Contest

Last Saturday was up and down for me. I say that because the band kids went did their best show of the season, yet didn't get rewarded for it. How is this possible you ask? I really have no idea. You have to ask the judges.

Let me talk about the judges for a second. They ripped the band for the usual stuff (off step, step size, drummers not sticking together, etc.) These are the little things that both myself and Bossman attributed to nerves of being the first contest and not getting to really perform this season, so we accepted that, but some of the other mess they got us for was just nit picky.

Now, I have no issue with nit picky judges. How else can you get better than with the judges that are complete assholes (pardon my French). They are usually the ones that will tell it like it is and what you need to fix without sugar coating it, y'know? However, for almost all of the bands there, it was the first contest, so for me, I felt like they judged a bit hard.

As I said, the kids did their best performance of the season, but they didn't play as well as they did in warm-up, but it was still pretty darn good. There were some issues...mostly with the trashcan feature (if the video works below, you can see it.)

The day went on, and I was getting ansy. On top of that, most of the bands that performed during the day did rather boring shows. That isn't to say they were bad, just not really interesting.

Finally, after sitting in the direct sun for he entire day, it was time for the results. (note that the sun just happens to go down as they were about to start...WTF?!?)

Small class ratings are announced and they get to us. Auxiliary-I, Percussion- III, Band-III. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium. Most of the talk throughout he day was how well we did, and to come away with a III for full band did not feel good, but there is a silver lining. All but 1 of the bands in our class got the same rating.

I won't make excuses, but something tells me that there was a small band bias. Don't believe me? The middle and large bands almost all got I's, except for a couple, and trust me, their shows weren't as clean. It was just their mistakes weren't as obvious because of all their members.

Anyway, time for the best in class announcement. Last year we came in 2nd and were hoping to get the title this year. With a III, that wasn't going happen, but since almost all the bands in our class got the same thing, you never know.

Unfortunately, we didn't get it, but there was a controversy, especially after looking at the score sheet. Our auxiliary had a score of 199 out of 200. So, unless the school that got best in class had a perfect score, which I doubt, since they were dropping flags left and right from what I saw, then we should have gotten it. Rumor is since they came from Mississippi, the contest conspired to make sure they won, no matter what.

I seriously hope that this isn't the case. If it does turn out to be so, though, I can guarantee you we will not be going back.

There is not time to dwell on the past, though. We have two major contests ahead and have to clean things up and be ready for them. Hopefully Bossman whipped them into shape this week, while I've been sick. I also hope that the judges at the next contest won't have any anti-small band bias. This is getting pretty bad. I almost dare to say that there needs to be a contest specifically for small bands. Geesh!

You can watch the show here.