Detailed "Prunalysis" of the Honda Battle of Bands No. 1


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Prunejuice

New Member
I introduced myself in an earlier thread. Please refer to it.

For all those seeking play-by-plays on the details of the Honda Battle of the Bands, please read this post and its two counterparts. I encourage to post at any point to let me know what you think.

For those of you not familiar with my work remember these rules:

1. I do not consider myself to be an expert on band, I however am one of the few people that will give you a completely unbiased and detailed report of everything that happened at a game/band battle.

2. My comments have nothing to do with my experiences at my alma mater so keep my home band out of it unless they are one of the bands subject to being "Prunalyzed."

3. My comments have nothing to with the band I am currently teaching. I did "Prunalyses" long before I became a band director.

4. My comments will remain completey unbiased regardless of my experiences with any band.

5. I encourage people to reply in the middle of the analysis. One of the things that I enjoy most is seeing how people agree or disagree with my opinions.

Without further ado. Let us begin.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
The football stadium started completely empty, not a band in sight.

Shortly after the DJ welcome us to Honda, and we all got the chance to dance (don't worry about that) Savannah St made their entrance.

The Coastal Empire Sound Explosion Baptist Church (Well it sounds like the name of a church to me).

With SSU's entrance I noticed a problem that stayed with just about every band that entered the stadium.

Almost every band chose to keep the percussion inside the tunnel until the rest of the band marched out. From an audience perspective, this meant that it sounded like the bandmembers were marching to no sound at all until the percussion came outside as well. The lack of sound associated with the marching in of each band really took away from each bands entrance.

Savannah States' band marched in without incident. They really did not do anything to draw attention to themselves. Well, some members of the "band" really drew my attention but that's another story.

More to come...
 



Johnson C. Smith University
The International Institution of Sound

Small bands have got to stop with these names.

Not to be outdone by anyone, shortly after JCSU entered the stadium they got everyone's attention by doing what HBCU fans love to see, breaking it down.

In the middle of the short dance the whole band turned around. JCSU's drum majors really looked good doing this turn. They all jumped high into the air to accomplish it. They stood out from the rest of the band as drum majors should.

JCSU really made an entrance for themselves.

More to come...
 
Clark Atlanta University
The Mighty Marching Panthers

I noticed a lot of different left arm movements as the band marched in.

Clark like Savannah St. did not particularly do anything to draw attention to to themselves. They entered from the left like Savannah (North Side of the field). Apparently, the bands on the left decided to take it easy.

I did really like Clark's entrance cadence though.

Sorry to say however I noticed quite a few people in CAU's band moving after the band stopped and stood at attention. (I am not talking about ripples, flashes, sequences, or whatever you want to call them here. I am talking scratching and adjusting).

Tuskegee University
The Marching Crismon Pipers (are the drummers considered pipers too?)

Tuskegee came in from the right (south side) and seeming to follow a trend danced as a part of their entrance. To me however Tuskegee did their dance too early while marching into the stadium. Therefore they did it a second time before they kicked down (stopped marching). Since doing it a second time involved doing the very same moves the dance actually ended up having very little affect the second time. This made their entrance very anti-climatic.

I noticed that after the band was attention some of the percussionists still had their legs apart while the rest of the band was standing with their feet together. (Thats right, if you do it, I will catch you).

More to come...
 
Virginia State University
Trojan Explosion (too many people have commented on this nickname before for me to have anything to say).

Virginia St. was the only band so far to come in yelling from the beginning. Yelling shows the audience that the band is into and gets the crowd into as well. A short dance routine may have worked better but, the excitment the VSU band showed in yelling was much better than nothing.

The cadence that VSU played had some nice things going in the snare line, but was by far the most cluttered cadence that had been played by anyone so far. In order for the crowd to get into the band they must "feel" the cadence. There was very little "feeling" going on with this cadence as VSU entered the stadium. Don't get wrong. I am not saying that cadences that show true playing technique are wrong. I am saying that their was simply too much going on at the same time with this cadence.

