LHSax

It's so weird seeing the prop argument from this perspective considering Marcus (the band that "should wipe the floor") in its heyday (late 2000's, early 2010's) was notoriously known for their extravagant props, which often sparked debate on here along the lines of "Marcus is only winning because of their huge prop budget" (this was not the case). Seeing the opposite argument of "Vandy shouldn't win" due to lack of props is bizarre to say the least.

Count me as part of team Cedar Ridge. I have them as the leader among the Cedars, Ridges, and Rouses.

The oracle hath returned! Oh great oracle, who will be receiving penalties this year?

I’m totally on board the CP hype train, it’s exciting to see them get back to their previous level of success after some rough years. It’s impressive to me that while many bands have taken a hit during Covid, CP seems to somehow have gotten BIGGER. I’ve been cautiously optimistic each of the last few years about CP after seeing some early videos, but the shows never quite got to the performance level that they appear to be getting to this year, that we are used to out of previous Cedar Park iterations. I don’t know if this will go down as one of my favorite CP shows (it’s got a bit too many musical ideas for me), but I’m excited that they’re taking on a more ambitious show and very much succeeding. I don’t quite have them in the medal hunt (the top of the field is just too stacked), and the statement “top placing band in LISD” is pretty bold considering Vandy is likely the best band in the country at the moment, but I do have them landing in the top half at the moment if they can hold off their LISD rivals, and that will be a huge accomplishment after a few years of sub-par appearances.

For Reference: http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/6A_Area_H.pdf And thank goodness it happened, since Leander wound up 5th at state, while Westlake ended up 21st oddly enough.

You forget this is the TXBands forum where Texas bias is more allowed than other places ? I'm a bit more confident in Texas taking at least 2 medals. I think this Texas group is stronger than the 2019 group that took 2 medals, and I'm not convinced Avon/Carmel's shows are strong enough to hold this group off the podium. BA is obviously the wild card, need to see a better video of that show before placing it. Musically, ABC is gonna have a tough time breaking the top 3. And then I think visually this is probably some of the more impressive visual packages Texas has sent recently...I think Reagan's visual design is and has been extremely impactful, FM is pretty close behind (and is a GE monster), and the Woodlands is bringing a guard that (while maybe not Avon level yet) is truly elite. I think Vandy and Hebron kind of popped the visual bubble in 2019, taking 2nd and 3rd in visual, with relatively tame visual packages. The difference with this years groups is that I think they have the VGE to backup competitive visual scores. And i haven't even mentioned CTJ and Marcus yet... Consider me optimistic that this will be a big year for TX bands.

I guarantee the "they always find a way to make it" crowd is exclusive to those of us band fan onlookers who have watched it happen time and time again over the last decade, and has nothing to do with the mentality of the band and staff itself...

Feels like a mix of Secret World and early 2000's Reagan...which are all my favorite things, so I'm here for it. I think all the pieces are there for this thing to be unstoppable, just need to see if that last bit of magic is added to push it to the top of a stacked field in November. Excited to see a higher quality video this weekend!

I think one of the key differences between the "locks" and the "work to do" groups from this past weekend (aside from scores and placement) is the concepts of the shows. CTJ and TWHS have themes that are relatively easy to dive into and are pretty self-explanatory, especially at this early stage of the year, While VR and RR have some pretty abstract thematic ideas that will likely take all year to flesh out and see what is working vs what is not. I don't think their shows are quite connecting yet and may not make sense with 2 movements (not to mention RR not having guard uniforms yet). Of course CTJ and TWHS are also on a whole other tier of performance at the moment as well, but VR and RR, as we've discussed here are historically late bloomers. We'll see if they still have the magic.

This competition is always useful in gauging the general strength of bands between Austin and Houston due to the few Austin bands that always make the trip. Westwood and Westlake made the trip down in 2019 and had a lot of success (an early sign of Austin's strength that year), and I get the feeling Cedar Ridge, Westlake and even Lake Travis will do the same this year. I also get the feeling North Houston's scores were a little bloated this past week, but Cedar Ridge V. Seven Lakes and Pearland V Westlake should give us our first real barometer of how bands across regions are shaping up. Of course I would also love to see Houston defend it's territory as well!

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I'm hearing a lot of this too, and part of me is hoping it's just our reliance on audio built for football games early in the year (IE the exception to this has been Vandy, but they have pretty professional recordings). However, there likely will be more rough edges than usual as everyone gets used to marching and playing again. I think endurance will also have to be something that is built up again, as even schools that did compete last year had shorter, watered down shows (with a few exceptions). I think the progress between early season regionals and SA/Indy for many groups will be quite impressive.

Oh I have a lot of confidence in VR's trajectory, I just know they've become notoriously good at peaking at their final performance of the year over the last few years. And I'll second Cedar Park from what little I've seen...I think they'll show up well here and will hopefully push for a return to SA finals.