2021 BOA Grand Nationals (Nov. 11-13)

[Bandi]

  On 11/14/2021 at 5:59 PM, WILKINSON said:

I recorded all Texas in finals, including ABC - I’ll send link to playlist when they’re done uploading. They’re high-cam though. 

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Thank you! High cam is better than nothing. If anyone has multi, I wouldn’t complain. 

[BandFan59]

  On 11/14/2021 at 8:03 PM, Bandi said:

Thank you! High cam is better than nothing. If anyone has multi, I wouldn’t complain. 

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There are a lot of multi cam recordings up on YouTube. You can download them for yourself in case Box5 takes those videos down.

[Bandi]

  On 11/14/2021 at 8:39 PM, BandFan59 said:

There are a lot of multi cam recordings up on YouTube. You can download them for yourself in case Box5 takes those videos down.

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Unfortunately, YouTube is missing the ones I’m looking for. 

[Tubalord11]

  On 11/14/2021 at 5:59 PM, WILKINSON said:

I recorded all Texas in finals, including ABC - I’ll send link to playlist when they’re done uploading. They’re high-cam though. 

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If I could also get that link that would be amazing! Thanks

[Tubalord11]

Well, my high school marching season is now officially over. Thank you to everyone on this website for the sheets, vids and everything else in between! Getting to go to Nationals my senior year and see the BOA record set in person was just something special! Of course having no TX bands in the top 3 was sad, and I didn’t agree with a good amount of the placements, particularly Dobyns well… not being 12th or at least not I’m front of VR and Regan, but wow, those top 6 we’re just on fire last night, and all the bands did amazing! Congratulations to Broken Arrow and to everyone else! 

[takigan]

Nationals ain't what it used to be.  San Antonio is just flat out the "true" premiere marching band contest now.  Wanna compete against lots of different bands from all over? Go to GN.  Wanna compete against the actual best of the best? Go to San Antonio.  I mean just look at the numbers:

Round Rock - 17th @ San Antonio --> 16th @ Nats (+1)
Vista Ridge - 12th @ San Antonio --> 12th @ Nats (0)
Marcus - 7th @ San Antonio --> 6th @ Nats (+1)
The Woodlands - 4th @ San Antonio --> 4th @ Nats (0)
CTJ - 3rd @ San Antonio --> 7th @ Nats (-4)
Reagan - 5th @ San Antonio --> 9th @ Nats (-4)

Most of the bands either stayed the same or improved their ranking from San Antonio to Nationals. Vista Ridge was also 11th in Semis so they might've improved as well with the right run/panel/timeslot.  Not to mention the top 2 at SA (including the former Eagle holder) didn't even go to GN this year.

Compare this to the 2002 season:

Haltom - 6th @ SA --> 16th @ Nats (-10)
TWHS - 7th @ SA --> 8th @ Nats (-1)
Churchill - 5th @ SA --> 10th @ Nats (-5)
Reagan - 3rd @ SA --> 11th @ Nats (-8)
Spring - 14th @ SA --> 18th @ Nats (-4)

Every single band that did both contests dropped in ranking between the two...by a pretty solid margin as well.

[TenorSaxMan16]

I do feel as though Vista was Robbed with points. idk if it was about them going right before broken arrow and they were comparing Broken Arrow to Vista. I just feel like they should've got in the 90 range.

[danielneubecker]

  On 11/14/2021 at 5:59 PM, WILKINSON said:

I recorded all Texas in finals, including ABC - I’ll send link to playlist when they’re done uploading. They’re high-cam though. 

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can you send me the playlist once it's done uploading?

[ReveriesOp24]

  On 11/15/2021 at 2:22 PM, TenorSaxMan16 said:

I do feel as though Vista was Robbed with points. idk if it was about them going right before broken arrow and they were comparing Broken Arrow to Vista. I just feel like they should've got in the 90 range.

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I feel like Vista Ridge and Round Rock were lowballed this year, both were really good, and personally I think Round Rock deserves more credit than they get

[WILKINSON]

  On 11/15/2021 at 9:13 PM, danielneubecker said:

can you send me the playlist once it's done uploading?

