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Origin

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Everything posted by Origin

  1. Overall really really enjoying Westlake. The clarinet soloist is sooooooo good! I also really like the narration they added at the beginning, and I am usually not a fan of narration. The drill design is really nice, and the music is perfectly tailored to the show. The field feels a bit empty, but I don’t expect any band to have all their props and such at this point in the season (it also doesn’t help that all their front flats blew over 😅).
  2. I love the aesthetic of Lake Travis’ show! They have a great center to their sound and are also quite clean visually. They performed basically the whole ballad on the move, not easy stuff! And of course they sounded great while doing it. I wonder if they’re going to deck out the garden with greenery to match the bright guard.
  3. James Bowie has quite the ambitious show. Lots of notes and lots of props that are intertwined with the band. I love the unique choices of music. There are moments that really click, and there are moments that don’t yet. There’s alottt of potential, it just needs a few more weeks to really come together. The backfield playing into the ballad hit is really difficult especially with the staging. The uniform changing in the ballad is pretty distracting.
  4. Hendrickson brought a lot of energy in their performance. They’re hungry to return to finals here!
  5. Wow New Braunfels! What an ambitious program for a band that wasn’t on my radar until this season. I don’t know that they have the developed full ensemble sound to make finals here, but the foundations is certainly there. Plus, any band that plays Björk is an immediate favorite in my book.
  6. Loooove Rouse’s flute choir leading up to the first hit. There’s so much musicality in the full ensemble moments, I could listen to them play forever. Everything just flows so beautifully. I’m also so impressed with the individual visual performance! To me, the show isn’t nearly as conceptually creative as Papyrus was, but I don’t want to understate just how amazing this performance was.
  7. Dripping Springs sounded quite good. The clarity on the woodwinds runs was super impressive. I always love how white uniforms look on the field. Visually, maybe a bit slow paced until the ballad. If they don’t make finals, I think it’ll be pretty close.
  8. Vista Ridge was great! Starting with just horns is so difficult and they handle that challenge flawlessly. So many great soloists adding different textures and layers. The drill and staging is really interesting as well.
  9. Cedar Park setting the standard this morning! They look to be building off the success of last season, but this time with a stronger conceptual theme. There is sooo much great choreo reinforcing the theme. The ballad was definitely a stand-out moment. There’s a bit of a mysterious vibe through the show that I really enjoy.
  10. As always, this competition is insanely hard to predict. The 7-12 range was especially hard to rank because they could be in any order honestly. 1. Vandegrift 2. Cedar Ridge 3. Cedar Park 4. Vista Ridge 5. Rouse* 6. Westlake 7. Westwood 8. Round Rock 9. Leander 10. Lake Travis 11. Hendrickson 12. James Bowie ——————————— 13. Dripping Springs *I haven’t seen anything from Rouse so I’m just assuming that they’re as good as they were last year
  11. Saw CTJ on a football stream from tonight’s game. The pre show is long but really keeps my attention and I love how cinematic it feels. Also just love the arrangement of all the Holst stuff, the whole opener is fantastic. The E.T. reference was cute….I just hope the show doesn’t get lost in the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach that CTJ is prone to. My excitement wanes in the ballad, as it is centered around a vocal duet.
  12. Saw a video of Vandy with their new show uniforms, props, etc. The dance team looks great and really pops off the field. The show is classic Vandy with a bit of a modern twist. I like how they assemble the “grid” at the beginning. Usually they do an amazing job at showcasing a strong dynamic range, and I’m kindof missing that so far (But that could easily be due to nuances being lost through video). I like the mood the flute sets in the ballad, but the ballad feels a bit anticlimactic to me so far. Someone said that the props are going to light up and pulse with the band? Fingers crossed that they can pull that off.
