Abbie123

Did you get to watch any of their marching shows this year?

BTW is this event going to be covered live by txbands staff?

I would complete the top five with College Park, Westfield, and Spring... Knowing how well this year has been going... Top five random order: Leander Spring Dawson College Park Westfield Geez its hard picking the top five!!! I had to leave out a lot of good bands...

My band director told me it was the Wow effect (visually clean, musically moving example: the difficult of the drill, the dynamics present, how hard the show is to perform, how cool does it look...), how well does the show fit together based on a particular theme?

Dawson got second place last year though, right?

I'll just say it, Leander is basically the only central Texas band there... Leander,Spring and College Park are neck and neck in prelims... Freindswood, Brazoswood and Westfield are also neck and neck in prelims...

Leander Band Show this year... http://www.statesman.com/videos/news/battl...h-school/vfgcG/

With only 16 bands signed up for the Vista Ridge marching festival and ten going to finals, this competition might be the only one that allows bands that usually don't get into finals, to finally experience the glory of marching under the lights for a sizable audience. This might help boost the moral of many struggling band programs and might inspire them to take a different direction. Needless to say, the top spot at finals is not guaranteed. With last years finalist bands Conally, Leander, Westlake and defending champion Vandegrift, it will be a brawl for the tile of Marching champions. Interestingly, each band last year beat each other out in different competitions. At the Westlake marching festival, Connally blocked out Leander. At this competition last year, Conally scored higher than Leander, yet Lenader scored lower than Westlake and Vandegrift. At BOA San Antonio, Leander scored higher than Westlake and Vandegrift, while Westlake also scored higher than Vandegrift at BOA SA. The point it is, the championship can go to any of those bands, based on last years performance. There is an opportunity for a dark horse to sneak in due to the small number of bands performing... With performance season sneaking up pretty quickly it will be interesting to see how this all turns out.

Lonestar is going to be an interesting competition. The previous chap- CTJ- is going to the Round Rock Festival of Bands competition, instead of returning to trying and claim their second championship(maybe they felt like they needed a change). Needless to say, that does not guarantee runner up last year- Dawson- the title. The two powerhouses Brazoswood and Westfield are hungry to claim a championship title after a slightly disappointing year, and those aren't the only two that Dawson has to worry about. Spring HS, a BOA Grand National and consistent BOA Super regional finalist winner, is in the competition this year; if Spring was looking for an easy championship title, they are in for a fight. One of the newer band to rejoin the competition is Leander High School, they are a band to watch out for, placing in finals at the Westlake and Vista Ridge Marching Festivals last year, the last time they were here in 2005 they received third place. There are many other bands that are looking to take a spot in finals and this may be their year, however, in no way is the competition any less this year; new bands mean new competition and another chance for bands to shine with a new pool. Only time will tell... Good Luck everyone!!!

Only time will tell!!!

Could ya'll put up predictions for Vista Ridge Marching Festival, Lone Star Preview, and Westlake Marching Festival, Please?

PREDICTIONS UPDATE PLEASE!! (I like predictions because you can see the bands that are attending those events...Not just to predict)

Leander High School 2012-"The Ritual" Sensemaya - Revueltas Symphony No. 1 (III Andante tranquillo) - Samuel Barber La Fiesta Mexicana - H.O. Reed

I'll get the data up as soon as I can

Haha Happened to a friend of mine, said that she some how couldn't play the last note because a "guy in a green polo shirt" was standing in-front of her. Said it never happened before....

Do you mean like the individual rankings for each caption, and miscellaneous stuff like that? But thanks anyway, going through all that work. Probably should use a ocr (optical character recognition) so you don't have to type in the data individually, don't want you not finishing homework

I don't think that was the case drummerjoe, the individual music judge might have heard something on the field that did not carry to the box... but really Leander 5th individual marching, 6th individual playing to 49th ensemble marching, and 32 ensemble playing, something didn't carry to the box and vice-versa..... (I think that is the biggest disconnect in placement from the field judges to the press-box judges). BTW that was some pretty amazing finals... Congrats Round Rock and Anderson for being the dark horses!!!

Trust me, Joe if a band is good enough to get in they will get in, and I think that will be the case with Round Rock. They are clean, have nice effect, and sound pretty good....

I am so excited for the "Dark Horses" of this Super Regional....

Ok so all these people arguing about bubbles and locks and all... (Yes sure one person might say definitely that band is in locks and another might be ehhh probably not) Why not just wait till BOA San Antonio guys.... Just enjoy the bands, and instead of commenting on placements, can we talk about the shows? Like which show do you think stands out and what qualities it has.... This is such a hard super regional, I don't even know where to begin. I mean even the order of the top four bands is disputable... that is what makes it so exciting. Things are so close this year anything can happen... I feel like this thread is turning into some sort of high stakes gambling game, to predict what the placements of the bands are going to be....

