every other year now along with the Woodlands and Round Rock, and Hebron has confirmed internally for a while that they will be back in 2023. Pearland has confirmed a trip, and I think there are a few other bands that are rumored, some of whom would be first-timers.

Box5 has released a statement on their social media regarding a rebroadcast of Grand Nationals: "I wanted to let our friends know, that we at BOX5 are extremely devastated over the events that happened @ Grand Nationals yesterday. Having been on phone calls all day, we finally believe we have a solution, we hope will alleviate at least some of the sting of last night for our customers and band families out there. Pending approval, we plan to rebroadcast the Bands of America Finals broadcast @ 7pm eastern, central, mountain and pacific every day this coming week (Mon. Nov 14 - 18). We are waiting for final approvals from BOA and we are working feverishly to encode and upload the uninterrupted broadcast to our streaming platform. While this solution is not "ideal", it does have a silver lining. The incredible performers I saw in Lucas Oil last night will be able to watch their amazing accomplishment this season. And we can celebrate alongside them as much as possible. We will reach out to all finals customers via email with instructions on how to watch. This email will contain other important information. Be on the lookout for this email. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, you can find a way to forgive us and I guarantee we are already working on ways to improve our web infrastructure so this doesn't happen again for any of our performing members, friends, families and fans. Sincerely, Tim Snyder"

I had Avon down in my predictions to win, but I did have a feeling that Carmel would pull it out. I liked their show a lot better this year than I normally do with their shows, and they always seem to make that late season push nowadays. That said, if they had come to San Antonio, I think Hebron, the Woodlands, and Reagan would have all topped Carmel.

I like Carmel's show this year more than I usually like their shows, but a caption sweep and 1.35 point margin win seems excessive, even without having been able to see Avon, Broken Arrow, or Tarpon Springs.

#JusticeForWilliamMason

Box5's owner is giving a live apology on stream. Appreciated, but more transparency about what was going on would've been better. Everyone spent 45 minutes not knowing what was going on until they just started another stream out of nowhere.

I'm glad they got a stream working again before Mason. This show is just beautiful both musically and visually, and those woodwind soloists have to be some of the best I've heard. Really hope this is enough for them to win that Eagle, this was a stunning performance for me.

They just put the stream on YouTube after all the issues their website was having. Far too late, for that matter, but at least it's something and we get to catch Carmel and Mason.

Dobyns-Bennett is on now and the stream is still down. At this rate we definitely won't be seeing Tarpon, Carmel, or Mason. Great way to end the season, Box5.

Entire website is still down. The only people that get to watch Broken Arrow and Avon are in Lucas Oil Stadium. Sucks to be the rest of us.

Tried watching tonight's stream on my phone when I was away and on my laptop when I got home. Stream is truly horrible, the worst stream I've ever experienced. Horrible video quality, video freezing every few minutes. Also freezes when I try to full-screen so I can only watch in a tiny little box. Just so disappointing.

Finals Schedule: 8:00 PM — Fishers High School, IN 8:15 PM — Prosper High School, TX 8:30 PM — Robert E. Hendrickson High School, TX 8:45 PM — Castle High School, IN 9:00 PM — Southlake Carroll High School, TX 9:15 PM — Brownsburg High School, IN 9:30 PM — Broken Arrow High School, OK 9:45 PM — Avon High School, IN 10:00 PM — Dobyns-Bennett High School, TN 10:15 PM — Tarpon Springs High School, FL 10:30 PM — Carmel High School, IN 10:45 PM — William Mason High School, OH 11:00 PM — EXHIBITION Class A: Archbishop Alter High School, OH Remember this is all in EST, so all the times are an hour ahead.

Very sad for M&G Johnson, but they had a wonderful season and should be proud of everything they've accomplished. That said, very happy for Southlake Carroll, Prosper, and Hendrickson! The bubble this year was so incredibly deep and for them all to make finals is an amazing feat!

