packwick

hmmmmm.... i think there was a discussion on this earlier. don't think tw will win a major championship again until they narrow the musicianship gap b/w them and Hebron/Vandy. frankly imo they've been quite rickety early season musically every yr since the director change. still a lil freaked out by their trumpets lol. at the same time they're already in the elite tier, despite whatever the random forum predictions indicate. i mean, they've been 2nd place and less than a point off of 1st place the past two years, aaand prob should have been top 3 at BOASA in 2021 as well, given the Nats results, w/ them like 3 pointing CTJ or whatever. think i said this before, but they're good at things that are less well understood by fans, like visual and effect. maybe all the H-town bands could step it up a bit musically. ofc that doesn't mean falling into the "Texas loud" trap or playing a billion questionably musical 16th notes, bc that gets tiresome. tho maaaybe a lil more technical razzle dazzle could be nice.

not at all really, not in liiike... 2 weeks or so? but im in that discord group w/ extremely lame adults who make bets, and they know i troll here, so im more tight-lipped on specifics LOL. imma win for the 3rd yr in a row!!! i want to believe!!! 🛸

safe travels and good luck and skill to all!!! try to get some good sleeeep!!!

keep us updated if finals is canceled or not. gonna be a rainy and drawn-out prelims, looks like. esp from noon to 4pm. none of the inclement weather days look better either.

judging panel, for those like me who let it influence their predictionsss Music: Wayne Dillon, Beth Fabrizio, Randy Greenwell, Nola Jones, John Phillips, Caleb Rothe, Cliff Walker, and Todd Zimbelman Visual: Mike Anderson, Gregory Llacer, Juno Orefice, Tim Pierce, Adam Sage, and Mike Stone

6A judging panel: Tim Gray, Marty Griffin, Jeff Harper, Doug Henderson, Nola Jones, Steven Page, John Phillips, Warren Rickart, and Jay Webb music ones - marty (perc/ens), jeff (ens), nola (ens/ww?), steven (brass), john (ens), and jay (perc/ens) visual ones - doug, warren, and... Tim? newer one for me. i'm aware of Michael Gray, not Tim Gray. apparently he judges effect for wgi winds. maybe design/content then? actually, Nola could be either vis or music, tho she seems to always judge music these days. not sure the last time i saw her on a vis caption. 2011??

w/ UIL being as execution focused as it is, maybe not!! i could see a cedar ridge win.

*other three judges 7 total obviously

well if it's a consolation, broken arrow would have won this contest if it were UIL style, not that most band ppl would ever want that lol. 4 of the 7 judges had BA first. other two had em 2nd. blue springs had some 3rds and even a 4th in music IA. personally i can see the case for blue, esp visually, and even more specifically the guard, but musically i agree it's a little harder to hear. oh wellz.

marvelously strange show from Broken Arrow this yr. just about the highest compliment i can give. show pulls you in and never lets up. music effect scores should be gigantic. was aaalways curious what Jon could do w/ a top HS band not restricted to 8 hrs of rehearsal. fabulous!! a lil dirtier than normal visually tho, esp the guard, but they have 3 weeks. much harder show than normal. lots going on here.

way to go McNeil and timber Creek!!! boring but deserved prelims caption sweeps for both BA and Blue Springs. w/ blue springs only a point below the top at Indy, BA could have some competition here, like 2018.

also i wanna know once and for all if the intro is a preshow or not, bc it suuure does sound like one. night is falling, time to dream, which is when the show really begins, cause we in the Big Easy. annoys me that i can never hear the bass synth thru these streams. always looks like the girl is dancing in silence lol.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi0yU_4WOPI tw performed their full show in costume after the homecoming game tonite. good hicam angle too, tho the sides are a little cut off. kinda stunned by em again. they always pull it together circa UIL area. no exception this yr. so much more locked in musically and visually than i expected, except for those ugly block rotations + files near the start of the closer. really outstanding overall. still wish there was a bit more formal variety in the drill writing, more aesthetic appeal, fewer blocks and less fluttering. but that's the Vanderkolff way i guess.

we'll have to wait and see how everyone looks and sounds in a few weeks, but methinks the chances of that are prob pretty high.

