2025 BOA Waco (Oct. 18)

[WanderingTraveler]

Dang all these bands are using the field well. James Bowie has some really nice staging. Impressed with ensemble awareness when they are so spread out! Trombones were a highlight in this show! Ballad duet into the hit was super effective. Very clean show and the final set of this show was colorful and well done!

[jetliner]

I knew that was going to look better at night but WOW Bowie!!

[Anthony V]

James Bowie (finals) - "The War of Art."  Nice backfield build, though a teensy bit of phasing. Snares now taking us into the world of the opener. Love the percussion writing for this. Nice light and tasty articulation from the low brass. Tone quality a little less focused than prelims, maybe (if I can remember back that far), but we're generally really blended. Tasty light articulation now from the high brass as well at the end of the closer (they did fairly well earlier on, but this was better). Here we go with the steel drum. It's so weird and cool when it's used insightfully. Nice brass feature on the left 30 and right 30 (!). Some phasing, but recovery didn't feel strained. I'm getting the sense that this is probably our bronze medalist tonight. Next, our paint it black ballad feat. bass clarinet and oboe. Solid all the way through. Quirky sax quartet which leads to... 1812 overture lol. Color change, which means we're about to get our closer moment. There change the lights on the backfield props as we get this iconic overture. Standing O from the crowd. They love it!  Guard is selling and I'm buying. Some tiny high brass tuning issues on the last chord. A little behind CR and LD Bell on sound quality but I'm really impressed with the overall craftsmanship. High energy performance for sure. Great job!!

[WanderingTraveler]

JET Mellos 👀 Band seems super visually clean. Articulation done super well, especially in the brass features at the beginning/near the end. Small ensemble work was great. Enjoyable music and show!

[Anthony V]

JET - Love this opening statement. Seamless sound, fantastic breath support it sounds like. Thanks to our  clarinet quintet  for being amazing. Great WW feature feat. bass clarinet. Unbelievably clean brass articulation feature. Did they sound like that in prelims?! That was up like three notches. I love JET's sound. Now we're in the ballad with our euph + trumpet duet. Most of the movement is from the guard, who is doing saber work. Everything seems well timed to me.  Here comes the swing flags and the big ballad hit. Lost some focus in our sound, but when we came back down in dynamics it recovered. Generally strong carriage in marching. There's a little bit of dirt in the follow the leader drill. Closing statement is a little on the weak side. But the closing chord is not! Great recovery right there at the end. I'm not sure the consistency is there to break into top 4, but I could be wrong. I need to see PESH again to make a less worse evaluation about the top 6 ordering.

[WanderingTraveler]

Westlake has my fan favorite show of the night so far. Wish the backfield props were a bit more interactive however. Anyways, WHAT A SOUND! Love the visual choices in this show. Hope that person that fell in the front field is ok! Guard in the ballad was great! Uniforms with the capes are fire. Overall just a great presentation.

 

I unfortunately have to head out the door, but will try to stay updated here  Great job everyone!

[Anthony V]

Westlake - Nice energy build to the first major statement. A little bit of brass unfocus and also a stick out but you're also spread from 10 to 10 lol. Tasty articulation feature. Make that features plural for the trumpets. Good job keeping tempo communicated across the ensemble when we have high voices / low voices alternating. I can't tell if the WWs were double tonguing during the stellar tenor sax solo. Give me some brass jabs now and some weapon line awesomeness. Next up, the ballad. Here is the alto flute solo. Little bit of flat intonation at first, that's just one of the hazards of using a second instrument as a soloist (temperature loss during the show). But great overall. Trombone soloist taking us now to the big hit. And our trombonist is actually jamming out a bit to the brass energy on the left side, haha. I love it. Now back to our alto flute soloist, sans flat intonation. A couple stick-outs here from the low brass. Visual ind. not as strong here as CR (prelims) or Bell (finals). But they've definitely got the right energy. Really strong program, this one. And very decorated, as we hear from the post-performance announcements. 

[Anthony V]

PESH - Looking forward to another stellar performance from this group. Beautiful pre-show sounds, and an even better opening statement. Some visual dirt, I think, but feel that with how dense the drill writing is at time I would need to be up higher to tell. Some slight timing issues, this was tear number two I count (just before the pickaxe bit), but we recovered. I feel like individual marching is pretty strong on our slides. Some odd, very slight timing issues that I don't remember from prelims. Thanks to our mello soloist! And some tone quality issues as well here at the end of the closer.  Our quirky sax quartet brings us into this gem-laden closer. Sound quality is mostly back. We're still dealing with some micro tearing, but overall still a strong ensemble sound. Wife wants to point out that "the kid with the pink gem" is really selling their product, even going so far as to jump up and do a heel click lol.

[jetliner]

Love the Cedar Ridge counting down with the field timer and shouting "Happy New Year!" when time hits 0 and they can enter the field.

