Shows for the weekend of September 20, 2025

[TenorCat]

Grey Ghost Classic last night was interesting. Nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of the placings, but as someone who's been following Galesburg, their performance last night has me nervous. This show definitely has a lot of potential, but I feel like they're failing to fully realize it. It's gonna take a lot of work to guarantee their spot in finals this year. Also, just a personal gripe, but I was not a fan of their drumlines visual at the end of the ballad.

Edited September 21 by TenorCat

[ILBandFan]

52 minutes ago, TenorCat said:

Grey Ghost Classic last night was interesting. Nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of the placings, but as someone who's been following Galesburg, their performance last night has me nervous. This show definitely has a lot of potential, but I feel like they're failing to fully realize it. It's gonna take a lot of work to guarantee their spot in finals this year. Also, just a personal gripe, but I was not a fan of their drumlines visual at the end of the ballad.

My personal opinion: I think for this early in the season Galesburg has their show down pretty good. Obviously it needs work but I also heard that they just put their closer on in the last 2 weeks. And for that being thrown together so quick I think it was pretty phenomenal. Galesburg definitely needs to work on their show but I think their finals spot should be pretty guaranteed. IVC could be close and it wouldn’t completely surprise me if they took that spot 

[marchinglover36]

8 minutes ago, ILBandFan said:

My personal opinion: I think for this early in the season Galesburg has their show down pretty good. Obviously it needs work but I also heard that they just put their closer on in the last 2 weeks. And for that being thrown together so quick I think it was pretty phenomenal. Galesburg definitely needs to work on their show but I think their finals spot should be pretty guaranteed. IVC could be close and it wouldn’t completely surprise me if they took that spot 

 

1 hour ago, TenorCat said:

Grey Ghost Classic last night was interesting. Nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of the placings, but as someone who's been following Galesburg, their performance last night has me nervous. This show definitely has a lot of potential, but I feel like they're failing to fully realize it. It's gonna take a lot of work to guarantee their spot in finals this year. Also, just a personal gripe, but I was not a fan of their drumlines visual at the end of the ballad.

In terms of ISU, I think this is the year that both Galesburg and IVC make it along with Morton, I don't see Eureka competing with them. In my opinion, IVC has shown exceptional growth the past couple of years and deserve a finals spot. Galesburg’s show is written in a way that if it's executed correctly, they shouldn't have a problem against IVC. But on the flip side, IVC is clean. We've seen this last year though, IVC was competing with Galesburg until ISU and Galesburg beat them by a decent amount, so you never know! As a neutral, I love that each class at ISU has some spice and drama this year, can't wait!

[ILBandFan]

11 minutes ago, marchinglover36 said:

 

In terms of ISU, I think this is the year that both Galesburg and IVC make it along with Morton, I don't see Eureka competing with them. In my opinion, IVC has shown exceptional growth the past couple of years and deserve a finals spot. Galesburg’s show is written in a way that if it's executed correctly, they shouldn't have a problem against IVC. But on the flip side, IVC is clean. We've seen this last year though, IVC was competing with Galesburg until ISU and Galesburg beat them by a decent amount, so you never know! As a neutral, I love that each class at ISU has some spice and drama this year, can't wait!

That’s a really good point! I was pleasantly surprised with IVCs performance this year and they have significantly approved! It’ll definitely be a battle between IVC and Eureka for the 1a champion spot! Obviously Morton takes first for class 2a and Galesburg is very likely to be the next highest scoring. It’ll be a fun class to watch

[Dan Balash]

IVC Grey Ghost Classic:

A:

1. 68.900 Dwight D. Eisenhower (Music, Visual, GE, Percussion, Color Guard)
2. 55.800 Farmington
3. 53.950 St. Joseph-Ogden

AA:

1. 64.650 Kewanee (Visual, GE)
2. 62.950 Danville (Color Guard)
3. 62.400 Richwoods (Music, Percussion)

AAAA:

1. 74.650 Normal (Music, Visual, GE, Percussion, Color Guard)
2. 69.550 Galesburg
3. 66.200 Pekin Community

