MadisonBandMan1

There has never been a publicly posted recording of the show from BOA San Antonio from 2016 but there are plenty of videos from the rest of the season. I just want a video or (detailed) description of that specific run.

As always, this was a great episode. Funny story - we are also doing a show called "Under Construction" this year. So far it seems to be shaping up as a really cool show and I can't wait to start putting it to the field in three weeks. It will definitely be a lot of fun, that's for sure. As for crowd reactions, I have three stories to tell. (I know, I'm not even a senior yet so I don't really know what my favorite crowd reaction will be yet but I have these so far) My first story revolves around my freshmen year show. This is one of those shows where the band students (and even crowd members) are constantly singing the source music to the ballad because everybody knows it. Our show, entitled "EnLIGHTened" revolves around the capitalized word in the title, light. Our props were 10 foot tall and 8 foot wide yellow chandeliers with lights on top. Anyways, there's this really cool part in the third movement of our show where ensemble turns 360 degrees in eight counts and turns on led lights that are strapped just at the bottom of the jacket in the front. The very first time we added that part of the show into a performance the crowd went absolutely nuts. This wasn't some boring game where maybe a couple hundred people show up either. No, the stadium was packed (as per usual at our football games given the history of our team), so it was so surreal. The thing is, I was still new to all of this marching band stuff. It was my freshmen year and I didn't even go to summer band because I was in the process of moving across the city. At the time I really had no idea what marching band was all about. I think it's safe to say that this was the performance that really sparked my love for the marching arts. What was also really cool is that this show also sparked the same reaction not only from every football game going forward but also from all of the parents and students at the local marching contests. There is a video out there from one of our first competitions where you can audible year the crowd gasp and say "woah" in unison. It was such a cool experience. For the second story we move on to my sophomore year. Our show was a really cool concept, but our performances were not really going the way we wanted them to. We introduced a tarp into the equation and then we got involved in such a bad competition performance that we refuse to talk about it now. Most of you who have been here long enough know at least half of that story anyways. So, moving on to one of the last few football games of the season. We just so happen to be playing Churchill (this also happens to be the first time someone from a band started calling for me using this username) and we decide that we are going to try and use the tarp again. The weather was perfect for it. There was no wind that night. So, we run our show during halftime, and when we get to the part in the ballad where the tarp comes flying over us my heart starts to race. I'm praying that it works. It does work, and the crowd lets out a roar like nothing else I've ever heard. Relief flooded through my body and I moved on to the next movement. That is a series of events that I will never forget. Finally, the last story that I have for you is from my junior year. There are two performances that I will never forget from this season. I would like to guess that a lot of our members were not happy with how the last season went so we came into the season with a fire under our buts. Lets just say we were fired up the day of the NEISD Fall Festival and we were destined to have an amazing performance that night. Before we left the school we ran some parts of the show in the band lot, and you could just feel the energy in our playing and marching. That energy intensified as we traveled to the stadium and warmed up. We were silent. We were ready. We walked into the stadium and you could hear the bustle of the full stadium. When we got under those lights it was if the field was a magnifying glass for energy. We were stoked. We are in our opening sets, and when we turned around to play the opening impact, we smacked the audience with such a wall of sound that I never knew we had in us. (of course the sound needed to be refined, but it was a heck of a start) I knew right then and there we were in for an amazing season. The crowd instantly went nuts. It was genuinely awesome, and only added to the energy on the field. Another thing - the crowd (at least the Johnson band kids) were on their feet for like the last half of the closer and it was so cool to watch. My favorite part of the whole night was watching the Johnson band give us a genuine standing ovation at the end of the performance. While we were standing under the bleachers waiting for the next show to finish so we can go sit and watch Johnson and Reagan, my director showed me all of the showers of text messages saying how awesome our show was and that this was the best Madison Band that they have ever seen. All of it was just so surreal. That has to be my favorite performance. My favorite football game, however, came a few weeks earlier against Smithson Valley. A tropical storm had just made landfall on the coast of Texas, so there were intermittent showers in the San Antonio/ Spring Branch area the whole night. All of the brass players were excited because we knew that not only was this a big game, but if it started pouring the woodwinds have to put their instruments away and the brass get to play their heads off. As most of you know, Smithson Valley has been a perennial powerhouse football team in the San Antonio area for years. Just a nitty, gritty, physical team that pounds you into the ground. We were excited to play them, because who doesn't love a good football game in the rain? So, during the game the woodwinds were in an endless cycle of covering their horns while we watched the two teams pound each other to death. It was a low scoring game, all defense and not much offense (only because the defense was so strong). So, as we get closer to halftime, it's dark, the rain/mist won't let up, and the stadium is electrified. The directors announce that we are performing the opening impact and the opener in our ponchos with no electronics or front ensemble. We are hyped. The woodwinds are told NOT to put their horns away. For some reason, that fired us up even more. So, we travel to the opening impact set on the field, and the drum major starts the counts. Because there are no electronics, you can hear the entire band practically shouting the counts before we put our horns up and let the crowd have it. Since it's their homecoming game, the SV band is sitting in their spots in the stands -- right in front of the brass. When we play the opening impact they went wild; it was almost as if we scared them. For the rest of the performance you could still hear us counting, which I find hilarious to this day. We weren't exactly making our best sounds, but nobody cared at this point. At the end of the run one of the student teachers jumped about four feet in the air in excitement and the band director nearly did the same, and it was all I could do to stop myself from doubling over in laughter. We got back into the stands and the energy level of the game ramped up from there. We were playing games with the SV band kinds on the other side of the stadium, and screaming our heads off whenever something big happened. Our team took the lead near the end of the game and we could no longer contain ourselves. The mayhem grew with every passing moment. The other team had the ball and were advancing down the field. They got within field goal range with about two minutes left in the game. Our team HAD to get a defensive stop. So, I can't remember what down it was, but this is where things start speeding up in my memory. The directors signal for us to get ready to play the opening impact facing the team as loud as we possibly could. By now it has to be fourth down, because the team is getting ready to send their field goal team out. The directors start the count-off for the lead-in but have to stop us before we started playing because they called a timeout. We wait for an eternity as the stadium is on fire (not literally XD) and when the teams line up, the directors tell us to start right on the opening impact. We do, and it's so loud it causes them a false start. Five yard penalty and replay the down. Ok, horns up again, and this time we somehow played even louder. There is a radio cast on YouTube somewhere from inside on the complete opposite side of the stadium that captured our playing. We were so loud that you couldn't hear the people talking into the mics. It. was. awesome. Something happened, and the play was dead. We just won the game. Our football team went nuts. They let time expire then swarmed the bottom of the stands and threw the bucket on the coach. It was if we just won the state championship. I'm surprised our band didn't get penalized again for playing so loud like we did in 2013. That entire game was by far my favorite game of all three years that I have been in high school. So if you can't tell by now I like writing. Sorry for the wall of text. Let the attention turn back to Daniel's vid! Can't wait for the Nerd-In!

