Here are my critiques on the top four groups . take em or leave em. love em or hate em. Just my opinion.
10TH STREET:
What an amazing show. You guys killed it. I just think you need to clean up the choreo a little bit more without losing the energy. Yall had the best energy last night. I know it is the first comp for everyone too so I love that my only critique for you is a critique I know will be fixed in time.
GCS:
killer vocals. Wow. You guys always have top notch vocals and the choreo was so clean. I loved the use of the lighting this year. I always feel like the lights are jsut there for a little bit of sparkle. but to see images of flags and all that, it was awesome.
OMAHA:
Your ballad is a standing ovation ballad. I love it. You guys always get up on stage with so much confidence. I think that the girls need to really work on their facials and stepping it up just a tich more. But Overall. yall killed it
HASTINGS:
Your ballad was beautiful. simply stunning soloist (who also did amazing in the solo competition) what was his name? he is going places. anyways, I feel that yall are way better than alst year in vocals and choreography but the intensity was not there. The girl sound was very rish until ballad. The show was a bit confusing and the closer was a little too blah. There was alot of color and prettiness with the show girl head toppers but the use of them was not essential and it detracted, in my opinion. All around I say pump up the energy. Great Show. I will see you in Fame next so I cant wait to see the improvement.
What is Cedar Rapids Prairie "Ambassadors'" ballad called?? It was amazing!
And why didn't they have a spirit award? Grr... but anyway - my shpeel:
I was blown away with yesterday's performances. For a few of these groups (ATSC, Xavier, Johnston, Linn Mar, Ambassadors - you know, the finalists) it was the first time I have ever seen them live and I've never had so many times I got goosebumps. Astounding. I'll be at Onalaska this Saturday so feel free to find me and chat!
Johnston wasn't in finals, but thanks for the nice comment!! haha
What is Cedar Rapids Prairie "Ambassadors'" ballad called?? It was amazing!
And why didn't they have a spirit award? Grr... but anyway - my shpeel:
I was blown away with yesterday's performances. For a few of these groups (ATSC, Xavier, Johnston, Linn Mar, Ambassadors - you know, the finalists) it was the first time I have ever seen them live and I've never had so many times I got goosebumps. Astounding. I'll be at Onalaska this Saturday so feel free to find me and chat!
I can honestly say I have never been to a competition so early in the season that had all the groups... top to bottom... perform like it was their last competition in March.
Linn Mar- I just have to say this again... WOW. LOVE everything about your show ... songs, show selection, singing, band and especially DANCING. You got some GREAT stuff this year and you just owned the stage. The opener is just as amazing as last year (in my opinion). Hands down the best Linn Mar show I've ever seen, and best I've ever seen one of your shows performed. I knew as soon as your finals performance was over that you would win.
GCS- I heard it was a "different" show from past years and I have to say that I really enjoyed the show. Your ballad was stunning, and I just closed my eyes and listened to it both times tonight. I loved it. The overall show was fun and I liked where you took us with the show. I may have to agree with JWill that i didn't particularly care for the costumes but like always it works with the show. I personally had you winning Best Vocals on the night with 2nd place ... this competition was so close that I wouldn't have been mad to see you guys win it either.
Omaha Westside- This is the 3rd year in a row I have been lucky to see you guys! And I just really enjoyed the show. The song that stuck out to me was the ballad... in finals it was just so beautiful and like GCS I just laid back and listened to the song. Guys song was ROCKIN'! I loved the song selection and the choreography for it... Closer... HAHA lets just say I got fooled in the day around with your little trick in the middle of the song. It was a fun closer, and a good mix of songs!
Hastings- I really enjoy your show this year! I thought you sing much better then last year and Stephen Todd gave you some great choreography! Opening with the bells was a pretty cool thing, and I had never seen that before! Once again you had a wonderful ballad! (i think its the year of good ballads so far) and the guys number was really cute and I liked the costumes you closed with a lot. I like the overall show so much better then last year and I hope I get to see you later in the year to see how it grows.
Prairie- Well... lets just say getting Justin Sands is already working for you guys. But I have to say I was only super thrilled with the first half of the show thru the guys song. Just very good clean crisp choreo... you sang very well. I just loved it. The girls song/closer just didn't stick with me.. idk why it was still done well just wasn't my preference. You guys are going to do some great stuff with Sands! And the guys' song was the best one I've seen in years. I just LOVED it.
Xavier- After day round I didn't have you in finals but you guys proved me wrong in finals. I just felt it was overall better. The vocals were stronger, I could hear the guys better the choreography was crisper and a very strong show. You guys will clean it up and do very well this year!
And I met a whole lot of new people this weekend! It was wonderful!
i just wanna say i am very proud of my group GCS we were i think the smallest group there with 37. other groups had literally 15 to 20 more singers/dancers then we did. We had a killer night show and i am very thankful with the out come it was so close
What a great group of performances at Viterbo yesterday! This is the first competition of the year??? Sure looked like February to me!! Congratulations everyone!
The scoop on scoring last night:
The tie was for best vocals and was broken by going to vocal scores during the day. 10th Street Edition was in first in that category by .5 during the day
10th Street Edition was in first place overall in the finals by 7 points.
