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BOAfanatic

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Everything posted by BOAfanatic

  1. Wow. Definitely the most unforgettable BOA San Antonio EVER! But, in order to truly assess what on Earth just happened, and to figure out the real state of our marching bands, we must ask ourselves one pivotal question (and I'm not sure I know the answer yet): is this the most inaccurate group of judges we've ever had, or is it the most honest and unbiased one?
  2. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am for this contest. I mean, this is in every way a grand nationals of the south! I don't know how I could possibly pick 14 bands and say "that's who I think will make finals." There's just no way! The level of talent across the entire state of Texas has been uniformly raised exponentially. It's as if somebody took the master volume panel (replaced with a "master talent" panel) and just kicked it up 5 notches! IT'S INSANE! I have a feeling this is going to be, top to bottom, one of greatest overall contests BOA has seen in years, if not its entire history. I mean, just making finals is going to be such a dogfight that every single finalist band could probably make grand national finals. Just think about those last 4 spots. SO many bands could take them. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a band that has made finals at San Antonio every year for a decade that suddenly misses this year (we already saw a similar situation last year with Winston Churchill). This is just going to be nuts. I have to buy this DVD!
  3. Very true. Is it a bit strange that Bowie got ninth overall in music, behind many bands we may not have expected? I think it is to an extent. But is it strange how even after getting ninth in music, Bowie still won the whole contest? Definitely not. At the end of the day, they were without a doubt the favorite coming into this contest. I really wish we could have seen how things played out in a finals contest, but I suppose we'll just have to wait until Conroe. Now, if someone can manage to steal a caption from The Woodlands, I'll be genuinely impressed.
  4. I don't know...other than Aledo high school (the band that got suddenly poured on in the middle of their show), was it really ever raining during anyone else's performance? Other than maybe the wet field affecting visuals (which still seems to me like a negligible effect at best), I can't imagine how rain would have had anything to do with the oddities in the scores. Especially considering there was no finals contest, it could very well be that Bowie and Cedar Park just had exceptionally weak performances (as compared to their usual) while CTJ and Vandegrift had exceptionally strong performances.
  5. My fearless prediction: Grand Nationals is about to become the Texas regional of Indiana.
  6. Reagan did a great job today! Definitely top 11 and semi-finals qualifier!
  7. I am here in Indianapolis right now. I will be watching Reagan today and Bowie tomorrow. I'll let you guys know how both do!
  8. Wow, what a great judging panel! As for some of the out of state judges, I can personally vouch for Mr. James Keene. Although I am now an alum, graduating high school earlier this year, I can still remember clearly all the great times I had when Mr. Keene would come to clinic our band, especially before we went to the national concert band festival. Mr. Keene is a highly intelligent man, and I 100% respect and trust his expertise in music (I'm just guessing he will be a music judge, but whatever the case, you can trust this man's word).
  9. Look, I know it must feel pretty horrible not making finals at area in the midst of such a good year for your school. I was thinking to myself "Looks like they waited to announce Round Rock until last". And then they called another band, and I too was in shock. Whatever you do, don't let yourself get too down in the dumps considering you have another great shot this Friday to make some noise. All you should worry about is going out there on Friday or Saturday and showing the world why you guys are awesome. For whatever it's worth, I thought you guys did amazing. Good luck.
  10. Let me just say this: I saw them perform last Friday the night before area contest without any of the trees. Let's just say it was revealing.
  11. No kidding. It's pretty weird though how inconsistent the visual judging was not just in prelims but in finals. Music judging was for the most part pretty consistent and pretty accurate. However, there were only 2 bands in finals that the visual judges agreed on, the best and the worst. And everywhere in between was quite frankly chaos. 2nd and 7th, 3rd and 9th, 9th and 5th, all over the place. This sort of shuffling of the deck may have allowed the higher placement of some bands. When we look at the music scores, it was 1. Bowie (3), 2. Reagan (8), 3. Johnson (10) and 4. Westlake (12). Looking at this, if one visual judge would have placed a certain band one place differently and Reagan and Johnson were to tie, Reagan would have won that music based tie-breaker. I was there at the area D contest and personally watched all of the finals bands. Bowie far and away deserved first, but I have to say if I was a judge I would have put Reagan second. Their finals performance was head and shoulders above their prelims performance, very polished, powerful, and effective. Johnson didn't give me the cleanliness in marching or the power in brass sound that I would have expected from them. All and all, it was very close, and it should be interesting to see what happens at state. I think we could see multiple bands from area D make state finals.
  12. I think that so long as the band members don't let the fact that they are going first affect them negatively, there really is not much of a disadvantage to going first. I've performed first at a UIL 5A area marching contest before and placed second out of all of the bands the entire day.
