What is the best show you’ve ever seen?

[Rubisco]

Marcus 2007 - Marcus High School opened in 1981. I'm actually not too aware of Marcus' history prior to Amanda Drinkwater's takeover as head director in 2005, besides the fact that they had an accomplished drumline. Marcus made San Antonio Super Regional Finals for the first time in 2004, after missing it in 2003, when they placed 21st in prelims. Prior to that, BOA participation doesn't seem to have been much of a thing for them, besides a few other regionals where they missed finals. Pretty much, as far as BOA is concerned, there's a Marcus band before Drinkwater and a Marcus band after Drinkwater. Drinkwater had previously taught at Leander and The Colony, both fine programs at the time, where undoubtedly she learned the sort of skills that helped her transform the Marcus band pretty much overnight. Marcus' 2005 program, Fowl Play: Music for the Birds, was Drinkwater's first as head director. (As I recall, Owasso also had a bird show that year.) At Arlington, they not only made finals, but placed 5th, probably a best ever placement for Marcus at the time. (I say probably, because I'm too lazy to go back through recaps in the early 90s and 80s.) At the San Antonio Super Regional that year, Marcus placed 3rd, and amazingly, and surprisingly, won BOTH of the performance captions. They pretty much went from an unknown group to a top three performer overnight. 2005 immediately established the Marcus style: cute, refined, humorous, sort of Disney-ish, not extremely fast or in-your-face or DCI-ish, lots of large backfield props, which changed as the show progressed, and an unparalleled attention to musical detail. They sounded and looked great. It was amusing to watch the Marcus guard at the finals retreat, as they remained in character and pecked at the ground in their bird caps. Maybe the true banner year for the program came in 2006, with their show Coral Reef. I remember seeing this show in prelims at the first regional. I had just arrived in Arlington. I turned to a friend after Marcus' prelims performance and said, "I don't even need to see any other shows. That show is winning the music performance caption." Marcus won it in both rounds at both regionals they attended that year. They were immediately on my radar as the probable next UIL State Champion, which, at the time, you could pretty much predict by determining which band sounded the most like a concert band on the field. They were edged out of the top three in prelims at San Antonio, but came roaring back in finals, winning both the music caption and, for the first time, the general effect caption. Shockingly, despite placing first in both music and effect, they ended up in 3rd place, because their visual score was not strong enough to sustain the slight leads in those other two captions. As a consolation prize, the Marcus band won its first UIL State Championship shortly after. (They would go on to win it FIVE times in a row, a testament to their incredible music program.) Their best show is their first BOA championship show, Botanica, from 2007. I didn't see this live early in the season, but BOA used to play short clips of the regional champions back in the day, so I saw a clip from the ballad, which featured Make Our Garden Grow from Leonard Bernstein's operetta, Candide. It was such an extraordinary (and extraordinarily affecting) early season performance. I thought they already sounded like a national champion. It was an absolute privilege to see this show live at San Antonio a month or so later. The music was so technically demanding, but they made it all sound so easy. The ensemble sound was perfectly balanced, and so warm and focused. What really made the music performance the best of all-time, however, was the attention to detail. Even with other great music performances, from groups like Lassiter 2002, for instance, I don't hear the same level of attention to phrasing that I heard in the best Marcus programs. Whereas Lassiter's 2002 program is thrilling and glorious and sounds great, when you listen to the beginnings and ends of the phrases, you can tell that they aren't nearly as well-organized as the top Marcus programs. With the best Marcus shows, you can tell that everybody is on the same page with regards to the shape of the phrase. The musicality is just unmatched. To top it off, the Botanica program featured a visual design that was beautiful, intricate, and made clever use of the green field. The little red ladybug that crawled out during the 2nd or 3rd movement was a stroke of genius, as was the placement of the band members inside the plants that bloom during the ballad. Marcus was rewarded with the highest regional score of all-time at San Antonio. They also full-pointed and swept all the captions from the eventual national champion, LD Bell. Do I think Marcus would have won nationals in 2007? At one point in time, I was certain they would. In recent years, it has become obvious that San Antonio placements are not always the best barometer for nationals placements. For example, in 2017, Flower Mound full-pointed Marcus at San Antonio, but Marcus came out on top at Nationals. So, nothing is certain. Anyway, Marcus had another near-perfect, though not quite as ingenious show in 2012, before starting to fall down the ranks, which I suppose you could argue started to happen in 2011, when they placed a surprising 4th at San Antonio. Drinkwater left this past year, and there were some rumblings here and there that Marcus might have an off year, but those fears were largely allayed at San Antonio.