  13. Results: 2022-recap-heb-drumline.pdf
  14. This competition is pretty stacked. 1/3 of the bands are 2021 state finalists! I anticipate Marcus, Coppell, Keller, Wakeland, Timber Creek, Prosper, and Forney to be very strong this year. Haltom had a quiet season last year and I’m pretty sure isn’t doing any BOA this year , so I don’t know what to expect from them. It would be cool to see Coppell come out on top here, as they already look very strong. Although, I haven’t seen much of anything from Marcus or Keller, who are recent winners of this contest. I was not a big fan of Prosper’s show last year (emojis? really??), but I have high hopes for them, especially since they’re returning to Nats (even if this year’s show might feel like Cartwright Texas chair show 2.0). I was a big fan of Timber Creek last year and thought they were kinda underrated until the end of the season (15th at state prelims in their first appearance!). I saw a video (now taken down) of the first 3 parts of the show. To me, it feels much more UIL focused, which isn’t surprising knowing their new director came from Highland Park. They still had that big sound though!
  15. Saw a really great quality video of Westlake. I’m really liking what I’m seeing so far. Lots of character in the music, great clarinet soloist. The visual program is already reading nicely too. The detective theme is coming across in the drill with all the DNA and magnifying glass references. The guard is small but clearly well-trained.
  16. The Woodlands is about where I would expect them to be post major director changes. The show so far feels like a continuation of the themes they’ve had since 2019, which I appreciate. Definitely some struggle in the winds, but TWHS is never known for being clean early. There are great moments in there too where you can hear that classic Woodlands sound. Guard is still crazyyyy good. Some of the drill is…interesting. Lots of blocks moving across the field.
  17. Saw a video of Leander from yesterday (seems to be taken down now). It looks like they’ve weathered the director changes pretty well. Brass had some great moments. There was a cool snare solo (think Blue Knights 2017 or Keller 2018). It was concerning that the guard didn’t have any work out there though.
  18. My exact thought when I Googled “Mad Mod Go” yesterday
  19. Westwood - Beyond the Brick Keller - Wildest Dreams
  20. Cavies is definitely growing on me too. They brought so much infectious energy. Oddly enough, I felt like the closer was the most tame part of the show, I was expecting something crazier. Though, they’ll of course bring the energy through to the end of the show as they build stamina through the season.
  21. Crown was, of course, very impressive. The show is straightforward, but also SO much fun. The guard was on fire, super confident and quite clean.
  22. I’m really really liking Blue Star’s show this year. They achieve a sense of scale that I think is missing from other groups. I can’t wait to see the show once the guard gets cleaned up.
  23. Bluecoats was fantastic. That keytar solo was a highlight of the evening. Boston was also very impressive. Very striking visually. I think the Cavaliers and Blue Stars have tons of room for growth.
  24. I’m not a cryer at all, but there have definitely been a few shows that made me tear up. I’m usually moved more by uplifting shows rather than heavy or sad ones. Hebron 2019 & 2021. I got to see the 2019 show in person at San Antonio finals, but it didn’t fully click for me until I saw the GN prelims performance. I just remember being in awe at the level or performance and feeing so proud of the TX representation. Definitely brought tears to my eyes. The 2021 show didn’t move me in that same way, but I’ve never been more in awe of a show so I have to mention it. Flower Mound 2015 & 2016. I have a lot of nostalgia for shows from these years and Flower Mound introduced me to the pure creativity that was possible on the field. The endings of both shows are perfection to me. In the 2015 show when everything goes quiet and you just hear the choir in the box while the “This is not a Marching Band” banner flies overhead…ughhh!! Then the end of the 2016 show with the woodwind sextet, the horns going crazy, and the sunset imagery, so good. The opening hits of both shows are also crazy good too. Keller 2016. This show grabbed me from the beginning. Ethereal, uplifting, and just beautiful. The ending was what really got me though. Seeing someone do a backflip in full uniform while holding an instrument was so crazy and unexpected for me to see at the time. Leander 2021. Clearly not a heavy show at all, but something about that SA finals performance really had me holding back tears. They had a somewhat turbulent season so I think I was so proud of how excellent and moving the final product was.
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