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California Bands Battle?

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:29 pm
by lo123
Does anyone else dream to see all of the SCSBOA "Big Boys" (RB, MC, Arcadia, El Dorado, SM, etc.) battle it out with the top WBA bands like Upland, Ayala, James Logan, Saratoga?

I would love to see this one day. It would be one AWESOME night.

:D :D :D :D :D

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:37 am
by Cardinal Regime
Would just be happy if the All Western Band Review came back to life in Long Beach.

But.......something tells me that not many NCBA bands (if any) would come down to participate in that event, even if it was still around. :roll:

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:13 pm
by Mark Stone
There is always the BOA Regional...

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:50 pm
by Jim Bunselmeier
To me Arcadia is the modern day All Western. It will never be 80 bands like the hey day of All Western but it does attract the best parade bands in SoCal and every once in a while a NorCal band.

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:55 pm
by Jim Bunselmeier
On the field side of things how about a show with a mixture of judges from every circuit? Each judge uses the sheets from their circuit with some type of a master sheet to balance out the differences in scoring.

This would be like inter league play meets fantasy football with a little cricket thrown in....

Probably will never happen but they did put man on the moon.

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:06 pm
by airons0678
Amen to Mark Stone. Bands of America is tops.

Alan

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:58 pm
by uci_guy
Not bashing BOA, as clearly they're the best field circuit, but in defense of scsboa bands, time spent on parade takes away from time spent on the field. If the top bands devoted all their resources to field, I'm sure they could hang with other BOA schools.

BUT I'm a big fan of parade. You can really hear what the directors are trying to do musically. The push toward creating modern corps style field shows is very entertaining, but parade can serve the purpose of peeling back the electronics and excessive brass (ok, small bash :o ).

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:12 am
by airons0678
uci_guy wrote:Not bashing BOA, as clearly they're the best field circuit, but in defense of scsboa bands, time spent on parade takes away from time spent on the field. If the top bands devoted all their resources to field, I'm sure they could hang with other BOA schools.
Man, you just bashed every SCSBOA band that participates in band review (parade). Chino can hang with Upland, and other BOA greats, and they're a solid band review band. I do understand what you're implying "in general," as it is difficult to do both, and do well in both. However, I wouldn't want to short change bands that try.

Another thing: BOA comes once a year to southern California, and this weekend is the perfect weekend to go. Of course there are a few SCSBOA field shows, a couple WBA shows, and one--I repeat--one band review (of the many scattered through the season), and last time I checked you don't get "points" for an SCSBOA-type band review championships; so it can be skipped, or better word, sacrificed. I don't know. Maybe directors are prioritizing, and thinking their group needs all the street performances they can get. That's fine.
uci_guy wrote:BUT I'm a big fan of parade. You can really hear what the directors are trying to do musically. The push toward creating modern corps style field shows is very entertaining, but parade can serve the purpose of peeling back the electronics and excessive brass (ok, small bash :o ).
I respect parade. I really do. I know personally how challenging it is from doing it when I was at FVHS back when we still did it. As for the push towards creating modern corps style field shows--this is nothing new. High school bands have been doing this for decades--even the ones in the 80's when it was "cool" to do z-pulls or rotating boxes, etc. In 1993, high school bands began to get more innovative with electronics, and performances that matched or surpassed corps type shows; and it's only been recent that drum corps have started to embrace multi-keyed instruments, and electronics, and someday (likely) woodwinds. It really is about performance, much in the same vein as WGI...but so is parade. My view of parade is "concert band on the street," and when it's done well I'm amazed. It's an amazing cultural thing here, too, as street competition doesn't exist at a national level. There is no Grand National Championships for street bands. (I suppose Long Beach All Western was as close as it got, and that was just for California.) Anyways, sorry to ramble on, I give props to both art forms. Balance (no musical pun intended) is always key (again no musical pun intended), when doing both field and parade. Some bands (like Diamond Bar these days) just do parade. And some bands (like Fountain Valley, except for the annual Disneyland performance) just do field. And some do both. But if you want a true "California Bands Battle," more bands are on the field than on the street, so in that respect I give priority to the field bands...and I give BOA the "best" standard (NATIONAL standard) award. If your band goes to a BOA regional, I guarantee you that they will be compared to the best bands in the nation, and their low(er) score will reflect that until we have a new Grand National Champion from California, which would be awesome (and hasn't happened since Live Oak in the 70's.)...but they will get the fairest shake--no matter how big or small the band is, the school is, or where your school's from.

Alan

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:48 am
by NotPopular
I always assumed that bands that strictly perform parades should always beat bands that do both. My High school did both parade and field but we spent almost 90% of the time doing field show rehearsal. We were shocked whenever we took a first place at a band review against parade only schools.

