ChristopherRoden

I think Pearland has a solid shot at making state considering their growth the past two years

Whats everyone thinking around the area with Fort Bend ISD and Pearland ISD and Brazoswood and Dawson etc?
With the new alignments I dont know what area we (clements) are in anymore

Have to say, I loved Oak Ridges show this year, reminds me a bit of what Clements did my freshmen year, 2015

I only saw the last 14 bands this afternoon but I definitely thought Cy Fair put on a great show

???
With the students?

I only saw the last 14 bands this afternoon but I definitely thought Cy Fair put on a great show

Agreed, Cy Fair had an amazing and energetic performance, Madison on the field now, Good luck madisonbandman!

Agreed, Cy Fair had an amazing and energetic performance, Madison on the field now, Good luck madisonbandman!

Agreed, Cy Fair had an amazing and energetic performance, Madison on the field now, Good luck madisonbandman!

Amazing opening hit from Cy Fair!

Amazing opening hit from Cy Fair!

We just got here. We are the band that is in the stands in the left endzone.

I’m from clements and yeah no...

Here is Vista Ridge's spring preview:
 

what do you think the chances are we see a band like Marcus or Flower Mound attend?

Cy-Fair had a great season that (possibly) got derailed by going first and right before Hebron. I would look for them to improve even more this year.

I'm not a fan of Reagan this year. The entire show is just soloists playing or their singer singing, and when the band does play they stand still. It's just not at the same difficulty as a lot of other bands out there, but they still receive high scores for it.

Is Cedar Park going to be the Marcus of 5A??

A few years ago, I asked UIL director of music Bradley Kent about this. He said that because schools are members of UIL, not individual sports teams or bands, an entire school would have to withdraw from UIL competition. There might be a way to claim that an "outdoor performance ensemble" is not a marching band and is an extracurricular activity other than band that just so happens to compete in other non-UIL band events, but that logic seems unlikely to work.
 
TLDR: Never gonna happen because Texas + Football

I'm all for the specially trained, light-sensitive ground rodent idea. There could be a live cam and everything.

When it comes down to it these were 40 of the best bands in the country let alone the state.  Placing 30th or 1st, you're among the best of the best. 

Agreed. If you are going to go to the trouble to assemble them all together, at least reveal the placements up to the medals. It was ridiculous to have a full retreat for just the medals. Didn't want to be too much like a BOA contest I guess!

I really hope Cy Fair makes finals. Their show is up there. Only thing that worries me was their early performance time.

I kind of understand what you're saying. And in no way do I want to take away from what any of these bands have achieved because they are fantastic.
 
There seems to be an overall trend toward "parking and playing", solos that take over almost a full movement, a lot of running around/dancing/body movement while one section plays. Fewer bands seem to be actually marching while playing all the time. The style seems to be moving more toward a "grand show" and away from music+marching. Things have to evolve I suppose but its so very refreshing to see a school like Bell that comes out, without any props and marches a good old-fashioned show.

If anything I said was taken as a negative, I personally apologize to those that felt slighted.  My family sits through and gives cheerful applause for every band that we have seen at local, region, area, and state competitions.  All of these kids impress the crap out of me.  I grew up in a school district in California that didn't have working instruments or quality instruction for the kids in school so the amount of investment into fine arts for our kids is amazing and one of the reasons I moved to Texas.  They all work really hard, I know my daughter is in color guard this year and comes home daily with blisters from working so hard.  All these kids work super hard.
 
One of my favorite moments was sitting next to a very nice lady at Area this last week when we talked and she said the trumpet soloist is her grandson.  He played his heart out, sounded great, and grandma was in tears.   It is moments like that we all do this.  To me his solo was just as heartwarming as the boy in our band that is 1st chair in the state.