So my kid is in Richland Band and while I am certainly not a pro at this stuff....here's my take on it all.
I was at Bandfest on Tuesday and thought Haltom was amazing and Richland was improving but not up to last year's show. Richland does not have near as many seniors this year as they did last year and even fewer Juniors this year so the group is a very 'youthful' one. Add that to the new-at-head director change. The practice Monday night was very challenging with props and they didn't even use them Tuesday.
On Saturday,I didn't get there to see Haltom and at the end of prelims I still figured they might take 1st again. I thought Summit was very good. Then Richland performed. Oh! My! Goodness! The change from Tuesday to Saturday for Richland was astonishing! I thought we could take third or even second, after Haltom. They were that good!
Not third...not second. Dang we were going to take fourth? Then Richland first place! (and they didn't even get to perform their opening because of electrical problems so they reset and started at part 2) Shocked and delighted at the same time.
Their show is called Out Of The Blue and the song choices are all at odds with each other because they are.....out of the blue choices! The jazz part with the baritone sax solo is amazing and so much fun! Percussion in that part gets to have some fun and they won the Percussion caption VE won caption as well.
I have no clue what happened to Haltom that they dropped to 5th. Hope to see them again this Saturday at the BISD Marching Festival. Richland performs at 9:30, Birdville at 4:30 and Haltom at 9:30.