I figured something like that was likely, but there is a dvd from 2015 a few of us have, and there are videos posted of that year and every year after 2016 but for some reason one of our most beloved shows has no BOA recording.

Oh that's cool. I never knew that. It makes sense though given the popularity and innovation of their show designs in that era. BTW, this will be my 1000th post. What a cool achievement.

I think we all have a problem. A healthy one at that. lol

Hey there. I wanted to create this thread as a place to ask about shows you can't find easily on the internet that you really want to see. These shows can be recent or fairly old, it's up to you. For example, I don't have the BOA: San Antonio DVD from 2016 and really want to see a video of my band's performance from that year and the only people that have seen it are the directors and all of those people who were watching it live in some format or have the DVD. What I want to ask is if there is anyway somebody could PM me a way to see an archived recording if it must be kept secret because of Flo or the likes, or if there was anyone there live that distinctly remembers the performance and describe it/ how it went for me. I encourage others to follow suit in both asking and answering these questions as I am sure others will want to read the descriptions or see the videos that can be made public. Thank you so much, and can we please start off with someone answering the question I asked above? For some reason that is the only video from our recent BOA record that I can't seem to find and it's one I really want to see.

I was just thinking there are two specific schools I REAAAAALLLLYYYY want to hear this song from, and I want them to make it happen immediately. I want Leander and TWHS to play Hymn of Axiom SOOOO BADLY. My god that would be so amazing. The reason I chose them is because they both have a distinct sound and design interpretation that I think would be perfect for this song.

All Hallows Eve - Pop! + All Hallows Eve 2 Unchartered Waters 24 The 4th Dimension 24 On the Waterfront 23 Leonardo's Dream 34 Proddigy 6 Symphony of Silence 17 Sculpt 33 Change is the Only Constant 12 Polarity 24 Tremendous Sea of Love 20 Lost and Found 29 Endeavor 19 Loop 26 Pop! 22

Like I said after first viewing: their show is just so captivating this year. It's not in your face like babylon. It's not super jazzy like metamorph. It just is. It has plenty (19 songs worth) of music the crowd can get into but it's not exactly a show you get up and dance to like downside up. It's weird. It pulls you in like you are at a movie theater watching a super serious movie like the 90's rendition of Hamlet. It's hard to describe. I swear it's as if they hired the artistic director behind the movie "Yesterday" to help with this show. It's such a weird coincidence that they were developed at the same time and revolve around the same exact thing. Edit: "Yesterday" is a GREAT movie by the way.