 

Marian Catholic 2001 - Now this is the one that was very hard for me to choose. Marian Catholic is a SEVEN-time national champion, and didn't miss national finals until this past year. Rather ironically, it happened on a year that had quite a bit of wiggle-room at the bottom of finals. I would have expected Marian to miss finals on a year when a crap-ton of Texas groups showed up, but on all those years, they managed to cling on. Marian Catholic's resilience is really the result of Greg Bimm's incredible genius. Here's a man who not only teaches his band, but arranges the music AND designs the shows and writes the drill. He is a marching arts polymath. He is also an unabashed intellectual, and it shows in everything he writes. He always respects his audience's intelligence, and that's probably the thing I love most about his shows. There is such a pleasing complexity to the drill he writes. There is so much going on at once, but there is always a musical motivation for it, and it's never confusing, and obviously never dull. Bimm also loves his modern music, and it's probably that love of modern (and contemporary) classical music that has made Marian more of a critics' choice over the years than a general fan favorite. The music Marian performs year after year is so rhythmically and technically challenging, often very savage as well, so those times that they have pulled it off almost seem like magic. You ask yourself, "That's so difficult, how did they do that?" Certainly that was the case for a show like 2000's The Tragic Medusa. So angry, so ferociously complex both musically and visually. 2000 was the last time Marian won nationals, and it was the first of three years of must-watch shows. Ultimately, it was 2001's Reflections of a Dark Millennium I chose, because it combines Marian's best all-around performance with all the hallmarks of a great Bimm show. Very modern, very complex, dark, a lot on its mind. At the end of the millennium, it looked back not with a sort of quixoticism, but with grim recognition of the atrocities of the past, and coming to terms with them. I loved the use of the two different uniforms, which helped to highlight the idea of reflection in the drill, the juxtaposition of past and future, and introduced a bit of visual conflict, which the music mimicked. They actually ended up 5th at Nationals that year, but were within a point of first place. (2001 remains the strongest BOA national championship at the very top.) Maybe my second-favorite Marian show was 2002's Dialogues with a Muse. Peter Graham's Harrison's Dream has been performed a number of times since Marian did it, but Marian's is still the best. The ballad is serenely beautiful, but with an undercurrent of sadness, of real pathos. The drill program is among Bimm's strongest. We get the idea of a dialog by the back and forths that take place between the brass and woodwinds musically and visually. The ending is one of my favorites. The band holds a chord that slowly crescendos, as they perform some of the most intricate and exhilarating drill I've ever seen. If only this show were a little bit cleaner! After 2002, Marian started to struggle a bit. They resurfaced as a top contender briefly from 2007-2009. I especially loved the 2008 program, Cosmic Speculations. At the end of the show, the band sort of reveals the progress of humanity by flipping over these props on the ground, which culminate in the word "truth." The woodwinds play a gentle chorus as the brass aimlessly loops around and around and around, until the thread they make sort of collapses into this singularity that continues to spin around and around, even after the show has ended, as if to suggest eternity, or the infinite. It's such a cool ending. One of my favorites. In 2009, they did the Japanese feminist parable, The Nightingale, which earned them a visual caption and 3rd place at a very stacked Nationals. Such a beautiful and affecting show, which, given the guard's use of geisha face paint and kimonos, might not be something they could get away with today. (You know, cultural appropriation and whatnot.) Since then, Marian hasn't had much of a break. I find myself hoping that Greg Bimm starts to write for other programs when he retires, because I do enjoy his shows very much. There might be other groups out there who can really execute them at the level that they demand.

