Dog885

You know it!

Ok so here's what I have,
Madison Scouts-Heart & Soul

"You Are Variations" - Steve Reich
"Seranada Schizophrana" - Danny Elfman
"Rhyme of Taigu" - Zhou Long
"Shape of My Heart" - Sting
"Aurora Awakes" - John Mackey
"Ainadamar" - Osvaldo Golijov
"34 Klezma" - Snarky Puppy
"End of the Game" - Sting
 
Cadets-The Conversation
"Sound of Silence" originally by Simon and Garfunkel but mentions the Disturbed 
, "
" by Silvestre Revueltas, played by The Cavaliers in 1994, Carolina Crown in 2009"Rather extensive" percussion production called "Buyan" by John Psathas
 
Mandarins-Life Rite After
 
Boston-SOS
 
Crossmen-The Inbetween
Musical selections include:
Funeral For A Friend - Elton John
Upside Down - Andrew Markworth 
Symphony No. 6 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Sweetness Follows - R.E.M
 
Jersey Surf-[mondo mondrian]
 
Guardians-Damned
Music from, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Ke$ha, Childish Gambino, Beyonce, and contributions from arrangers Daniel Montoya Jr., Patricia Islas, and Doug Bush

Just gonna leave this pie chart I made here.

I know that used to happen all the time with us, but we bought those shows pre-made. Funny thing is, one of those got us to state and now we use custom shows.

Breaking News:

The Waco Regional on October 13th will be held at Waco ISD Stadium.  From what I am hearing, this will be a surprisingly competitive Regional.
 
I performed at this stadium for Area Marching Contest in 2000 (The year it opened and I'm not old).  The layout is very similar to Kelly Reeves.  There are inclines that programs will have to traverse to enter and exit the field.  Also, there is very little sideline room so the bands are going to be blasting our heads off all day long!!! 

I'll keep it short and down to five from both of the live shows I went to.  Meant to do some kind of write up in the fall but life caught up to me and I never really got the chance to.  I'm bored and reminiscing about the fall so why not.  
 
St. Louis:
O'Fallon Township was a double wammy for me.  They were the first of my HS big dogs to see live so the factor of that in addition to how wild that show was made that easily one of my favorite experiences from this fall.  Lots and lots of things.......of course the tarp(s) was absolutely insane.  A camera does not do justice to how much that thing transformed the performance environment, when that thing got unfolded (after epic band dad tarp races) it was an explosion of light reflecting off that thing.   That said I found much more in that show interesting as well, the tarp is the easy thing to focus on but they did some super interesting things with body movement as well, the amount of vocabulary that HS aged kids executed in that show at such a high level is pretty bonkers.  I cannot even begin to imagine going to a group of kids I work with and trying to teach AND clarify that amount of stuff.  Kudos to the teachers AND kids there.  And musically the Night on Fire section of that show was just a blast, super high energy and funky.  Going to remember this show for a long time.  They're the ones that broke me in for my first BOA competition live and it was so memorable.   I thought the construction of Grain Valley's show was pretty phenomenal, pretty seamless and exciting show design from them on all levels.  Loved the Fly to Paradise full out sprint ending.   Bentonville; deflated ball in prelims = but it didn't even phase them.  Then they came out and killed it in finals.  And that singer was fantastic in Chandelier, loved that closer.   I think Sioux Falls Lincoln was about the most fun I had seeing a HS band last fall.  In terms of just pure entertainment and performance energy they really brought it in St. Louis, that first Children's Hour of Dream impact was WAY louder than I expected being way up in the top of the stadium, it was a pretty big "YES they're in finals" as soon as that happened.  AND THE SOLOISTS!  So many fantastic individual performers from them, every single one of those kids was nails, I remember the trombone in the beginning of the closer to be particularly fantastic.  They were maybe not the best I saw (pretty dang good though) but in terms of watching a group of kids have the time of their lives, it was certainly the most enjoyable for me personally.   Broken Arrow encore from the field was pretty eye opening, watching high school kids go from talking about taking selfies to carrying themselves as professional performers in every regard in a split second was pretty wild.  It blows my mind that that many kids are that invested into something and are being taught at such a high level.  Incredible stuff.   San Antonio:
Keller Central golf cart.  Lived up to the hype.   Holy crap the depth.  I knew how loaded it was watching online over the past years but still wasn't ready for band after band after band after band after band to be so much higher than what I've experienced myself.   Pearland and Vista Ridge certainly stood out.  Pearland's show design this year was pretty top tier to me in just about every way, the accel opening on the move, HUGE first impact, epic reprise at the end, etc.  They really hit on something this year, I really really hope they keep it up because if they do I definitely would not be shocked at all to see them as one of the next big names.  And Vista Ridge had, what was a pretty big consensus among the group of people I was with, easily one of the best "performances" of their show out of the whole weekend.  They did performed and sold their show at about as high of a level as they could have.  It was electric.   The experience of seeing Avon come down was pretty fantastic.  The show was awesome but what happened before that was pretty special.  The Yellow Rose quote in their warmup along with the dad decked out in the pretty epic suit and hat were pretty fantastic to experience.  Loved getting to see Maslanka 4 on the field and I can say I've seen the mighty Avon in person now.   Hendrickson's show was easily one of my favorites of the fall like 2016.  And 2015.  And 2014.  And 2012.  I really like Henny.  They were a perfect way to kick off finals, in terms of communication of a concept and entertainment value they were certainly near the top for me.   Hebron had me speechless.  I don't know what those kids eat or how they practice or what goes on there but how high school kids can play with that level of clarity, precision, and sheer volume is beyond me.  I know they didn't win music but I can safely say they left the biggest impression on me.  LOVED the music from this show, so many styles and emotions all performed with pretty incredible consistency and accuracy.  I wish I could go back and sit through that show again and again.   Finally getting to see what BOA was all about was easily the highlight of my fall, looking forward to coming back for more next year.  

