2022 HEB Marching Contest (Oct. 1)

[Origin]

Wow, didn’t realize how big the gap between top and bottom half was. I also thought Forney would be much closer to the top half, especially considering their surprise 4th place finish last year. 

[sogeg]

I (unexpectedly) managed to make it back down to catch all of finals! This was my first time watching a contest live since San Antonio in 2017, so it was super cool to get to see all these bands again!

Anyways, I have some takeaways-
Marcus- This show is CLEAN. It honestly was on another level of cleanliness from every other band there. I don't think the design is quite there yet (I really hope those aren't the final props), but quite honestly nobody else was taking first. The technique, drill, and overall performance was leagues above anyone else.

Wakeland- Super surprised by them! They had a very large and loud sound, and I thought the design was definitely solid. I do think there wasn't quite enough dynamic contrast- they just kind of blasted the whole time. They sound great! But I'd definitely love for there to be more reserved moments. I personally had them below Coppell, but I can definitely see why they got the silver here. Their cleanliness was off the charts!

Coppell- Definitely a great show with huge potential! I loved it from a visual and GE perspective, but nothing stuck out to me too much musically. Definitely gonna be one to watch when we get down to the Alamodome!

Keller- My clear bias, but I think this show has a lot of places to go, more so than any Keller show in the past few years. I was initially surprised by 4th place, but it definitely makes sense- after all, the show isn't anywhere close to finished from a design standpoint. There were a couple of lulls here and there, but I overall really liked the show. They will most likely have the drill finished by BOA next weekend, and hopefully some guard uniforms and tarps to match! That ballad hit was probably the most impactful thing I heard all night, and I cannot wait for the rest of the show to get up to that level.

Timber Creek- Super impressed by them! Their dynamic control is absolutely ridiculous, and that opening hit was incredible. Great things are coming for them this season for sure!

Prosper- Similar feeling that I had with Wakeland- I want more contrast! They look and sound great for sure, and I love their visual presence. Again, I can tell that great things are coming for them come late-season. 

 

(None of this is meant to be a slight to any bands- I know how much work and effort goes into these shows! To any band members reading this right now- you should be very proud! Everybody killed it and I am so lucky to have been able to see all of these bands!)

[Vidal28]

5 minutes ago, sogeg said:

I (unexpectedly) managed to make it back down to catch all of finals! This was my first time watching a contest live since San Antonio in 2017, so it was super cool to get to see all these bands again!

Anyways, I have some takeaways-
Marcus- This show is CLEAN. It honestly was on another level of cleanliness from every other band there. I don't think the design is quite there yet (I really hope those aren't the final props), but quite honestly nobody else was taking first. The technique, drill, and overall performance was leagues above anyone else.

Wakeland- Super surprised by them! They had a very large and loud sound, and I thought the design was definitely solid. I do think there wasn't quite enough dynamic contrast- they just kind of blasted the whole time. They sound great! But I'd definitely love for there to be more reserved moments. I personally had them below Coppell, but I can definitely see why they got the silver here. Their cleanliness was off the charts!

Coppell- Definitely a great show with huge potential! I loved it from a visual and GE perspective, but nothing stuck out to me too much musically. Definitely gonna be one to watch when we get down to the Alamodome!

Keller- My clear bias, but I think this show has a lot of places to go, more so than any Keller show in the past few years. I was initially surprised by 4th place, but it definitely makes sense- after all, the show isn't anywhere close to finished from a design standpoint. There were a couple of lulls here and there, but I overall really liked the show. They will most likely have the drill finished by BOA next weekend, and hopefully some guard uniforms and tarps to match! That ballad hit was probably the most impactful thing I heard all night, and I cannot wait for the rest of the show to get up to that level.

Timber Creek- Super impressed by them! Their dynamic control is absolutely ridiculous, and that opening hit was incredible. Great things are coming for them this season for sure!

Prosper- Similar feeling that I had with Wakeland- I want more contrast! They look and sound great for sure, and I love their visual presence. Again, I can tell that great things are coming for them come late-season. 

Definitely would not say Marcus was LEAGUES above everyone else, although I probably might say that about Hebron next week(it just might be) but we shall see👀

Carry on😳
 

Edit: I will say they were probably levels above in using their percussion in their creativity, as a driver of momentum and for emphasizing their dramatic moments, they were phenomenal, battery, front ensemble, all very AWESOME!

[lost]

Congratulations to Wakeland! 

I’d hold off on any big future predictions off this result however, last year we saw Forney beat Keller in finals and that result didn’t really pan out for either of them respectively the rest of the season.

[sogeg]

1 minute ago, Vidal28 said:

Definitely would not say Marcus was LEAGUES above everyone else, although I probably might say that about Hebron next week(it just might be) but we shall see👀

Carry on😳

I get that- I was talking more in terms of how polished they were compared to everyone else, but I would agree that they weren't incredibly dominant, just very, VERY clean.

[josephbandfan]

11 hours ago, Origin said:

Keller sounds fantastic and is playing a lot of very interesting music. They also have more on the field than they ever do at this point in the season. I can’t wait to see all the visual stuff added in, hopefully next week. I wonder if they’ve thought about putting soloists on those anti-gravity prop things 🤔😂 idk. All the woodwinds soloists are great, but they need a meaty woodwind feature, hopefully one’s coming in the closer. 

True, even by BOA DFW they usually play up to the ballad. I believe they just tagged on that last minute of their performance this week.

Soloist on those props would be great 🤪

[josephbandfan]

11 hours ago, Origin said:

Wow, didn’t realize how big the gap between top and bottom half was. I also thought Forney would be much closer to the top half, especially considering their surprise 4th place finish last year. 

