trumpetman1288

Roma 2003 (it's just flat out my favorite show not done by a 5A and overall one of my most favorite). Just a straight up bad*** show. Great playing, great marching, neat drill, and a ballad in which they sang. Nice singing at that. It earned 4th place at state that year.

Yes....we can do it just like they do it for football...div 1 and div 2 state playoffs, but in this case, for state marching contest. Man, how would THAT work out?

Let's put it this way. Any band that comes out of Area B as a state qualifier has topped a nearly insurmountable (I hope I spelled that right ) mountain. And yes, I agree...Area seems more competitive this year than two years ago. Good thing too...it will make state more interesting

I did, but I didn't get to really watch much. From what I heard backfield (I was sitting on the back side), a lot of bands seem to be playing well, but marching and drill seem greatly lacking. I am not going to include my school because I really can't say how we did in comparison to everyone else, but I can let you know about what I saw/heard. Musically speaking, stand outs would be La Joya, McAllen, and PSJA North. Visually speaking, I would say La Joya and McAllen. I have heard Rio Grande City a few times this year, and they are extremely strong musically...I feel confident enough to say that they are probably going to be one of, and if not, the most powerful band at Area as far as music goes. If their marching ever catches up though, they will be extraordinary. Edinburg has been doing great this year as well as far as music is concerned. What I have heard about both RGC and Edinburg is that they "park and play" a lot. Not sure if that will hurt them or not at area, but we will see Saturday. So, recap... Musical standouts- McAllen, La Joya, PSJA North, Edinburg, Rio Grande City Visual standouts- McAllen, La Joya

7 bands advancing to state...JEEEEEZ....that's all I can say. It makes the making finals part of it harder, but if you make finals, all but three are guaranteed a trip to state. Yep... I can give you region 15 and 28, as for the other two (which is the Laredo area, Victoria, and part of San Antonio), I have no clue about who advanced and who didn't. Region 15: Edinburg Rio Grande City Sharyland McAllen Memorial Economedes* McAllen PSJA North La Joya Edinburg North** Region 28: Los Fresnos Brownsville Lopez Brownsville Hanna San Benito Harlingen Harlingen South Brownsville Rivera Donna *Economedes- Let's all give this band a big time hand. For the first time in their school's history (open since 1999 I believe, and if not, 2000), they earned a first division. They have been working hard for the longest time, and they finally earned one. BIG congrats to them. **Edinburg North- I was deathly worried about this band at the beginning of the season. They sounded HORRID and their marching had gone out the window after their old director, Wilberto Perez, left and became the Edinburg CISD fine arts coordinator. Glad to see that they rebounded and advanced.

Well, I would like to go to region 28..but I can't for obvious reasons I think making it an Area G meet me would be TONS better. Not to mention that there aren't too many of us Valley people here on this forum

I'll be at Area G next week hopefully as a performer, and if not, then I'll swing by and watch. I would probably go to Pigskin over there if I wasn't marching just because I like more bands in 28 than in 15, but yeah...good luck to all this weekend!

Transitions. From what I heard (I didn't get to actually watch them), they had a lot of "brilliant" musical transitions between different sections of their show...hence the name.

What huuuuuurts the most...was getting sooooo close... OK, enough with the cheesy song moment, but seriously. We missed finals by ONE placement (not sure on the score though...BOA wouldn't tell us for some reason). I guess I'm hurt to be shut down like that, but I am a bit proud of us for doing better than we usually do in a contest outside of the Valley. Hopefully we won't have the same problems within the weeks to come and hopefully we will get another shot at state. Congrats to all finalists at BOA Houston, I finally got to see some great bands that I hear about all the time. Great to finally see them for a change

Word.

8 just because it's colorful, but not overly done. For all those that are confuzzled, it is a LIME on the cat's head on Xenon's avatar.

Quite. Does anyone know how to compress a video so that it won't lag so much on your computer? (I want to upload our performance from our contest last night, so help me out so you can see it too!!)