Virginia St. did however get props from the audience with their "kick-down". This relatively long kick-down featured the band showing a lot of energy in their movement and their voices. This really got the crowd's attention.

I caught a VSU person adjusting their hat a little later.


Alabama St. University
The Marching Hornets

I noticed two things in particular about this band's entrance.

1. Absolutely no rebound off the drum from the tenor drums. This created a very "closed" sound from the tenors.

2. The band showed very little intensity in their marching. This was certainly the poorest entrance of any band. They received little recognition from the audience.


Tennesse St. University
The Aristocrat of Bands

Tenn. St.'s dancers marched higher and harder than any other individuals the entire day. Especially the first girl. Many props to the Sophisticated Ladies.

The band members looked good with the sharp horn swings.

I liked the cadence Tenn. St. entered with. It was simple (not cluttered) enough not to get ruined by the Georgia Dome's acoustics.

Excellent job Tennessee St.

More to come...
 
Prairie View A&M University
The Marching Storm

Prairie View's drum majors got the crowd excited with their marching. Many props to these guys.

Prairie View's saxes however were very much of a let down. You find very few saxophones sections that don't march. I found one though, and that section belongs to Prairie View A&M.

Prairie View really messed up the flow of the entrances of the bands by going to the wrong spot and having to adjust as them came in. This delayed BCC's entrance and made it so that BCC and Prairie View were playing cadences at the same time.


Bethune-Cookman College
The Marching Wildcats
The crowd went crazy the minute the announcer said BCC's name.

As usual, BCC band looked like a pack of clones as they marched in (this is a good thing).

The large size of the percussion section made BCC cadences very audible, but they were a tad muddy in their execution.

Florida A&M University
The Marching 100

As loud as the audience was for Bethune, the applause for FAMU was even more stunning. They definetly had the nicest sounding cadence as all parts of it were clear and audible. The sound of the cadence helped keep the crowd excited about the band entering the stadium in front of their eyes.

One major knock to the look of the band though. Those hats that the band wears need to either be cleaned or replaced. They look extremely dingy, and make FAMU's band look bad in uniform as compared to the other bands.

More to come...
 
After all the bands were assembled on the football field one of the band directors led all of the bands in a few mass selections.

The Star Spangled Banner
I am almost positive that this was FAMU's arrangement of the song. This could have been the reason that it sounded like only FAMU and BCC were playing.

This was a big letdown for the audience, who like I am are fully aware of the difference in sound between 2000 musicians scattered across an entire football field and a 500 standing on the 50 yard line.

Presumably many Bethune Cookmanites were familiar with the song from attending FAMU band camp back in high school.

Who was the one screamer that played out all by himself in the middle of the song. Was this a good place to draw attention to yourself?

America, The Beautiful
Despite the fact that FAMU's drum majors were the only ones that were completely off from the band director and from each other (strangely enough FAMU's drum majors were also the closest to the band director) this was immensely better.

This song was beautiful. It truly sounded like 2000 musicians were playing. The audience could hear sound literally dripping from every corner of the field. I really can't say enough about how beautiful this was.

The only negative comment, of the roughly 100 or so tubas participating, one or two of them felt the need to constantly articulate very harshly throughout this very legato arrangement. Play in context please.

Next Up...The Actual band performances.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Prunalysis II Savannah St, Johnson C. Smith, Clark Atlanta, Tuskegee, & Virgini

I gave you a synposis of what happened as each band entered the stadium in my last post. Now its what you've really been waiting on. The actual shows. By the way, since another poster Ol' Dirty was sitting next to me I will include his opinions in "The Drity Opinion" as an extra benefit. Remember his comments do not necessarily reflect my own.

Whoever organized the event had a very good idea, In order to get all the bands back off the field again. The announcer directed our attention towards the T.V. screens on either end of the field.

