Morcks

Favorites would be: CTJ: I was bit nervous when someone told me they opened with coldplay, cause I tend to not have high hopes for marching shows with an arrangement of a radio hit, but man, that show was impressive! They really nailed their drill and sound amazing! Marcus: It may not be the most flashy show, but it just sounds pristine! The are so clean that I get shivers on my neck any time i watch them. Westlake: Probably my favorite show this year. They have energy and beautiful playing. I've been following them throughout the season and they keep getting better, both musically and marching! Its entertaining, fun, and emotional. From tuba to piccolo trumpet, they sound amazing. I was surprised they weren't higher in musical general effect and music ensemble at BOA SA. Woodlands: I love their theme and music. It just really tells a great, sad story. I do have to say though, their marching did make me cringe... I was quite disappointed with drill execution. If only that was as good as their playing, they could really wreck some shop. Bowie: Everyone does the planets, but I've never seen someone do them like Bowie. Its amazing! EDIT: Oh, and Cedar Ridge, mostly because of the bass drop EDIT2: And sorry, I am a Westlake Alum... so yes, there is a bias.... :-)

Bowie was probably simply not there since they were going to grand nationals and were saving money. Notice they also didn't go to BOA SA... Bowie will likely be back next year. EDIT: Plus, I wouldn't complain about competitiveness until your band places first at the competition.

I believe they are supposed to be planets, since (unless I can't count) there are 7 of them for each of the planets in the planets suite by Holst (which is what they are playing)

Westlake has always done very well in music. I believe they scored in the top 5 at BOA SA for ensemble music (and didn't even make finals at that). Whats more impressive to me is both the general effect of the show (compared to a a rather boring show in '10), and their execution of the drill (though yes, it did start to become ragged towards the end). I've heard they have a new director that is running the visual aspect of their program, and what ever he is doing, it must be working. They are looking better than any previous year I can remember. But man, I saw their show at Area D finals, and it was fantastic. The opening brass feature was strong, but definitely could have been louder. They handled the extremely technical parts of Festive Overture well, and while marching surprisingly tricky drill. Their ballad (Variations on a theme by Paganini I believe) fell a little bit flat in terms of what could have been a big hit, but it was made up for in their arrangement of 4 Scottish dances. Got to love those piccolo trumpet solos! I definitely would not count them out of finals at all, maybe even breaking top 5 at state Also from Area D, Bowie is shaping up to be a challenger to the LD Bell-Marcus Throne, and already their show is phenomenal. I would bet they make the top 3. The music was strong, and the drill is mesmerizing. As for LD Bell, I'm not quite certain what happened to them at BOA St. Louis (which is the only one I have seen so far) but it wasn't the LD Bell I expected. Music was good, but their marching simply was not clean enough, even if the drill was exceptionally hard. If they have another show like that, I would not be surprised if they fell out of the top 5.