 

Plymouth-Canton Educational Park 2001 - PCEP was a 90s powerhouse, winning nationals in 1990, 1991, and 1999. So many people's favorite marching band show of all-time is PCEP's 1999 program, ThoughtCrime: Music for an Orwellian Era. It's based on the George Orwell book, 1984, and is essentially about individual thought being tamped down by oppressive, authoritarian forces. It's notable for its strong use of a theme, which certainly existed before 1999, but maybe wasn't so elaborate before this show. (Many shows prior to this one were essentially just drill with music, but there are definitely notable exceptions. Even PCEP's own 1991 show, Sunday in the Park with George, shows some thematic elements, as the young Georges Seurat paints his masterpiece on field as he narrates, "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge? Bring order to the whole!") But it's true that 1999's show seemed to take it to a new level. At various points, a mellophone player, presumably Winston Smith, wanders off backfield and plays a solicitous tune, and the rest of the band turns their heads to gaze sort of longingly at him, before the police whistles are blown, and everybody gets back in line. During the ballad, the guard members become colorful, finding their individuality, before being dropped into a big machine at the end that turns them all the same silver color. Individual thought and freedom are effectively crushed. For me, this is one of those shows that I appreciate more for its influence than for the content and the performance qualities of the show itself. It is certainly a highlight in the career of the visual team of Alan Spaeth and Mitch Rogers, who now design for groups like Flower Mound. My favorite PCEP show remains their 2001 show, Programme One. Ironically, the strong theme development that put PCEP on the map as an all-time great band in 1999 was largely absent in this show. Instead, Programme One was just John Adams' Harmonium set to probably the greatest visual program in BOA history. These black, screen-like props were moved all over field, providing a sort of magic show where band members vanished and reappeared. The show was all about visual surprises. Right off the bat, the guard walked out from behind the props carrying what looked like a sort of pink banner, but they put it onto the ground and broke it apart into individual ribbon flags which they twirled around and around. There's the famous pink diamond towards the end, when the band shrank as it was enveloped by a pink diamond of banners -- only to pour forth band members and explode with pink flags at the last second. It was so eye-popping and unexpected. Then, of course, the famous band-in-a-box ending. The band was encircled by the black screens, as a trumpet player and the pit (no drumline!) played the final poignant notes of John Adams' Wild Nights. A guard member was hoisted atop the band as a black sheet was pulled over the top of the "box." A couple of guard girls ran around the box, tying a white ribbon around it -- gift-wrapping it, essentially. The band was marched off the field in a box, to an ecstatic crowd reaction. PCEP won visual performance, visual effect, and a close 3rd place in finals. If only they had sounded a little bit better. The following year, PCEP began its decline. 2002's Elasticity featured the same props as 2001, but it wasn't quite as fresh anymore. (I did like the moment where the guard girl was seemingly crushed between the two screens.) In 2003, PCEP flat-out missed finals. Since then, they've been in and out. In recent years, they've struggled to make finals, but they're still a fine, semi-finalist program.

[LeanderMomma]

Wow.

[Jeffrey L. Gorman]

Since I am so much older I have seen shows done before most of the folks here were born. My favorite show and I still think greatest performance was by Cardinal Dougherty(Pronounced by Philly Folk as Dockerty) High Schools Band, in the fall of 1976 at the Parade of Champions Marching Contest at the Philadelphia Convention Center(yes folks it was indooors). The Parade of Champions was hosted by Dougherty from 1956 to 1983 and featured most of the Great East Coast High School Bands in a seasons ending contest which was judged by the Directors of the Army, Navy, Air force, and Marine Bands based in Washington, DC. The inspection of the Bands was conducted by the Drum Majors of these Service Bands(Yes they were tough judges).

 

The Dougherty Band being host of the event performed last. Their Show was entitled 20 years of Marching Excellence by the Dougherty Band and featured Music used by the Band over the last 20 years. Among the Highlights was the complete performance of their 13 minute show done at the Welt Musik (that is dutch and not a typo) Contest at Kerkereade, The Netherlands in Jul 1966 which at that time was recognized as the Worlds Marching Band Contest.  The Bands repertoire for this performance went as Such

Opening in Company Fronts to the Magniflcent Seven by Bernstein. The Size of the Band in 1966 was 194 members with 96 musicians, 73 members precision Drill Team, 16 member Rifle Guard, 8 Standard Bearers and 1 drum Major. The Bands uniforms were copied after the style of the Household Brigade however the Colors were Garnet Coat with Cream Belts and Cream Trousers. The Band wore authentic Bearskin Hats 

 

