2012 BOA Denton Prelims Results

[Xenon]

  anthony v said:

Anyone remember UIL Area B a couple years back? Yeesh...

 

Yeah, I remember being there with the tornado sirens going off.....

[TXMarchingMadness87654]

Yep. UIL Area B = Tornado sirens, lightning, drenching rain, bands getting on the field and then off the field and then on the field. My sister came out to watch and she has knee and back problems. We went into and out of the stands so many times, we had to find her a fold out chair to sit in at the bottom of the ramp. It about did her in. That was probably the worst I've seen at a competition.

[Xenon]

Here is Music For All's (BOA's) Refund Policy for BOA Denton:

 

  Quote

Rainout Ticketing Policy for 2012 Bands of America Regional at Denton, TX

 

Bands of America is grateful that "Mother Nature" allowed completion of the entirety of the Preliminary Competition at the Denton Regional. We were not as fortunate during Finals. Due to extreme weather conditions (and following the counsel, advice and preference of the participating Finalist directors), Finals were cancelled before the performances commenced. By rule, the preliminary results became the final results of the competition.

 

The overriding ticketing policy for Music for All/Bands of America events is that tickets are "non-refundable." Nevertheless, where extraordinary circumstances, like severe weather, cause the cancellation of all or a substantial portion of an event, Music for All establishes event-specific refund policies that may include full or partial refunds, as appropriate.

 

Following are Music for All's policies concerning ticket refunds for the 2012 Denton Regional:

 

Cooperative Tickets (issued to bands) - No refund

Day-Pass - $9 refund

Adult Finals Ticket - $17 refund

Military or Senior Finals Ticket - $14 refund

Student Finals Ticket - $10 refund

 

We request that our patrons note that the costs of the event (stadium rental, stadium personnel, judges' fees and other expenses, and the like) were still incurred and paid by Music for All. We invite you to consider foregoing any refund. If you require a refund, we ask that you consider donating the value of the refund to Music for All in support of its educational programs and music education advocacy initiatives. If you choose to donate your refund, Music for All will provide you with an acknowledgement of your charitable contribution for your tax records.

 

To request a refund or, please send your name, address, and tickets to:

 

Music for All, Inc.

39 W. Jackson Place, Suite 150

Indianapolis, IN 46255

 

Alternatively, you may fax your refund request to 317.524.6200 or e-mail it to Info@musicforall.org.

 

Please include your actual tickets if requesting a refund via mail, or a copy of each ticket if requesting via fax or e-mail. If you choose to donate the value of your ticket refund and request a tax receipt, please indicate this in your request. Refund requests must be received by November 30. 2012.

 

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding MFA refund policies or the Denton Regional event, please do not hesitate to contact us at 800.848.2263.

[Rubisco]

Just sifted through the ordinals. Some interesting things to note:

4 out of 7 judges placed Marcus first. This isn't as dominant as Marcus was last year at Conroe, where they were first in all but individual visual performance, in which they placed 2nd. They even got a third place music GE vote! Gasp!

5 of 7 judges had Bowie 3rd or lower.

Only 2 judges had Cedar Park in the upper half of finals. Those two judges were the individual performance judges, both of whom placed CP first. If GE had dictated CP's score, they would have placed 6th.

CTJ was 4th in GE due to middling GE music scores.

Hebron was 3rd in GE. All but one judge had them in the top five.

Only 2 of the 7 judges had Reagan making finals.

Vandegrift was weak in music performance (11th place), but strong in visual performance (6th). They beat CP in GE, where they got 5th.

[Centex_band_mom]

Thanks for the replies on how the cancelled finals process works and what's happened in the past. It makes sense! Hope everyone was able to dry out and salvage uniforms and equipment!

[Rubisco]

  Statebound said:

This can be another topic for another day, but BOA judging is becoming a mystery to me. I thought that CTJ obviously had the best performance of the day and I have had no affiliation with that organization. How can the same bands win every category in every classification?