AAAAA:

1. 77.000 Morton (Music, Visual, GE, Percussion, Color Guard)
2. 67.450 Champaign Central

[Dan Balash]

Geneseo Maple Leaf Classic: Geneseo, IL

A:

1. 368.700 Galva (GE, Percussion)
2. 363.900 Rockridge (Music, Color Guard, DM)
3. 360.900 Sherrard (Visual)
4. 346.900 Orion

AA:

1. 461.500 Western Dubuque, IA (Visual, DM)
2. 460.100 Macomb (GE, Color Guard)
3. 440.600 Rochelle Township (Music)
4. 409.800 Rock Falls
5. 386.600 Streator Township (Percussion )

AAA:

1. 496.600 Minooka Community (Music, Visual, GE, Percussion, Color Guard)
2. 431.600 United Township (DM)
3. 423.800 Bettendorf, IA

[Marchingmaniac88]

4 hours ago, TenorCat said:

Grey Ghost Classic last night was interesting. Nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of the placings, but as someone who's been following Galesburg, their performance last night has me nervous. This show definitely has a lot of potential, but I feel like they're failing to fully realize it. It's gonna take a lot of work to guarantee their spot in finals this year. Also, just a personal gripe, but I was not a fan of their drumlines visual at the end of the ballad.

Galesburg is missing the impact factor. This is a band that I remember feeling in my chest. This impact factor is what sets the mid-tier bands from the great ones. They have a lot of moving lines throughout and they demonstrate, in my opinion, remarkable musicianship and clarity. They run into timing issues in the closer (first time jitters). But where they are lacking are those “hit me in the face” moments and the bone chilling crescendos they really dynamically separate the big loud parts from the soft. A shows concept is only as good as your ability to portray it. I hope, rather I know, their staff will be laser focused on this the next week preparing for Morton (where they’re reasonable contenders for GC, I think).

 

On a positive; their solos, duets, and small ensemble moments are great. They demonstrate much improved musicianship throughout compared to last year. Their percussion is also markedly better. Overall, I would argue the program is better this year than last but remember, cleaning is an incremental and often slow process. Marian Catholic used to build their shows for BOA and would often be underwhelming until the end where they were jaw-dropping. My bets are still on Galesburg for finals at ISU.

[ILBandFan]

2 hours ago, Marchingmaniac88 said:

Galesburg is missing the impact factor. This is a band that I remember feeling in my chest. This impact factor is what sets the mid-tier bands from the great ones. They have a lot of moving lines throughout and they demonstrate, in my opinion, remarkable musicianship and clarity. They run into timing issues in the closer (first time jitters). But where they are lacking are those “hit me in the face” moments and the bone chilling crescendos they really dynamically separate the big loud parts from the soft. A shows concept is only as good as your ability to portray it. I hope, rather I know, their staff will be laser focused on this the next week preparing for Morton (where they’re reasonable contenders for GC, I think).

 

On a positive; their solos, duets, and small ensemble moments are great. They demonstrate much improved musicianship throughout compared to last year. Their percussion is also markedly better. Overall, I would argue the program is better this year than last but remember, cleaning is an incremental and often slow process. Marian Catholic used to build their shows for BOA and would often be underwhelming until the end where they were jaw-dropping. My bets are still on Galesburg for finals at ISU.

You are absolutely spot on with this statement! The impact is what’s missing and the show doesn’t feel complete without it. Looking at Galesburg from 2022 and 2023, they had a huge full ensemble moment to start the show and you could feel it and it was amazing. This year I’ve noticed there hasn’t been much of any big impacts or loud, but controlled moments. I hope they do work on that because I think it would make the show 100x better and more effective 

[IVCDad]

3 hours ago, Marchingmaniac88 said:

Galesburg is missing the impact factor. This is a band that I remember feeling in my chest. This impact factor is what sets the mid-tier bands from the great ones. They have a lot of moving lines throughout and they demonstrate, in my opinion, remarkable musicianship and clarity. They run into timing issues in the closer (first time jitters). But where they are lacking are those “hit me in the face” moments and the bone chilling crescendos they really dynamically separate the big loud parts from the soft. A shows concept is only as good as your ability to portray it. I hope, rather I know, their staff will be laser focused on this the next week preparing for Morton (where they’re reasonable contenders for GC, I think).

