packwick

sucks that we're missing a good number of DFW + Houston contenders but the contest is still ludicrously competitive. sooo ive seen everyone now. i count 9 bands id be surprised to see miss finals. Cedar Park, Round Rock, Vista Ridge*, Cedar Ridge, Rouse*, Vandegrift*, Ronald Reagan*, Marcus*, and The Woodlands*. asterisks next to the 6 strongest bets for top half finalists. weird weird weird for me not to include CTJ as a lock, im betting they surge late season tho for a comeback and make finals here. iiif that happens that leaves only 4 spots for a ton of good bands which totally sucks. id give the edge to the Austin and DFW bubbles for now. they just sound better than the Houston ones atm and music counts for more of the score. it's harsh to say but not a single band i heard live at West Houston sounded like a really really top-notch Texas band, besides maybe twhs, but they had issues w/ trumpets struggling in the upper register, Mello and flute tuning, and that really weirdly balanced/phrased small woodwind ensemble where it sounded like every instrument was doing their own thing lol. so yeah, Houston groups need to get those music scores up to match the vis if they wanna make a splash here, reeeeally pulling for Bridgeland. at the same time some of the scores at DFW and Austin were a bit inflated, not gonna sugarcoat it, almost all of which came from relatively inexperienced BOA judges, so id be even more cautious than usual comparing scores across contests. gonna be interesting for sure. always is.

yeah and that's something to keep in mind too about CTJ. Lipman is friggin' legendary. it may take time to adjust.

my top 3 future projection for Nats has been Carmel, TWHS, and Hebron since that Kentucky regional in mid Sept, buuuut i gotta say that betting against Avon for top 3 is like betting against Meryl Streep not getting an Oscar nomination every time she's in a movie. prob will be wrong lol. twhs could "flatline" as well. ughhhh im just so happy happy happy for Bridgeland. ive been sounding the alarm on them all season so far!!! and. they. deeelivered!!!

WOAH CY FAIR!!! YESSS! AND BRIDGELAND OVER CTJ!!! the scores may seem low but i wanna point out two things 1.) i think the shows here have a lot of room for growth and 2.) the early season scores, like at Austin, were really inflated. when i left Katy prelims i told myself, if i were scoring this id prob give the champ an 86ish. exactly what happened!!! can't wait to see these late season!!

my feed friggin' crashed during ctj!! i will say this, what i saw seemed way more energetic. also the flamingo walk thing is the single wittiest design thing in the entire contest. twhs was great, very controlled performance. waiting for more of an emotional punch. vis design from opener through ballad is prob the prettiest Jon has done for them since 2006. kiiinda drops in quality/imagination in the closer or rather what they have of a closer. kinda impressed they came out on top in prelims w/ an incomplete show. dont know how you compete with their guard. just on a different level. still waiting for those trick tosses i saw in May tho!!! amazing job by all of the Bands of America!!

Reagan was fab as well. what they do w/ minimal set design is brilliant. not many can pull it off. CyFair is just sooooo much better when the electronics work! thank goodness!

oh yah, it ain't just the woodlands running the show in marching band in H-town anymore, as B-land, P-land, and about to be CyFair will show us. wowzer Pearland!! ill never not get goosebumps from that ballad. they may very well be the main "Cartwright" threat at Nats this yr!!

Bridgeland is breathtakingly good this year, it's magical to see how far they've come in so little time. goosebumps galore!!! gorgeous vis program, amazing guard, great heartfelt music. way to go!!!

Brazoswood's show is totally delightful too!!! this is my first time seeing it. so much character!! i actually really like how theatrical band has gotten, well i guess it has always been a little theatrical, but def on a different level today.

yeaaaaah we kinda got off track. back to the bands! i wish i played flute as well as the soloists in 7L, Dawson, and Friendswood!!! they're so good and im an amateur!!!

but hey at least i know "you're" from "your" right? back to TikTok, Aiden!!!

im kinda wondering what ctj's designers are thinking right now. i was chattin about this w/ my mom. i feel like if i were in their shoes id feel like damned if you do, damned of you don't kinda thing, cause ppl are always complaining, oh they do too much w/ their show design, everything and the kitchen sink, blah blah blah, but then they come out w/ a more stripped down back to basics-ish show like this one, and then ppl are like, meh it's boring, what happened to ctj!! lol like what are you supposed to do?? guess there's an in between there somewhere.

sorry im just a filter-less child w/ an iq too high to be accurately measured!!! it's a strange place to exist... i won't continue!

forgot to mention Tomball Memorial, looooved their show!!! my fave concept for sure, the price is right. that was Saucedo music right? def sounded like it at the beginning. the betting on the R13 clarinet was hilarious. also wanna point out that Pearland held onto that top 3 placement despite a relatively crappy performance time, makes ya wonder if they could even move up in finals... def an emotional show w/ the new moon/old moon stuff.

hopefully the wind is better tonight so that the guards aren't struggling as much or have to pull their tosses. but will there be a judge in khakis for me to ogle tonight... hmmm.... that's the real question.... outstanding general effect goes to... prelims individual music judge!!!

i don't think FloMo was safe at all!! lots of demand. unless you're referring to concept or something.

just got back home, didn't wanna sit around for hours waiting for finals to start. horribly sunburned on my legs and arms too. these results are so much yaaaassss!! Pearland in top 3, um, YES! that's how i would have had it but i didn't think it would happen. Bridgeland in top half, another yaaaassss!!! i think they're a real threat for San Antonio finals. woodlands winning both perf captions, i wouldn't have thought that going in, besides maybe vis, but coming out of the contest i understand it. i thought they were prob gonna have to coast on effect via their show design, which is amazing this yr, what they have at least. Reagan def has the more complete show right now, that ending with all the flags makes a huge statement, whereas twhs just stands there and barks. so GE going to Reagan, can see that too for now. F-wood was one of my faves again. looks like they won their class thru visual entirely. super cute show, love the set design and costumes, just the whole look.

Markissss!!!! i didn't see them but they must have been totally fab to have beaten FloMo, who i woulda had over Hebron.

for me it's def Flower Mound that has the whole package rn. great show from them. Hebron was of course outstanding too. loaded w/ impressive technical passages, wonderful quality of sound. but sometimes i caught myself wondering what all the notes added up to. vis program also still a weak link imo. still better than like 99.999% of bands tho.

sorry i hauled a** after Reagan. they were excellent!! id have it bw them and twhs, which prob means it'll be a ctj sweep lol. hoping to see both Pearland and B-land in top half!!!

CTJ was solid!! was expecting maybe something a liiittle more flamboyant. i think the preshow was the best part!! 7L had a beautiful show!! maybe some improvement here?

Bridgeland was stunning!!! goosebumps. standing O from me! could kinda tell from the vis, but the music pulls it all together. great overall effect.

i think Pearland is gonna be up there, didn't think they were thaaaat far off twhs. twhs has a show with major major potential, not sure if the perf will be enough to come out on top today but it was better than i expected. just some wonky woodwind ensemble mics and timing issues.

twhs was great!! guard pulled most of their tosses alas but understandable. windy.

wind is pretty bad rn lol. im chilly! wtf