Area bands compete at Lake Martin Invitational

A group of color guard members rush Tallassee band director Robert Glasscock.

“Guess what I did, guess what I did,” one yells. “I had a no-drop!” she exclaims before he has a chance to answer.

“How do you think we did, Mr. G?” another girl asks.

“If you did your best, that is all we can ask for,” Glasscock replies. “I’m so happy Mr. G,” she says, nearly out of breath.

The Pride of Tallasse had just competed in the Lake Martin Invitational and by all accounts did extremely well.

“This is actually the second competition of the year,” Tallassee junior Danielle Bird said. “But this one is the biggest, we were all very nervous. We all did really well.”

A total of 26 high school bands came to Alexander City’s sportsplex last weekend for the Lake Martin Invitational band contest.

The event, hosted by Benjamin Russell High School’s band, had each band performing their halftime shows to judges from all over Alabama.

For many of the bands competing, this was their first competition since fall of 2019.

“The amount of things that we had to overcome is phenomenal,” Wetumpka band director Jason Warnix said. “To be at this point is just a feeling of joy. This is a strictly band event so it gives us band folks a chance to really share our talents and our abilities with everyone. Last year that was taken away. We are overcome with joy that we can do this again”

The sentiment was shared by Green Machine band director Travis Hickman.

“The kids are so excited to be back and they missed it, you can tell,” Hickman said. “They have been pushing and pushing to get back to competition.”

Green Machine drum major Erin Wilson is one of those students pushing to compete.

“I was drum major last year but I didn’t get to compete,” Wilson said. “I’m a very competitive person so it's very fun and exciting to get that competitive aspect.”

All genres of songs could be heard at the competition.

Holtville’s show ‘Boy Band Reunion’ featured boy band songs including The Right Stuff, I Want It That Way and Bye Bye Bye.

“That's just my era,” Hickman said. “That was something I put together a few years ago before putting it away and this was the right time to bring it back.”

Wetumpka’s Pride of the Tribe performed their show titled ‘Breaking the Silence’. Which was written to celebrate overcoming the hardships of the previous year. Everything was going well with ”Dance to the Music” but then the band plays ‘Don't Stop the Music’, as bands hoped they would be able to compete in 2020. “The Sound of Silence” when they were told they weren’t able to. ‘Rise Up’ and ‘Wake Me Up’ when they overcame to perform in 2021.

“This was the best show so far,” drum major Julian Vilardi said. “Which is great because our previous show was also the best so far.”

“Music-wise this was the best performance all year,” Hickman agreed. “I’m very pleased with it.”

Tallasse performed their dream-inspired show featuring the classics “Dream On” and “Sweet Dreams.” The outlier was “A Million Dreams,” a song from the 2017 musical “The Greatest Showman.” “‘A Million Wildest Dreams,’ the Greatest Showman was super iconic.” Bird said. “It's just a really good melody and Taylor Swift is a legend.”

The Pride of Tallassee and The Pride of the Tribe scored Superiors in all categories except Percussion where they scored Excellent, which earned both teams an overall score of Superior.