Yes but "CentexBandKid" also watched all the shows.... so he had to have some opinion into how the bands were going to do...

Anybody seen Leander's Show or Vista Ridge's this year?

Comments from previous competitions included (From TXBands live) Class 3A Giddings HS Giddings, TX Lampasas High School Lampasas, TX East View High School Georgetown, TX Liberty Hill High School Liberty Hill, TX Class 4A Cedar Ridge High School Round Rock, TX Cedar Park High School Band Cedar Park, TX Cedar Park - Mahler - Loving how the body and horn choreography compliments Cedar Park's iconic drum-corps-esque sound wall in the opener. Lime green flags superimposed against the band's greens look awesome. The visual poise of this band is matched by few. A very likely finalist, top half possible. (BOA Conroe) Connally High School Austin, TX (8th at Westlake) Vandegrift High School Austin, TX Vandegrift - Visionary - Vandy playing Shosty . Their opener is a throwback to Phantom's iconic 1996 show and it sounds nice and gooey. Really crisp trumpet playing in the follower to the opener. Like Sfa high, they use a dance team instead of a guard and they look awesome with the silky purple in their dresses scattering the rays of the sun that is now starting to show its face from behind the clouds. Awesome brass sounds in the closer....and loud too, especially for a smaller band. Their drill rocks and is quite clean and I'd say they too have a finals caliber show, though I'm having trouble pegging their placement, especially this early in the day. (BOA Conroe) Hendrickson High School Pflugerville, TX Hendrickson - Cathedral - a huge organ prop sits in the center of the pit, with 3 organists showing off their skills, leading into the opening hit. 2 brass ensembles take it from the with some beautiful technique. Some very fun moments in this show! Woodwinds have a very balanced sound, full of color. The cathedral windows in the background serve as a nice backdrop to set the theme. (Westlake) Canyon High School New Braunfels, TX Lake Travis High School Austin , TX Missed lake Travis unfortunately, but they sounded great from the parking lot! (Westlake) McCallum High School Austin, TX Rouse High School Leander, TX Lehman High School Kyle, TX Clear Falls High School Band League City , TX Elgin High School Elgin, TX Marble Falls High School Marble Fall, TX Class 5A Leander High School Leander, TX Leander - Russia - welcome back to Westlake, Leander! The show opens with a beautiful trumpet solo before the band hits you in the face with a clinic in articulation. Clean and confident! This band has a huge forte, and then they hit you with even bigger fortissimo. But they also show a delicate side in the ballad. A Russian style march and huge russian flag colored flags and banners complete the theme. Leander is back at full force! (from Westlake High Marching Festival) Westwood High School Austin, TX Westwood - Harvest - A relatively new face on the BOA scene, Westwood comes out guns ablazing to a Respighi show centered around the theme of harvest. The guard wields what looks like wreaths of grain in the opener....perhaps they represent shrine maidens praying to the Gods of harvest. Loved the gorgeous open chords in the ballad driven forward by a very pretty oboe solo. They're a well rounded group but I could have used more dynamic contrast. (From BOA Conroe) Del Valle High School Del Valle, TX Westlake Austin, TX Round Rock High School Round Rock, TX Round rock - beautiful design, beautiful guard, beautiful playing. Oh, and I seemed to notice that all while I couldn't take my eyes off that drumline. The show started with a sunrise and ended with a sunset on the opposite side of the field. Lots of beautifully designed suns and rays through out the show.The defending champs brought it this evening! (from Westlake High Marching Festival) Ronald Reagan High School San Antonio, TX Spaces - Aaaand more Beethoven 7 and Shostakovich but with Debussy and Holst thrown in. This of course is a good thing . Lightsaber sounds accompanied by body choreography, w00t! Reagan loves their synths and they're used effectively on Engulfed Cathedral....which btw sounds NAILS! Really cool show and a likely finalist. (BOA Conroe) W. Charles Akins High School Austin, TX Akins - Earth 2.0. - The pre-show starts with the woodwinds playing some highly dissonant chords, and then the brass joins in. Pretty sure the announcer missed his cue though. This show is HARD with lots of very dissonant brass runs that Akins plays quite well. As the ballad starts the theme changes from black to white, as the black backfield panels are turned to reveal white panels and the guard makes a uniform change! I think there was also a plume/hat change? Really challenging show! (from Westlake Marching Festival) Harker Heights High School Harker Heights, TX Please share your thoughts and questions...