 

I just watched the top 5 shows on the new Music for All video webpage. I think after years and years of being baffled by BOA scoring (particularly GE scoring), I've started to grasp it a little bit better. Although I wasn't there live (and I knew the results as I was watching the shows), I have to say I think the judges hit the nail on the head as far as ranking the top 5. Marcus was clearly the superior group. They play with so much more clarity than any of the other groups, and the music is so demanding. It's not perfect-- there is some first trumpet player sticking out in parts-- but still, the music is well on its way. The visual is also quite elegant and fits seamlessly with the music. The show flows like water. If Marcus has any overt "fault", it's that at times they focus so much on technical musical perfection that they play almost a bit too prudishly. That's the best way I can describe it. They lack the volume, grittiness, and raw excitement of some of their nearest competitors.

 

I thought Bowie was simply excellent. I think they'll stick around the top for a few years to come. A top 6 finish at nationals seems likely if they continue the momentum. The drill for this group is so much better than it used to be, and the music is very strong. I would remind them, though, to watch out that musical power doesn't get in the way of clarity. Also, the "wandering stars" on the field (at least that's what I think they are) are being used to neat effect, but they maybe could use some more color. That'd be reeeealll purrrdy. On a side note, I loved the raindrop accompaniment to their performance. Heh. And their director shouting "Hallelujah!" at the end.

 

CTJ was a group that I'm thinking must have been better live. That's not to say anything bad about the show. It's a great show, very well performed and deserving of the high placement. It's just that I feel like some of the issues I heard last season are still present this season, and maybe because of the *ahem* hype I expected a bit more. Like Bowie, I believe some musical clarity went out of the window for power and excitement. The music design is also a tad schizophrenic in parts. In addition, it looks like they're telling a story again, but, like last year, the storytelling right now is a little bit muddy. I don't really know what's going on. This is something I'm sure the design staff will work on throughout the season. I fully expect this show to land in the top five again at San Antonio, but I think it's going to be an uphill battle to crack Marcus, Bell (probably, haven't seen them yet), and The Woodlands for the top 3.

 

Hebron was outstanding. I was really really impressed with these guys. The ballad gave something close to chills. Lots of classic Reagan-esque moments as well. Honestly, as I was watching, I thought to myself, "I think this show is actually slightly more effective than CTJ's show is." This is a huge compliment! Of course, this is confounded by the fact that I knew, in the back of my mind, that Hebron beat CTJ in General Effect. Heh. Anyway, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Hebron ends up fighting CTJ for a 4th place finish at San Antonio, but it's too early to tell for sure. We'll have to wait another month for that!

 

Cedar Park I think did suffer a bit without the electronics. The preshow was almost completely inaudible! These guys are strong performers, though, and really pulled it off well. I'm not surprised they were first in the individual visual caption based on the up close shots. They looked very crisp, totally in the zone. Like I've said before, I wish the music flowed a bit better in spots, and that the drill was a little more interesting, but they perform the heck out of what they have. They'll be strong competition this weekend at Conroe for The Woodlands.

[Statebound]

  Rubisco said:

I just watched the top 5 shows on the new Music for All video webpage. I think after years and years of being baffled by BOA scoring (particularly GE scoring), I've started to grasp it a little bit better. Although I wasn't there live (and I knew the results as I was watching the shows), I have to say I think the judges hit the nail on the head as far as ranking the top 5. Marcus was clearly the superior group. They play with so much more clarity than any of the other groups, and the music is so demanding. It's not perfect-- there is some first trumpet player sticking out in parts-- but still, the music is well on its way. The visual is also quite elegant and fits seamlessly with the music. The show flows like water. If Marcus has any overt "fault", it's that at times they focus so much on technical musical perfection that they play almost a bit too prudishly. That's the best way I can describe it. They lack the volume, grittiness, and raw excitement of some of their nearest competitors.

 

I thought Bowie was simply excellent. I think they'll stick around the top for a few years to come. A top 6 finish at nationals seems likely if they continue the momentum. The drill for this group is so much better than it used to be, and the music is very strong. I would remind them, though, to watch out that musical power doesn't get in the way of clarity. Also, the "wandering stars" on the field (at least that's what I think they are) are being used to neat effect, but they maybe could use some more color. That'd be reeeealll purrrdy. On a side note, I loved the raindrop accompaniment to their performance. Heh. And their director shouting "Hallelujah!" at the end.