After the entrance the Band split into  Block Band and performed a required Precision Drill March to the French National Defile. This was to show the judges that the Band could march in military style Drill. Upon completion of this drill the Band was required to perform in concert Formation a Selected Number. Dougherty choose Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral, which they did from memory. The Bands closing requirement was to leave the field by Playing a March while leaving the field from two different sides so that the Judges could see the Bands ability to play the music as a unit. This drill is still done at European Band Contest by the way. Dougherty choose the Theme From Conquest by Newman while leaving the field. The Band received a Standing ovation from the Crowd. That performance won the Band the Championship of the Contest while finishing 31 points higher than the nearest competitor Band. Dougherty's score stood as the highest ever recorded at this contest until it ended in 2000. Dougherty beat 30 other Bands from around the world and they were the Only American High School Band in the contest. This contest was part of the 31 day tour of Europe conducted in 1966.Yes I said 31 days. They toured 6 countries and were the First American High School Band to Perform at the Vatican for Pope Paul the 6th 

 

Getting back to there show, the Music from the trip to Europe was part of the Contest and the Band not only repeated their show but performed 6 different pieces of music from previous Parade of Champions to include How The West was Won, the complete Service Songs from the Armed Forces and finished their show with the Battle Hymn of the Republic. What made this a great performance was that the entire 25 minute show was done from MEMORY. I have never seen a Band before of after do so much music from memory. They ended their Show with Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin which brought a Standing Ovation from the other 9 Bands from throughout the East who were all very good. I have never seen this degree of musical skill done before or since by a High School.

 

Sadly Cardinal Dougherty High School closed in 2001. The cost of attendance became to high for students to attend.  However their performances through out their period of existence is still remembered by those who have had the honor of seeing them perform.

[LeanderMomma]

Good stuff, gentlemen. Just wow.

[kymarching08]

Union's show from 2000 was fantastic. Easily a show ahead of its time.

[Guest]

Westlake 2012 was very very good from a music GE and execution standpoint and is my favorite show from that year.

[tangodumike]

LD Bell 2011 -  Circle's Edge was easily one of my favorite LD Bell programs.  I am also quite partial to TWHS Band 2004 - Numbers.  

[SpartanBandAlum]

After rewatching some shows, I’d like to add Cedar Ridge 2013 to the mix. It may not be the greatest show ever, but the music (especially that AMAZING flute soloist) deserves a lot of love and respect. Probably the best version of Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms put on a football field since Lawrence Central did it in 2001 (Sorry Phantom!)

[Guest]

After rewatching some shows, I’d like to add Cedar Ridge 2013 to the mix. It may not be the greatest show ever, but the music (especially that AMAZING flute soloist) deserves a lot of love and respect. Probably the best version of Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms put on a football field since Lawrence Central did it in 2001 (Sorry Phantom!)

Agreed. I believe this was one of the first examples of a Texas band placing higher at nationals than at BOASA, setting the trend for years to come. 

[SpartanBandAlum]

 

Agreed. I believe this was one of the first examples of a Texas band placing higher at nationals than at BOASA, setting the trend for years to come.

You’re close, but they actually placed 11th at both. They did, however, place as high as 6th in semis, with a 2nd place finish in Music Effect

[Guest]

 

You’re close, but they actually placed 11th at both. They did, however, place as high as 6th in semis, with a 2nd place finish in Music Effect

Your totally right! Correct me if im wrong, but I believe they were 14th in SA prelims? I remember them improving drastically over the course of that year!

[Guest]

Nevertheless im glad there is somebody on the forum who appreciates that show as much as I do!

[SpartanBandAlum]

Your totally right! Correct me if im wrong, but I believe they were 14th in SA prelims? I remember them improving drastically over the course of that year!

Yes, and they improved tremendously just from prelims to finals, even jumping all the way from 11th to second in Overall Music, and improving Ensemble Music by almost 20 places. That 18.8 in Music helped them immensely in Finals

[Rubisco]

Alrighty. The last two. Both Texas groups. Both still going strong. Afterwards, I'll discuss the groups most likely to join these 10 in the near future.

 