On the screen was a short feature with each band. (Interesting that they showed almost every band dancing and doing nothing else). The video ended with a very exciting "call-to-arms" by Johnson C. Smith's band director Duncan Gray.

By the time the audience looked back on the field again only one band was there.

Savannah St. University
The Coastal Empire Sound Explosion
The band faced away from me as they performed.

The number one comment about the Savannah State's band.

Your announcer talks TOO much!
The announcer talked throughout almost the entire drill.

While the band faced away from my side, we could not hear the band at all. The announcer should leave his comments for before the show starts and strategically placed areas throughout the show. Please don't smuther the band.

Drill Song
"Let's Groove"

I cannot comment on the drill song because I could not hear it.

"Snake" or "Move Like A Snake" Not sure which one
Dance girl feature

Even though the entire band was facing away from me, the dance squad split up so that half of them danced for the away side, and half danced for the home side. Very nice idea!

In another bit of genius the band spreaded out and created an empty spot in the middle of the field. The dancers then took that spot and did a very unique looking move. They stood in a line and did splits behind each other such that each girls pelvis was touching the behind of the girl in front of her.

The splits were done with the right leg straight out and left leg behind, not with both legs spreading to the side.

In addition, each girl's right leg was immediately on the right side of the body of the girl in front of her, and her left leg immediately on the left side of the of the girl behind her.

I hope this adequately described what it looks like. Try it with your friends you'll see. Anyway, the girls then starting moving in a snake-like fashion. I must say that it indeed did like like a snake moving. Excellent work dancers. The only problem with this move however was that the killed the effect by only doing one time. If they had done it somewhere between between 2 and 4 times they truly would have made the audience applaud.

I do have some not-quite-as happy comments about Savannah State's dancers. Although this move looked really good, the rest of their dance routine completely lacked energy. Please turn it up a notch girls.

More to come...
 
More comments about SSU.

"Walking Out of Heaven"
Feature Tune

1. The announcer getting the crowd's attention by saying this is dedicated to the fellas that Screwed Up. That was funny.

2. The announcer did not talk through the entire song, and voila I could actually hear the band.

3. Very good trombone sound (even with me listening from behind).

4. The snare drums looked good flashing along with the song.

5. I heard sone tonal bass drums in there somewhere (or was it the next song). My pens were acting crazy at the beginning so I'm not sure where this comment and the last one should go. Anyway, I did hear some tonals, but I thought that they were just a tad too soft.

Dance Routine
The band went into their dance routine with the song "Slow Jams".

Here, I felt that the announcer complimented the band by starting the crowd singing but not continuing to talk through the entire song.

The rest of the dance routine lacked energy.

Overview to the show
I know that you're probably tired of me saying this but the announcer talking too much at the beginning really destroyed the momentum that the DJ's introducing the band had generated for them.

Secondly, I'm not sure if SSU understands the small band concept. A small band is not going to be as loud, or look as impressive in terms of size. Therefore, in order to get the crowds attention, a small band must get the energy going. The band sounded good from what I could hear, but they did very little to get the crowd's attention.

Now, The Dirty Opinion
The band lacked too much energy to be a small band.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Band No. 2
Johnson C. Smith University
The International Institution of Sound (and A&M College).

The first thing I saw was the announcer for JCSU dressed in a dress and a wig. It was interesting to look at, but I don't quite know why this happened.

The announcer did a great job of introducing the band, but without the reputation that JCSU has in their home stadium the loud part of the introduction really had very little effect upon the audience.

JCSU started their routine in the right (south) in-zone. The band began their drill marching downfield. Unfortunately, this kept the crowd from hearing anything.

Drill
I believe it was "I Love What You Do"
Comments about the drill

1. The band faced the in-zones for almost the entire drill. This really cut the energy of the drill. When the band did face the audience as band (only for fractions of a second) it was really not that powerful. I feel like everytime the band faced the front they were catching their breath and did not have the energy to really crank. I do however think that if they faced the audience a tad bit longer each time the band would have been able to generate the power necessary to get the crowd's attention.

