BlueCircle

Westwood - I like the striking contrast between band and props. Cold and wintery. Front ensemble looks proportionally small. Fantastic opening hit. Great high brass technique and projection! The brass performance is really really really good. Who knew that Christmas music could be this powerful. Some impressive rifle work. Reminds me kindof of Round Rock 2016. I quite like these arrangements. WOW brass. I definitely see that in finals.

Head index of 101 and windy

I am very excited to see if Westwood lives up to the hype.

James Bowie - ethereal pre-show. Love the atmospheric sounds. Great weapon line. I actually like the vocalist...it adds more life to the almost primitive soundscape. Great exposed high brass feature there at the end! I really liked that, definitely see them easily in finals.

I don’t have extensive knowledge of the rules but personally I prefer the way that a color guard, with predominantly flags and weapons, compliments the music. Also GE is more music heavy so that’s where Vandy shines. It very well couldn’t be an issue at all. Vandy’s music usually outperforms their visual in performance caption and GE. So I think a more accomplished guard could benefit them. I know this isn’t the answer your looking for but it’s my take on it I guess.

Vandy was seriously so good. It absolutely amazes me how clean they are through and through. If they had a guard that contributed to the visual aspect of the show more, they would be unstoppable.

Vandy - I love the rich royal blue of the props and uniforms and how it contrasts with the white. Mozart is basically Vandy’s brand and I think it’s cool how they embrace that for a Nats show. Fantastic musical and visual cleanliness. Wow trumpets. I love this arrangement so urgent and powerful. They use plumes in such an expressive way. The ballad is awesome, gorgeous drill. So clean. Wow!

Probably on the outside of finals. They have a really confident sound but need more refinement. Show design is also lacking for BOA imo.

Another fantastic surprise from Cypress Woods! This competition is too insane, I don’t envy the judgesz

Cedar Park- not a fan of the cheesy voiceover BUT those wings are cool! Percussion is awesome. Great rifles! I would love to see more difficulty and exposed playing in the brass book. The guard keeps impressing me. Definitely made a strong case for finals!

Lake Travis was a very nice surprise! I also love the closer because we used El Dorado when I was in high school, fun piece!

I forgot to say this earlier but...good luck to all the bands performing today! Also sorry that it’s windy and hot

Leander - I LOVE the variety in musical selections. Amazing intense opener complemented perfectly by the guard. Nice color contrast. Opener is perfect, Britney section still needs some ironing out. Too solo heavy for my taste, but the soloists are KILLING it! I like how they turned the Polarity props into a stage. I love the colors. The ballad is beautiful and it contrasts the rest of the show nicely.

I’ve never even heard of Shadow Creek before but that opener was awesome!!!

Vista - they have cleaned up nicely. Guard still has some work to do but not as much as I though they would have. I love the part right after the ballad. It has some personality. The soprano solo ballad kind of feels like it’s just trying to capture the magic from last year but that soloist is AMAZING. My only other criticism is I don’t feel there’s enough color contrast to differentiate the parts of the show. It’s all black white and blue and blurs together for me on my initial impression. But that has nothing to do with the performers, just a design nit-pick. I’m very pleased with how they have cleaned this up! Show feels like a Hebron/FloMo hybrid but like in a good and unique way (that probably didn’t make any sense )

Jeez. 10 yards in diameter.

Hendrickson-Great performance! This show is so fun but also powerful! Just a well rounded production. I’d put them right behind Cedar Ridge. They have just been so consistent despite all the staff changes lately.

Rouse is so underrated! They sadly get overshadowed at this regional but is a BOA finalist level band practically anywhere else.

LOVE Cedar Ridge! The concept is so simple but the music SHINES! Stunning musical performance even the woodwinds are bringing serious power! I’ll be honest that I didn’t care for their show last year but I love this one so far. wow. Easily strongly in finals imo.

Round Rock definitely made a case for finals! I love that repeating melody after the opener; it just feels so urgent yet playful. They have a lot to clean (especially music) but the show has a nice difficulty and is going all the way to Nats. Good job RR!

Is Vista Ridge AAAA now?

Based on past results and trends I feel like this contest generally favors cleanliness to difficulty and the judging is not at all indicative of BOA results. I think the top five will be Keller, Marcus, Prosper, Waxahachie, and Wakeland in any order really. All of these bands are returning top 5 finishers from last year so I think they should have continued success. And after Waxahachie’s incredibly successful first UIL 6A season last year, I think the judges should really love them. Thoughts in random order: Marcus: I honestly have no clue what Marcus could be up to this year but after winning the HEB Drumline contest, they surely should have a great showing here. It’s not really a surprise that Marcus won the drumline contest because as far as I know, they kept their fantastic percussion director through the traditions they made last year. I think Marcus should easily take the percussion and color guard captions. Prosper: There has been some talk about staff changes that may effect them but they always seem to do extremely well at this competition so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. I haven’t seen their show so I don’t have much to go off of. Waxahachie: They are easily one of the most UIL friendly bands in Texas. They remind me of how Keller was a few years ago. I fully expect them to do very well here as the judging tends to be more similar to UIL. They have a history of very strong music performances and could be a strong contender for the music caption or even win the whole thing. Wakeland: They are incredibly consistent and usually give very strong early visual performances. I haven’t seen their show but they are always very strong. Keller: I am biased so I will try to be objective and make my opinions obvious. They are taking a ton of risks visually this year. The pit setup is completely different to what they’ve ever done and there is SO MUCH drill in-front of the front side line. It definitely adds a lot of difficulty and an interesting performance aspect in my opinion. The music, especially in the brass, is more difficult than anything they have done before. I also love how they are injecting a ton of “Keller” personality into the show. You can see their logo in the drill and on a prop and the subtle “K” on the guard costume. It reminds me of the “W” set that The Woodlands does. also reminds me of how Marcus would hide their logo in props and stuff.

Just some thoughts about the championship contenders CTJ: I think they might somehow blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. I know I was skeptical about the sequel idea but I think it works perfectly from what I’ve seen so far. CTJ has the ability to take an extremely difficult production, put it all out there for the first competition, and somehow make it all work. It’s theres to lose but the competition will be tight. Vandy: I love how different Vandy is from CTJ and Leander. The recognizable music is always a treat to listen to, and I think they could definitely snag the music or visual caption depending on their cleanliness. They could also win the whole thing because most of GE is music after all. ————————————————————————————— Leander: This show is AMBITIOUS. After seeing a video of the performance from the game a week ago, I’m not entirely convinced that they are going to be clean enough or complete enough to stand up to CTJ or Vandy this week. Come Nats, that will be an entirely different story. The Britney Spears section is probably the single most fun marching band moment I’ve ever seen, and they haven’t even competed yet. This is 100% a Grand Nationals show, so it might take some more time before it really shines, but know knows? Leander could still win the whole thing on Saturday. Vista Ridge: It is going to be VERY interesting to see how this thing gets cleaned up. Everything has been amped up ten-fold. And I mean everything from visual difficulty, music, color guard, etc. They might come out and shock everyone with their cleanliness, but I have a feeling that they will just need more time. Most importantly I’m just excited to appreciate the hard work and art of so many passionate teams.

Theres definitely a give and take. No headwear is more comfortable and a performer can be more emotionally expressive but I think a white plume can be used very expressively as well. Also I sometimes feel for the kids who don’t have a shako to block the sun.

If I remember correctly, at two of the regionals this past weekend, there would’ve been a tie for 10th had there not been penalties given...maybe they’re holding off the tie till Austin wishful thinking