I honestly thought they would finish in the top half. I love them every year.

[FloMoDad]

Word on the street from the kids is that Marcus percussion is pretty solid and started strong back in camp this year.

[Niceone]

21 hours ago, Origin said:

They made finals in 2015 and I think they’ve attended more recently but aren’t going this year. 

Pretty sure they normally go every state year. But due to Covid stuff last year BOA SA was the week after 5a compared to it normally being on that Friday Saturday, then state that following Monday,Tuesday. Expensive to stay the full week or make 2 trips.

[BandFan59]

Full recaps have been released. In prelims, Wakeland was 1st overall with a 81.60, Marcus 2nd with an 81.40, and Coppell 3rd with an 81.25.

[MikeKyu]

21 hours ago, FloMoDad said:

Word on the street from the kids is that Marcus percussion is pretty solid and started strong back in camp this year.

Marcus and Coppell both have very strong percussion programs this year. 

[Rubisco]

4 hours ago, BandFan59 said:

Full recaps have been released. In prelims, Wakeland was 1st overall with a 81.60, Marcus 2nd with an 81.40, and Coppell 3rd with an 81.25.

Close scores. Also rather low.

Coppell pretty handily won GE over Marcus in prelims. That I can agree with. I didn't watch Wakeland. I'm definitely curious to see where these groups end up placing with a full BOA panel this weekend.

[aaron067]

Keep in mind that the more complex shows just aren't as complete early in the season (typical Marcus approach), or they are and just aren't clean yet (typical CTJ approach). So, the early contests sometimes give a false sense of where bands could end up by November.

[bancl]

2 hours ago, aaron067 said:

Keep in mind that the more complex shows just aren't as complete early in the season (typical Marcus approach), or they are and just aren't clean yet (typical CTJ approach). So, the early contests sometimes give a false sense of where bands could end up by November.

I feel like this is the case for Coppell and Keller in particular.  Coppell clearly has more show to put on the field, which will help their GE scores.  I feel that their musical and visual difficulty is higher than Marcus, but not as clean right now.  If they can get it clean, I can see them overtaking Marcus by season's end.  

Keller had the most demand of anyone at HEB on Saturday, and thus the most dirt.  They had way more show on the field than they usually do this time of year, and it sounds like they will be performing the entire thing at the regional.  They were 3rd in overall effect without any guard uniforms, tarps, or actual flags.  They have a lot of work to do to get their show clean, but they are notorious for being a program that can do just that and peak right at the end of the season.  Same as with Coppell, IF they can get all of the fast drill and hard music clean they will be a force to be reckoned with.

[LostChoirGuy]

30 minutes ago, bancl said:

I feel like this is the case for Coppell and Keller in particular.  Coppell clearly has more show to put on the field, which will help their GE scores.  I feel that their musical and visual difficulty is higher than Marcus, but not as clean right now.  If they can get it clean, I can see them overtaking Marcus by season's end.  

Keller had the most demand of anyone at HEB on Saturday, and thus the most dirt.  They had way more show on the field than they usually do this time of year, and it sounds like they will be performing the entire thing at the regional.  They were 3rd in overall effect without any guard uniforms, tarps, or actual flags.  They have a lot of work to do to get their show clean, but they are notorious for being a program that can do just that and peak right at the end of the season.  Same as with Coppell, IF they can get all of the fast drill and hard music clean they will be a force to be reckoned with.

I completely agree.  I have no idea how much progress will be made in one week before this regional, but we see this year after year in San Antonio where people count out Keller due to mediocre early season results and they come out of nowhere with a highly executed and very demanding program and make it comfortably into finals.  

[Vidal28]

1. Hebron(GE, Music, Tie Visual with Marcus)
2. Marcus(Tie Visual with Hebron)
3. Flower Mound
4. Coppell
5. Keller
6. Wakeland
7. Timber Creek
8. L.D. Bell
9. Southlake Carroll
10. Waxahachie
11. Lone Star
12. HP

Those are my predictions, I hate giving predictions when I haven’t seen some of the groups in Hebron, Bell, Waxahachie, Carroll and Highland Park, don’t wanna sell anyone short! But then again, making finals here is definitely a tough task, several more great groups on the outside bubble looking in for sure.

[BandFan59]

29 minutes ago, Vidal28 said:

1. Hebron(GE, Music, Tie Visual with Marcus)
2. Marcus(Tie Visual with Hebron)
3. Flower Mound
4. Coppell
5. Keller
6. Wakeland
7. Timber Creek
8. L.D. Bell
9. Southlake Carroll
10. Waxahachie
11. Lone Star
12. HP

Those are my predictions, I hate giving predictions when I haven’t seen some of the groups in Hebron, Bell, Waxahachie, Carroll and Highland Park, don’t wanna sell anyone short! But then again, making finals here is definitely a tough task, several more great groups on the outside bubble looking in for sure.

Wrong thread but love the predictions!

[Vidal28]

3 hours ago, BandFan59 said:

Wrong thread but love the predictions!

OOOOOPS!!! I very much misread there😂

[BandDad4]

Can someone please expand on General Effect? There is already music and visual..and then again under general effect there is music and visual. The General Effect category changed positions of the bands in wild fashions compared if you just look at Visual and Music combined.

[Dallas Hobbs]

On 10/11/2022 at 6:19 PM, BandDad4 said:

Can someone please expand on General Effect? There is already music and visual..and then again under general effect there is music and visual. The General Effect category changed positions of the bands in wild fashions compared if you just look at Visual and Music combined.

I think the intent with general effect is to evaluate the quality of the show design. Emphasis going on the theme/concept the program chooses, and how the audience responds to the performance.