  13. I honestly think that trying to make predictions for this area at all is going out on a limb. I can already tell this has the makings to be one of the best area contests in years. Sure, Bowie getting first is pretty likely, but I really don't think that anything is certain at this point. UIL scoring system, different panels from prelims to finals, not to mention so many bands doing alot better than they have been. Musically this must be a nightmare for the judges! You've got Bowie who probably sounds nails as usual, CTJ with their CTJ brass, Round Rock who keeps giving me goosebumps left and right, Cedar Ridge who came out running from literally nowhere, Ronald Reagan who actually outscored The Woodlands in music ensemble at Conroe...this will probably be more exciting than many state contests have been! Nobody is completely safe at this one and there are great bands who could give anyone a run for their money at state that won't make it out of this area contest.
  14. Indeed, this is going to be an interesting year. I too believe that we are seeing the rise and fall of dynasties. Even then, though, this is the hardest time I've ever had trying to pick a winner for SA. And quite frankly, it's because there is none. Under certain circumstances, there are a lot of bands that could win SA, or at the very least rewrite some long held beliefs. Marcus and Bell have been in power for too long, but I don't know if we will see someone new decisively grab power this year or see a couple years of, well, anarchy. Results for the next couple of years could be all over the place until a new power takes control for good. I would expect anything to happen next Saturday.
  15. I guess I can agree with that, only I feel like there are way too many bands using props for the sake of props.
  16. No. For example, say Area Z is made up of region 1, 2, and 3. If a band from region 1 advances to area contest at area z, they will be competing for a spot in state against not only the rest of the region 1 bands that advanced to area, but also the other bands from region 2 and 3 that advanced to area as well.
  17. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out. I don't know that Vandegrift could take Cedar Park or Cedar Ridge either, but what's for sure is that Cedar Park is vulnerable this year. Their playing is great as always, but their visuals could definitely be stronger, and their GE I think is their biggest downfall. GE is becoming more and more important, and this showed at Conroe when Cedar Park lost in prelims and finals to Reagan, who happens to be making quite a push for GE with their guard change, plume change, light up accessories and the whole 9 yards. I agree though that playing loud is not everything. First, it's all about playing loud and balanced, and second, it's not about how many decibals a band's sound can reach, but about how much overall dynamic contrast they can achieve.
  18. I saw Vandegrift's show for the first time today. I definitely think it has the charm and GE to get into finals, and what can I say about starting a show off with that clarinet gliss? All in all the theme is very relateable and if they continue to push into the late season, which is something they have had some trouble with in the past, they could definitely make finals.
  19. Just my thoughts/analysis on some bands we can expect to see in finals as well as the large bubble of great programs that will be in my opinion fighting for spots in finals. Firstly, my own personal picks for finals (NOT in any particular order, I won't guess on placements yet): Marcus- A very strong program, as usual, although they did suffer a bit of drawback last year, placing fourth at San Antonio (definitely worse than expected by myself). However, in retrospect, the more and more I look at last year, the more and more I'm thinking they deserved fourth, if not lower. Marcus has kind of gotten into a bad habit of using gigantic props to sit there and take up a third of the field so that the remaining 200 band members can march drill with extremely small step sizes and many holds (thus making it easy for the music to sound good). I know I will probably receive a good deal of criticism from the many fans of Marcus, and I definitely do not want to undermine all of the hard work these kids do. It's just, when you look beyond the multi-colored light up props, what all is left? And that is more what should be judged. Anyways, on to this year. They should be able to show off their fantastic woodwind section with all of the Bach music they are playing, which is good, and keep in mind their wind symphony placed third in the state honor band contest playing the toccata and fugue in d minor, which is also good. The gates this year are definitely more active than props from previous years, which is good, and the show design as a whole provides much more comedy, intensity, and resolve than I felt from last year. I would absolutely say this show is on the right track to do much better than last year's, and top 3 is a definite for this band considering the absence of Bowie. Sorry for being a bit longwinded on that one, most will not be that long. LD Bell- Shoot. LD Bell, the band that has reigned supreme in Texas and the nation in its decades long dynasty. Considering their massive success last year, I had these guys as my favorite to win this contest. However, I just don't know anymore. First off, I'm not so sure it was a good idea on their part to not go to any regionals, and then just go to St. Louis and San Antonio. I mean, do you really want your first contest of the year to be one of the most important? And then, the results of St. Louis. Second in class to Owasso? I know, Owasso is a quality program, but this is LD Bell we're talking about, former Grand National champions. This was an upset in every way. This band in many ways including guard, brass sound, design, and endurance does not seem to be doing as well as they were last year. Alot can happen between now and San Antonio, but I would not be surprised at all to see another program take this band's spot in the top 3. The Woodlands- With their first ever BOA regional win at Conroe this year. This is a band that was at the center of it all last year; the premier Texas band attedning Grand Nationals, the breathtaking second place finish at San Antonio, and more. This is a band that consistently impresses, and has made an even further push in the last few years. Their use of props is intricate and appropriate, enhancing the GE but not snatching all of the attention away from their great sounding band. The narration in this band's performances is second only to Marian Catholic from Illinois in my opinion. I expect this band to place in the top 3 as well, and third place is no longer my cap for them. Claudia Taylor Johnson- A band that has really broken onto the scene the last couple of years. 