Best (TX?) Marching Band Ever

[jcbg]

Curious to know, what school and year do you think is the best band ever? Justification and a bideo if possible. Don't get heated, this is just opinions.

[JeremiahW]

Curious to know, what school and year do you think is the best band ever? Justification and a bideo if possible. Don't get heated, this is just opinions.

 

Grand National Champion Flower Mound 2017

[takigan]

Probably Takaoka, Inagakuen-Sogo or Seika Girls. Also '99-2006 Nishihara, especially if we're talking marching exclusively. Couldn't pick a show. My ear doesn't discern very well with bands at that level, and Japanese bands are extremely similar through and through, both in concept and ability.

 

Oh....'TX' Band huh? LD Bell 2007. But I wouldn't say it's my favorite....It's actually gotten kind of stale to listen to over the years. But the show is extremely fun...broke new ground in concept and design, and Texas won pretty handily that year with it and against a group that weren't exactly slouches. Plus, Finals was November 17th that year....just 5 days before Thanksgiving. August 1st - November 17th....probably the most prep time a Texas band has ever gotten for a show since the 8 hour rule. Super long show; went over the time limit and had several different endings that actually tied together the story.

 

As for any show in the country? Gosh....I mean both Lassiter (GA) shows ('98 and '02) are legendary. Both have a similar level of the winning formula, but '02 was more exciting, and I think might be just a little bit better. Avon '09 also won out against a strong Texas showing and had an AWESOME concept. I'm going to go with Lassiter 2002 though.

[Jellyfishes]

Hebron 2015 was superrr awesome and was robbed of the eagle. L.D. Bell's 2007 show had overall a cooler design IMHO. This year Flower Mound marched and played better than everyone without a doubt. Those who said Broken Arrow would beat them needed to see them live. So one of those three.

 

Other favorite Texas bands from Grand Nationals:

The Woodlands and Round Rock 2013- Colors. Of. The. Wind

L.D. Bell- everything!!

Richland 2005- can you spell robbed?

Reagan 2003 & 2005- can you spell robbed again?

[LKendrick]

In terms of effect I think LD Bell 2006 is the one that has stayed with me now for almost a decade since I first saw it.  No high school show gives me the emotions that one does, even if they are absolute dread, despair, and anything disturbing which is why I love it, I adore dark shows that are good.  I love going back to the old posts about that one on here from when it was being performed.  The level of commitment of the members sounds pretty incredible.  

 

In terms of proficiency...Flower Mound this year absolutely blew me away.  Everything visually and musically was just crystal clear and perfect.  Could probably throw a few Marcus shows in there as well most certainly 2012.  Hebron 2015 musically for sure.  

 

In terms of both I think Marcus 2010 takes the cake for me.  That show had design, performance, and just absolutely stunning effect for me at the time and today.  The theme coulda been boring but what they did with it, especially visually was just remarkable.  Best ever use of alternates as the shadows in the ballad combined with the guard rainbow is one of my favorite HS guard moments ever.  2012 not far behind.  And of course they performed the snot out of it.  

[Xenon]

Here is what I'm thinking for my personal picks of TX bands:

 

1) FloMo 2016

2) Marcus 2007

3) Spring 1993

4) FloMo 2015

5) LD Bell 2006

6) Marcus 2012

7) LD Bell 2007

8) Duncanville 2002

9) Westfield 1998

10) Hebron 2015

 

And there are many many others in the running.

[Xenon]

both Lassiter (GA) shows ('98 and '02) are legendary.

I can listen to The Wind And The Lion for days (Lassiter 1998).

[takigan]

Here is what I'm thinking for my personal picks of TX bands:

 

1) FloMo 2016

2) Marcus 2007

3) Spring 1993

4) FloMo 2015

5) LD Bell 2006

6) Marcus 2012

7) LD Bell 2007

8) Duncanville 2002

9) Westfield 1998

10) Hebron 2015

 

And there are many many others in the running.

 

The issue I see with picking the "best" shows out of the San Antonio contests is that they don't have that additional week or two of time that the Grand National medalists get.  Marcus '07 had a clear edge over Bell '07 and likely would've won the Eagle had they been at nationals with a game-changing product....but Bell is still the show because the final product they put out is still better than the final product Marcus put out.

 

"Best" is such a fluid term.  I find it really hard to compare a show like Flower Mound '16 to Spring '93.

[jcbg]

 

The issue I see with picking the "best" shows out of the San Antonio contests is that they don't have that additional week or two of time that the Grand National medalists get.  Marcus '07 had a clear edge over Bell '07 and likely would've won the Eagle had they been at nationals with a game-changing product....but Bell is still the show because the final product they put out is still better than the final product Marcus put out.