Because bus drivers take pleasure in torturing a bus full of innocent band students. Anyone else have a contest later today? (Yay, USSBA!)

I'd say the X-Men will be in the bottom 4 of the finals. I think Chambers and his staff will work wonders for them, but he does not have the necessary experience as a director for corps. Best of luck to the X-Men this year though. I don't see them not making finals with the staff they have, but I certainly dont expect them to be near or pass the top 6.

Thanks...we'll definitely need all the help and support we can get, especially after following such great bands. And your support is greatly appreciated

Joy....we get to follow Westfield, Cypress Falls, AND Reagan....I hope my band decides to bring their A game or else we are going to embarassed... Oh well, it can't be as bad as what McAllen Memorial had...being sandwiched between the Woodlands and Reagan at the super regional last year.

If you want to take the musical books into consideration, I would also like to mention that Universal Expressions was not easy to pull off. Churchill had a fairly difficult musical book and drill as well (I feel not many people appreciate Churchill 2004...they made blind "follow the leader" formations look easy). I think the show overall was a little out of Reagan's reach (not the whole time, only at certain points) in 2004. I would also agree with the statement that Reagan was not a true playing band until last year, but even so, they performed fairly well at state in 2004. I just think about it and I wonder, despite my love for the show, how Reagan was a state finalist in 2004. At UIL, it's supposed to be about who has the cleanest show with the most demanding music and drill, or something along the lines of that. That playing Mary Had a Little Lamb comment reminds me of something our director always tells us. Sometimes, if we mess up pretty badly on something, he will make a comment that sounds something like this... "If this music and drill is too hard for you, we can set up in a block, march the box drill, and play the Bb scale for 5 minutes. That's all you have to do to get a first division!" I don't know why, but I get a crack out of that every time. I just for once want to see a band at a contest marching the box drill and playing a Bb scale.

I am a pretty big fan of that show, but I could see why someone would say that they didn't do that great. At state, you could even see that their drill was dirty, and yet they made finals. I wouldn't go so far as to say they "stunk," but in a sense, it does, at times, seem quite questionable as to how they made it to state in the first place. But that was all two years ago, so why still fret over it?

That'd be pretty sweet...except I doubt that my old man (and by old man, I mean my director) would let us do that. But if aliens decide to abduct him and they send in a clone of him, then sure, we can do it!

One of the things I usually notice most about LD Bell is their guard. I'd keep an eye for them too

No worries. The music pretty much speaks for itself.

No, because then I think that the effects of it begin to take its toll on the students after some time. Then the show just gets kind of dull. Why are tacos so amazingly awesome?

Cool, I've already seen 2 of the 3 ECISD bands, but it would be better to see them from the stands instead of the sidelines. I don't think I want to see Economedes though...who knows, they got really close to finally earning a 1st division last year, maybe this year will be great for them. I secretly root for Economedes just because they are the biggest 5A underdogs in the Valley. I think I've said it before, if they got a different band director, they would be fairly good. You can tell all the kids in the program are extremely passionate about band, but they have no real guidance. Oh sorry, strayed off topic there for a lil. Yeah, sad to say, but I am going to miss it because of homework

I agree with you. I think the way I worded my statement makes it seem as if I am totally opposed to taking the music. I am not against it, I just think that if you take the exact arrangement of a show, you should at least try to make it better or throw in some variation that makes the show stand out more than the past performance of it. I do have a lot of repect for this band though. They are a 4A band trying to follow in the footsteps of a nationally recognized band. I wish them the best as well.

Well, something else on area G, except this one is about a 4A, Kingsville King. H.M. King 2006 show - Exodus Yes, the SAME Exodus that LD Bell had in 2001, music AND drill. The only reason I brought this up was because I was curious about how a lot of you all feel over things like this...using music and drill that another band used. Although I am not sure if Bell brought Exodus as an original show or not, do you think it is right for another band to use the same music and drill that was used in the past? I mean, King did play it fairly decently, but by no means will be able to top off Bell's performance. Drill is another story. What do you think on that?