Grand National Semifinals Results: Class A: 1. Archbishop Alter H.S., OH 2. Beechwood H.S., KY 3. Bourbon County H.S., KY Outstanding Music Performance: Archbishop Alter H.S., OH Outstanding Visual Performance: Beechwood H.S., KY Outstanding General Effect: Archbishop Alter H.S., OH Class AA: 1. Tarpon Springs H.S., FL 2. Morton H.S., IL 3. Kiski Area H.S., PA Outstanding Music Performance: Tarpon Springs H.S., FL Outstanding Visual Performance: Tarpon Springs H.S., FL Outstanding General Effect: Tarpon Springs H.S., FL Class AAA: 1. Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN 2. Castle H.S., IN 3. Hendrickson H.S., TX Outstanding Music Performance: Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN Outstanding Visual Performance: Castle H.S., IN Outstanding General Effect: Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN Class AAAA: 1. Carmel H.S., IN 2. William Mason H.S., OH 3. Avon H.S., IN Outstanding Music Performance: Carmel H.S., IN Outstanding Visual Performance: Carmel H.S., IN Outstanding General Effect: William Mason H.S., OH

I knew Mason had something special this year, but winning GE over ABC is an incredible achievement!

Prosper sounded fantastic! One of the best sounding bands of the day for sure. The show in general definitely screams Cartwright. Visually I like the design, though the props do make it a bit busy at time. I have a hard time seeing them out of finals.

Box5 does not, but if you go into the BOA SA thread on the last page there are links to all of the finals performances

Have only gotten to watch a few bands this morning, but William Mason may have one of my favorite shows of the year. Avon and Broken Arrow were great, but something about Mason’s show was just so captivating to watch. Gorgeous woodwinds and a great visual design.

Great performance by SLC to end the day! I'm not entirely sure what the show is about but I enjoyed watching them nonetheless. Musically they sounded excellent and far better than some of the other bubble bands I caught in the last block. Visually there is still some dirt, especially near the end, but it's definitely much cleaner than when I first saw them at Bedford. Still firmly in the conversation for finals!

Have been quite busy all day so have only really got to catch the last few bands starting with Carmel. Thought they were really good and can see why they won ISSMA. They have nice full sounds musically that are really well controlled, especially in those softer moments. The pink streamers at the end were a nice touch and will probably earn them some nice VGE points. Brownsburg was solid but musically they've definitely got a few issues, with some blown releases and just rough sounds from the brass. Avon was fantastic. Nice and powerful sounds on a pretty difficult music book and while they may not have been quite as clean visually as Carmel, the uptick in difficulty should balance it out.

Final Predictions: Avon (V/GE) Carmel (M) Broken Arrow Tarpon Springs William Mason Dobyns-Bennett M&G Johnson Fishers Brownsburg American Fork Prosper Mustang I think the Eagle will go to one of Avon or Carmel. Broken Arrow and Tarpon Springs are contenders as well but I feel Avon and Carmel are just a bit better this year. Love Mason's show and think they shouldn't be counted out for a potential medal either. DB is a step below the top 5 this year but they still have a good show that should round out the top half comfortably. After that is where it gets pretty messy as the bubble this year is pretty massive. I'm thinking at least two Texas bands get into finals, with M&G Johnson the most likely and the other three probably more of a tossup. There are definitely some really good Indiana bands this year though, and I loved Mustang's show at St. Louis, so the fight to get into finals will be very tough.

This is likely an effect of UIL implementing the top half-bottom half split. Looking at the finals recap last year you could see there was a lot more range in the ordinals bands received from the judges while this year, top half bands were almost exclusively ranked between 1-7 and bottom half bands 8-14. Probably something we should expect to see in the future as well, just seems to be a natural outcome of the split.

I think last year their show was more designed for a BOA setting and peaked at Grand Nationals rather than UIL State. As for this year I personally feel that their show, while still fantastic, wasn't up to the level we've seen from them in the past. Musically it was still very good and the design was super creative but drill wise it was a bit safe in my opinion. That said it was still an awesome show and I'm sure they'll be back to the heights we all know they're capable of reaching next year.

Kind of a random fact, but last year Marcus, Flower Mound, and Coppell placed 3rd, 4th, and 5th at state. This year the order switched around with Flower Mound coming out on top and Coppell behind them, but they all placed right next to each other again in 7th, 8th, and 9th. DFW bands stick together!