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https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZPYDVQQVnjcPQGnqxR7BaOuGWRHvgG8h

 

[Hard Core Band Fan]

  On 11/16/2021 at 12:05 AM, ReveriesOp24 said:

I feel like Vista Ridge and Round Rock were lowballed this year, both were really good, and personally I think Round Rock deserves more credit than they get

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No, unfortunately, Round Rock was placed appropriately. They are going to need more tools in the box to compete. I wished better for them, but they just didn't have enough of what so many others had. Time for them to step it up. And by "they", I mean the directors in choosing a better design team and teaching that design team's music and drill. With the right show and vision, they are completely capable of being in the mix again.

[bandparent94]

  On 11/16/2021 at 12:27 AM, WILKINSON said:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZPYDVQQVnjcPQGnqxR7BaOuGWRHvgG8h

 

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Do you have RRHS video?

[Bandi]

  On 11/15/2021 at 7:01 AM, takigan said:

Nationals ain't what it used to be.  San Antonio is just flat out the "true" premiere marching band contest now.  Wanna compete against lots of different bands from all over? Go to GN.  Wanna compete against the actual best of the best? Go to San Antonio.  I mean just look at the numbers:

Round Rock - 17th @ San Antonio --> 16th @ Nats (+1)
Vista Ridge - 12th @ San Antonio --> 12th @ Nats (0)
Marcus - 7th @ San Antonio --> 6th @ Nats (+1)
The Woodlands - 4th @ San Antonio --> 4th @ Nats (0)
CTJ - 3rd @ San Antonio --> 7th @ Nats (-4)
Reagan - 5th @ San Antonio --> 9th @ Nats (-4)

Most of the bands either stayed the same or improved their ranking from San Antonio to Nationals. Vista Ridge was also 11th in Semis so they might've improved as well with the right run/panel/timeslot.  Not to mention the top 2 at SA (including the former Eagle holder) didn't even go to GN this year.

Compare this to the 2002 season:

Haltom - 6th @ SA --> 16th @ Nats (-10)
TWHS - 7th @ SA --> 8th @ Nats (-1)
Churchill - 5th @ SA --> 10th @ Nats (-5)
Reagan - 3rd @ SA --> 11th @ Nats (-8)
Spring - 14th @ SA --> 18th @ Nats (-4)

Every single band that did both contests dropped in ranking between the two...by a pretty solid margin as well.

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Is it that Nationals isn’t what it used to be, or that San Antonio is WAY more than it used to be? I’m inclined to think the latter. The level of consistency and parity among Texas Bands has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, don’t you think?

[Rubisco]

It was a great year, an effusively great year, given all of the challenges of the season. I think the finals line-up at Nats rivaled the 2019 and 2006 line-ups for the "best-ever" designation, and the top 5 rivaled 2001's and 2017's top bands. For the first time in years, it was about as difficult to make finals here as it was at San Antonio. Below are some slightly belated thoughts, most of which are just echoes of things I've already said.

When I saw Broken Arrow's show, The Edge of Eternity, for the first time on October 4th, it was a fairly skeletal version -- sans the colorful props and costumes -- performed at a football game, but it made a big impression. You could plainly see that the show had the sort of visual scale and musical uplift of a typical Eagle-winning production. I tried to be a bit circumspect while describing it, but it was pretty obvious, even at that early stage, that no Texas band would or could top them at Nationals, and I don't think I did a very good job hiding that opinion. Then that pre-St. Louis video dropped, and we saw those gorgeous pastel colors, the dreamy blues and pinks, and we heard the full music book, which had it all: longing, sadness, sweetness, tumult, and by the end of the closer, such gusty uplift that you could practically see Kevin circling above the band. It was a complete journey.