2. The drill could have been much cleaner

3. I noticed several band members not marching.

4. I however noticed some very nice screaming going on in that trumpet section.

More to come...
 
More on Johnson C. Smith's show

Smith's band director leaped unto his ladder dressed in a bright pink suit Although, some may disagree, I really like how Smith's director makes himself part of the show.

"Disco Inferno"
Feature Dancer Tune

Very exciting, high energy song. The difference in sound between this song and the drill was highly evident.

1. The baritones sounded very strong on the melody.

2. The trombones sounded very strong when they had the chords.

3. The screaming trumpets sounded very good.

4. Very nice ending pose from the dancers.

Overall this selection was a plus for the Institution.

"Flashlight"
Drum Major Dance Song

The band then formed the formation "CC" on the field as the announcer began to comment on Chocolate City. The drum major suddenly donned Mu Mu's and began dancing with afro's on. I think the "CC" formation was eye-catching and looked very good but I don't think the Mu Mu helped the drum majors at all.

"Don't Ask My Neighbor"
Feature Tune

1. The background parts laid down a rich and smooth pad of sound while the melodic voices played extremely short and pointed. The end result, surprisingly, I actually really liked the effect this had. JCSU was the only one I noticed to do anything like that all day.

2. There was a very nice short crescendo section in the trumpets towards the end.

3. The trumpets however started to fade out a little just before the climax of the song.

4. The cymbals looked good doing their routines.

5. Excellent arrangement, just when I thought the song was ending, it modulated and sounded even better.

Overall this was another plus for the International Band.

More to come...
 
More of JCSU's show

After the feature tune, the band went immediately into "Word Up" as a transition song. This was done without a drum major whistle or any taps on the snare drum.

"Word Up" provided a high energy song for a formation change into the dance routine. Very nice.

1. I may be mistaken but I think that the band was supposed to be yelling during the dance routine. They didn't.

2. The band doesn't play very powerfully at all when dancing.

3. Instruments on the ground. Well I guess we each have our own opinions.

4. Whoa. The band did a forward roll! They caught me and the audience by surprise. This short bit however was not enough to turn around the overwhelmingly low energy dance routine.

5. Overall, the dance routine was one of the lowest parts of the show. It really lacked energy until out of nowhere....

Band members started clotheslining each other. The clothesline was followed by The People's Elbow. There are definently some wrestling fans in JCSU's band. This was the really exciting part of Smith's dance routine.

As the show ended, the band started marching off the field to "Word Up".

Suddenly someone dressed as Re-Run from Goodtimes ran on to the 50 yard-line immediately in front of the band.

Hate to tell you though. This guy looked nothing like Re-Run dancing at all. He really did not add to the show. After he finished dancing though he pulled out his trumpet and started playing. His position on the field placed him in the middle of the home side of the field with no other wind players around him. This made it look like he was going to play a solo (although he didn't). This fact made him actually look cooler playing than he did dancing.

The "Word Up" ending to the show was definently another high point for the band.

Overview of the Show

Good sound JCSU. The International Institution of Sound however seems to be unable to generate this sound while doing anything other than just playing. Marching and dancing for example. The drill and the dance routine were both low points in an otherwise very good show.

The Dirty Opinion
Why are there piccolos inside the tuba section [concert shell].
This band was the exact opposite of Savannah State. They generated the type of energy that a small band needs to win.

In addition, they used gimmicks to their advantage.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Clark-Atlanta University
The Mighty Marching Panther Band from Jaguarland

The first thing that I noticed about CAU was that they had grown significantly since their appearance in "Drumline."

Clark entered the field doubletiming (basically "rattling").

Clark put a tremendous amount of energy into it and was very exciting to look at. It got both mine and the crowd's attention.

While coming onto the field the band went instantly to an "ATL" formation.
Very nice.

The band then changed again to a fanfare position. The announcer announced that the featured majorette would be performing to the fanfare. Majorettes being announced as actually performing for fanfares. That's a first for me.

