Parade of Champions

After some scary hyping about the band director of our band by Karen yesterday, everything turned out pretty OK.

Concord High School, from Concord, NC, basically swept the AAAA competition last night, taking five of six categories and winnning best overall AAAA band. They deserved it, too. The band director was totally understanding of the rules (if not entirely happy about them, but he didn't take it out on us band guides). The Drum Majors were friendly. Most of all, the show that they performed was Top Notch.

For a high school band, the guard work was probably what caught me most off-guard; these girls were more in sync than our guard is sometimes. I saw very little marching deficiencies (if any), the drill was exciting and creative, and the music was near-perfect. Clearly the best band of the evening, Concord took first overall by about a point and a half, a comfortable margin. I must say, I am looking forward to guiding the band next year.

The MRD performance last night, following the high school performances, was also something to behold. The energy of the high school bands is simply contagious, and there's no way to not get emotionally into the performance. Though some outside observers might disagree, I would call it our best performance of the year. It's nights like last night that make all the work that being involved in marching band entails well worth it.

October 21, 2001 - 11:47 AM