Ronald Reagan 2005 - Reagan opened in 1999 as a "spin-off" of Texas Hall-of-Fame group Winston Churchill. As with any group that breaks off from a well-established program, people were very excited to see what the new school would bring to the table. It turns out, they had good reason to be excited. In 2000, at its very first BOA regional in San Antonio on October 7th, the Reagan band placed third in finals. At the end of the season, at Houston, the band placed 5th. I saw the Houston show live. Despite some rather rough patches musically, it was clear that the team of Mark Chambers, Aaron Guidry, Kevin Nix, and others were developing a unique style -- a sort of crowd-pleasing mix of pop sensibilities with elaborate visuals, electronics, and costumes. (Oh, and in those early years, a big 'ole dose of Cirque du Soleil, for which we can probably thank Aaron Guidry.) Those odd guard outfits, in particular, would be a staple for a few years. In 2000's show, Perpetual Motion, the guard looked like alien band members with pseudo-plumes atop their heads. The uniforms themselves looked inspired by Piet Mondrian. It was an odd mash-up. Besides that, I think the most notable thing about this first BOA show was that the drill writing was already very well-developed. I mean, I could tell right off the bat that whoever was writing it knew exactly what they were doing. I can't really say that about a whole lot of first-time programs, so kudos to them. Like other Reagan programs, the band ended its 2000 show with some symmetry: the drill at the end was the reverse of the drill at the beginning. In 2001, in its second year of BOA competition, Reagan won the Houston Regional over groups like Churchill, Westfield, Spring, and The Woodlands. 2001's Out of the Box is classic Reagan. Cirque du Soleil music made up the majority of the show. It opened with a twinkly, sentimental keyboard solo and some elaborate movement from the band. The guard once again looked like aliens, in skin-tight purple and lime spandex, with purple plumes atop their heads and masks that only covered the top halves of their faces. The drill was flashy, but also musical -- a pretty rare combination, actually. They were able to appeal to both a general audience and the carping critics at the same time. I especially loved the title of the show, because it did seem like something new that you had just pulled out of a box. 2002's The Journey Within was sort of the Nationals version of the Out of the Box show -- this time featuring Cirque du Soleil and Andreas Makris' Aegean Festival Overture. The show contained the famous plume change. A clarinetist acted as a sort of snake charmer, as the band pulled the black sheaths off of their plumes to reveal the orange plumes underneath. It was very eye-popping. Back in 2002, there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the amount of marching and playing at the same time in this show. People on the BOA forums actually timed the band, and it wasn't flattering. (Although, these days, it might be more flattering!) Despite that, I will admit that I was surprised when they ended up in 11th place at Nationals, if only because they had placed 3rd at San Antonio and were such a fan favorite. Reagan returned to Nationals the next year with 2003's Beyond Perimeters. Super flashy, super crowd-pleasing, maybe the #1 fan favorite of all-time. Watch it, and it's easy to see why. If Reagan got flak in 2002 for not marching and playing enough, they certainly made up for it in 2003. I suppose the reason this show isn't my favorite Reagan show is because you could hear the struggle. Right off the bat, in the finals performance, the musical technique was not very clean, and there was very noticeable phasing between the pit and the rest of the band. So, as exciting and sentimental as the music was, my enjoyment was always sort of diminished by the critical part of my brain. They ended up in 2nd place at Nationals. Ultimately, Westfield won on the strength of their music. (They were first in every music-related caption.) For me, the 2005 show, You Never Know..., represents the perfect balance of a great Reagan show with a great Reagan performance. Every time I think I'm overrating this show, I go back and watch it again. Usually, I'm immediately struck by the ingenuity of the arranging, the way that Guidry played with the Jeremiah Symphony and Symphonic Metamorphosis, totally making those pieces his own. It is the greatest music arranging I've ever heard from a BOA program. When you throw so much music into a show, it's very easy to make the cardinal sin of discontinuity, but somehow, Guidry managed to both constantly surprise, and make it all sound like it belonged together in one show. It's just brilliant. The visual was not quite as flashy as the 2003 visual, but it perfectly fit the music, which is the more important thing, anyway. The real magic happened at the ballad, and continued to the end. This was what Reagan was known for, really pulling on your heartstrings with something sweetly sentimental, but not coarsely so. As the woodwinds played all those heart-swelling (and fairly difficult) intervals, the guard came out in these poofy purple outfits, sort of like sad clowns. At the end of the ballad, they twirled around with yellow ribbons that just beautifully filled the field. Then came the incredibly emotional gut-punch of the Prime Minister's Theme from Love Actually in the closer. Holy cow. Now that was how you build up to a moment. Defying expectations, they ended the show quietly in the corner of the field, because You Never Know... Such a brilliant show. They were undefeated all season until Grand National Finals. They performed first in finals and lost to Carmel by over a full point. You can't really say that performing first did them in, because in semis, Reagan won with an even bigger gap in performance times. So, I have to say, this was a tragic mistake by BOA's judges. I saw this show live with several *very* famous and *very* accomplished music educators, and all of us thought Reagan deserved to come out on top. I can see why visual would go to Carmel, but everything else? Nah. 2006 was Mark Chamber's last year, and it was a brilliant swan song of a show. 3rd in prelims at San Antonio and 4th in finals. Unfortunately, the next year, Reagan struggled to find its footing. Although they placed an excellent 5th at San Antonio and cracked 90 at that contest, they completely missed finals at Nationals, placing 16th in semis. (A good of example of when San Antonio's not a good gauge of National placements!) They have clung on in San Antonio finals over the years, and resurfaced in National finals in 2012. Since Dan Morrison has taken over, Reagan has had a renaissance.