After the fanfare the band then changed formations again to spell the word "MOVE" and played the song "I Like The Way You Move".

The band then spread out to make an aisleway for the majorette. I will normally not comment on something like this, but it was obvious the CAU was using more the just the twirling abilities of the majorette at this point. The big bad bodied young lady sauntered right down the aisleway towards the homeside (the band was performing to the away side) not twirling anything as the band continued to play "I Like The Way You Move". Truly a memorable occassion.

The Mighty Marching Panther Band then quickly transitioned to form the formation "Hey Ya", did a short dance routine and played the song. This really got the crowd excited.

In the middle of the song the drums dropped out and the low brass played chords, while the upper brass carried the melody. I call this a blast point. I have never heard it used on "Hey Ya" before.

The band then played a very short arrangement of "Torture" in order to transition to a concert shell in order to feature the dancers.

"Boogie Nights"
Featured Dancer Tune
Although the song sounded very strong from the back, I did not like the arrangement.

The dancers however were really not bad at all.

More to come...
 
More on Clark Atlanta's performance.

Their was a brief pause just before the band moved into their slow song. Although very brief for most bands, you have to realize that Clark Atlanta had been going completely non-stop since the show began. This did lower the energy level somewhat.

During the pause, one of the percussionists took the oppurtunity to adjust his hat.
(Caught cha).

"You Don't Know My Name/If Only You Knew" mix
Feature Tune

A very, very nice arrangement. The song started with "You Don't Know My Name" only to change to "If Only You Knew" by Patti LaBelle. The continuity the band kept between both songs, both harmonically and message-wise was seamless. Excellent. When the band changed to the LaBelle song, the trombones marched up to the front to play the melody. Nice way to add a little splash to a showstyle band's usual method of staying in place during slow songs.

The cymbals players looked very good doing flashes during this selection.

In the middle of the song the band started rocking to really get the energy going. The band then went effortlessly back into "You Don't Know My Name". I really enjoyed this arrangement. My hats off to the arranger. Let me also add that I could hear CAU's saxophones very well from the back.

I'm not going to say that this was a highpoint for the show because CAU's entire show had been high energy up to here. I will say however that CAU did an outstanding job of keeping the energy going even while slowing the mood down.

Drawback. Even though CAU was the third smallest band there, you could not tell. In all of their formations, CAU did a good job of spreading the field. Not here however. During concert shell, the band was really compact and looked very small.

More to come...
 
More of CAU's show.

After the feature tune ended, the band started their rattler move again. Once again it looked very exciting. One of the coolest things was how the the bass drums followed each other in circle before they came in with their part of the cadence. Even though everyone was doubletiming, no one else moved from their position until the bass drums came in. This was a very nice way of representing music through the visual.

Dance Routine[/B}
Like the bands before them, the dance routine was the low part of Clark's show. Unlike the other bands though there were some true flaws here.

1. The band lost a lot of their sound during the dance routine.

2. "Slow Jam"-The trumpets did not do a very good job of blending.

3. A singer started singing on the microphone during the middle of this song. This was not a good idea. He was very out of tune, and really turned some of the audience members off.

The dance routine was all but the finishing blow for CAU. But just when you thought it was over. Clark brought out the Yin Yang Twins to perform with the band. This got the crowd right back into it again. They also brought a young lady to stand "behind facing" the crowd and shake. This was the second time that Clark's band really used one female's body to improve the crowd's opinion of them.

Although I'm not particularly a fan of bands using women in this way the Yin Yang Twins really did pump up the end of the show.

More to come...
 



Overview of Clark's show
Announcer - To me personally, Clark has a very good announcer. He would always speak in a normal voice and then drop his voice down an octave to pitches I can't even dream of hitting. Now that was cool. The announcer also did a good job of getting the Atlanta home crowd into the performance.

Energy - Clark Atlanta was perhaps the hardest working band of the day.
They started the show with the "doubletime".