[Anthony V]

Cedar Ridge - Our last finalist! Pit up here covered in red shrouds with their arms crossed with their mallets, super creepy, very statuesque. I like the detail. Drumline starts us off. I still have no idea where our sax soloist is, but they sounded great. At their best, the brass tone quality is the best at this contest. This is gonna be tough for the judges. All these brass articulation features are amazingly clear. We're already in the ballad... the full ensemble sound there at the end was almost flawless. I just don't really have much to say! Everything sounds so good. Guard is on fire. Some minor horns up phasing on side 1 as pines of rome starts up.  Marching is really clean overall. Upper body carriage is good and for brass it's accentuated by the shrouds they're covered with. Great performance!!! 

[Anthony V]

Grapevine (exhibition) - Let's hear one more run through from our BOA Waco 2A champs! Lovely opening statement. Guard timing is generally clean. Great rifle work from our weapon line again. Marching is a touch cleaner overall compared to prelims. Also a bit more ensemble energy. Clarinet soloist is going to town! Pretty solid brass feature. A little dirt in these rotating blocks but it's almost more individual errors than ensemble errors. Really delicate ballad theme here, played very nicely. I can feel the side-to-side listening up here. Really wonderful job from our oboe + trombone duet throughout the ballad, especially the oboist. Closer, not a lot to say. Very clean, tidy, pretty focused. Thanks Grapevine! Glad to see you have a second performance today. 

[cheeto2401]

will be doing scores this time like prelims for the people who arent there  

[Anthony V]

Re: predictions... I have little idea. It depends. Here's my probably wrong guess:

1-3 CR/Bell/Bowie

4-6 Westlake/JET/PESH

7-9 Timber Creek/Aledo/Midlo

10-12 Westwood/SFA/Hutto

Something like that. Not feeling sure.

[cheeto2401]

2 minutes ago, Anthony V said:

Re: predictions... I have little idea. It depends. Here's my probably wrong guess:

1-3 CR/Bell/Bowie

4-6 Westlake/JET/PESH

7-9 Timber Creek/Aledo/Midlo

10-12 Westwood/SFA/Hutto

Something like that. Not feeling sure.

i have a slight feeling cedar ridge might overtake bell, which id be really sad if thats the case, i do agree w everything else tho

[Anthony V]

Just now, cheeto2401 said:

i have a slight feeling cedar ridge might overtake bell, which id be really sad if thats the case, i do agree w everything else tho

As I was writing that, I was literally thinking to myself "Okay, my heart says Bell but my brain really says CR" lol. They could win on heart again with GE, but almost everyone upped their game tonight so it'll be harder to win on a single caption.

[cheeto2401]

5 minutes ago, Anthony V said:

As I was writing that, I was literally thinking to myself "Okay, my heart says Bell but my brain really says CR" lol. They could win on heart again with GE, but almost everyone upped their game tonight so it'll be harder to win on a single caption.

hard? yes. impossible? no. #ldbellfanforever

[WanderingTraveler]

Also huge shout out to @Anthony V for the recaps today. Super comprehensive!

[cheeto2401]

8th - Timber Creek H.S., TX - 83.400
8th - Aledo H.S., TX - 83.400

got hella confused when he said 8th place for a second

[cheeto2401]

2025 BOA Waco Regional Finals Awards

1st - Cedar Ridge H.S., TX - 88.125
2nd - L.D. Bell H.S., TX - 88.100
3rd - James Bowie H.S., TX - 87.525
4th - Westlake H.S., TX - 86.800
5th - Plano East Senior H.S., TX - 85.275
6th - Westwood H.S., TX - 84.800
7th - James E. Taylor H.S., TX - 84.100
8th - Timber Creek H.S., TX - 83.400
8th - Aledo H.S., TX - 83.400
10th - Midlothian H.S., TX - 82.450
11th - Hutto H.S., TX - 82.275
12th - Stephen F. Austin H.S., TX - 81.250

Outstanding Music Performance - L.D. Bell H.S., TX
Outstanding Visual Performance - Westlake H.S., TX
Outstanding GE Performance - Cedar Ridge H.S., TX

 

this is one heck of a finals results / awards if ive ever seen one

all scores in the 80's, .025 gap between 1st and 2nd, all captions given to different bands, AND A TIE?????

[crunchycookie3]

Wow, could not have been closer at the top. Congratulations Cedar Ridge! These top 3 feel very reminiscent of the mid 2010s, makes me happy to see these programs continue to be so successful. Onward to area!

[Xenon]

Fun Fact:

This is the FIRST EVER 0.025 gap between 1st and 2nd in BOA History.

[BugWub24]

12-15 was super close, separated by just 0.600. Midlothian just made the cut over Hendrickson, McNeil, and Wylie East.

[cheeto2401]

18 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Fun Fact:

This is the FIRST EVER 0.025 gap between 1st and 2nd in BOA History.

thats insane

[flutefanatic59]

I’m pleasantly surprised that that we (westlake) got visual, especially considering that our prelims score was higher than our finals score. 
(while I know that doesn’t say too much, it’s still was very unexpected to us)

[cheeto2401]

14 minutes ago, BugWub24 said:

12-15 was super close, separated by just 0.600. Midlothian just made the cut over Hendrickson, McNeil, and Wylie East.

i knew those bands had to be super close for them to be left out of finals, like i was so shocked