BandFan59

Finals Schedule: 7:00 PM - Grain Valley H.S., MO 7:15 PM - Lindbergh H.S., MO 7:30 PM - Southmoore H.S., OK 7:45 PM - Yukon H.S., OK 8:00 PM - Blue Springs South H.S., MO 8:15 PM - Hernando H.S., MS 8:30 PM - Lake Travis H.S., TX 8:45 PM - L.D. Bell H.S., TX 9:00 PM - Mustang H.S., OK 9:15 PM - O'Fallon Township H.S., IL 9:30 PM - Lincoln H.S., SD 9:45 PM - Blue Springs H.S., MO 10:00 PM - Bentonville H.S., AR 10:15 PM - Broken Arrow H.S., OK 10:30 PM - Russell County H.S., KY (Class A Exhibition) Lake Travis in the bottom 7, LD Bell in the top 7

Prelims Results Class A: 1. Russell County H.S., KY 2. Sullivan H.S., MO 3. Hollister H.S., MO Outstanding Music Performance: Russell County H.S., KY Outstanding Visual Performance: Sullivan H.S., MO Outstanding General Effect: Russell County H.S., KY Class AA: 1. Grain Valley H.S., MO 2. Hernando H.S., MS 3. Germantown H.S., MS Outstanding Music Performance: Hernando H.S., MS Outstanding Visual Performance: Grain Valley H.S., MO Outstanding General Effect: Grain Valley H.S., MO Class AAA: 1. Blue Springs H.S., MO 2. Lincoln H.S., SD 3. Southmoore H.S., OK Outstanding Music Performance: Blue Springs H.S., MO Outstanding Visual Performance: Blue Springs H.S., MO Outstanding General Effect: Blue Springs H.S., MO Class AAAA: 1. Broken Arrow H.S., OK 2. Mustang H.S., OK 3. Bentonville H.S., AR Outstanding Music Performance: Broken Arrow H.S., OK Outstanding Visual Performance: Broken Arrow H.S., OK Outstanding General Effect: Broken Arrow H.S., OK Finalists: Lindbergh H.S., MO Broken Arrow H.S., OK Blue Springs South H.S., MO Grain Valley H.S., MO Southmoore H.S., OK Lake Travis H.S., TX Bentonville H.S., AR O'Fallon Township H.S., IL Blue Springs H.S., MO Yukon H.S., OK Mustang H.S., OK L.D. Bell H.S., TX Lincoln H.S., SD Hernando H.S., MS

A better performance from SLC here than at Bedford for sure. Musically they seem to have a better grasp of the material, especially with all the woodwind runs in the opener. Visually there's still that odd performer or two that is struggling, but it's definitely better than last week. The closer seems a little weaker than the rest of the show right now, but they've got plenty of time to polish it.

Keller Central was a surprise to me. They've got big commanding sounds and still sounded really good even coming after Westlake. Really solid performance from them.

Prosper was the first band I was able to catch today. Thought they sounded really good. The euphonium and flugelhorn soloists in the ballad were just lovely. Definitely edging more towards the upper half of the finals bubble at GNats, and should be in the upper half here barring some extraordinary performances from other bands.

I believe straight 1s is just for UIL sweepstakes, but bands only need to receive a 1 from a majority of the judges to advance to area. Could be wrong.

They're going to Hawaii this year I think.

From Panel 1 I think Reagan, Flower Mound, Marcus, and CTJ are locks for the top 5. The last spot is more open between bands like Round Rock, Cy-Fair, Leander, Bowie, and Keller, with Round Rock looking a little bit further ahead than the rest. For me the Panel 2 locks right now are Hebron, Vandegrift, the Woodlands, and Cedar Ridge. The last spot I see coming down to between Vista Ridge, Cedar Park, and Coppell, which is crazy considering I could see all three of them breaking into the top half. This isn't even considering other Panel 2 bands like Rouse, Westlake, LD Bell, etc. There's a fair chance we could be seeing three or maybe even all four of the next four bands coming from Panel 2. Again though, with over three weeks left before this event so much could change until then.

Final predictions: 1. Wakeland (V/GE) 2. Westlake (M) 3. Westwood 4. Waxahachie 5. Prosper 6. Owasso 7. Wylie East 8. Choctaw 9. Rock Hill 10. Southlake Carroll 11. Keller Central 12. Sachse

Still a ways to go before this one but if I had to predict the finalist bands I'd probably go with (in no particular order): Hebron Vandegrift Flower Mound Ronald Reagan Claudia Taylor Johnson Cedar Ridge Marcus The Woodlands Cedar Park Vista Ridge Coppell Cy-Fair Round Rock Rouse Still over three weeks to go, so we could still see a lot of movement in the bubble which is massive right now.

