Origin

Aledo’s quality of sound is so good! Really impressive music performance. The Beethoven in Havana will now be stuck in my head for the rest of the night.

I think Reagan was the best for me so far. Just really solid throughout. Not their most interesting concept, but there’s something about the simplicity that really works when it’s executed like that. Lots of difficulty and exposed moments.

Bridgeland was so good. I didn’t hear anything to warrant the panic about the music I was seeing. Also that guard 😳

Probably my favorite LD Bell show in recent years. So beautiful!

I really like Timber Creek this year. The show feels more ambitious than anything they’ve done, plus, the guard is very quickly rising up the ranks and will be a big threat at WGI this year. I just hope they can get the show finished and clean enough for area in two weeks.

Probably my favorite Cy Fair show I’ve ever seen. Also those woodwinds 🔥

I looooove The Woodland’s visual design this year. Those props are so cool. I also love the Spanish flair in the music, thank you TWHS for always having interesting repertoire! Definitely some music moments to clean up, but visual was cleaner than I was expecting. Guard is exceptional as always despite the wind.

Marcus’ show is kindof different for them, and I love it. Those weird pitch bends in the woodwinds are so so cool. Then that percussion feature!!!!! So. Freaking. Good. The ballad showcases that typical Marcus sonority.

Wakeland was very clean and energetic. I was especially impressed with their visual performance. This show concept has been done 1 million times, but they found a way to make it completely engaging. I was definitely very wrong when I called their drill easy in August, lol.

Coppell is always one of my favorites. They are the full package and go all out every year. The giant rifle and piccolo props are so creative! Not my absolute favorite visual aesthetic with all the big boxes (reminds me a bit of Hebron 2018) but I don’t really care because everything was so so good.

Pearland was fantastic!!! Very strong Cartwright vibes obviously. Those flute solos feel right out of a Broken Arrow show. They should easily make Nats finals with this show I think. Definitely some cleaning to do visually, but the whole show is out there. Might medal tonight 👀 who knows…depends on how clean everyone else is though

Great job from Forney! Hope they can snag a finals spot despite the early performance time.

Prelims recaps: https://www.hebmarching.org/uploads/2023-recap-heb.pdf Finals recaps: https://www.hebmarching.org/uploads/2023-recap-heb-finals.pdf

Shocked with Timber Creek in 2nd in 6A. Thought they had some quite rough moments musically.

Hopefully they stream this contest on YouTube like they usually do. I saw both Marcus and Keller’s latest halftime performances (with audio, yay!). Maybe it’s bit of recency bias, but these are the two that have excited me the most out of the bands competing here. Marcus’ show is suuuuper edgy. After the pre show they literally start with the most dissonant, crunchy chord before jumping into a very fast and technical section. Lots of notes constantly flying. I also love how dramatic and unique their choreo is. The second part is pretty much entirely a percussion feature…it’s just so so cool and intense. Keller’s show is very beautiful but also powerful. Lots of Mahler 2 goodness, which I think they are definitely doing justice. I really like how they’re showcasing quieter dynamics and more lyrical moments on top of the loud stuff you would usually expect. The brass feature that they play on the move after the ballad kindof knocked my socks off. Haven’t seen Wakeland in a month. From what I remember they had a lot of their show out there and it was very very clean. I wouldn’t be surprised if they show up with a full, clean, production. I think they’ll do really really well here, even though I wasn’t as excited by the concept. I also saw Keller Central’s most recent performance. They didn’t perform a ton of their show, and it felt a bit underproduced for this point in the season, but I was really quite impressed. It’s a similar vibe to last year. Very intense, edgy, and lots of notes…maybe a liiiittle overly blasty. Hopefully the rest of the show showcases a full range of musicality. Forney is looking like a solid top half of finals contender. I’m also interested to see how much Timber Creek has cleaned, because as of September 1st, it looked like they had a lot of work to do.

Finally saw a good video of Carmel from their regional finals performance. They’re so good lol. I take back what i said about the music, it just really really works. I can’t not love anything Bernstein. I also love how subtly eerie the show is. Gonna be a tough one to beat. I also saw the first 3.5 minutes of Blue Springs. Not sure what the show is about, but there’s lots of fingerprint patterns on the tarps/props. I really like the narration at the beginning, which is rare for me. The emotional narration and dramatic woodwind solos just really draw you in. Guard is very strong and the band looks and sounds good, but everything so far is park and bark, which is kindof disappointing.

Round Rock 11th in prelims 🤔

I hadn’t even seen their show but was confused why they weren’t ranked at all considering they usually do very well early season

Rouse medal?

Lake Travis sounding like a top half finalist for sure!

I loooove Vista’s music book. They sound amazing too, maybe the best of the competition for me. Wish I could see what was going on though 🙃

I love how Round Rock takes advantage of the space with their drill. Also a wonderful display of dynamics. Can’t wait to see it all cleaned up later on.

You’re not alone

Not my favorite Leander design, but they seem ahead of where they were last year. The improvement the guard has made in one year is really impressive. The ballad is definitely the standout moment of the show.

Amazing woodwind runs and powerful brass sounds from Westwood!