2010 and they made it to UIL state, very close to finals as well. And then last year. I don't think I have ever seen a band turn it on so much for the prospects of attending Grand Nationals (for the first time, too). This band is unrivaled in their brass' ability to play with such a loud yet balanced sound, which is far superior to a loud and edgy/unbalanced sound. No doubt, their decision to convert many woowind players to brass instruments for marching season has given them a very large ratio of brass to woodwinds, which is surely a contributing factor. But nonetheless, this skill truly makes them stand out among the common rabble of contest bands. The shows this band performs are also very well designed to give them a maximum GE score, which is good for BOA. Transitions however can sometimes be a problem. Anyways, I'd say top 5 at SA is a very likely proposition for this band, and as for top 3, it's a maybe. Ronald Reagan- A band that has truly been all over the place. After the school split some years back, this program was struggling a bit and definitely fell off their throne of the early to mid 2000's. In 2010, it appeared as though this band was indeed making a comeback, and we began to see bits and pieces of their former glory. A strong sixth place finish at SA and a tie for eleventh at state, barely missing finals, made it apparent that this band was on the right track. However, last year we did not see the improvement we would have expected. In fact, we kind of saw the opposite. Spaces would have been a great UIL show, because it had some pretty cool music and pretty cool drill being performed at an ok level, but the show just didn't make any sense to me, and I think that was their greatest downfall. However, they seemed to have turned things around again this year, just in time for their return to Grand Nationals. Let it shine definitely has a much better GE than last year, and the drill is not so exhausting as spaces that they will lose endurance and suffer in the end of the show. They are using many innovative little props, and once again, there is a plume change as well as a guard change. This show, while quite dirty at Denton, is beginning to shadow the Reagan we once knew and loved. I would say, especially after a shocking second place finish at Conroe, that this band is well on their way to making a splash at the late competitions this year, considering how they almost never peak early, and should definitely not be viewed in the same light as last year. As for San Antonio, it all depends on the amount of improvement we see from them. If they can improve the same amount they did in the week between Denton and Conroe every week following, these guys could kick bands like Cedar Park or Hebron right out of the top 5. I'm excited to see what becomes of these guys at Grand Nationals. They should really spice up that upper bubble of bands fighting for finals like Plymouth Canton, William Mason and what not. Good luck to them! Cedar Park- A band that is currently excelling in some areas, and lacking in others. As always, this is a very strong group, well deserving of their 4A state champion title. However, the idea is suddenly growing on me that these guys may be a fairly UIL skewed band. As for this year, thier music is absolutely fantastic. They achieved a commanding victory over The Woodlands in ensemble music at Conroe and are playing their Mexican themed music like nobody's business. Visuals are decent, not quite what I would expect from Cedar Park, but the reason I say these guys may be UIL skewed is because of their general effect. I mean, let's be honest, how good is it in celebracion? And I'm not saying it has anything to do with their performing the show, but more with the design. I mean, is it all just a celebration for celebrating's sake? I don't know, but I will gladly listen if anyone else sees something that I don't. As for this band, I would expect around 5-7 place, maybe eighth at the lowest if someone comes out and really steps it up. Hebron- These guys have been in for a sheer roller coaster ride. They did great in 2010, and then I missed them in San Antonio finals last year. All in all, this band really is remarkable for their marching and playing ability, and they jumped right back into the swing of things with a strong fourth place finish at Denton. However, the question arises, do these guys just peak too early? This is a very real possibility, if not consistently then definitely last year? It really is unfortunate for bands that peak early like that (the most notorious example I can think of being Vandegrift). These guys seem to still be holding up, which is good. I would say a top five finish for these guys is a likely thing. Cedar Ridge- A band that sort of just jumped right into the mix here, which is the great thing about Texas; every year, we see dark horse bands (ie. Round Rock, Johnson, etc.) that come from almost out of nowhere and start challenging the long standing powerhouses. In almost every other state, all we see is a dynasty of perennial bands that hold an absolute strangle hold on the state, never to be contested (ie. Broken Arrow in OK, Tarpon Springs in FL, Avon in IN, Marian Catholic in IL, Kennesaw Mountain in GA). These guys came from literally nowhere to making quite a splash at Conroe. Even more shocking is how well they did in the individual sub captions (I believe they actually won some in prelims or finals). I would be very surprised not to see these guys in finals at SA, and top 10 is calling their name. Hendrickson- Definitely a dark horse at SA. I don't remember seeing these guys in finals in my days attending the