Now, it wasn't a completely smooth ride to that grand conclusion. Brass intonation was an issue right off the bat, and while that was better at Nationals, it was never completely gone. And was this the most original production Broken Arrow has done? No. It was reminiscent of 2011's Destiny Leaves You No Choice, but maybe the superior 10th Anniversary edition of it. Speaking of themes, there seemed to be some romance elements going on, and maybe The Edge of Eternity referred to our society being at the brink, about people being torn apart from each other and eventually finding human connection again. But overall, the show didn't have to make sense. Too many people get wrapped up in show themes, some even trolling YouTube and writing fustian, 4th-rate screeds bemoaning purportedly "weak" or "unclear" content. I have no such hang-ups. I'm reminded of when Harriet Monroe initially refused to publish Hart Crane's poem, "At Melville's Tomb", because the individual lines didn't make logical sense. In response, Crane brilliantly described the "logic of metaphor." He correctly noted that Monroe was holding poets fast to "already evolved and exploited sequences of imagery" and asked, "What field of added consciousness and increased perceptions can be expected when one has to relatively return to the alphabet every breath or two?" I feel the same way about any art, including marching band. Why limit yourself?

Anyway, when a show is as aesthetically splendid and well-performed as Broken Arrow's was, it doesn't matter if it makes complete sense.

[Rubisco]

Carmel's show, The Expanse, intended to create the vacuum of space on the field. Think 2001: A Space Odyssey. Giant, imposing black monoliths filled the field, at times swallowing up and spitting out the band. The baritone soloist at the beginning of the show seemed to be floating off into the void. A little bit creepy, actually. The music was colder and more intellectualized than Broken Arrow's book, but also a very playful mashup, quoting from both Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Visually, the show reminded me of both Carmel's 2016 production, Adagio Presto, and Plymouth-Canton Educational Park's 2001 production, Programme One. The guard was about as strong as ever, and I loved the use of the baby rifles by the expanded weapon line. It's just one of a few ways Carmel played with perspective this year. There's a sort of high art urbanity to most of what Carmel does, and this show was no different -- a Nicole Kidman-esque chilly elegance. I think sometimes the lack of sentimentality makes Carmel's shows a little more difficult for a general audience to appreciate, but they will often be critical favorites.

At Indianapolis, Avon seemed smaller. They didn't seem to command the space of the field like they usually do. I thought they sounded better than Carmel, but the show, Passing the Torch, seemed a bit more traditional, a bit more pedestrian by comparison. By Nationals, the show, while still not the most compelling from the perspective of content, was blazingly well-performed. That incredible spark of performance had returned, and like Broken Arrow's production, the show was very emotional and uplifting. Avon does such difficult things on the field musically and visually each year that few other bands can even attempt to reach them, let alone achieve the level of clarity they achieve every year. It's really quite miraculous. In the end, I thought Avon's fiery performance might elevate them above Carmel, and indeed Avon topped Carmel in both of the performance captions, but it wasn't enough to overcome Carmel's edge in effect, most of which I would guess came from design.

[Rubisco]

Going into San Antonio, my top 3 was some order of Vandegrift, The Woodlands, and Hebron. Coming out of San Antonio, that was still my opinion. I thought The Woodlands had the best visual program in the state of Texas this year by a significant margin, at least from the box, so the question was whether or not Vandegrift or Hebron could make up the difference in music, which is exactly what they did. The Woodlands ended up 2nd to CTJ in both ensemble visual and visual GE at San Antonio. I would have essentially swapped those scores, which would have put The Woodlands into the top 3. I was hugely vindicated at Nationals in this regard. The Woodlands earned 2nd place in ensemble visual with a 19.6 (!), close to Broken Arrow's 19.7, and 3rd place in visual effect with a 19.3, close to Carmel's 19.4. Huge scores, and none of the other Texas groups were close. Just a great, all-around production with amazing clarity, although maybe they could have benefited from a slightly more difficult musical and drill program, a more varied emotional palette, and warmer, better blended sounds at times. And yes, this was the best ever Texas color guard. That clean 45 double flag toss on the turn from the entire guard in the W set, to that final fast flag phrase spread out across the endzones. Crazy. What a way to end it. James Bowie still holds the record for best ever Texas winter guard show (from 2016), but Bowie never looked this impressive on the marching field. If The Woodlands guard maintains that level of performance in the future, it will be problematic for other bands in the state and elsewhere, unless they make similar investments in their guard programs.

