Texas Marching Classic

[jmj]

Just wanted to post a few brief thoughts on this great contest.  It was a super tight battle for the win between Clements and Ronald Reagan.  Reagan won 1st in prelims and took most of the captions (Music, GE, Guard, Percussion), and Clements won 1st in finals and took most of the captions (Music, Visual, Guard).  Clements scored 84.23 in finals and Reagan 84.10.

It was extremely hot during the day, but cooled off nicely during finals with a slight breeze and you could really tell a difference in performance level.  Every single band stepped up their game immensely from prelims to finals.  It was a great evening, overall.  Fredericksburg (3A Class Champ) was about halfway through their exhibition when the rains came pouring, so the full finals retreat was unfortunately cancelled.  But, at least we made it through the finals with good weather!

 

A few brief thoughts...

 

Clements - Wow!  One of 2 Star Trek-themed shows of the day (7th place Copperas Cove did a nice job on the other one).  Clements show was called "Resistance is Futile" and all the band members wore Borg-style headpieces, rather than shakos.  The guard and drum majors were in the traditional gold, red, blue, and yellow Federation shirts.  Such a well-played show with great marching precision and wonderful velocity, plus some really snappy rifle work by the guard.  The woodwinds sounded great on all the fun little flurries from the Star Trek Into Darkness soundtrack.  Loved the end when the 2 Borg band members climbed to the drum major podium to overthrow the Captain. So fun! 

 

Ronald Reagan - Loved this!  My favorite show of the day!  So weird and wonderful and full of classic Reagan-ness!  First of all, love their new uniforms with all the splashes of neon green and especially the swatch of neon green down the middle of the plume!  Very sharp looking.  But, oh my, what a show!  They sound so wonderful and blended and strong on all of the Medea's Dance of Vengeance by Barber.  They have some just incredible mellophone rips in the opener and there is a moment in Medea's Dance where the woodwinds converge in a circle and just rip-roar on some ferocious technical licks but play it so very BALANCED! Ah!  The light touch of Adagio for Strings is juxtaposed so beautifully with how they handle all that glorious dissonance from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.  They sound amazing.  And, then, there are the impeccable individual marching fundamentals which is not easy since the velocity of the show is at light speed!  Great guard, also!  Loved the mushroom dresses things!  Bravo!

 

Cedar Ridge (Exhibition Band, since they were the contest hosts) - Truly, they have arrived!  I so hope and really think they have a great shot to make finals at Grand Nats.  Everything about them is just with such purpose!  They just keep coming at you with all the wonderful moon theme and it's all so lovely.  Gorgeous flute soloist, wonderful singer on Moon River, where the band lays down on the field - what a moment!  I loved the snippets of Van Morrison's Moondance, too - this band has fun!  Lovely marching and just beautiful controlled and LOUD hits that make you sit up and take even more notice.  The guard is super - especially when they change into the orange dresses which I think are supposed to be the Greek goddess Artemis with her bow and arrow.  Stunning.

 

McNeil - Love the Mr. Rogers Garden of Your Mind song in the preshow.  Nice soloists on Dance of the Tumblers and I love how snippets of Pure Imagination come out later.  Also, I like how the snares play basses for the first half of the show to make for 9 basses on the field.  The guard did great with the flower umbrellas, especially during some windy finals conditions.  Best McNeil show I've ever seen.

 

Westwood - I can see why they won the award for 5A Visual in prelims.  They are a huge band and do some incredible rotating blocks and passthroughs along with some great coordinated visuals exceptionally well!  They also sound big and bold and brassy on Shostakovich's Festive Overture in the opener.  Like McNeil, best Westwood show I've ever seen.

 

Again, great finals and everyone should be very proud of their performances!  Much kudos also to the Cedar Ridge program for a superbly-run contest.

 

 

[RenMacnary]

I must say I enjoyed ALL the bands all day.   Nice contest.   During the finals, it became a joke for those around me as I was a broken record: "THAT"s a nice band!" Very interesting shows, fun.   

 

One thing that no one has mentioned....don't know who the lead trumpet is in the Stephen F. Austin band is, but that is some NICE trumpet playing.  Clean, in tune, easy, just REALLY nice tone up high.   Made me wish I was 18 again.   Loved it.   Can't help myself, like the live blogger for the contest who can't help but focus on flutes, I can't help but listen for the trumpets!

 

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure, Go Westwood!

[takigan]

Great review, J.  Thanks for sharing