utee94

As a parent of two of these kids I'm less concerned about "form" and more concerned about my kids getting enough sleep and getting their homework done. Luckily today and tomorrow were holidays for Leander ISD but they'll be missing Friday at school due to BOA-San Antonio and 2 days next week due to BOA-Grand Nationals. They'll be spending enough time in hotels over the next 2 weeks, so I'm more than fine with ALL of them coming home today.

Early performance time this morning so they stayed overnight last night. Wasn't in the budget to stay twice so the whole band came home this afternoon.

Finalists will be announced after they finish recognizing all State participants.

I think the photographer hollering over the band that is currently performing, just to get a picture, is a lot worse. Many reasons they should move this process somewhere else, outside of the dome's grandstands.

Yup it's UIL's schedule. The picture actually took our band so long this morning, that they couldn't get back to the truck to load their instruments quickly enough and we almost missed our parking lot mandatory exit time. They need to change the UIL schedule, because this current process doesn't work. My suggestion would be to take the pictures somewhere else.

Lake Belton is the most pleasant and unexpected surprise for me today so far. I enjoyed all aspects of their show-- very good music and drill, and beautiful visuals with zero props or front screens or other added elements. The color guard costumes were perfectly utilized for added visual impact.

Me three. Multicam won't load at all but high cam is fine.

Great show! I'd heard it was good and wasn't disappointed. I loved the interplay with the band and the props/stages. So energetic and entertaining.

Just got home from SA, will be watching on NFHS for the rest of the day while trying to get some actual work done. Didn't get a chance to sit in the stands and watch anyone, but Lone Star went just before us so we were waiting in the wings and at field level they sounded fantastic. Cohen's "Hallelujah" gets me every time and they performed it beautifully.

Good friends at CR, texting me late last night worried about the wind and all of their crazy pendulum and wrecking ball swinging props! Apparently everything stayed put, though. Strong finish for the Raider Band, congrats to the them and all the other finalists advancing to State!

Welcome back, txbands forum. Guess there was a little too much site traffic yesterday, with all of the 4A and 6A Area comps, plus all the weather drama. Speaking of weather drama, tomorrow's San Antonio forecast has rain chances peaking at 54%, right at 8 AM, which is our scheduled unload time in the Alamodome parking lot. Ugh, really hoping the rain stays away.

Pretty sure it does and for our Area competjtion they didn't clear the stadium between Prelims and Finals.

I'm not familiar with the geographical extent of this Area, but for anyone more than 60 miles or so, it makes sense to give them as much of a heads-up as possible. Waiting until the day-of, the furthest bands could already be on the road.

Probably, everyone, except for the old faces that like to make it to San Antonio.

I've seen Leander's show several times now, it's got plenty enough to make finals at all upcoming competitions. Their kids are also gracious and fun to hang around, our kids are definitely looking forward to the trip up to Grand Nationals alongside them. Although I personally think they missed a bet by omitting Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night" from the musical book, but hey, that's just picking nits.

Yup, they did it for our 5A Area competition last weekend. And I didn't recall them doing it before, so it makes sense if this is the first year.

Yeah I've seen it done both ways. The way our band INTENDS it, is the former. The electronic pre-show is timed to consume the final minute or so of the setup time, and then the first real instrument entry should occur right as it switches over to the 8 minutes. Nothing in the pre-show is supposed to be judged. I've also seen the 2 minute post-show timer occasionally not run at all, at both Region and Area. At State I assume it's running but I'm always so focused moving props and equipment off the field, I never even look for the timers at State.

I think the CP kids are starting to take it as a challenge. 11:00 AM performance time at BOA-Austin, 9:45 AM performance time at UIL Area Prelims, and now a 10:00 AM performance time at UIL State Prelims. My own kids actually prefer early performance times, they feel fresher and they like to knock it out early and then just wait for the results.

Like pretty much everywhere else in the state, there are decent rain chances in San Antonio on Monday and Tuesday. While the performance area is sheltered within the Alamodome, all props and equipment are unloaded in the open air parking lot, and the front ensemble warm up areas are also outside in the elements. That means all of the synth carts and other electronics will be at least somewhat exposed. I really hope the rain holds off and doesn't affect the equipment.

Edit-- sorry, I thought I had what you were looking for but I only linked the sheet with the ordinals, not the detailed sheet, so I deleted it. I'm not sure where those come from, I think the directors get them so this is probably a "leak." Anyway, as an Anderson marching band alum from back in the day, and someone with friends whose kids march for Anderson currently, I feel for you all, and I'm always rooting for you to advance and get over the hump. I know it's disappointing when the kids work so hard, and the results don't come. I definitely wish you all the best in the future.

UT is pretty strict about use of the field these days, I don't know if they want the hassle and risk associated with letting so many various groups use it throughout a day. It wasn't always that way, when I was in marching band in AISD way back when, we had the AISD Festival of Bands at Memorial Stadium every year, on a weeknight same as most ISDs do now, so it wouldn't interfere with other events the university was holding there. Anyway, it would be really cool to see a BOA-style marching band competition there. Good luck in engineering, I graduated UT with my BSEE way back in 1994. It's been the foundation of my professional career and opened many doors for me, over the years. Studying is important, but be sure you get out and enjoy college life, and assert your independence, in a great town like Austin. That's just as important a part of your college education, as anything that happens in the classroom or lab.

PM sent, don't want to clutter up this thread with too much chatter of old shows.

I loved that show, do you have any links for the bands performing it now? I'd love to see it! Last year I saw a youtube video of a band in Ohio or somewhere performing CP's 2022 show Mirror Mirror in its entirety, and it was so much fun seeing a different take on it, and I was also happy to see it get new life and live on. It was a great show and deserved further viewing and enjoyment. The composer/arranger retained the rights to those shows, and sells them in whole or in part to other bands. It's definitely not against the rules and it's a good way for bands to minimize their costs, by buying premade shows rather than having a brand new one designed from scratch. Evan VanDoren has designed multiple award-winning shows for CP, Rouse, Wakeland, and many other high school marching bands. https://www.evanvandoren.com/marchingbandshows/#Portfolio|all|1

https://www.smbc.uiltexas.org/area/results/files/area-24_5A Area F 2024.pdf

Really thrilled for McNeil, I have friends with kids in the band there and they've been working so hard to improve and level up. I couldn't be happier for them and am really interested to see how they perform in UIL now.