2022 BOA San Antonio (Nov. 4 & 5)

[natertater21000]

  On 11/5/2022 at 3:04 PM, thecircusbee said:

Yes! I can't believe someone else noticed.

I think it's many things, their arrangement of the Christopher Tin piece is extremely similar to the Bluecoats arrangement 160 BPM by Hans Zimmer. It also really helps that both of these shows spend most of their time in 2 flats land. For me however, the most specific connection is like you said, the chords. The Ebmaj7 and Ebmaj7b5 are classic "Doug Thrower" chords, and they're great in Cedar Park's show.

 

Also just to mention, I've seen a lot of people mention potential finalists today and yesterday, and the number of names thrown out their has definitely been way more than 14. It is sad to know that many of these finalist caliber bands won't make it into the show tonight, I wish this contest had semifinals. 

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The end of the opener where they march forward doing the leg swing visual with the power chord made me have deja vu. The pit writing is also reminiscent of Bloo 2010 to me as well. It's soooooo good.

[jmartin1056]

… and then Cypress Woods came out! WOW!!!

[Tubalord11]

Pearland and Cywoods- WOW WOW WOW!!!! 2 super impressive groups with great sounds and visual programs!!!

[Origin]

Cypress Woods was great. Very clean! The visual demand felt very light to me though. They really didn’t march that much until the closer. 

[TrebleMaker2]

Cypress Woods! Wow! Love the music and drill! What an entertaining and well-executed performance! So many great bands, I don’t envy the judges! 

[packwick]

WOW Cypress Woods. some suuuuper impressive playing. ballad = goosebumps. oh hi there amazing flute and oboe soloists. i love it when bands play a style of music that's not what we usually hear on the field. imagination! i love it. avail yourselves of it, designers.

[Band2021]

Right Now panel 1 is about to be very competitive! Going in I thought panel 2 would be more of the wild card but panel 1 has so many "possible" finalists. Round Rock at this time is the band i moved from solid finals to "possible". Very competitive. 

[packwick]

there are so many bands where it's like i don't know if they'll make finals here but i wish were going to Nationals bc they'd easily make finals there. hahaha.

[LostChoirGuy]

Oh no!  I slept through my alarm and only just woke up.  I missed LD Bell, Coppell, Seven Lakes, Cy Woods, Pearland, and so many other great bands.  Looks like I made it just in time for Cy Fair

[LostChoirGuy]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:05 PM, Band2021 said:

Right Now panel 1 is about to be very competitive! Going in I thought panel 2 would be more of the wild card but panel 1 has so many "possible" finalists. Round Rock at this time is the band i moved from solid finals to "possible". Very competitive. 

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Everyone talking about how unbalanced the panels were really confused me to be honest.  I do think Panel 2 has a couple more solid locks that will likely place in the top half of finals, but the finalist bubble in panel 1 is huge!

[Band2021]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:11 PM, LostChoirGuy said:

Everyone talking about how unbalanced the panels were really confused me to be honest.  I do think Panel 2 has a couple more solid locks that will likely place in the top half of finals, but the finalist bubble in panel 1 is huge!

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Plus we still have Marcus in panel 1 to go. 

[Tubalord11]

Cy-Fair: OMG!!!!!! WHAT,HOW!!! That was without a doubt the best of the morning, and if they don't make finals, I will be beyond surprised! I mean wow wow wow!!! They play like professionals and look so freaking amazing!!! I mean holy crap!!! 

[Band2021]

Right now I am trying to decide where coppell will land. With hebron coming up I have no doubt they will place first in panel 2. This will push the rest down and put a lot of great bands out of top 5. So coppell is my wild card. 

[Origin]

Cy Fair’s show is too short! I wanted it to keep going! Everything is working for them with this show. It just flows seamlessly. However, I think other bands in the bubble showcased stronger technical brass playing. Still a strong finals contender though. 

[LostChoirGuy]

Cy Fair has so many great visual moments.  I love their uniforms and the switch between colors never gets old haha.  Musically I also really loved their quieter moments.  I did feel like the show had some unusual pacing, with several dead moments that seemed like nothing was happening, but it didn't affect how much I liked their show.  

