AvonDad

Its not halftime, but Brownsburg's competition is "On Demand" online for now. If you start around the 7 Hr mark you'll find 8 Indiana big bands spaced about every 15 mins. I am are so far out of the loop now as our kids have been out for 5 years. https://reflect-bcsctv-brownsburg.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/1499?site=1

Taylor Swift grabbed the first weekend in Nov at Lucas Oil for 2024. Her scheduling people beat out everyone else.

Sounds fun! Wife and I are planning the same thing except will stop after Round Rock, have to get back to work eventually. We did Canyon and Broken Arrow last year, going this year, and Round Rock is still a 50/50, but we like to volunteer and help out when we can. What does your daughter do? Our son is the lead quad/tenor this year for his age out season.

Congrats! My son marched quads with them last year and is with them again this year. Its a great organization and he loves it. Check out the BK Family page on FB.

Yep, was able to see them practice recently. They look a tiny bit smaller than 2019, as do a lot of bands, but I don't think its that much difference. Last time Avon placed below 3rd at Nationals was back in 2006 when they were 7th and I believe you are correct on the show name. Looked like what you would expect from Avon, so this year could get interesting. ?

We are currently 3 years out from graduation and still volunteer. The kids are respectful and work their butts off on the field, yet its so funny chaperoning a bus as you realize, these are just normal kids, until they hit the field. - All bands deserve a standing ovation. We make sure that every kid gets the recognition they deserve as they a have all put in the hours. At Avon, every band will get a standing ovation from the parents. -The kids appreciate the volunteers, box moms, treats, congrats, support. I use to provide candy snacks once a week for the drum line and it was greatly appreciated. -It will change your kid. If they don't come home wanting to quit, its not being done right. They have to push through and see that if its worth being the best, it takes time and effort. Our first kid was only in it for a year, as it was not for her, but it did change her. She knew what she wanted and pushed through everything to make it happen later in life. Our last kid fell in love with it, marched high school and just finished up a season marching tenors for the Blue Knights. -it cost money, but its been well worth it. The experience, drive, determination to achieve what they didn't think they could is worth it. -being a pit parent can be hectic. WIfe and I did the indoor season, and when you are told you are already a minute late to clear the floor, it doesn't get more real than that.

I thought the season felt a bit "relaxed" without the judging. It opened up the corps to experiment in ways they normally wouldn't Phantom redoing Harmonic Journey was a treat. Boston and all their screens were a lot. Not a fan of Blue Coats this year, loved it to years ago, this year seemed more like a "sequel" and thought the first one was better. Mandarin show really grew on me live. Their drum major was having a blast and was the star of the show for me. My son marched tenors with Blue Knights and their rich sound grew on me. They were going more for a happy enjoyment mood this year. Learned a lot this year trying to translate from marching bands to DCI. I did get to see a tenor dive for cover during the Mandarins show as a frisbee came right at him.

You might check out Ayreon on YT. There is a live concert recording that may match for what you are looking. The song "Eye of Ra" basically describes a Stargate.

I was thinking Union or Jenks would be good on my list as well instead of Mason. Even Ayala from CA with their drum line. There’s a lot of great bands out there but then there’s that SA buzz saw.

Hopefully this is in the right forum, but since this year is pretty much "fill in the blank" while marking time, I've been looking for something for my band fix. I consider myself privileged to have attended both SA and GN in the same years, twice. Last year was great with the Team Texas 6 pack bringing the heat to GN, so lets turn the tables. If you could pick 6 bands from outside Texas to compete at SA for 2021, live and in person, who would you like to see to turn SA into GNSouth. My picks would probably be Avon, Carmel, Broken Arrow, Tarpon Springs, William Mason, Blue Springs for starters. Whose your Team Elsewhere 6 pack?

I'm in. I have zoom on a couple of computers plus run a nice virus scanner on a blade server, so we good.

My wife and I have spent 2 evenings this week helping to fit uniforms for some of our group. Our school district was the first to close in Indiana as we had one of the 1st reported cases in an elementary school less than 1/2 mile from our house. It started with just that school, then days later, the entire district down for 2 weeks, followed by the normal 2 week spring break. Then everything thing cancelled and seasons were over. We are one county west of Indy, which has been the hot spot of the state. I think we are top 5-6 out of the counties with almost 1500 cases and 116+ deaths compared to over 12k cases and 700+ deaths over in Indy. Current plans are to proceed as if there is still a season to march. The kids have been "zooming" to keep up and this was the first of any get togethers, all spread out, masked and in the parking lot. It was a bit strange these past few days as we were helping freshman figure out how to put on their bibs and coats. The smell of sanitizer everywhere. Asking what instrument they play, it was only percussion this week, to see if they were going to be wearing a harness or not, then getting the reply "I hope to be playing...." as they are still in tryouts. Normally the line is set in May, but not this year. Very strange. I have already heard that a smaller class competition band has decided to skip competitions this fall, yet still play for football games. Our son should be on his DCI tour right now and I had vacation scheduled to watch a few competitions this summer. Not this year. The sound of drummers playing rudiments never sounded so good the other night. Music was still being played, ok lets be real, they beat things with a stick. The pit warmups echoing off the walls made you realize how much these little things ring as being "normal". Playing scales, playing eighths, playing rounds. Normal. Sooner or later, the fields will be full of nerves, pride, hard work, excitement, exhaustion and realizing the goal from pushing on when it was hard. And if the fields are quiet this year, I'll look forward to the DanPodcast reviewing fast food places this fall. Marching on......

