UIL 6A State Marching Contest 2025 (Nov 3-4)

[WanderingTraveler]

Cy-Fair: Excited to see y’all in finals! Right off the rip, y’all are bringing some serious power into these chords at the beginning. I don’t think the stream is doing the effect of these props justice, I feel like I’ve seen them look better on a different recording. However, I always enjoyed how they lineup with where the sound is on the field in that secondary opening section. I enjoy the shimmering mirror circles the guard holds. Some great playing from the French horn soloist! Great exposed front ensemble moment after the French horn solo. Oboe shredding during his solo! Visually, a great way to end the show, nice!

[HagsTPT]

Man I just love how Cy-Fair's props just flicker like that when a section is playing thats always so cool and that balled with the French horn soloist just sounds so good as well as the endings oboe soloist and just once again congrats on making it to finals 

[slowbrass]

Cy-Fair - percussion! This gave me serious 2015-2019 blue knights vibes. The battery isn’t just ramming 25/8 and is actually part of the orchestration. I thought the show was beautiful and understated (except for a few out of control moments in the brass) and the hook of the show is a 10/10. Great design and great band.

[WanderingTraveler]

Pearland: I really enjoy this tarp surrounding the field. I’m sure it’s a logistical nightmare, but it adds a layer of depth to the field right off the get-go. Great job from both of the mello and flute small ensemble at the beginning. The evolution of the first few sets is really cool to watch from the squares the lines to the big wave. Drum Major looks like they’re having a lot of fun. Dang, there’s a lot of you, but it’s actually incredibly clean. Total visual ensemble package is quite nice. How did I never notice y’all had a cymbal line?!?! Before the backfield playing, was sort of confused about the musical direction we were going, but the lead into the hit in the ballad was quite nice. Great control of the crescendo and release here. Really cool effect to have everyone pile in on the one guard member. Looks like y’all were sprinting in the closer, but still retained the form. Great powerful chord to end the closer, great showing Pearland!

[slowbrass]

Pearland - I’m a simple man, and I love On the Waterfront, so of course I enjoyed this show. They’re a big band with a big sound, which is great 90% of the time, but in that other 10% some clarity gets lost and it’s overall a little muddy. Really nice visual moment in the ballad as well.

[HagsTPT]

Amazing sound brought by the pride of Pearland I also loved their little clarinet ensemble towards their balled even though it may seem unlikely but I do hope Pearland climes there way to top 7 

[HagsTPT]

loved the way coppell utilizes their woodwinds just amazing features throughout as well for their soloists just sounds so amazing and that percussion break right in the middle sounds really killer with the tenors and snares. Fantastic job coppell  

[WanderingTraveler]

Coppell: Really enjoyed hearing the flute for like a full minute during mic check, great player! More Scheherazade!!!! Wow, y’all have a great powerful and balanced sound, and HOLY MELLOS!!! WW features in the beginning were really exposed, but great execution. On the stream, the pit was covering up the jam session impact, unsure if that translates in-dome. Overall, I feel like this group does a really good job with control. Music in the ballad made me feel like I’m in a scene where I should be riding a dragon or something, beautiful stuff. Cool quad and snare feature. Overall, although there’s a lot of small ensemble work in the show, it doesn’t distract from being a marching show. Another shout out to the flute soloist, wicked talented. Great job Coppell!

[slowbrass]

Coppell - doing coppell things, playing the heck out of their horns and drums. The quad break in particular caught my attention, although it wasn’t totally clean. Great job from them!

[HagsTPT]

As we start of the top 7 with Vandy HOLY MOLY THEY ARE NOT HERE TO PLAY BIG sounds from the brass across the field everywhere and just love all of their music overall and loved that drum break with the clarinet solo I can definitely see them earning a medal later this afternoon 

[WanderingTraveler]

Vandegrift: What a powerful opening from this group. Despite what happened yesterday, y’all had incredible resilience and came back for an outstanding performance. Wonderful flugel soloist to start the show, with a great display of woodwind tone alongside. Right into some great triple tongue work from the brass. This show has outstanding soloist all around. Visually in sync at the end of the opener, great job. Really rich sounds coming from the trombone small ensemble, one of my favorite parts of the show. Good finish to the ballad, and straight into a clarinet solo thats super technically impressive. More super in-sync runs from the brass, into WW runs. A few slight discrepancies in the ensemble visual, during this challenging drill section at the end… but again, great performance, great effect, and outstanding performance!

[HagsTPT]

Love the woodlands show this year probably my favorite in finals ngl gotta give credit to all those crazy woodwind runs with the clarinet soloist in the beginning and great job to the trombone soloist and amazing stuff done by the brass towards the ending just pure awesomeness 

[WanderingTraveler]

The Woodlands: Starting up the show with a bang! Super unified, lower body work right off the bat. Really enjoy these fun uniforms. First major impact was super balanced. The woodwind feature is super technically, impressive, and very audible. Not a huge fan of how the field is staged around like minute two of the show. Definitely a super fun show, taking jazziest of the day for sure. Nice buildup in the ballad, with some halftime marching. Few trumpets sticking out of the texture during the impact, but overall great ballad. Nice styling of some of these jazz rhythms. Brass tonguing feature went well this afternoon! Shout out to this soprano sax soloist! Ending felt a bit shaky, but that is some crazy difficult content at the end. What a fun show. Great job The Woodlands, super entertaining.