 

CTJ was a group that I'm thinking must have been better live. That's not to say anything bad about the show. It's a great show, very well performed and deserving of the high placement. It's just that I feel like some of the issues I heard last season are still present this season, and maybe because of the *ahem* hype I expected a bit more. Like Bowie, I believe some musical clarity went out of the window for power and excitement. The music design is also a tad schizophrenic in parts. In addition, it looks like they're telling a story again, but, like last year, the storytelling right now is a little bit muddy. I don't really know what's going on. This is something I'm sure the design staff will work on throughout the season. I fully expect this show to land in the top five again at San Antonio, but I think it's going to be an uphill battle to crack Marcus, Bell (probably, haven't seen them yet), and The Woodlands for the top 3.

 

Hebron was outstanding. I was really really impressed with these guys. The ballad gave something close to chills. Lots of classic Reagan-esque moments as well. Honestly, as I was watching, I thought to myself, "I think this show is actually slightly more effective than CTJ's show is." This is a huge compliment! Of course, this is confounded by the fact that I knew, in the back of my mind, that Hebron beat CTJ in General Effect. Heh. Anyway, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Hebron ends up fighting CTJ for a 4th place finish at San Antonio, but it's too early to tell for sure. We'll have to wait another month for that!

 

Cedar Park I think did suffer a bit without the electronics. The preshow was almost completely inaudible! These guys are strong performers, though, and really pulled it off well. I'm not surprised they were first in the individual visual caption based on the up close shots. They looked very crisp, totally in the zone. Like I've said before, I wish the music flowed a bit better in spots, and that the drill was a little more interesting, but they perform the heck out of what they have. They'll be strong competition this weekend at Conroe for The Woodlands.

Wow--fantastic post! I saw the shows live and you've talked me into going back and watching Bowie and CTJ again. I thought the Bowie show was a little "tricked up" and I need to listen to their instrumentation a bit closer. With BOA contests, I'm always a little worried about the "reputation" factor, although Flower Mound was able to break into the sacred realm last year.

 

Their are several top bands playing at the Plano East contest this weekend (Marcus, Hebron, Haltom, Mansfield, etc) and I think we'll know more from that.

[Rubisco]

I have to say, after watching some more shows, I think this competition was outstanding top to bottom. Considering how stiff the competition was for a regional this early, bands shouldn't be that upset if they "underperformed". There's still plenty of time to improve. Congrats to all!

[Centex_band_mom]

Is there a way to go back and look at these shows? Also, what does it mean saying the one performance was "tricked up"? Thanks!

[T.Stechnij]

I think that the judging seems much more "on" than BOASRSA.

I watched everyone in finals and I was so impressed by CTJ, with 4 years of exsistence and I say they are in competition for top 3 and San Antonio and State, Hebron, for coming back and fighting and being ready for an AMAZING season and Vandergrift for being very comparable to those top 5.

 

There was so many oboe solos in finals!

[Xenon]

  Rubisco said:

I just watched the top 5 shows on the new Music for All video webpage. I think after years and years of being baffled by BOA scoring (particularly GE scoring), I've started to grasp it a little bit better. Although I wasn't there live (and I knew the results as I was watching the shows), I have to say I think the judges hit the nail on the head as far as ranking the top 5. Marcus was clearly the superior group. They play with so much more clarity than any of the other groups, and the music is so demanding. It's not perfect-- there is some first trumpet player sticking out in parts-- but still, the music is well on its way. The visual is also quite elegant and fits seamlessly with the music. The show flows like water. If Marcus has any overt "fault", it's that at times they focus so much on technical musical perfection that they play almost a bit too prudishly. That's the best way I can describe it. They lack the volume, grittiness, and raw excitement of some of their nearest competitors.

 

I thought Bowie was simply excellent. I think they'll stick around the top for a few years to come. A top 6 finish at nationals seems likely if they continue the momentum. The drill for this group is so much better than it used to be, and the music is very strong. I would remind them, though, to watch out that musical power doesn't get in the way of clarity. Also, the "wandering stars" on the field (at least that's what I think they are) are being used to neat effect, but they maybe could use some more color. That'd be reeeealll purrrdy. On a side note, I loved the raindrop accompaniment to their performance. Heh. And their director shouting "Hallelujah!" at the end.