 

The Woodlands 2013 - The Woodlands opened in 1996. They've made finals at every regional they've attended. They missed National finals in 1998 with that Pictures at an Exhibition Show with the giant Russian carriage. (I have to admit, I don't remember the name of that show.) They've probably been a National finalist-quality group every year since around 2000, starting with the Pyramids show. Certainly, by 2001's annoyingly titled Spectrums, they could have made finals. (They placed 2nd at Houston that year with a 92.10) I saw that one live, and my thought was that they should go to Nationals. Apparently, they had wanted to go that very year, but a football game put the kibosh on those plans. Funny how that seems to keep happening! The Woodlands made National finals the next year for the first time. 2002's Genesis: The Creation of Color show is still probably the best John Corigliano show ever. I absolutely loved the sea of white flags in the ballad, set to Corigliano's Elegy, which Corigliano wrote in memory of Samuel Barber. Such an eerie, beautiful piece of music. It should be played more. The Woodlands placed 8th that year, upsetting a lot of groups at National finals, including Plymouth-Canton, Churchill, and Reagan. 2003's Dance Suite show was (and still is) among their most difficult shows. All Bartok music, but one of their very best music performances. (That low brass in the closer, holy cow!) It laid to rest any doubt of whether they belonged in National finals. 2004 was the Numbers show. "Practical applications of numbers have always had to go beyond the abstract idealization of continuous variables!" What? Lots of narration in this show, but wonderfully performed. I think my enjoyment of these early shows from The Woodlands was always tempered by the fact that they seemed a little bit borrowed and unoriginal. Probably, it was the black screens in the 2002 and 2004 shows. It just reminded me of Plymouth-Canton a little too much. So, the 2006 show, Hide and Seek, kind of came as a little bit of a shock to the system. That was the year they started working with Jon Vanderkolff and Wayne Downey, probably through Joni Perez's connections to Blast! (She was in the original cast.) I actually don't remember this show at all from Arlington. (They placed a very distant 5th.) But, I definitely perked up my ears at San Antonio. I saw it in prelims, and it was just so strange! You can see how Vanderkolff's Broadway experience came into play. The abstract trees that were placed on the left and right sides of the field might as well have been stage left and stage right. At the beginning, the band played the opening to the finale of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, but rather unexpectedly reverted immediately back to an earlier, slower movement, which they layered with Imogen Heap's pop tune, Hide and Seek. This was unlike anything I had ever heard on the marching field. But somehow it worked! The real star of the show, however, was the visual design. It is, simply, a masterpiece. From a pure drill writing perspective, it's probably The Woodlands' best show, and maybe the best drill ever out of Texas. It was so beautiful and musical and original. It made brilliant use of the entire field. During that mello ensemble in the opener, when the pairs of lines sort of rotated and opened up into this long elegant form. So perfect! They placed a surprising 2nd at San Antonio in both rounds, with a surprise GE caption in prelims and a visual caption in finals. They won semifinals at Nationals and were named the Class AAA National Champion. They performed first in finals and fell to 4th place. I wish the music performance had been a bit stronger. 2007's show, Sequenza, continued the absolute bonkers creativity of the design staff. They turned the entire field into a Sudoku board. The music was Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach layered with the Jeremiah Symphony. The visual was so tricky, because they had to incorporate prop flips into the drill to make it work. Furthermore, the movement and drill and music demands were already high on their own. They started out the show with those big, ominous synthesizer chords, as the band plied and fell onto their backs, sticking their legs up into the air like synchronized swimmers. (This was next-level movement, but it was never clean.) The choir up front started to chant numbers, and the props were flipped over. Lots of tricky, metrical changes in the music. The ending with the extended chromatic runs in the woodwinds, as the brass was running around backfield, before collapsing onto their backs. So exciting. This was such a difficult show. So difficult that the rumor was that The Woodlands pulled out of Houston early season because it was such a mess. They ended up 3rd at San Antonio and 4th again at Nationals. From 2006-2014, The Woodlands placed in the top 5 at San Antonio every year they went (so, excluding 2008), usually in the top 3. 2013's Crossing Boundaries represented the large-scale creativity of '06 and '07 shows, but it was married to a very clean performance. The crossing gates acted as sort of manipulators of the drill. They were used to great effect in that opening statement, after the shifting drill suddenly clicked into the moving files and the brass marched forward as the gates went up. Boom! Oh my goodness. That brass. It was unreal. And when those wheels started to turn in the exciting conclusion of the opener, pulling those two curvilinears of brass forward. Unbelievably exciting and musical. I was jumping up and down when I saw the first video of this show, because I knew it was going to win Nationals. So different, so creative, so well-performed. Since then, The Woodlands has clung on. They still do wonderfully off-kilter shows, which I look forward to every year, but the performances aren't always there, and, in the case of last year, they seem to be biting off less than they can chew. They'd be well-advised to challenge themselves with an intricate and demanding show like 2007's Sequenza, since that's the sort of thing that's being rewarded these days. Many of their recent designs also seem like ideas in search of more elaboration.