well ofc *i* would love woodlands in top 3 again. trends are kinda against it tho. no band has placed in the top 3 at 3 consecutive BOA SAs since 2013, when the top kinda crumbled. Texas is waaaay too competitive!! hebron's trend resets methinks bc they didn't go last yr. tw is also a bit... behind... again.... and has a lousy prelims perf time that they'll be zombified for. think the show is there tho, esp the music book w/ its shifting moods/styles/meters paced quite seamlessly, lots of textural stuff, lots of color, fits well w/ the theme, w/ some big moments too. we shalllll seeee.

ya know what, the show shares a helluva lot of qualities with a classic Broken Arrow show, and we all know how well those placed. maybe not the freshest show in the world, but i def rank it higher than most do atm. they've got a great prelims perf time, too, esp w/ panel 1 being a nightmare. good opportunity for them to show they can hang w/ Vandy. just gotta get that perf up to Broken Arrow standards, bc Vandy will be dazzling musically!!

and just imagine if bridgeland, wakeland, prosper, and timber creek were going. like... yikes. there really is twice the number of SA finalist worthy bands in TX than SA finals spots. not convinced that's true for any other boa contest.

i actually have 22 now that i've seen everything. strongest shots at finals (10-to-6 panel 1 skew) p1: james bowie, round rock, cedar ridge, ronald reagan, flower mound, the woodlands, marcus, coppell, pearland, vandegrift p2: cedar park, leander, westlake, rouse, vista ridge, hebron strongest maybes: keller, ctj, southlake carroll, cy-fair, waxahachie, wylie ofc lots can change in 4 weeks.

eh, just replace bridgeland and wakeland w/ southlake carroll and waxahachie and u can still have your 20 bands lol.

just a lil snarky lol.

goin' thru the finals recap. Marcus won 2 of the 7 judges, both of em in the individual perf captions, which gave the big M a well-deserved win. 3rd in GE. butchya know what, watchin the finals on sub-HD hicam tonite (thanks box5) the weird caption splitting iiiisn't actually surprising to me. didn't think Marcus was ahead of the field visually or in GE. i still woulda had them 1st thru execution, but the show's individual parts, like brass, perc, woodwinds, guard, seemed greater than the overall product tonite, like a reverse synergy lol. like i just didn't really know what all the notes added up to, wanted to be a little more moved by it all. on the other hand, when u do focus on the individual parts, like that PERCUSSION, you're just like, lawd have mercy on everyone else when UIL rolls around. meanwhile Bentonville i feel like communicated the intent a little better, but then didn't have the polish to win here, despiiiite that prelims music win lol. LD Bell i was suuuper excited to see for the 1st time, always nostalgic to see Bell. i enjoyed the show, super colorful, and they executed well here. sometimes the staging just didn't look like the designer wrote it w/ those big tarps in mind, that's prob my biggest complaint. like, they framed the field in a particular way, shrank the stage, but then the drill wasn't in balance w/ it. Prosper was awesome, not surprised to see them do very well. love me a good Sam Barber show. kind of a more elevated music program, requiring more patience. really liked how they moved around those lil yellow boxes, or whatever they were, to reshape the stage. made for some cool vis moments.

glad to hear it!!! lol. i do like their show more and more as the season progresses. and after watching both TMC and BOA Prosper finals tonite, im feelin quite a bit better about them roughly maintaining their late season success this yr.

yay!! ok, the finals results look more in line w/ my thoughts than the prelims ones did. w/ LSP u never really know for sure what's gonna happen. congrats to bridgeland!! congrats to CP on snagging music too. they sound very good this year!!

the music arranger isn't necessarily choosing the music in the design process. but it'd be cool if he is the one who brought it up!!

wellll this thread is all over the map. i def fall into the "buuut where are the examples/evidence?!!" category for the reputation debate. thiiink what we'll find is that fans of this activity sometimes have a pretty solipsistic perspective when it comes to band perfs. im guilty of it too. like, why don't the judges over-privilege the same parts of a band perf that i do?!!! why don't they prefer what i prefer??! why not just... my opinion?? other opinions exist?! meanwhile im super hard pressed to think of any of the heavy hitters that aren't consistently awesome in all or most of what's actually on the judging sheets. and when they aren't, they drop in placement, like others have said.