The band then made several formations
ATL
Fanfare Position
MOVE
Hey Ya
Concert Shell

and did different dance routines in two of them.

after the slow song, the band doubletimed again. During every single transition, I saw no band members slacking. Neither did I see any slackers while dancing.

The 30 second commercial band
In the course of CAU's show the band played at least 7 selections before the dance routine even started.

Fanfare
Hey Ya
Move
Torture
Boogie Nights
You Don't Know My Name
If Only You Knew

Each song could not have been more than 45 seconds long. This really kept the energy high and did not give the crowd time to get bored. Towards the end however this overwhelming number of songs made the dance routine seem much less important. After all, most bands use the dance routine as the time to play many different songs. By the time Clark get to the dance routine however they had already played a ton of songs.

In the long run though the playing of short arrangements of songs worked to their benefit.

Overall...Excellent performance Clark. I was very impressed with what I saw.

The Dirty Opinion

Clark really played worked the hometown advantage. This band will take your crowd if your not careful.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Next up Tuskegee University
The Marching Crimson Pipers The Pied Pipers of R&B

As Tuskegee entered the field I noticed that the clarinets swing their instruments quite a bit differently than the rest of the band. I don't mean this as a negative comment. Just something that I noticed.

One bad thing I did notice.

There was very poor spacing in the band as they came on the field.

The Drum Major Entrance
Tuskegee's drum majors were pretty good. I do know that they came close to touching the ground with their hats, but did not.

Their was however another major flaw to the drum entrance. The band was already on the field by the time the entrance started. Unlike most drum major entrances where only the drums, or only the tubas and drums will play the beginning, Tuskegee chose to let the whole band play the entrance. This was not the problem. The problem was that the band (divided into two parts) played at the drum majors who are on about the 30 yard line. Even though the drum majors were very exciting to watch, the crowd heard very little of the music.

After the drum major entrance, the entire band played a powerful note towards the home side. The crowd was impressed. What however was more impressive was how after this note the band all uniformly tossed their necks at us the crowd in an "additudinal" way and turned to face the away side. The crowd got a good laugh off of this. The band then played two notes for the away side, gave the away side the hand, and turned back around to face home. The crowd laughed even more than before.

To finish their introduction off the Pipers broke into a quick dance routine and gushed away. This was probably the most exciting introduction that had been done so far (Unfortunately not everyone got down into the gush like they should).

More to come...
 
More on Tuskegee's show

Right after that entrance, Tuskegee's band formed "TU" on the field. The crowd continued to feel the energy level.

The band then took that formation and made "MCP" diagonally. Good Work!

I don't really remember the song that they drilled to however.

"You Don't Know My Name"
Feature Tune

In the "MCP" formation the band began playing "You Don't Know My Name".

The band however took a while to get started and began to lose the interest of the crowd.

The band lacked sonority and richness of sound as they played. I noticed how the percussion section was spread unevenly throughout the formation. For instance, one of the cymbal players, was at the very front of the "C", while three of his counterparts were in the "P". The rest of the percussion section was spread likewise. Even though I didn't particularly notice any tempo problems I wondered if this was a wise idea.

There was an interesting little gimmick during this song. During the selection, a young lady who looked surprisingly like Alicia Keyes walked from the band to the center of the field. She pulled out a cell phone. Over the loud speakers we could hear what was presumed to her voice. She asked to speak to the president of the Honda Battles of the Bands. She then said you may know us, but we are of the pride of Tuskegee University (loyal Tuskegee fans got very excited by this). She then said her cell phone was breaking up, and of course asked...

Can You Hear Us Now! Can You Hear Us Now!

Excellent gimmick, the crowd responded well to it. One problem though I'm sure I'm not the only one that expected the band to crank it up when she asked "Can You Hear Us Now!" They didn't. The band stayed at a good mezzo-forte thereupon answering there own question.

Can You Hear Us Now? The answer was...No

This selection brought down the high energy level of Tuskegee's show.