Crown + Kilties - 27th Lancers - 11 Blue Devils - 42 Blue Knights - 26 Blue Stars - 18 Bluecoats - 36 Boston Crusaders - 26 Bridgemen - 10 Carolina Crown - 32 Colts - 9 Crossmen - 7 Freelancers - 10 Glassmen - 16 Kilties - 4 Madison Scouts - 41 Magic of Orlando - 6 Mandarins - 5 Phantom Regiment - 46 Santa Clara Vanguard - 46 Sky Ryders - 6 Spirit of Atlanta - 20 Star of Indiana - 9 Suncoast Sound - 7 The Cadets - 41 The Cavaliers - 46 Troopers - 9 Velvet Knights - 9

All Hallows Eve - Pop! + All Hallows Eve 4 Uncharted Waters 24 The 4th Dimension 24 On the Waterfront 23 Leonardo's Dream 32 Proddigy 7 Symphony of Silence 17 Sculpt 32 Change is the Only Constant 12 Polarity 24 Tremendous Sea of Love 19 Lost and Found 28 Endeavor 21 Loop 26 Pop! 22

Crown + North Star - 27th Lancers - 11 Blue Devils - 42 Blue Knights - 26 Blue Stars - 18 Bluecoats - 36 Boston Crusaders - 25 Bridgemen - 10 Carolina Crown - 31 Colts - 9 Crossmen - 7 Freelancers - 10 Glassmen - 16 Kilties - 5 Madison Scouts - 41 Magic of Orlando - 6 Mandarins - 5 North Star - 1 Phantom Regiment - 46 Santa Clara Vanguard - 46 Sky Ryders - 6 Spirit of Atlanta - 20 Star of Indiana - 9 Suncoast Sound - 7 The Cadets - 41 The Cavaliers - 46 Troopers - 9 Velvet Knights - 9

Great job! This is shaping up to be the most insane season yet! The judges are going to have a hard time on finals night!

Thank you for the info. I knew they had a new director but they have always been a BOA band so it's weird to see them back off a bit after so long. Like I said, I loved competing against them. They are kind of our friendly "nemesis" right now if you know what I mean. (As with Judson, I suppose. We still talk about how they beat us by a tenth of a point at Yamaha Cup: Converse in 2016.

All Hallows Eve - Fractured Moments + All Hallows Eve 4 Uncharted Waters 25 The 4th Dimension 22 On the Waterfront 21 Leonardo's Dream 31 Proddigy 11 Fractured Moments 6 Symphony of Silence 17 Sculpt 31 Change Is the Only Constant 12 Polarity 24 Tremendous Sea of Love 17 Lost and Found 27 Endeavor 21 Loop 26 Pop! 20

That's really odd. Churchill has always been a BOA band. Now I am really wondering why they dropped too. I love competing against them -- and they are the first band to know who I was without anyone there even meeting me in person. Bummer.

Aww thank you. No, I think I'm lucky to have this band and not the other way around. I never would trade this for a different band, no matter if it were FloMo or Carmel.

