Best Of 2017

[Dog885]

I saw a post talking about everyone's favorites in 2016, so why not do it for 2017 even though it's a bit late? I can't put much, because I'm not generally experienced and haven't seen that many shows.

 

I did really enjoy Sioux Falls Lincoln's performance at St. Louis, Churchill's (Especially ballad), Dripping Springs, Cedar Park's was fun, Vandy had a strong show, Carmel, Broken Arrow was crazy, Blue Springs had a cool concept. I'm sure there's a lot more, but I can't remember or go very in depth. I would like to see what everyone else liked last year.

[CTJBandPops]

try this one

 

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3D1MdnMTEj4lY-26sns-3Dem&d=DwICAg&c=9fZnZOgPWmHmvevlab4V4DSjtBMjorSlbQYfK_MauDg&r=9b6xVEMO0VE_S0IJBGp6d9Qb-sZ1m-f_4h5zYudlQno&m=2nl3vSDyo6FhZj-rGJhlQCQGfX5Ulb6SQgFK0tu9EKQ&s=_pMR_oRG5nI6vo9omPc6D_alqTgmRMCw7mrU9R3xOjc&e=

[Nny14]

Avon's Opener, Hebron's Everything, FloMo ballad, Round Rock's Piccolo Solo, Carmel's outstanding colorguard, The Woodland's music selection, Vandegrift's hardcore marching and playing. These are the most memorable things about 2017 to me.

[bancl]

Avon's "Yellow Rose", CJT (all of it!!!!), Hebron's opener, FloMo's ballad, VANDY, Keller's closer and #trumpetflip! , Cedar Park's visual design

[MadisonBandMan1]

Castle's theme

[wtxbd02]

I'll keep it short and down to five from both of the live shows I went to.  Meant to do some kind of write up in the fall but life caught up to me and I never really got the chance to.  I'm bored and reminiscing about the fall so why not.  

 

St. Louis:

• O'Fallon Township was a double wammy for me.  They were the first of my HS big dogs to see live so the factor of that in addition to how wild that show was made that easily one of my favorite experiences from this fall.  Lots and lots of things.......of course the tarp(s) was absolutely insane.  A camera does not do justice to how much that thing transformed the performance environment, when that thing got unfolded (after epic band dad tarp races) it was an explosion of light reflecting off that thing.   That said I found much more in that show interesting as well, the tarp is the easy thing to focus on but they did some super interesting things with body movement as well, the amount of vocabulary that HS aged kids executed in that show at such a high level is pretty bonkers.  I cannot even begin to imagine going to a group of kids I work with and trying to teach AND clarify that amount of stuff.  Kudos to the teachers AND kids there.  And musically the Night on Fire section of that show was just a blast, super high energy and funky.  Going to remember this show for a long time.  They're the ones that broke me in for my first BOA competition live and it was so memorable.  
• I thought the construction of Grain Valley's show was pretty phenomenal, pretty seamless and exciting show design from them on all levels.  Loved the Fly to Paradise full out sprint ending.  
• Bentonville; deflated ball in prelims = but it didn't even phase them.  Then they came out and killed it in finals.  And that singer was fantastic in Chandelier, loved that closer.  
• I think Sioux Falls Lincoln was about the most fun I had seeing a HS band last fall.  In terms of just pure entertainment and performance energy they really brought it in St. Louis, that first Children's Hour of Dream impact was WAY louder than I expected being way up in the top of the stadium, it was a pretty big "YES they're in finals" as soon as that happened.  AND THE SOLOISTS!  So many fantastic individual performers from them, every single one of those kids was nails, I remember the trombone in the beginning of the closer to be particularly fantastic.  They were maybe not the best I saw (pretty dang good though) but in terms of watching a group of kids have the time of their lives, it was certainly the most enjoyable for me personally.  
• Broken Arrow encore from the field was pretty eye opening, watching high school kids go from talking about taking selfies to carrying themselves as professional performers in every regard in a split second was pretty wild.  It blows my mind that that many kids are that invested into something and are being taught at such a high level.  Incredible stuff.  

San Antonio:

• Keller Central golf cart.  Lived up to the hype.  
• Holy crap the depth.  I knew how loaded it was watching online over the past years but still wasn't ready for band after band after band after band after band to be so much higher than what I've experienced myself.   Pearland and Vista Ridge certainly stood out.  Pearland's show design this year was pretty top tier to me in just about every way, the accel opening on the move, HUGE first impact, epic reprise at the end, etc.  They really hit on something this year, I really really hope they keep it up because if they do I definitely would not be shocked at all to see them as one of the next big names.  And Vista Ridge had, what was a pretty big consensus among the group of people I was with, easily one of the best "performances" of their show out of the whole weekend.  They did performed and sold their show at about as high of a level as they could have.  It was electric.  
• The experience of seeing Avon come down was pretty fantastic.  The show was awesome but what happened before that was pretty special.  The Yellow Rose quote in their warmup along with the dad decked out in the pretty epic suit and hat were pretty fantastic to experience.  Loved getting to see Maslanka 4 on the field and I can say I've seen the mighty Avon in person now.  
• Hendrickson's show was easily one of my favorites of the fall like 2016.  And 2015.  And 2014.  And 2012.  I really like Henny.  They were a perfect way to kick off finals, in terms of communication of a concept and entertainment value they were certainly near the top for me.  
• Hebron had me speechless.  I don't know what those kids eat or how they practice or what goes on there but how high school kids can play with that level of clarity, precision, and sheer volume is beyond me.  I know they didn't win music but I can safely say they left the biggest impression on me.  LOVED the music from this show, so many styles and emotions all performed with pretty incredible consistency and accuracy.  I wish I could go back and sit through that show again and again.  

Finally getting to see what BOA was all about was easily the highlight of my fall, looking forward to coming back for more next year.  

[Bandnerd03]

The more that I think back on the 2017 season, the more that Reagan's show stands out to me. The entire show is just beautiful. The best part of the show for me was the sax quartet's performance of Addis Ababa. And the fact that the entire sax quartet switches over to bari sax and then back to their original sax in the middle of the quartet is just sick. The show deserved it's 1st place finish in ensemble visual at San Antonio, it was one of the best visual performances I've seen from a Texas band in 18 years of following the activity. And I've grown to love Reagan's tradition of doing a palindromic ending, so that was just the cherry on top for me.