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:58 pm
by Wildabeast
That's kinda' what the Annual Renegade Band Blow-Out did at Bakersfield College in the 80's. One year, Clovis HS (when they were #1 in the state) and Carson HS (when they were #1 in L.A.) were supposed to go head-to-head. Clovis could not come at the last minute (many students not making the grade).

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:58 am
by airons0678
Wildabeast wrote:That's kinda' what the Annual Renegade Band Blow-Out did at Bakersfield College in the 80's. One year, Clovis HS (when they were #1 in the state) and Carson HS (when they were #1 in L.A.) were supposed to go head-to-head. Clovis could not come at the last minute (many students not making the grade).
Interesting. The last biggest "California band battle" that I can remember was back in 1999--the WBA Championships held in southern California. It seemed like all the big players were there (with the exception of the San Diego "big 3," I think). But I just remember Etiwanda, Beyer, Logan, Mission Viejo, Thousand Oaks, Diamond Bar, Fountain Valley, Valley View (when they were REALLY good), Clovis, Clovis West, and some other groups I can't think of right now, duking it out and really amazing people. A friend of mine from Indiana (and long time attendee of BOA Grand Nationals) flew out to see this show for curiosity's sake as he wanted to see the best bands in Californis at the time, and he still talks about it to this day. Great, great year for high school marching band in California. The only year/show I can think of that comes close to this is 1993 BOA (though Clovis West was noticeably missing, who were arguably the best band in CA), and 1996 Arcadia (which was like an SCSBOA "Tournament of Champions" field and band review championships format revival, even though it was mainly southern California bands--the best bands in southern California, nevertheless.

Alan

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 5:57 pm
by The Aceman
I think a combined SCSBOA/WBA championship would be awesome, and maybe to put the powers to be at ease, they could do a combined championship show every other year, and in the off years each organization would still have it's own championship. I'm thinking a combined championship where the top 5 bands from each division compete resulting in a 10-band show down per class. Since each organization has it's own classification, and in the spirit of keeping the show to a reasonable number of bands, they use a 4-class system for this event only. Class D = 1-60 / Class C = 61-100 / Class B = 101-145 / Class A = 146 and up. I think rather than some sort of master judging sheet, they could have a SCSBOA judging panel and a WBA panel, and they just combine the scores (for a total 200 possible points). I know it's a pipe dream, but I would be sure to attend such a show.

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 11:03 pm
by Bandmaster
airons0678 wrote:
Wildabeast wrote:That's kinda' what the Annual Renegade Band Blow-Out did at Bakersfield College in the 80's. One year, Clovis HS (when they were #1 in the state) and Carson HS (when they were #1 in L.A.) were supposed to go head-to-head. Clovis could not come at the last minute (many students not making the grade).
Interesting. The last biggest "California band battle" that I can remember was back in 1999--the WBA Championships held in southern California. It seemed like all the big players were there (with the exception of the San Diego "big 3," I think). But I just remember Etiwanda, Beyer, Logan, Mission Viejo, Thousand Oaks, Diamond Bar, Fountain Valley, Valley View (when they were REALLY good), Clovis, Clovis West, and some other groups I can't think of right now, duking it out and really amazing people....
From our scores page...

1999 WSMBC AAA-AAAA Championships - Fullerton, CA
CLASS AAAA Finals
96.98 James Logan HS
95.94 Mission Viejo HS
94.72 Valley View HS
94.24 Thousand Oaks HS
93.64 Etiwanda HS
88.55 Clovis West HS
88.31 Fred C. Beyer HS
87.18 Upland HS
86.79 Fountain Valley HS
81.42 Diamond Bar HS
80.63 San Marcos HS
79.05 Ayala HS
75.98 Desert Vista HS

Caption Awards:
Auxiliary - Logan
Visual - Logan
Percussion - Mission Viejo
Music - Mission Viejo
G.E. - Logan

James Logan HS at the 1999 WSMBC Championships
Image

See the whole gallery from that night:
http://www.worldofpageantry.com/gallery ... ion=images

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 11:06 am
by uci_guy
Here are 2 of the San Diego big 3 from 1999, for those who want to compare and contrast with the WBA show that year.

Mt. Carmel http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYb0sEAAOY

Poway http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nKpqtW_UW-s


Can't find RB :/

Re: California Bands Battle?

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:21 pm
by Wildabeast
As a Central Californian, 1991 was the first time I "noticed" a little bit of a mesh, and that was seeing Buena (Ventura) making Finals of the WSMBC Raisin Bowl Band Championships at Clovis HS (Lamonica was a pretty nice stadium before Buchanan came along).

1992 was probably THE shocker when Etiwanda beat Clovis West at RCC.

I think that same year in the tiny town of Arvin (just southwest of Bakersfield) was a competition where Clovis, West Bakersfield, and Mission Viejo squared off. They placed in that order, and now that I think of it, I was impressed with Mission Viejo.

I just thought to another old Bakersfield College competition (ARBBO) where Tulare Union & Diamond Bar were in Open Division.