 

CTJ was a group that I'm thinking must have been better live. That's not to say anything bad about the show. It's a great show, very well performed and deserving of the high placement. It's just that I feel like some of the issues I heard last season are still present this season, and maybe because of the *ahem* hype I expected a bit more. Like Bowie, I believe some musical clarity went out of the window for power and excitement. The music design is also a tad schizophrenic in parts. In addition, it looks like they're telling a story again, but, like last year, the storytelling right now is a little bit muddy. I don't really know what's going on. This is something I'm sure the design staff will work on throughout the season. I fully expect this show to land in the top five again at San Antonio, but I think it's going to be an uphill battle to crack Marcus, Bell (probably, haven't seen them yet), and The Woodlands for the top 3.

 

Hebron was outstanding. I was really really impressed with these guys. The ballad gave something close to chills. Lots of classic Reagan-esque moments as well. Honestly, as I was watching, I thought to myself, "I think this show is actually slightly more effective than CTJ's show is." This is a huge compliment! Of course, this is confounded by the fact that I knew, in the back of my mind, that Hebron beat CTJ in General Effect. Heh. Anyway, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Hebron ends up fighting CTJ for a 4th place finish at San Antonio, but it's too early to tell for sure. We'll have to wait another month for that!

 

Cedar Park I think did suffer a bit without the electronics. The preshow was almost completely inaudible! These guys are strong performers, though, and really pulled it off well. I'm not surprised they were first in the individual visual caption based on the up close shots. They looked very crisp, totally in the zone. Like I've said before, I wish the music flowed a bit better in spots, and that the drill was a little more interesting, but they perform the heck out of what they have. They'll be strong competition this weekend at Conroe for The Woodlands.

 

I just watched the CTJ and Marcus videos on the Music For All site for the first time today.

 

From the videos, I completely agree with you, but that isn't at all what I remember hearing live on the day.

 

I'm not getting any of the dynamic range and clarity of tonal color in the videos that were such a big reason of why I picked CTJ. During the CTJ video, almost all you can hear is the bass holds in the synthesizer overloading the gain on the mics and I think that kills the rest of the sound; I don't remember it coming across that way live. Also, looking back on it, I got most of my opinion from the opening section with the Polovetsian Dances and the immense amount of technicality; the music performance really did take a huge dive in the later section and I think that is where their scores probably took a huge hit.

 

While I think CTJ was significantly hurt by the video (and their closing section), I think that Marcus was helped by the video. Towards the beginning of the performance, you can hear when the audio/visual guys jacked up the gain on the mics. Marcus was MUCH quieter than this video suggests; at times it was quite hard to hear them through the wind and rain. But even so, it was still by far the classiest and most sophisticated of the performances. Also, with Marcus' performance being so relatively short (which is perfectly fine since it is so extremely early in the season), at the time, I felt like CTJ and Bowie had a greater total level of achievement due to how much more show they had performed.

 

My big problem with Hebron was the several huge tears mostly due to staging of sections far apart from eachother on the field at times. I do think that Hebron had one of the best total colors, but lots of little and sometimes big timing things (tears, holdovers, musical phasing in tech parts, etc) prevented this particular performance of the show from gelling properly.

 

Looking back at the videos, I do believe that my assessment live during the event was incorrect; but that happens. Especially in the wind/rain and also especially with so much time in between the performances. That's why Prelims placements are always a bit sketchy; Finals allows for a much better direct comparison.

[Rubisco]

  Xenon said:

I just watched the CTJ and Marcus videos on the Music For All site for the first time today.

 

From the videos, I completely agree with you, but that isn't at all what I remember hearing live on the day.

 

My big problem with Hebron was the several huge tears mostly due to staging of sections far apart from eachother on the field at times. I do think that Hebron had one of the best total colors, but lots of little and sometimes big timing things (tears, holdovers, musical phasing in tech parts, etc) prevented this particular performance of the show from gelling properly.

 

I remember watching Marcus last year at Conroe and thinking pretty much exactly the same thing you did this year. Everything seemed too quiet, too restrained. Then, I watched the video online, and their dominant win made a lot more sense.

 

As for Hebron, right off the bat there were some noticeable issues, musical tears and whatnot. I still rate them highly, though, if only because these major issues will likely be gone by late season, and that's when I think a superior show design may give them the edge over CTJ. Show design probably gave them the slight edge in GE at this competition (since it probably wasn't performance qualities that did it). Of course, at this point, who knows for sure what will happen later on.