Avon 2014 used it for their opener. I've heard the song in quite a few other bands since. You are right in that it works great from the field.

Search "pachelbel rant" on that video site

Ok, I'm a late for the post, but this SA trip was the blast we had been hoping for. Mrs AvonDad and myself finally arrived Friday afternoon to start our lineup with John B Alexander. (you can keep your Dallas/Austin traffic, felt like I was driving for NASCAR) The Mrs is a voice teacher and teaches kids to sing and can only take so much band at a time... until then. I've been lucky to get her to watch 3-4 bands in a row before she's ready to find something else. In the local comps our band is normally last and she likes to get there a band before, I prefer to watch all I can...but I digress. After JBA blew us away, I think it was Keller that was up next to peel paint. I'm discovering from watching on Flomarching that you don't have to watch the Texas bands to enjoy them as you can close your eyes and listen to the music itself as that good. The visual is the icing on the cake. Watching the shows live is worth the trip and then to see the Texas 6 pack live 2 weeks later was a definite memorable time. I was a bit shocked that the Mrs wasn't ready to leave after a couple of groups and was wanting to learn what she should watch for. I was trying to give her some pointers and LeanderMomma was a help as well. She saw what made SA such a treat for me and got into it herself. We needed that 4.30 break to wrap our heads around what we had just experienced....absolutely mind blowing...and then came more. We did take off for the evening after Alter as we have friends who are connected with the band and they are from where we both grew up, plus with the time difference and she's not a night owl. sidenote: I've always found it fascinating that Alter takes the field without a drum major. We made it back later than we wanted on Sat as we messed up trying to get around on the bus after lunch at the Riverwalk, heading on the other way around our loop. Oops! Weather was beautiful with temps starting in the 30s and pushing 60s in the evening, unlike the 90s we had in 2017. Again SA Finals blew away anything we had experienced at LOS. The quality of the programs and music put out on a field is worth the trip to experience live. Streaming is a great way to see what a group is doing, but you can't experience the overwhelming sound that hits you square in the chest, crisp, clean, solid, the dynamics, all while moving on a field. You have to be there to feel the energy those kids produce from the field. I know I'm going to leave people out, so please don't take it as any slight, it was all you can do to keep things straight with all the stellar performances happening. Keller made an impact with their horns, CTJ - love the show with the guard jumping over the band like gazelle, the cubs "fighting with each other" on the side, the kids sold it, The Woodlands made you believe they had gotten off the ship for the first time in 6 months with their enthusiasm, Leander with Brittney and Tchaikovsky on the same field filling the field with streamers with energy and excitement you can't feel from streaming. Vandy, Reagan, Hebron, Flower Mound....not enough words to describe. I think it was Hendrickson with the I Will Survive / Bacchanale duet that put chills down us yet didn't make it to finals. Unreal. Did I mention that the Mrs is a vocal teacher? To that singer, you had her attention. I was asked when we got back home if Reagan really was that good. Yep. Then they told me they wished Reagan was coming to GN. My drummer of a son still talks about Round Rock's drum line. He was able to see them live at GN during semis and was greatly impressed with their splits and wonder if they competed during the winter season. SA Finals was what makes it SA SR. Run the same groups again and the placements could easily change as the kids are all that good. Hours and hours of long work with practice, memorization, drill all culminating for a run in the finals. Wow. Just wow. We got to put names and faces together from these forums while there and had a blast the entire time. We are still in awe with the warm welcomes we received and the Texas hospitality, the taffy and some Bush's Chicken Tender Rolls on the way out of town from a well know recommendation. I would highly recommend if anyone who has not been to SA SR is thinking about it, do it. We made a week of it running through about 9 different states, 2700 miles, looping through a couple of places the Mrs wanted to see, but the highlight was that Fri and Sat at the Alamodome. Ok, the Mrs really enjoyed our stop in Oklahoma at the Pioneer Woman cooking show something or another.... 2017 we experienced a record breaking score with CTJ and a spread of 1.05 pts between 2nd through 6th place and a band winning a caption without taking a medal, twice. 2019 we experienced a record breaking score with RR and a spread of 1.12 pts between 3rd through 7th place. So......2021? Yeah....already planning on a return trip. Still haven't put our house on the market to move there though as someone asked on another forum. The Mrs likes her different seasons, which we can do all 4 in a day here. Thanks again for your Texas Hospitality!