More to come...
 
More from Tuskesgee's show

After TU's slow song there was a uneasy quietness from the crowd. The drum major's blew the whistle and the band transitioned to another formation. I noticed that there were at least two baritone players going in opposite directions from the rest of the band.

"My One, My Only, My Everything"/"Getaway"/"Snake"
Featured Dancer Tune

I don't know exactly know what was going on here, I really couldn't understand what the announcer was saying. All I know was the song started with Barry White and moved to Earth Wind & Fire within seconds. The whole band was severely lacking in clean articulation on this.

Before the crowd could get used to "Getaway", the song changed again to "Snake" by R. Kelly.

The trombones had the melody first. Like in "Getaway", some work on articulation needs to be done here. I say this because the trombones slowed down the tempo of the song slightly.

The mellophones had the counter-melody when the trumpets took over, and I most say I really enjoyed that part.

The dancers wore veils as they danced. The dance that they did really fit the mood of the song. They did slow Indian-type movements. The routine looked good. I think however that playing the Snake part of this arrangement would have worked even better.

More to come...
 
More from Tuskegee University

Dance Routine

The band started their dance routine with the most popular song of the day "Slow Jams".

The entrance to this song was uncharacteristically weak for the band, and the tempo of the song really began to slow down.

The tubas however were very strong throughout the entirity of the dance.

They were some occassions of bad sound coming from the band during dance routine.

Things turned around for the band when Tuskegee threw in a another neat little gimmick. One of the female band members came to the cetner of the field and start dancing. She however was almost immediately replaced by another larger female who physically threw the smaller girl out of the way. That was funny.

During the end of the show, the Crimson Ones showcased the midget cymbal player they had in the band. Just before the show ended the small cymbal player got on the neck of another cymbal player and started twirling. Then all four the cymbals started twirling. This would have been a great gimmick except for the fact that none of the cymbal players were particularly good at twirling.

The show ended with Tuskesgee marching off the field. I have to mention this part because the Pipperettes (dancers) were really, really marching here.
 
Overview of Tuskegee's show

As I pointed out there were some flaws in the performance. One major point should really be considered though. Tuskegee's show was filled with pauses and silences.

Clark-Atlanta and Johnson C. Smith both had just performed seamless shows. What does that mean? I mean that for both bands once the show started there was almost no stopping until it ended. Almost no drum major whistles, nothing.

Tuskegee seemed to stop the flow of their show after every selection. There seemed to be a drum major whistle to begin every new song. During these pauses the audience was almost completely silent.

The Dirty Opinion
A sold out Georgia Dome was quiet.

The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Band No. 5
The 5th of 5 bands on this thread.

Virginia State University
The Trojan Explosion See...that's how people get pregnant.

The first thing I remember about Virginia State is the announcer's comment. The True Orange & Blue. I suppose this was a smack against Savannah St., after all, Morgan St. wasn't there.

Virginia St. started their show with a dance routine. This happened while the band was still on the sidelines. I really loved how the tubas who were on two different sides of the band started playing two completely different parts. Great work.

As the band entered the field I noticed that VSU quints use really thin instruments like corpstyle bands often use.

Virginia really looked good spreading themselves across the field.

The tonal bass drums really sounded excellent!

The band stopped to play a quick fanfare. During the fanfare, I heard more superior tonal bass drum work. Very good.

After the band finished their fanfare they marched towards a center section of the field while not playing. The wind players took the oppurtunity to develop a new variation of the horn swing here. Looked pretty good.

After this portion of the show the band went into the corpstyle drill that made them famous at the Durham BOTB three years ago. Like before, it looked good. The snare drums messed up one of the lines in it though.

More to come...
 
More of VSU's show.

As the corpstyle drill ended VSU went into "Torture".

Here was VSU's first major mistake of the night.
The selection started with the cymbals and the tubas. The cymbals however were incredibly off.

The disunity in tempo caused some serious phasing problems for the band as the other instruments came in. Luckily the band was able to hold it together. This could have been a disaster.