The Woodlands only chose not to compete last year because they were going to Grand Nationals and opted out of state. They'll be going to state this year.

If the LISD four year schedule holds, Hebron should be going back to Grand Nationals next year. Also the video is down, if anyone was able to screen record it please DM me.

First impressions looking at the scores aside from Hebron/FloMo is that I expected a smaller gap between Coppell/Marcus and a smaller gap between LD Bell/Keller. But Marcus is extraordinarily clean right now and the top half/bottom half split is just so hard to overcome nowadays. I do think by the end of the season Coppell could overtake Marcus if they're able to clean their visuals up more, pending both bands putting a complete show on the field.

I think it will be. They are well ahead of any other band right now with a show that is still not done yet. I could see Vandegrift, Cedar Ridge, or CTJ possibly making things interesting at San Antonio but no band comes close to Hebron in terms of music performance.

Finals Results: 1. Hebron H.S., TX 89.600 2. Flower Mound H.S., TX 88.000 3. Marcus H.S., TX 86.050 4. Coppell H.S., TX 84.325 5. Wakeland H.S., TX 84.200 6. L.D. Bell H.S., TX 82.750 7. Keller H.S., TX 81.350 8. Waxahachie H.S., TX 80.500 9. Lone Star H.S., TX 80.250 10. Timber Creek H.S., TX 79.800 11. Rock Hill H.S., TX 78.275 12. James Martin H.S., TX 75.850 Outstanding Music Performance: Hebron H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance: Hebron H.S., TX Outstanding General Effect: Hebron H.S., TX

Hebron sweeps captions. No surprise to me, Flower Mound was excellent but Hebron was just on another level

The gaps between Vandegrift/Reagan and Vista Ridge/Cedar Park...sheesh.

The only word I could use to describe Hebron right now is glorious. There isn't a band in the country that plays better than them. The technical abilities of the students there is absolutely insane. I don't think there are enough words for me to truly describe how good this band is.

One thing I will say about Flower Mound is they consistently have some of the most creative shows in the country and pull them off spectacularly. Never would I have imagined a show about Dr. Seuss be so incredible, and while this year isn't my favorite show from them I can't deny that they're doing a brilliant job with the "Superband" comic book theme. They epitomize cleanliness both musically and visually, and while the show loses me a bit towards the end of the bassoon feature and drum break (it gets a little muddled for me when all the other woodwind soloists join in) they drag me back in right after, with the ending being just wonderful to listen to. Great show!

Super strong performances from Wakeland, Marcus, and Coppell. After seeing these three so close to each other last week, it feels like they've all made massive improvements this week. I've no idea how I would rank them.

Recaps should be released after finals

I wouldn't say they were bad, but they were quite dirty compared to several other bands. Good thing is it appears they have their whole show on the field, so all they need to do now is clean clean clean.

Wow, LD Bell pushing Keller down into the bottom half!

Prelims Results Class AAAA 1. Hebron H.S., TX 2. Flower Mound H.S., TX 3. Marcus H.S., TX Outstanding Music Performance: Hebron H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance: Hebron H.S., TX Outstanding General Effect: Flower Mound H.S., TX Class AAA 1. Wakeland H.S., TX 2. Lone Star H.S., TX 3. Highland Park H.S., TX Outstanding Music Performance: Wakeland H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance: Wakeland H.S., TX Outstanding General Effect: Wakeland H.S., TX Class AA 1. China Spring H.S., TX Outstanding Music Performance: China Spring H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance: China Spring H.S., TX Outstanding General Effect: China Spring H.S., TX Class A 1. Krum H.S., TX 2. Whitesboro H.S., TX 3. Brock H.S., TX Outstanding Music Performance: Krum H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance: Whitesboro H.S., TX Outstanding General Effect: Krum H.S., TX Finalist Bands (in random order) LD Bell H.S., TX Rock Hill H.S., TX Wakeland H.S., TX James Martin H.S., TX Flower Mound H.S., TX Hebron H.S., TX Timber Creek H.S., TX Keller H.S., TX Marcus H.S., TX Coppell H.S., TX Lone Star H.S., TX Waxahachie H.S., TX

Wow, I gotta admit I'm liking Flower Mound's show a lot more after watching them in prelims. Visually the uniforms look really neat with the Superman style capes and the artwork for the comic book is really well done. While Hebron may have them beat in terms of difficulty, Flower Mound is just extraordinarily clean both musically and visually. I especially enjoyed the ending when all of the comic book panels are revealed and the band spreads out across the front field. Great performance!