[LeanderMomma]

2013 was my first experience with BOA, and the one thing I will always remember about my first time at BOA SA was this show from the Woodlands! It was just so good and so memorable. I truly remember little else from that season, but I will always remember this show. I think it might have been the first moment I fell in love with BOA. Up to that point, with my daughter being a freshman in a less than stellar Leander band year (and at the beginning of their current rise...but not that year), I was a little dumbfounded by the whole Bands of America hype. Frankly I didn’t get it, even though I come from a music and marching band background myself! But that show from TWHS at San Antonio in 2013 piqued my interest in a big way. And it has only grown.

 

Thanks for all your hard work on these Rubisco. You could give History Buff a run for his money in the MFA forum.

[SpartanBandAlum]

I don’t think anyone’s going to be dethroning Buff for a while over on MFA.

 

I feel like there’s one part of Crossing Boundaries that never gets enough love, and that’s the ballad! It’s deceptively simple-seeming, but incredibly well put together, and a nice break from the huge walls of sound that are the opener and closer. The voiceovers that put you in almost a dreamlike state, and of course, that amazing impact right at the end of it. Probably one of my favorite single movements in any show.

[josephbandfan]

I don’t think anyone’s going to be dethroning Buff for a while over on MFA.

 

I feel like there’s one part of Crossing Boundaries that never gets enough love, and that’s the ballad! It’s deceptively simple-seeming, but incredibly well put together, and a nice break from the huge walls of sound that are the opener and closer. The voiceovers that put you in almost a dreamlike state, and of course, that amazing impact right at the end of it. Probably one of my favorite single movements in any show.

The ballad is actually my favorite part of that show! And the voice overs and train noises still randomly pop into my head til this day.

[SpartanBandAlum]

Different. Trains. Different. Trains.

The New York to Los Angeles

[lost]

The Woodlands 2013 was astonishing and in my opinion is the best-designed Texan show to this date. No flashy expensive props, just small items that conveyed the theme beautifully.

[Guest]

Ill never forget the opening brass hit from BOA Conroe finals that year.

[Avisshadow]

When I attended Oak Ridge once upon a time, I loved how on odd number years we’d be the home team so the Woodlands would perform their show facing us, and usually we played against them near the end of the season so we’d get a finished, Grand Nationals quality show locally without having to travel to any contests. By that year I had already graduated so I was there in the stands for my sister who still attended school. I remember thinking that my ear drums might burst when TWHS performed Crossing Boundaries, I was near the front and MAN were they powerful! Nothing yet since has topped how I felt during that show. And then a couple weeks or so later they win Grand Nationals! My favorite marching band moment ever!

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

This has been so cool to read about so many great shows and programs. While I have 6 years of marching band parenting under my belt- it’s only been the last 3 years that we’ve been in tx and exposed to the Texas marching band experince and there is so much I don’t know about the history and even about band (I don’t play an instrument).