 

On a positive; their solos, duets, and small ensemble moments are great. They demonstrate much improved musicianship throughout compared to last year. Their percussion is also markedly better. Overall, I would argue the program is better this year than last but remember, cleaning is an incremental and often slow process. Marian Catholic used to build their shows for BOA and would often be underwhelming until the end where they were jaw-dropping. My bets are still on Galesburg for finals at ISU.

 

8 hours ago, TenorCat said:

Grey Ghost Classic last night was interesting. Nothing too out of the ordinary in terms of the placings, but as someone who's been following Galesburg, their performance last night has me nervous. This show definitely has a lot of potential, but I feel like they're failing to fully realize it. It's gonna take a lot of work to guarantee their spot in finals this year. Also, just a personal gripe, but I was not a fan of their drumlines visual at the end of the ballad.

As someone at Grey Ghost Classic, I loved all of the shows, and thought they were all fantastic, however we were dealing with an expedited schedule to end the program, so those last few bands were rushed through warmups and moved into performance very quickly, I don't know if the shortened warmups and expedited performances had any affect on the bands or not, but it may have(I was so busy that I couldn't fully pay attention to any performance).  There was a pretty decent storm system that appeared to be right on target for Chillicothe, and we wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to put on their show...

We did get them all in, and the stupid storm dissipated...

It was a fantastic day for our first show

Edited September 22 by IVCDad

[Magnichu]

4 hours ago, Marchingmaniac88 said:

Galesburg is missing the impact factor. This is a band that I remember feeling in my chest. This impact factor is what sets the mid-tier bands from the great ones. They have a lot of moving lines throughout and they demonstrate, in my opinion, remarkable musicianship and clarity. They run into timing issues in the closer (first time jitters). But where they are lacking are those “hit me in the face” moments and the bone chilling crescendos they really dynamically separate the big loud parts from the soft. A shows concept is only as good as your ability to portray it. I hope, rather I know, their staff will be laser focused on this the next week preparing for Morton (where they’re reasonable contenders for GC, I think).

 

On a positive; their solos, duets, and small ensemble moments are great. They demonstrate much improved musicianship throughout compared to last year. Their percussion is also markedly better. Overall, I would argue the program is better this year than last but remember, cleaning is an incremental and often slow process. Marian Catholic used to build their shows for BOA and would often be underwhelming until the end where they were jaw-dropping. My bets are still on Galesburg for finals at ISU.

I only saw Galesburg at Washington, but their clarinet/trombone duet in the ballad... first time in my life my jaw dropped. It was absolutely perfect (besides clarinet mic). Am I biased because those are my instruments? Yes. But I don't care.

[Suburbanbandfan]

NIU from what I remember 

1A- 1. Jacob’s 

2A- 1. Batavia 2. Carl Sandburg 3. Eureka

3A- 1. Romeoville 2. Oswego 3. Waukee Northwest

4A- 1. Hersey 2. Davenport Central 3. Yorkville

[Dan Balash]

Has anyone seen a scoring recap from NIU or 3A-4A Edwardsville?

[BandBand]

NIU:

 

https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/44c47713-cbd3-4c35-ae77-7af26cd31032.htm

[BandBand]

NIU 

1A

1. H.D. Jacobs (Visual) (GE Tie)

2. Coal City (GE Tie)

3. Lakes Community (Music)

4. Crete- Monee

5. Richards

6. Genoa Kingston

7. Marengo

 

2A

1. Batavia (Visual) (GE)

2. Sandburg (Music)

3. Eureka

4. Glenbrook South

5. Waukegan

6. Taft

[Dan Balash]

5 minutes ago, BandBand said:

NIU:

 

https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/44c47713-cbd3-4c35-ae77-7af26cd31032.htm

That is the Pontiac Indian showdown recap. 🙂

[Director42]

Don't know if 3A-4A were different but since 1A and 2A at Edwardsville were inside we didn't get a recap. Didn't even get scored actually, judges just ranked bands in their captions and those rankings were added up to give an overall placement, lowest number being best. They did provide rankings for both Repertoire and Performance, though the only judge with any variance between those columns was percussion. Really not an ideal situation but there was definite scrambling to make anything happen for small schools. I know large schools got to perform on the field, so hopefully they got scores and recaps. 