 

"Best" is such a fluid term.  I find it really hard to compare a show like Flower Mound '16 to Spring '93.

That's very true. It's hard to compare shows from different eras, but still, it's pretty fun to compare them. All the ones being discussed are (obviously) at the highest level, but it's interesting to see how different people see exactly how they stack up through their own eyes.

[Rubisco]

The best Texas band ever is L.D. Bell. And, frankly, that declaration almost feels more objective than subjective at this point in time. Bell's sustained success from 2005 to 2010 at BOA Grand Nationals, the most prestigious and holistically-judged marching contest in the country, makes it hard to debate. A list of marching shows would, of course, include more than L.D. Bell, but I'd still have them at the top of the list.

 

1.) L.D. Bell 2006 - Not the best performed Texas show ever, but that hardly matters when you're being burned in the fire of something new. Unfortunately, the sheer energy of the performance doesn't completely come across in the recordings. You really had to see this one live. It was a strange and beautiful show, which is maybe not as strange and beautiful today because theatricality is now so prevalent. That, and some designers have fallen into self-parody.

 

2.) Ronald Reagan 2005 - This is essentially Reagan's summa. All of the electronics and all of that forward-thinking pop-culture sensibility congealed in Reagan's finest (or second-finest) performance. (I say second-finest, because I might actually prefer the execution of the 2006 show, Mark Chambers' swan song.) This is also probably the only show where a very schizophrenic music design can be excused as thematically relevant ("You Never Know"). A lot of music educators were shocked when this one missed out on the Eagle. It's hard to overstate Reagan's influence, which was exerted over a very short period of time.

 

3.) The Woodlands 2013 - Brilliant concept brilliantly executed. This is probably the only show that a Texas group has brought to Nationals that could have won all three captions without me batting an eye. (I'm still waiting for a Texas group to win that visual caption in Finals!) This was the year that The Woodlands' performance finally equaled the design, which is almost always fantastic. The Woodlands is still Texas' primary purveyor of the avant-garde.

 

4.) Marcus 2007 - Yes, it was an absolutely ingenious use of the green field, but it was really the music performance that sold me on this one. Early on in their season, they already sounded better than most National Finalists do at the END of their seasons. Make Our Garden Grow remains my favorite marching band ballad ever. It is the most exquisite music performance I've ever heard from a high school group. The attention to detail is unparalleled. Every phrase is so beautifully shaped.

 

5.) Westfield 2003 - I'm with the judges on this one. The music was too good to ignore, both from a performance and a design perspective. Musically, the show is such a technical marvel, and it's so very exciting. Now, do I think the visual matches the excitement of the music? No. In fact, I only ever listen to this show, because I find the visual largely superfluous. But the music is so strong that I think it belongs on this list.

 

6.) Marcus 2012 - Another performance by Marcus where the musicianship just blew you away. And it was once again matched by an elegant visual package. Marcus' show this year (and most years) was like a fine wine. Sure, maybe a general audience found it a little bit dull compared to the more fast-paced, DCI-esque shows, but for a more discerning audience, the pleasures were multitudinous.

 

7.) The Woodlands 2007 - Turning the entire field into Sudoku board is still the most insane, outside-of-the-box thing a Texas group has ever done. This may also be the most difficult show a Texas group has tackled. The marching and playing were hard enough, but having to incorporate all of those prop flips and visuals into the drill just made it ten times worse. It's the sort of show you want to see done without the 8-hour rule. Still, the band gave a fine performance, and the sheer ingenuity of the show launches it into the top 10.

 

8.) L.D. Bell 2005 - This was really the starting point for L.D. Bell's reign. It was such a beautiful and elegant show, which maybe suffered early on in the season because it was so difficult. Most of the people around me suspected that L.D. Bell was beginning to falter, because of those early performances. But I loved the show so much that I (correctly) predicted that it would place in the top 3 at Nationals. Cartwright started with Bell as a designer in 2004, I believe, but this was the first year that I really took notice of his work.

 

9.) James Bowie 2011 - It's hard to shake that powerful opening statement of Belshazzar's Feast and the touching tribute at the end to Bruce Dinkins. But those are just two moments in a show that was from start to finish fantastically well-performed and beautifully constructed. They didn't go to Nationals in 2011, but this is one of those shows that I think could have been a dark horse, especially after snagging the GE caption at San Antonio Finals from the likes of L.D. Bell, Marcus, and The Woodlands.

 

10.) Flower Mound 2016 - A lot of people say that certain groups sound like a drum corps. I'm not sure I would have agreed with them until I saw Flower Mound perform last year. Every chorus was just so, so strong. They walked right up to that line, where they would have sounded crass if they had taken just one more small step, but managed to never cross it. Bands everywhere are going to have to up their game to match Flower Mound's sheer technique and power. The visual was also very clean, although I give them a little less credit for that, because the visual wasn't nearly as challenging as the music. Still, it was a fine show matched with spectacular execution.