[Rubisco]

Oh, apparently I forgot to mention the groups that I think have the best shot of joining the "best ever" list in the near-future. Not surprisingly, all three of them are from Texas. Roughly in order, I would say Claudia Taylor Johnson, Hebron, and Flower Mound. I suppose an argument could be made for Tarpon Springs, but I'm not seeing the growth in design from them I'd like to see. (Tarpon's shows are becoming a bit too overbaked for my tastes, and as I said in the GN thread, a bit too adolescent.)

 

CTJ is in the best position, I think, because they're one of a very small group of bands that's genuinely trying new things. They have this sort of distinct, free-wheeling drunk personality that allows them to make really odd, but engaging design choices. But the downside of this is that their shows usually lack a bit of focus. When they attend Nationals later this year, I would like to see a show that's a little bit more focused conceptually, and that doesn't blast the field with unnecessary props. I also want to see them continue to challenge themselves, but within reason. I don't think I've ever seen a CTJ show that I thought was clean enough (from an ensemble visual standpoint) to win Nationals, even with the new judging focus on difficulty. When you're going up against a group that is as immaculate as Carmel is, you really don't want to have any major weaknesses. CTJ has all the talent they need to win Nationals (and then some), so I think it really just comes down to some minor design adjustments.

 

Hebron's show last year went a long way of convincing me that they could win Nationals -- mainly because of that evolved visual program. The drill was so much more demanding than usual, and, I think as a result, much more engaging than any other visual program I've seen from them. The guard was also much improved. Musically, they are the bee's knees. That musical talent propelled them to a National class championship in 2015 and a 3rd place finish in finals. What will put them over the edge will be a stronger visual program, along with a stronger, more original show concept. Also, I think what I said about CTJ's difficult shows also applies to Hebron after last year's show. They need to carefully strike a balance between demand and cleanliness.

 

It seems weird to have Flower Mound as the 3rd most likely group, considering their enormous success in the state of Texas, but I feel like this is appropriate. Flower Mound performs some of the most elegant shows around. To top it off, they are incredibly clean, both musically and visually. The only somewhat major performance issue I've had with them (particularly in 2015 and 2017) was the tendency of their brass to blast past the point of where I could actually hear the distinct musical lines in the ensemble sound. So, sometimes the sound lacks a little bit of finesse. Not a huge deal. I think what I really want to see from Flower Mound is a visual program that has some moments in it where the demand and the achievement just wow me. I haven't seen that from them yet. Visually, I find the shows incredibly elegant and, yes, effective, but not quite as much as they would be if the visual program were more demanding. I also feel like the art-themed shows they've performed the past few years are starting to congeal into a formula. I want to see something really off-the-wall from them.

[Bandwoww]

 

It seems weird to have Flower Mound as the 3rd most likely group, considering their enormous success in the state of Texas, but I feel like this is appropriate. Flower Mound performs some of the most elegant shows around. To top it off, they are incredibly clean, both musically and visually. The only somewhat major performance issue I've had with them (particularly in 2015 and 2017) was the tendency of their brass to blast past the point of where I could actually hear the distinct musical lines in the ensemble sound. So, sometimes the sound lacks a little bit of finesse. Not a huge deal. I think what I really want to see from Flower Mound is a visual program that has some moments in it where the demand and the achievement just wow me. I haven't seen that from them yet. Visually, I find the shows incredibly elegant and, yes, effective, but not quite as much as they would be if the visual program were more demanding. I also feel like the art-themed shows they've performed the past few years are starting to congeal into a formula. I want to see something really off-the-wall from them.

I’ve had the exact same compliant about the 2017 show so I’m glad you brought that up. I was kind of shocked that they allowed their sound to get so uncontrolled and frankly gross. They definitely fixed it in 2018 but I don’t know if a return to the level of performance like 2016 is possible.

 

I’m really excited to see who comes out on top between Hebron and CTJ. Hebron is more consistent and is still improving (somehow) but CTJ has won SA before and has the super regional record. Both bands could win but have different issues. Hebron always lacks that little extra design push while CTJ has more frequent “duds” (I cant really call shows like Flashdance and Tremendous Sea of Love duds cuz they are still freaking amazing but their success fluctuates more than Hebron).

 

I also saw that CTJ is looking for acrobats for their show so that’s intriguing.

[Nny14]

 

 

I also saw that CTJ is looking for acrobats for their show so that’s intriguing.

This wouldn't be the first time! They had some in their 2013 show Enigmatic, which is still by far my favorite CTJ show. If anything this means good things to come.