The final outcome of the drill however was a beautiful double diamond formation.

The drill ended and the announcer then "shushed" the crowd.

A moment later as the crowd began to get quiet VSU opened up with tremendous sound playing...

"Pretty Brown Eyes"
Feature Tune

I have got to say that this was fabulous teamwork on the part of the announcer and the band. It really got the crowd's attention.

I don't remember much more about the selection. I do remember that the song ended and then quickly transitioned to...

"Working Day & Night"
Feature Dancer Tune

Okay, lets divide this selection into two parts.

First, the instrumentalists.
This was the only selection that I heard all day long that actually showed off a bands ability to play. Balance, blend, volume, range; these are all things that any band needs in order to deliver an excellent performance, but what about showing off a little technique. VSU's arrangement of the MJ tune gave the low brass players and trumpets the chance to show off a little skill. Good job to both the arranger and the players.

Secondly, the auxiliaries. The dancers really need to put more energy into their movements. The band is playing the music, the dancers need to get into it more.

I have some comments about the flags as well, but I need to review a tape first before I post to make sure I'm not confusing VSU's flags with anyone elses.

More to come...
 
More of Virginia State's show

Dance Routine

To be perfectly honest if Virginia St. had just left out the dance routine it would have been a better show. The band completely lost the crowd during the dance routine. Unfortunately, people always remember the beginning and the end.

I'm not neceassarily sure it was the band that lost the crowd during the dance routine. I really feel like the announcer could have been much more exciting.

One more thing, I know this is every band director's personal preference, but the tubas looked very stagnant[/B} during the dance. Couldn't they bob up and down, or something.

Overview of the T. Explosion's show

Virginia St. had a very high energy show. They kept it moving and never stopped for a pause. In that category I ranked them very similarily to Clark Atlanta.

The difference however between CAU & VSU however was that VSU showed more technical ability during their playing, and more technical ability in their marching.

Percussion

I cannot leave this post until I make this last comment. The best percussion section at the Honda was not Prairie View. Although the The McFunk B.O.X. was included in a percussion feature that basically won it for Prairie View the things that they did were more showy and not necessarily technical. Virginia State's snares, and awesome tonal bass drums quietly took the best playing percussion section award away from PV.

The last five bands ae included in another post, linked here.

The Dirty Opinion
VSU's drill got attention, but the announcer lost that attention during the dance routine, particulary at the reggae part.


The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
 
Originally posted by Prunejuice
More of Virginia State's show

Dance Routine

To be perfectly honest if Virginia St. had just left out the dance routine it would have been a better show. The band completely lost the crowd during the dance routine. Unfortunately, people always remember the beginning and the end.

I'm not neceassarily sure it was the band that lost the crowd during the dance routine. I really feel like the announcer could have been much more exciting.

One more thing, I know this is every band director's personal preference, but the tubas looked very stagnant during the dance. Couldn't they bob up and down, or something.

Overview of the T. Explosion's show

Virginia St. had a very high energy show. They kept it moving and never stopped for a pause. In that category I ranked them very similarily to Clark Atlanta.

The difference however between CAU & VSU however was that VSU showed more technical ability during their playing, and more technical ability in their marching.

Percussion

I cannot leave this post until I make this last comment. The best percussion at the Honda was not Prairie View. Although the The McFunk B.O.X. was included in a percussion feature that basically won it for Prairie View the things that they did were more showy and not necessarily technical. Virginia State's snares, and awesome tonal bass drums quietly took the best playing percussion section award away from PV.

The last five bands ae included in another post, linked here.

The Dirty Opinion
VSU's drill got attention, but the announcer lost that attention during the dance routine, particulary at the reggae part.


The Prunester...Telling it like it is.
Click to expand...

:goof: I am always thumbsup for your analysis Prunejuice but I disagree with us (TheBOX) being the only reason why we (PVU) wrecked the Honda:goof:
 
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