FaultLineBlues

I'm pretty sure there will be a live blog run by the event itself!

Haha sorry to join in the dog pile as it's all just opinion, but I would also say that I think Cedar Ridge should be moved up a tier too. They're fairly consistent, made Finals the past two years, and started off this season fairly strong.

There's also L.D. Bell and Westlake's unexpected appearances in SA finals, along with Cedar Park and Bowie missing out, and Cedar Ridge and Waxahachie making 6A state finals for the first time. I feel like those were decently interesting developments, but maybe not as big as some of the stuff this season haha

There also seemed to be a few issues going on outside of performance. The props rolled in pretty late compared to the rest of the band, the guard didn't have uniforms in yet, so they wore what looked like show shirts (which is totally understandable, sometimes uniforms don't come in on time, but I can see it effecting the visual GE in a minor way just because the show shirts really didn't fit with the rest of the props or band uniforms), it also got pretty hot during their run, and during their run I saw a member of their band sitting on the back of the field being fanned by someone, and they later had to be helped out. So it seems like they had a rough run overall, I hope things can get better for them as the season progresses.

I've seen people saying the same for the Vista Ridge Marching Festival, but I think it'd be great if TMC was in the predictions page too along with it! Both of the contests have some pretty dang great bands, are being hosted by some very dependable programs, and are fairly consistent in being well run contests.

Wow! Vandy is probably my #1 so far! That ballad is so good, and they play those runs with an absurd amount of clarity for this early in the season. Awesome stuff. Cedar Ridge is currently my #2, I might be a little biased as an alumni but I really really enjoyed their performance, and I think a concept as simple as chess is really great to see executed well.

Got some clouds rolling in, but no signs of rain yet.

noooooo :')

Oh no, someone got to him while he was typing!

I've heard Cedar Ridge does too! I saw it posted on their Twitter a bit ago. It's interesting considering how similar the two band's uniforms were before.

7:45 AM I believe.

1) CTJ 2) Leander 3) Vista Ridge/Vandy 4) Vista Ridge/Vandy 5) Cedar Park 6) Cedar Ridge/Round Rock 7) Round Rock/Cedar Ridge 8) Bowie 9) Hendrickson 10) John Horn/Rouse/Westwood These are probably gonna be wrong all over the place, but it's fun to predict. I think the new finalist could be any of those three bands, but I'm especially leaning towards John Horn after being impressed by their performance at State Prelims last year. I expect to be wrong about Bowie, because they're always really solid at this contest, but since I haven't seen anything from them so far, I'm just putting them at 8th. CTJ is always solid at this regional, so it's fair to predict they're going to do well, and Leander has a great show that they're performing well, but I expect to see it grow more over the season and peak later on.

You have Blue Devils way too high. Since when are they ever that successful?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about this one.

I know this is a thread for McAllen, but I decided to switch to the Louisville stream to see Carmel, and wow, how many members do they have? Their band is MASSIVE.

I will say that their show isn't Japanese themed, but the usage of the Taiko Drums in the drum break, along with the percussion writing definitely have the influences.

They're still listed on the TMC site, and have it on their band calendar so I don't think they have, but I could be wrong.

Full size taxi cabs or we riot.

I went to the Cedar Ridge v Vandegrift on Friday and got to see Vandy's show. Some crazy good sounds coming out of that band. I'm always impressed by the absurd amount of sound they can pump out, but I imagine having a band as massive as they do helps. Their ballad has a KILLER trombone soloist, definitely look out for him at BoA Austin. I also noticed that they were performing without Shakos. Likely just because it was a football game, but it seemed a little odd since it looked like they had the rest of their uniforms on. Didn't get to see Cedar Ridge since they had their senior night, but I've seen them plenty before this, and they're doing great things as usual.

If I was doing compelete guesses based off of what I've seen and just past reputation, I'd have something like this: 1-3 Leander High School Ronald Reagan High School Vandegrift High School 4-6 Hendrickson High School Cedar Park High School James Bowie High School 7-8 Winston Churchill High School Rouse High School 9-10 Weiss High School Jack C. Hays High School I've put the band in areas of where I imagine they'll place, rather than specific placements. After BOA Austin, I feel like we'll have a better idea of where this contest will go. And I haven't even posted my predictions for that contest yet!

Thank you! I produced them on my own with some loose guidelines given to me by directors.

I'd be more than happy to provide links to the videos I've made! Those are about all the videos I've made for show announcements!

Hornrank just tweeted something about "Lion Mane Shakos". Sounds like it could be CTJ?

Awesome! Thank you for letting us know, I just added it to the original post, along with Weiss High School. According to the website, there's room for one more band, so we might see one more join in, and make this contest even more stacked.

I will say that I believe that they have a larger band this year than they did last year, and last year they made San Antonio and State finals, so I don't think the size will be too much of an issue for them.