BOA - St Louis

[Anthony V]

Great job, Fossil Ridge!!

[LKendrick]

Blue Springs was awesome, loved the tone of the show.  Really well put together.  

[Anthony V]

Seemed like a good pretty good run from Richland. Music ensemble sounded brilliant. Hope to see them in finals.

[LKendrick]

Richland was great, very energetic show that they sell really well. Love the Estancia closer. They should be very comfortably in finals.

[LKendrick]

Bellevue West was fantastic, they're really coming into their own.  Will definitely be in the upper half of finals IMO.  

[Anthony V]

Bellevue West was energetic indeed. A lot of GE going on in that show. It was difficult to hear how polished the music execution was, though. At times it felt musically imbalanced and dirty, but at other times it felt very solid and clear. But certainly energy and GE. Lots and lots of energy and GE. I would be surprised if they didn't make finals.

 

Great performance from Haltom! Many exposed musical sections which they played very well. Many good music ensemble moments too. Probable finalist.

[LKendrick]

Love love loved Bentonville.  Everything.  But especially the visual program.  

[Anthony V]

Wow, I didn't expect the competition to be this fierce! It's really difficult to know where to place almost anyone!

 

And we still have another block!

[LKendrick]

Personal rankings thus far in terms of finalist contenders, I knocked one off my list of 17 and it's down to 16:

1. Blue Springs, GE
2. Owasso, Visual, Music
3. Union (has the show to beat the two above with a tighter run). 
4. Bentonville
5. Bellevue West
6. Richland
7. O'Fallon Township
8. Haltom
9. Air Academy
10. Lincoln
11. Grain Valley
12. Kickapoo

Still to perform:

• Broken Arrow
• Bixby 
• Eden Prairie
• Jenks
• Rosemount

Broken Arrow obviously vying for the top spot, Eden Prairie and Rosemount will be gunning for the middle of the pack up to 5th, Bixby and Jenks are two bubble bands for finals.  

 

Bentonville was fantastic, favorite show thus far.  

[LKendrick]

Updated:

 

1. Blue Springs, GE
2. Owasso, Visual, Music
3. Union (has the show to beat the two above with a tighter run). 
4. Bentonville
5. Bellevue West
6. Rosemount
7. Eden Prairie
8. Richland
9. O'Fallon Township
10. Haltom
11. Bixby
12. Air Academy
13. Lincoln
14. Grain Valley
15. Kickapoo

Still to perform:

• Broken Arrow
• Jenks

[LKendrick]

1. Broken Arrow - All Captions

Blue Springs

Owasso

Union

Bentonville

Bellevue West

Rosemount

Eden Prairie

Richland

Jenks

O'Fallon Township

Haltom

Bixby

Air Academy

Lincoln

Grain Valley

Kickapoo

Broken Arrow...was amazing.  Might be my favorite show from them ever.  That could have won Grand Nationals.  Just amazing.  

[LKendrick]

Shoutout to our Texas bands, thought they all did a fantastic job.  I really think we'll see Richlands very entertaining and high energy show in as well as Haltoms really beautiful and colorful show.  Thought Fossil Ridge and Birdville also represented the state fabulously.  

[Anthony V]

Congrats to Haltom and Richland!

[LKendrick]

Okay wow.  Bentonville missing is a huge shock to me.  They were pretty fantastic, I had them in the top 6.  

 

Eden Prairie was REALLY solid too.  

 

But congrats to Richland and Haltom!  

[Anthony V]

I think a change this year to BOA Super Regional finals performance order is a random top half / bottom half draw.

 

Here's the schedule:

 

7:15 PM - Air Academy H.S., CO
7:30 PM - Jenks H.S., OK
7:45 PM - Haltom H.S., TX
8:00 PM - Bixby H.S., OK
8:15 PM - Richland H.S., TX
8:30 PM - Fort Zumwalt North H.S., MO
8:45 PM - Grain Valley H.S., MO

 

9:00 PM - Blue Springs H.S., MO
9:15 PM - Rosemount H.S., MN
9:30 PM - O'Fallon Township H.S., IL
9:45 PM - Bellevue West H.S., NE
10:00 PM - Broken Arrow H.S., OK
10:15 PM - Union H.S., OK
10:30 PM - Owasso H.S., OK

[Anthony V]

Strong performance from Haltom! Sounded and felt more energetic than prelims.

[Anthony V]

Very balanced and well-executed musical run from Richland. A little on the slow side, but maybe that was intentional. Crystal clear ensemble sound. Wonderful balance and intonation. Superb brass projection. I can only imagine what it sounded like on the field!

[LKendrick]

Haltom and Richland did a fantastic job.

 

I think this might be Haltoms best visual program and performance in a long time. The color scheme is just beautiful and I love the props. They sound great too.

 

Richland is back in case that wasn't apparent already. Such a fun and high energy show. After last year this has to feel pretty amazing. Really excited to see what they can do at state in 5A next year.

[LKendrick]

Fantastic set of finalists. Even if there were a few I wanted in there was no one I wanted out or I think deserved out.

 

Loved Broken Arrow, for me that show had the life and energy I personally felt last year was lacking. Think they could have won GN again. Kevin got a VERY deserving send off!

 

2 bands so far this year not attending I think would have had a shot at the eagle. Broken Arrow and our Flower Mound. Two of my favorites this year.

[HighSchoolBandNerd212]

Is it just me, or do the scores that were announced for the bands seem unusually high for this time of year?

[principalagent]

They are enormously high. One culprit is the move to a top and bottom draw. It pretty much creates a not-so-organic gap at the break, especially when the performance differential at the middle of the schedule is large (as it was tonight). Also, strong bands will never go early and set a decent scoring pace, leaving the judges no choice but to pop 19s when BA came around near the end of finals.

[takigan]

Both Fossil Ridge (21st) and Birdville (22nd) ranked higher at this contest than they did at Plano (26th and 25th) despite there being twice as many bands (62).  That's Texas for ya. 

Haltom was 14th in prelims, barely getting into Finals. .25 ahead of the 15th place band.  They then moved up 5 places to 9th in Finals.

[Anthony V]

Also notable are the music ensemble scores from Haltom and Richland in prelims, ranking 4th and 3rd respectively (Broken Arrow, Rosemount, Richland, Haltom). If I'm counting this correctly, that put them in music overall in prelims at 5th and 4th respectively (Broken Arrow, Rosemount, Blue Springs, Richland, Haltom). Good music because Texas and fundamentals.

 

In fact, Richland was half a point in prelims from topping Bellevue West altogether. What held them back it looks like is visual GE. Richland's scores were kind of flat in finals; it was a good run, but a little lackluster compared to prelims. Still, a great resolution and closure for a great bounce-back.

 

Haltom certainly deserved the jump up in finals, though, as their run was more energetic than prelims. Glad to see them doing so well. If I'm not mistaken, Haltom has also done some changes in design staff this year, and I think it has really paid off. Hope to see Haltom go on and make state!