[HagsTPT]

YESSSSSSS AGAIN MARCUS WITH THAT AMAZING PERCUSSION FEATURE prob is the best thing in the show in my opinion and just so many great spectacular moments in the show from especially their balled with good sounds all around I expect them to do AMAZINGLY WELL AND GRAND NATS THIS YEAR

[BandDad74]

RE: Marcus - 

On either side on the front of the band - at each far end - it looked like there were directors conducting.  They were wearing suits.  Did i see that right?  Is that allowed?  Honestly don't know the rules about this....

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Marcus: Great pre-show leading into this massive opening hit! Woodwind technique right of the bat, super clean. Sounds are super controlled with nobody playing outside the texture, but still quite loud. Nice flute duet! Followed by a bunch of individual small section showcases, most of them were really good, a few muddy brass moments. Now we have an impressive showing of the Marcus percussion. Snares, followed by quad feature… And then a bunch of impressive random things happening in the pit. Great battery break, into the amazing timpani solo! The percussion break has to be my favorite moment of this show. Another great run from this brass quartet, super warm sounds, followed by a great flautist, into the (West Side Story Symphonic Dances?!?!) ballad hit. Really enjoy how the final set of this show is staged. Build into the last few seconds of the show is super creative creatively done, and I love the slow down. Great job Marcus.

[WanderingTraveler]

1 minute ago, BandDad74 said:

RE: Marcus - 

On either side on the front of the band - at each far end - it looked like there were directors conducting.  They were wearing suits.  Did i see that right?  Is that allowed?  Honestly don't know the rules about this....

 

Yeah, this happens in quite often in a few shows, there should be no problems with it. You see it a lot when drum majors have solos and they still need coverage of that part of the field.

[HagsTPT]

WOW HEBRO oops Hebron my bad just insane double tonging features and lets not forget about the woodwinds technical runs and those small little percussion breaks both drumline and front ensemble going absolute bonkers just WOW Hebron

[WanderingTraveler]

Hebron: I always really enjoy listening to y’alls backfield warm-up, great way to set the tone of how good y’all are. I guess today they changed what they’re considering their pre-show? Seems they started after the announcement today, unless the announcer was told to read early. HOLY BRASS. This full ensemble sound, and brass technique at the beginning is absolutely incredible… This will be hard to beat. Trumpets absolutely shredding through this opening brass book. Great low brass sounds afterward, into a great display of brass tonguing. Followed by some outstanding woodwind runs…and then MORE BRASS TONGUING WORK!!! Hebron musically seems to be firing on all cylinders today. Visually, from the individual level, seems very clean, but some forms have some slight discrepancies. Looks like the soprano sax soloist is marching with a boot on? Respect. I think Hebron charts woodwind-only non-technical moments very well. Enjoying the visual tapestry for the impact at the ballad, and really enjoy how these props are double designed. Great guard work around this time! Percussion definitely looked like they had a better run today than prelims, feature sounded good, I feel like the content meter could be upped a bit though. Woodwind feature into a brass technical section, and then a jam sesh. Great run Hebron, gonna be very hard to beat that musically.

[WanderingTraveler]

Hebron: I always really enjoy listening to y’alls backfield warm-up, great way to set the tone of how good y’all are. I guess today they changed what they’re considering their pre-show? Seems they started after the announcement today, unless the announcer was told to read early. HOLY BRASS. This full ensemble sound, and brass technique at the beginning is absolutely incredible… This will be hard to beat. Trumpets absolutely shredding through this opening brass book. Great low brass sounds afterward, into a great display of brass tonguing. Followed by some outstanding woodwind runs…and then MORE BRASS TONGUING WORK!!! Hebron musically seems to be firing on all cylinders today. Visually, from the individual level, seems very clean, but some forms have some slight discrepancies. Looks like the soprano sax soloist is marching with a boot on? Respect. I think Hebron charts woodwind-only non-technical moments very well. Enjoying the visual tapestry for the impact at the ballad, and really enjoy how these props are double designed. Great guard work around this time! Percussion definitely looked like they had a better run today than prelims, feature sounded good, I feel like the content meter could be upped a bit though. Woodwind feature into a brass technical section, and then a jam sesh. Great run Hebron, gonna be very hard to beat that musically.

[FwefewF]

Hebron, please let this be a normal field trip 

[BandDad74]

Just now, FwefewF said:

Hebron, please let this be a normal field trip 

I don't get it....?

[HagsTPT]

oh no a little delay from vista

[WanderingTraveler]

2 minutes ago, FwefewF said:

Hebron, please let this be a normal field trip 

With The. Sealy?!? No way!!!

[Thatonedoublereed14]

4 minutes ago, BandDad74 said:

I don't get it....?

Elite Magic School Bus reference