Ok for real though.... I LITERALLY scored GCS and Linn-Mar to a tie in day round on the random ballot I was using. You may check. The ballot was signed too. Stolba and BenSchmidt know and I even told it to ATeamLeader randomly during the day. Sorry just had to toot my horn a little bit I was screaming like crazy when I found out I got that right.
This was QUITE an excellent competition! Especially day round! In finals most groups were a little down from their day performance. I really don't feel like writing down all the thoughts in my head, but i'll just say this. It was CLEARLY between Linn-Mar and GCS. More thoughts later.
Lin Mar and GCS were tied in the day round with 835 points and Omaha was at 834, right behind us. After the night round we, GCS, were tied, again with Lin Mar EXACTLY. The judges went back to the day round and Lin Mar was .5 points ahead of GCS in vocals.
GCS got best combo and first runner up. There was not an award given for worst costumes.
It was a great competition and every group was very respectful to all groups during results. The close competition really proves that both Lin Mar and GCS were on their game last night. Congrats to Lin Mar though! I'm sure you were fantastic (I, myself, didn't have a chance to watch you)!
Shouting out a HUGE congratulations to Linn Mar's "10th Street Edition"! I knew this would be a very close comp, and without a doubt it was! I didn't get to attend, like i wanted too But i heard GCS was amazing! Maybe the best show they have had in years!!
Keep up the good work everyone, and remember that this is the VERY start of the season... who knows what can and will happen by March!
scoring breakdowns (and accurate ones at that...not just rumours) would be much appreciated. mainly for finals but also prelims.
to me it seemed like the judges just "let the chips fall where they may" to quote amanda bynes.
in the most random sense.
everyone was amazing...HOLY CRAP AMAZING. but the top 4 were basically flip-flopped.
such a fun, ridiculous competition...per usual.
After all of the Night Round performances, this is how I had it:
GC: Grand Central Station (BV, BB)
1RU: 10th Street Edition (BC)
2RU: Amazing Technicolor Show Choir
3RU: Riverside Company
4RU: Ambassadors
5RU: Xhilaration
I just want to give a huge congrats to ALL choirs that competed at Viterbo this year! It was both an incredibly close, and incredibly exciting competition, and I hope that it's a sign of more excellent, exciting, and suspenseful show choir to come!
I would personally like to congratulate GCS for an absolutely stunning performance. The sounds were you making were the best I've ever heard a show choir do live, and this also happened to be the first time I ever watched a GCS show live. Your show is beautiful, performed well, and creative. Keep up the great work! I can't wait to see you guys again! Good luck with the rest of your season!
Yes we were tied in the day round but we must have won by a few points during the night round. I haven't seen the score sheets for finals yet but that's what I think happened.
This is how it went down. Central and linn-mar tied in finals. And the tie breaker was the vocal score from the day round. Linn-mar won by .5 points. I know this cause I saw the results.
I heard from a student in one of the groups that Linn-Mar and LaCrosse Central were tied, so they went to the vocal scores, where Linn-Mar won by half a point.
Hmmmm I also got my information from members of one of the finals groups. Can anyone clear up on which bit of info is correct?
Linn-Mar beat LaCrosse Central by 7.
LaCrosse Central beat Omaha Westside by 3.
I heard from a student in one of the groups that Linn-Mar and LaCrosse Central were tied, so they went to the vocal scores, where Linn-Mar won by half a point.
Congratulations to every group who performed at Viterbo. That was one hell of a competition. I'm in Colorado and knew how intense this was. Every varsity group there could easily make finals and/or win at any other competition. This was a phenomenal start to the 2012 show choir season! This could be the best show choir season ever, based on competitive levels from each group. I will be excited to hear how this whole year goes for every group. Congratulations and Good Luck the rest of this year!
I was screaming like crazy when I found out I got that right.
But i heard GCS was amazing! Maybe the best show they have had in years!!
Here are my critiques on the top four groups . take em or leave em. love em or hate em. Just my opinion.
10TH STREET:
What an amazing show. You guys killed it. I just think you need to clean up the choreo a little bit more without losing the energy. Yall had the best energy last night. I know it is the first comp for everyone too so I love that my only critique for you is a critique I know will be fixed in time.
GCS:
killer vocals. Wow. You guys always have top notch vocals and the choreo was so clean. I loved the use of the lighting this year. I always feel like the lights are jsut there for a little bit of sparkle. but to see images of flags and all that, it was awesome.
OMAHA:
Your ballad is a standing ovation ballad. I love it. You guys always get up on stage with so much confidence. I think that the girls need to really work on their facials and stepping it up just a tich more. But Overall. yall killed it
HASTINGS:
Your ballad was beautiful. simply stunning soloist (who also did amazing in the solo competition) what was his name? he is going places. anyways, I feel that yall are way better than alst year in vocals and choreography but the intensity was not there. The girl sound was very rish until ballad. The show was a bit confusing and the closer was a little too blah. There was alot of color and prettiness with the show girl head toppers but the use of them was not essential and it detracted, in my opinion. All around I say pump up the energy. Great Show. I will see you in Fame next so I cant wait to see the improvement.