[Samuel Culper]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:11 PM, LostChoirGuy said:

Everyone talking about how unbalanced the panels were really confused me to be honest.  I do think Panel 2 has a couple more solid locks that will likely place in the top half of finals, but the finalist bubble in panel 1 is huge!

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The issue with Panel 2 is there are more very top bands and some get pushed out of the Top 5 and are subject to possible score imbalance between the two panels.

[packwick]

very very clever show from CyFair. love the drifting drums through the block, very Cavies 04. they spell out Vanish and we expect a big hit w/ a cresc in the percussion, but then we don't get it, it "vanishes." love the tranquil pause before the ballad hit, after all the band has disappeared there. Hide and Seek will never not be goosebumpy. very expressive show. will performance be enough tho?

[peshbandkid]

This might be just due to how floored I am over the last two days, but this year’s San Antonio feels like the best ever! 

[Vidal28]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:43 PM, peshbandkid said:

This might be just due to how floored I am over the last two days, but this year’s San Antonio feels like the best ever! 

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It probably is? It’s kinda hard to tell sometimes with each passing edition though, we may say the same thing again next year haha

[BandFan59]

I really am stunned at how the level of this super regional gets higher every year after watching many of the bands this morning. For me the best band of the day so far has been Coppell. They had one of their cleanest runs and sounded very polished. The saxophone soloist in the ballad was incredible. I expect to see them solidly in finals as I think the show is coming together at the right time. That said I am very impressed at the quality of the other bands this morning. Pearland and Cypress Woods were the two other standouts for me. Pearland’s music book had a fair amount of difficulty that they executed very well, and I have to say they were visually quite clean as well. Cypress Woods had some great soloists in the ballad as well and had some super powerful sounds, even if they mostly marched in front of the front hash marks. Excited to see how these bands fall among everyone else.

[Fwguard17]

I think this year's Super Regional may be the best ever in terms of depth... actually, I would say it's almost certainly the case that the 10-30 bands are the best there's ever been at a contest. At the top however I think the finals in 2017 and 2019 were stronger than they will be tonight, though I may eat those words at the end of this incredible day!!

[LostChoirGuy]

I know much has been said about why there is no semifinals in this contest, but I feel that we can no longer count on the judges to find the best 14 bands in a contest of this size when there are so many great groups right in the mix.  On top of that, making the top 7 is so essential for potential medalists because of the top/bottom finals split.  I really think they need to see all potential finalists closer together with a single judging panel.

[packwick]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:55 PM, Fwguard17 said:

I think this year's Super Regional may be the best ever in terms of depth... actually, I would say it's almost certainly the case that the 10-30 bands are the best there's ever been at a contest. At the top however I think the finals in 2017 and 2019 were stronger than they will be tonight, though I may eat those words at the end of this incredible day!!

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these are my thoughts too. huge bubble.

[MikeKyu]

  On 11/5/2022 at 4:57 PM, LostChoirGuy said:

I know much has been said about why there is no semifinals in this contest, but I feel that we can no longer count on the judges to find the best 14 bands in a contest of this size when there are so many great groups right in the mix.  On top of that, making the top 7 is so essential for potential medalists because of the top/bottom finals split.  I really think they need to see all potential finalists closer together with a single judging panel.

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While I agree with the sentiment here and would love to see a semi-finals I just do not see a way that it would be a sound investment for the schools nor a fair representation of BOA when considering all of the other Super Regionals. It's tough here. Relish this. It is making every band better. Maybe one day Texas will produce a band that can hang with the bottom half of Indiana schools (tongue firmly in cheek) .

[Fwguard17]

  On 11/5/2022 at 5:00 PM, MikeKyu said:

While I agree with the sentiment here and would love to see a semi-finals I just do not see a way that it would be a sound investment for the schools nor a fair representation of BOA when considering all of the other Super Regionals. It's tough here. Relish this. It is making every band better. Maybe one day Texas will produce a band that can hang with the bottom half of Indiana schools (tongue firmly in cheek) .

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I agree with this in principle, but I would say that San Antonio has always set the pace for BOA. It WAS the first Super Regional after-all. Why NOT the first SUPER-Super Regional?