contest, and I don't know if they have ever made it before. However, all that aside, I strongly believe these guys are well on their way to making finals at this competition. This band did very well at their last regional in Conroe, placing fifth in finals, over the bottom five bands like Pflugerville and Churchill (the ladder I definitely see as a SA finalist) and bands like Friendswood and McNeil who didn't even make finals (which I know made some people upset). These guys can march and play, and demand not to be forgotten at this competition. I definitely see these guys in finals. Round Rock- From what I have heard, this band is doing quite well this year (much better than last year). This is good, for I feel that this band could be doing alot more (at least as of last year). I have not seen them at all this year, so my opinion of them is pretty blind and I wouldn't advise anyone to take this to heart too much. I will be seeing them at the UIL area D marching contest (assuming they make area, which I'm sure they will, it's just this has yet to be officially confirmed to me since region was today). Perhaps my opinion of them will change after then, but rest assure I think I can safely say we will be seeing these guys at SA finals and probably state (although state finals are in question). Winston Churchill- A band that has been hanging in there over the past few years, but is definitely on the right track to start doing much better. They started the season off with a strong score in finals at Conroe, tying Pflugerville but losing due to general effect. The use of props in this band is really involving, and although I can't really say I like this year's venus fly traps that appear to just sit there over last year's moons that turned into suns, the equipment the color guard is using (as well as the guard itself) really lends itself to creating a strong general effect (that and the bari sax visual soloist, which was both intriguing and comical for I at first did not know if that was planned out or a big mistake considering how chaotic and dangerous it is). I still feel though that too many people somehow forget about this band when making predictions for finals at SA. This group is a strong contender for finals, and I would be quite surprised not to see them at SA finals. Anderson- These guys are currently doing a great job at the St. Louis super regional! I can't wait to see how they placed after finals. While that should add alot more speculation fodder, I feel strong enough already to say that this band is a strong contender for finals at SA. Don't get me wrong, SA is easily the most difficult super regional to place in, and can't really be compared to St. Louis, but that is not needed; this band is also a strong contender for UIL state and should add some intrigue to the lower split of SA finals. Well, there's 12 out of 14 spots for finals. At this point, we get into the "bubble" zone of bands that may or may not make it. No doubt, there is a strong bubble and a weak bubble though. These descriptions will be much shorter due to the number of bubble bands. Strong bubble: Flower Mound- definitely the strongest contender I haven't yet listed. I had the chance to watch their finals performance at BOA SA last year, and there was quite a bit of quality from this group. They seem to be in a pretty good place competetively, and probably are included in my own finals picks for the top 14 bands. Spring- One never can guess exactly what you're going to get from this group. I have not seen them yet at competition this season, but I feel that it is essentially going to be a fight between these guys and Richland for the last spot in finals. Richland- A nice finish at Denton earlier this season gives this band a strong edge in terms of the fight in the bubble bands. Again though, I feel it will be a huge battle between these guys and Spring for finals, who will win I can't really say. It should be close. Weak bubble: Vandegrift- Lots of people are saying this could be the year that Vandy makes finals at SA. I just don't know though. Yes, they are doing great in early season competitions like Denton and Vista Ridge, but again I feel like they come out with such an early season edge, and then by the time everyone else has caught up they are just buried. I would not bet on this band making finals at SA, but anything could happen. Stephen F. Austin- My deepest condolences to this band. I really can't imagine what it would be like to have the head band director leave you for a higher ranking fine arts position, leaving you with no show or nothing, and then have another instructor step down and being left effectively staffless with no show, no arranger and no drill writer. The fact that this band made finals at Conroe is really a Cinderella story and is just a testament to the sheer willpower of the students in this band. However, I just don't think I see this band making finals at SA. It's really heartbreaking to think about the fact that the recent breakout Stephen F. Austin band is effectively gone, and may take many years to rebuild. Best of luck to them. If I was in charge of this whole thing, I would give them an exhibition performance in finals to give them some sort of appreciation for how hard they have been working despite so much going wrong. The Woodlands College Park- Finally! A year where this band is no longer the nobody band who everyone gets angry at for confusing with The Woodlands! I honestly don't think these guys will make finals, but I must say that I LOVE THEIR SHOW! When I found out that they made finals at Conroe, I was 10 times more happy than finding out that my band made finals! If they were to make finals at SA, I would support them all the way and watching them would likely be the highlight of my night! But honestly, the general effect of their show is actually quite decent, and could very realistically be in the top 14 GE scores of the contest. But at this rate, they could someday soon become a real competitor. Well, that's about all for SA. No doubt that after this it'll be time to analyze for state and Grand Nationals (wish Bowie was at SA, for their show was easily my favorite last year and I think they should have won SA).
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