"Flapping my arms around hoping the ensemble doesn't fall apart." LOL We are constantly going to the elementary schools around the district and talking to even the students as young as kinder and showing them what it's like to be in band and showing them how it's not scary or weird to play an instrument. We have fun with the kids and teach them in the process. We also hold pep rallies all the time at the middle schools and help show the middle school kids how much fun they can really start having when they go to high school. It definitely has helped with commitment and retention numbers and the overall quality of the ensemble has grown over the years in part because of the community outreach. "Actually call somebody on the telephone.... EEEEEK!!!!" Lol. You are hilarious. That's 2800 papers by the way Speaking of printing papers, by the way, I just so happen to be one of the new band librarians for this upcoming season. It was definitely a lot of fun having to make 350 copies for 24 different stand tunes during the last week of the school year. I actually like sitting in the copy room and killing god knows how many trees. It gave me a lot of time to think. I got to spend time thinking about what this upcoming marching season is going to be like. Same thing goes for when I was spending time cleaning up the library earlier this summer. I got to thinking about how much I appreciate being apart of my band program, and how much I would really do for these kids; how much I already have done. I love this program. There has never been a single time that I have said no when the directors are asking me to do something. In fact, I'm constantly asking them what I could do to help. I love the fact that we are like our own little town and how everybody trusts each other (generally). I love how the directors respect the time that they have the students and never hold us longer than they need to. If we have a good rehearsal and get everything they wanted done, they release us early. I love that the students are able to walk around our campus and not have to worry about other student's teasing us because we are in band, how literally almost all of the top 15 students in my class are band kids. I love the commitment to having the most fun we can, whether it be joking around in the stands or Mr. Perkins playing pranks on us (or even throwing a foam ball around with us). I Love the fact that even though he has only been here one year, Mr. Perkins has made such an impact on us that we voted him Most Inspirational for band superlatives (directors aren't supposed to receive any of those awards). Once I leave this year I'll really miss being here. I know that our program is in amazing hands and is destined for great things. Band teaches you a lot -- more than just the stereotypical "time management" and dedication/commitment. It teaches you loyalty. Respect. How to win. How to lose. It teaches you things that are indescribable and all you can do is just show it. It shows you what it's like to be a part of something bigger than yourself. It's something that I hope society never loses sight of. Okay, I'm done spilling my heart. It is pretty crazy programs are now doing just to stay on top. I can remember stories that all of my friends and even my directors have told me of years when they had to reschedule the leadership auditions because none of the students were prepared. Now our program is at a point where a large number of our students take the time to practice during the summer when there only used to be a select few (usually our first chair players). I thought it was awesome the place our ensemble started at last year on the first day of summer band. We already had the base of a good sound as an ensemble, and we had the maturity to rehearse right (at least indoors). I can't wait to see what it's going to be like this year now that we have even more commitment to practicing during the summer. And I thought that during the school year student lead sectionals actually falls under the eight hour rule. There have been so many times that I have wanted to see something like that happen but have been told that we can't. Is it okay to do that during the summer at least?

I swear if I could had the money and the opportunity to take off from school just to go watch this I would. Ill just be here reading the live blog like always.

Fractured Moments + All Hallows Eve - All Hallows Eve 6 Uncharted Waters 25 The 4th Dimension 22 On the Waterfront 20 Leonardo's Dream 31 Proddigy 12 Fractured Moments 5 Symphony of Silence 17 Sculpt 30 Change is the Only Constant 13 Polarity 24 Tremendous Sea of Love 18 Lost and Found 26 Endeavor 21 Loop 25 Pop! 20

Has this game died or something? Nobody has posted here in about eight days. I particularly liked this one.

Carolina Crown + North Star - 27th Lancers - 11 Blue Devils - 42 Blue Knights - 26 Blue Stars - 18 Bluecoats - 36 Boston Crusaders - 25 Bridgemen - 10 Carolina Crown - 30 Colts - 9 Crossmen - 7 Freelancers - 10 Glassmen - 16 Kilties - 5 Madison Scouts - 41 Magic of Orlando - 6 Mandarins - 5 North Star - 2 Phantom Regiment - 46 Santa Clara Vanguard - 46 Sky Ryders - 6 Spirit of Atlanta - 20 Star of Indiana - 9 Suncoast Sound - 7 The Cadets - 41 The Cavaliers - 46 Troopers - 9 Velvet Knights - 9

Fractured Moments + All Hallows Eve - All Hallows Eve 9 Uncharted Waters 24 The 4th Dimension 22 On the Waterfront 20 Leonardo's Dream 30 Proddigy 14 Fractured Moments 4 Symphony of Silence 17 Sculpt 30 Change is the Only Constant 12 Polarity 24 Tremendous Sea of Love 18 Lost and Found 26 Endeavor 21 Loop 24 Pop! 20

Man those Bluecoats are really killing it this season. There are so many amazing shows this season that it's gonna be extra hard for the judges to score at finals this season. My personal favorites from an enjoyment standpoint so far are Crossmen and the Bluecoats. I can't believe SCV just topped last year's "Highest Note Played in DCI History" with a note that is a whole third above that one. I can't believe the perfection in tuning and balance in Crown I can't believe difficulty of Boston's show, and I gotta love that Sylvester Stallone reference thrown in there. I can't believe the ballad in the Blue Devil's show. I can't believe a lot of the cool things this season has brought us. This is definitely going to be one fun finals night, not one that you want to leave your seat in the middle of.

Woah. I didn't know you have a shared personality with Jeff Ream over at DCP You sound an awful lot like him right about now lol.