It's difficult for me to choose a favorite Flower Mound show, which is a testament to their consistently high quality. This quirky and colorful Seuss show seemed most in line with their 2017 and, especially, 2018 productions, both of which I preferred to their 2015 and 2016 shows. But compared to all of those, the music book this year took bigger risks. Let's face it: the show was pretty much an extended jam session sandwiched between two epic, visually splendid fanfares. That might explain the somewhat head-scratching music GE score in semifinals. (A 17.9? Not even a box 5 score? Total mis-boxing to my mind, although even a full point increase wouldn't have sent FloMo into the top 3 in semis.) When you defy expectations in a significant way, you may not be rewarded for it. All that said, Flower Mound was ultimately rewarded for it. You don't get a 95+ score unless you've made a reasonable argument that you've got a championship quality show. From a music performance standpoint, Flower Mound has a tendency to walk right up to that line where they might be overblowing if they go just a little bit further, but they don't ever cross that line. So what you get is loud and exciting and sonorous. Their soloists were fabulous this year as well. The flute duet to open the show was so warm and centered on the pitch, and the phrases so well-shaped. The musicianship of the Texas groups shines during the big moments, but especially during the smaller, soloist moments. Visually, the show was a massive, cartoonish, Seussian spectacle, and it was perfect that way.

[Rubisco]

I thought CTJ might overtake Marcus in effect and launch back into the top half of finals, but it wasn't in the cards. Marcus, the band I slept on the most this season, always produces such a warm, calm ensemble sound. It's very hard to compete with that and their amazing horn soloists. A fairly elegant visual program as well. Comparing the two groups, CTJ was the real risk-taker and excited me more -- I think the show was a blast -- but at Nationals I think there tends to be an increased emphasis on rewarding clarity and continuity, which I think is where CTJ struggled a bit. When judging, you really want to make sure that the National Champion has an all-around sort of polish. There shouldn't be any major weaknesses.

Reagan was underscored by about a point. I thought they gave their best performance of the season. Lower than Dobyns-Bennett? I don't agree with that. As nice as DB was visually, music performance and effect should have elevated Reagan into 8th. Reagan still had some issues with brass stick-outs during the more technical musical passages, but not enough to put them in 9th. I would say that the familiarity of this production to 2019's Secret World didn't help, but I don't think Dobyns-Bennett's show was much better in that regard. Both DB's and William Mason's shows were rife with Cartwright cliches, although I do appreciate the Danger Zone jam-out added to the end of Mason's Top Gun show. (That was what the entire show was supposed to be like! Corny and fun!)

Vista Ridge is Texas' newest National Finalist, beating out multiple other groups in semis, including Wando, which is exciting. Vista has come very, very far in just a few short years. Musically, they outperformed most of the other groups in the bottom half of finals, in my opinion. Powerful and clean. But compared to the 2018 and 2019 shows, this one, Vorca Rhe, seemed a little bit more confused from a design standpoint. The Katy Perry and Samuel Barber music never really gelled, and the set pieces with the blue exercise balls looked a bit amateurish. There was a moment on the multicam where the guard girls sandwiched the balls between themselves and spun around. I was laughing pretty hard, because it was just so random! Why?! (And that poor girl who lost her black wig!) Like I said before, shows don't need to make sense thematically, but if they don't, you need to make sure that what's performed is clean, entertaining, and aesthetically pleasing. I also think there's a bit of a bias against science fiction-y and science-y shows in general. I watched an interview with Michael Cesario where he discussed Carolina Crown's Einstein on the Beach show. He said something along the lines of, "At first, it was just a show about numbers," and he made a disgusted face. "But then they added the love story and it was so much better." Honestly, I find the requirement of a heartfelt narrative a bit reductive, but it's important to acknowledge that the preference exists.

Overall, I think Texas had yet another amazing showing. I'm hopeful that groups like Coppell and Pearland attend soon, because I think they'd both make finals, especially without another onslaught of Texas bands attending.