3A State Marching Contest (Prelims & Finals)

Okay, I feel pretty dorky for doing this -- namely because my blog readership is like five people, and the occasional person who will accidentally land on it -- but I feel like I am doing a VERY small service to the "community" by posting some pictures and musings from The 3A State Marching Band Contest.

Disclaimer: There were many good bands that I didn't get pictures of and probably will not mention in this post, but this is not meant as an exhaustive survey of the contest. I'm just sitting in a cheap hotel room in San Antonio with my laptop. I'm also considerably distracted by Monday Night Football...

This is Robinson above and to the left.




This is a band that I enjoyed quite a bit today, but they did not place well enough to make it into finals, Princeton. Their program was original music inspired by Greek Gods (?). I use the question mark, because I didn't learn anything about mythology in school. I'm not blaming that on my teachers, I'm blaming that on me. I wasn't interested, so why should I pay attention? Oh yeah, because one day you'll see a marching show based on mythology...

Anyhow, the drum major had a wicked cool afro (which I really was hoping to see again in Finals), and narrated at the beginning of the show. He had a great speaking voice and was appropriately dramatic.



Here's another pic of Princteon.














Here's Pleasant Grove who did make finals, although they would not have been in my top seven. But hey, that's why I sat in General Admission today and not behind a tape recorder and critique sheets.

I really dug the large 'x' they used on the field. They took some vinyl material and spread different colors over the 'x' so it wasn't just a static prop. Some really cool ideas in their show.




Here's a picture of it right as they brought it onto the field. You can see how the mat is painted in white and charcoal. Later they would add yellow stripes and pink stripes to change things up a bit.











Here's the crowd's favorite band of the day: Pittsburgh. It is one of few military bands left in the state. (Before, you try to correct me and say that there are many military bands left in Texas and I don't know what I'm talking about, let me just counter that with this: Thinking per capita, the amount of bands doing corps style marching over military leans heavily in favor of corps style. So, while you might be able to name me quite a few military bands, I bet I can name you at least 50 corps styles bands for each one.

Here is the end of their show (pics are in reverse order).



Here they are in transition.















Here's a form that they suddenly stopped in and held silently for a moment. It was a very effective idea and it definitely drew the audience in deeper to what they were doing.










And here is State Champion, Canton. This is actually their third championship in a row. Congratulations, Canton!

Some notable exclusions from my picture-taking were Wills Point (my pick for tops), Canyon (home-town favorite and ahem... drum book -- you know who you are that actually thought that was funny), Rio Hondo, Crystal City and Argyle.

Tomorrow I'll have highlights from the 5A contest. That's gonna be a long day! But I love it or I wouldn't be here!