I've always wondered, how can a show be more for UIL than BOA? I know that all UIL judges are in the box, but is that all?

Man, is it me or did STL get more competitive? Cy-Falls didn't even make finals! Are they having a bad season or bad rep? I know that us here at Anderson are not having the best season, 19th at Austin, 26th at STL. I'm guessing it's because we literally have no props and minimal choreography on field. On a different note (pun intended) those finalist bands were amazing! I can tell Lincoln was a crowd favorite and the stadium looked like it got brighter when O'Fallon was on field.

I signed on to this forum for one reason only, and that is to express my sadness after seeing last night's contest at Duncanville. I miss bands like Sunset High with their high steppers, and generally feel sad that the band of America contests now boil down to who is willing to spend the money on large sets, and marching techs. Yes the kids do work hard in these bands, and the shows they present do look wonderful. Nevertheless, it is my take that given the right amount of funds, a band like Sunset High could perform and do just as well as any of these bands that won top spots in the contest last night 10-29-11. I'm not sure one can take pride in spending large sums of money? I'd love to see an even playing field, but that's never going to happen. It's ashamed for schools that have little or no financial resources. I don't have any kids at Sunset High, but I'd sure like to see them out high stepping!!

I think this is (probably) Dripping Spring’s to lose.
 
1. Dripping Springs
2. Anderson
3. LBJ/LASA
4. Judson
5. Georgetown
6. United South
7. McCallum
8. Akins
9. Steele
10. Stony Point

Cypress Falls will be an almost definite lock for finals. I know Westwood has beaten beaten some well known bands, but that is UIL vs. BOA and who knows how that will translate on the sheets. Either way, they should easily be top 14 and I would be shocked to see them out of finals. I don't know much about Anderson the past few years but if they have a year as good as 2012, another definite finalist

Excited to see three Texas bands attending this year!
 
Anderson (Austin, TX)
Cypress Falls (Houston, TX)
Westwood (Austin, TX)
 
I bet all three could probably make finals. 
 
I looked at the previous score sheets and I found that:
Anderson got 5th at St. Louis in 2012, most notably beating Blue Springs and Union in GE.
Cypress Falls just made San Antonio finals this past year, which speaks for itself.
Westwood hasn't attended St. Louis before, but got 9th at Atlanta in 2015, and has beaten bands like Round Rock are area competition before.
 
Broken Arrow, Blue Springs, and Owasso are all attending this year's St Louis competition. Should be a good one!
 
 
 
 

I'm from Anderson and I'm assuming our show this year will be better than 2012 (Seeing how that show was not the best) because of our improvements from there. Our overall placements over the years have been fluctuating a little, but I feel confident with this year with a huge freshman class. Just gotta stay hopeful and keep improving. I have a couple of friends who go to Westwood and they are exited for this competition as well.

1. Broken Arrow H.S., OK
2. Blue Springs H.S., MO
3. Owasso H.S., OK
4. Bellevue West H.S., NE
5. Cypress Falls H.S., TX
6. O'Fallon Township H.S., IL
7. Round Rock Westwood H.S., TX
8. Grain Valley H.S., MO
9. Fort Zumwalt North H.S., MO
10. Austin Anderson H.S., TX
11. Bixby H.S., OK
12. Jenks H.S., OK
13. Mustang H.S., OK
14. Bentonville H.S., AR