Edited September 22 by Director42

[Zdsmith]

Here's the 1-2a recap - it is done by ordinals 🙂

 

 

 

Dan will eventually fix it so I can post pictures hehe

[Dan Balash]

1 hour ago, Director42 said:

Don't know if 3A-4A were different but since 1A and 2A at Edwardsville were inside we didn't get a recap. Didn't even get scored actually, judges just ranked bands in their captions and those rankings were added up to give an overall placement, lowest number being best. They did provide rankings for both Repertoire and Performance, though the only judge with any variance between those columns was percussion. Really not an ideal situation but there was definite scrambling to make anything happen for small schools. I know large schools got to perform on the field, so hopefully they got scores and recaps. 

 

8 minutes ago, Zdsmith said:

Here's the 1-2a recap - it is done by ordinals 🙂

 

 

 

Dan will eventually fix it so I can post pictures hehe

This is how Texas does their state series of competitions.  Always wild to see a band score in the top 10 in multiple captions, have an outlier number and get knocked out.

 

https://smbc.uiltexas.org/

[Dan Balash]

Red & Black Fall Classic 4A:

1. 62.550 - John Hersey (Music, Visual, GE)
2. 57.700 - Davenport Central, IA
3. 57.150 - Yorkville
4. 51.100 - East Aurora
5. 50.000 - South Elgin

[IL Band Newcomer]

Class 3a NIU Red and Black Classic 

 

1.  Romeoville 60.500

2. Oswego 60.400

3. Waukee Northwest 60.200

4. Naperville Central 59.700

5. DeKalb 58.350

6. Joliet West 54.650

Edited September 22 by IL Band Newcomer

[Dan Balash]

I completely missed this show. 

Marching Maroons Band Festival: Robinson, IL

A:

1.  802.833 Salem (Music, Visual, Percussion, Color Guard, DM)
2. 711.000 Oblong
3. 663.833 Vandalia

AA:

1. 846.666 Richland County (Music, Visual, Percussion, Color Guard, DM)
2. 780.833 Casey-Westfield

AAA:

1. 889.166 Newton (Visual, Percussion, Color Guard, DM)
2. 804.666 Mt. Zion (Music (tie))
3. 780.000 Carterville (Music (tie))

Final 2025 Recap Sheet (9 judges) MMF.xlsx - OUTSIDE.pdf

[Dan Balash]

Edwardsville 3A-4A:

3A:

1. 64.250 - Parkway West, MO (Music, Visual, GE)
2. 61.850 - Triad
3. 61.650 - Parkway North, MO (Percussion, Color Guard)
4. 53.750 - Highland

4A:

1. 74.100 - O'Fallon Township (Music, Visual, GE, Percussion, Color Guard)
2. 62.250 - Marquette, MO
3. 58.000 - Belleville West

 

[Ether]

4 hours ago, IL Band Newcomer said:

Class 3a NIU Red and Black Classic 

 

1.  Romeoville 60.500

2. Oswego 60.400

3. Waukee Northwest 60.200

4. Naperville Central 59.700

5. DeKalb 58.350

6. Joliet West 54.650

Do you have the recap ? 

[Suburbanbandfan]

2 hours ago, Ether said:

Do you have the recap ? 

I have a photo but I don’t know how to add photos on here!! Grr

Edited September 23 by Suburbanbandfan

[Dan Balash]

2 hours ago, Ether said:

Do you have the recap ? 

Truly wild recap.