With the banging of the drums, the roaring of the crowd, the tossing of the flags, the exhilaration of performing in front of a live audience, the band students are back to their normal competition season with a brand new show. 

The band started rehearsing almost every day since the end of July to learn their show for the 2021 season. 

Every year the marching band show is something completely different and new. This year’s show is titled “The Efflorescence”. 

“I’m so thankful for our highly experienced staff that has helped bring our marching show to life,” band president Tailene Morales said. “As someone with a dance background, I am especially excited to install new choreography into our show. Choreography is really the icing on the cake for any marching show, and it makes our show feel complete.” 

The Efflorescence starts out dark and ends colorfully with a happy vibe. The show tells a story of growth and life moving away from darkness and death. The directors are Greg Hayes, Adam Basset and Matt Edwards. 

“The first half of the show sounds very angry and hopeless but starts to turn into a signal of better things to come later,” assistant director Mr. Adam Basset said. 

The show is split into four movements. The first two are called “Starvation” and “Cycle Song.”

“The transition between the first and second half will be a pop of color and new life,” Basset said. 

The third movement is titled “Bioluminescence” and the fourth is titled “Marigolds.”

“My favorite part of the music that is on the field right now is the brass feature. Although I am a woodwind player, I love the power that the brass brings to the field. However, I also love the music of our closer, which comes from the piece Marigolds by Kishi Bashi. In Efflorescence style, Marigolds has a lot of color to the sound with lots of vibrance and flourishes in the music, which I am excited to present to our audience this season,” Morales said. 

The formations on the field that the students create during almost every count of the show range from edgy and stark to elegant and curvy, depending on the mood of the music. They are constantly in motion either marching together or performing choreography. 

“The uniform shirt will be a distressed look, like cracked concrete, focusing on the beginning of the show,” Basset said. “There may or may not be a little surprise pop of color as the show develops,” 

All of the themes of the show are tied into the uniforms that each musician performs in. 

“After many changes to our competition uniform, we finally decided on a performance top that is quite versatile,” Morales said. “A fun detail that I really like is the printed leather sling across the chest; the sling gives the uniform a unique survival-type look that makes the band members look strong and helps us get into character as well,” 

The color guard has different uniforms from the band that look like the roots of the leading flower prop with yellow and orange colors. 

“I think the uniform has a pretty idea and will fit the show,” color guard member Eliana Wade said. “It’s cool that we are a different element from the band for the first half of the show,” 

Most marching band shows include props that the students move during the show to add to the visuals on the field. These add more color to the show, along with the eye-catching uniforms. 

“The props will start off dark with the cracked concrete look,” Mr. Basset said. “As we continue through the show, they will change into our marigold flower and color theme. We have 12 smaller petal props that will bloom open and a big flower prop that opens up twice to reveal lots of color at the end of the show,” 

The first competition is Sept. 25 in Houston.

“This season, I’m most excited that we are back to a normal competitive marching season which means competing at a high level with an intricate, rigorous and entertaining show,” Morales said.