 

Honorable Mentions: Take your pick of Spring and Westfield shows from the 1990s, although, if I'm being honest, the level of performance and design is so high today that I'm not entirely convinced that any of them would make finals at Nationals. Certainly, none of them would win. Still, you've got to acknowledge their dominance.

[LKendrick]

Long time no see.  

[LKendrick]

I have yet to see Marcus 2007...unfortunately with the current climate on copyright I suppose I never will.  

[whitewing09]

I think my two favorite shows live were Bell and TWHS 2006. I remember being floored by Hide and Seek's design. It was eclectic (for the time, I think?), but so fun to watch. They really played that show. Their ballad is probably one of my all time favorites and that closer..

 

As for Bell, watching the Remaining live... changed my life. This was back before you could easily find youtube videos or audio and way before the introduction of live streams of the regional contest, so Bell was hyped quite a bit, but their show was still a surprise. I remember the Alamodome being dead silent at the end of their show. It was a really surreal moment.

[Xenon]

I had seen The Remaining many times and loved the way it evolved throughout the season with so many different endings. The BOA SA and State endings with the guard trying to escape the horrors of the field and just straight up slamming themselves onto the back wall of the Alamodome and those huge thuds reverbing through the dome through the silence of the crowd. *Haunting*

 

And then the surprise BOA GN ending with the white silk of redemption. You could feel the intensity of the crowd as there was silence, then a HUGE gasp, and then silence once again.

[LHSax]

It's funny that so many people mention Bell 2006, because I honestly think many of us from that generation are on this board today because of that show. Bell 06 hooked me to marching band for life. Simple as that. And then Bell 07 just pulled me deeper in.

 

There are many other shows that have been mentioned here that are fantastic, but that trilogy created a lot of long term marching band fans. 

[LKendrick]

It's funny that so many people mention Bell 2006, because I honestly think many of us from that generation are on this board today because of that show. Bell 06 hooked me to marching band for life. Simple as that. And then Bell 07 just pulled me deeper in.

 

There are many other shows that have been mentioned here that are fantastic, but that trilogy created a lot of long term marching band fans. 

 

I can attest to that......I found txbands after I watched The Remaining the first time and had to find out more about this amazing LD Bell band I had never heard of.  That was almost a decade ago my freshman year of high school.

 

There are shows I am a fan of and become obsessed with in a certain season, and then they fade after that year is over.  That show doesn't.  My enjoyment of it hasn't gone down a single bit since I first watched it WAY back in August of 08.  As I get older and learn more I can critique certain performance aspects and other things but few shows make me feel the emotions that one does.  The sheer effect of that music program is just ridiculous.  It's 12 minutes of anguish, pain, sorrow, dread, fear, terror, and every emotion that should drive me away from something but it doesn't.  That's powerful stuff.  And then that little tinge of hope, freedom, release from all those horrible things, or however you interpret it at the end is just perfection.  In all idioms it's something I just marvel at every time I watch it.  

 

It's one of the VERY few that's stood the test of time for me.  And I never even saw it live.  That is a masterwork in the marching arts.  

[takigan]

It's funny that so many people mention Bell 2006, because I honestly think many of us from that generation are on this board today because of that show. Bell 06 hooked me to marching band for life. Simple as that. And then Bell 07 just pulled me deeper in.

 

There are many other shows that have been mentioned here that are fantastic, but that trilogy created a lot of long term marching band fans. 

 

 

'The Remaining' really was what lit the spark for me as well.  I had gotten into the "fandom" a little bit before that, but if a show like 'The Remaining' hadn't happened, I might have just dabbled in this "BOA thing" for a bit and then moved on with my life.

 

In the 90s drill techs weren't running around the field telling kids to "get in character" and "embrace your role".  That was unheard of.  'The Remaining' wasn't the first show to "characterize" the band, but it was the first show to introduce everyone to what was truly possible with that kind of storytelling.  I believe it's the show that changed the tide to where eventually everyone's show had to have--not just a theme--but some kind of characterizing element in order to be considered relevant.

[bingogooberman]

My seminal game changer show was definitely Marcus 07 (though bell 06 was the first show that I really dove into on YouTube) seeing them at BOA Arlington is probably still the most arresting live viewing experience ever for me. The musicality really was breathtaking, particularly with regard to how early in the season it was and the standard for the time. And the design both visually and narratively speaking was impeccable. It's one of the only shows I remember seeing that could make a whole stadium erupt in laughter. And the opening of the lily pads in make our garden grow was really stunning. its really a shame that there isn't a complete video available

[Bonertrom]