There are some folks who think that sitting in a football stadium press box for eight hours watching TWENTY-SIX high school bands perform in a row would be a fate worse than, say, broiling one's limbs in hot oil and having to listen to the new David Archuleta CD.

I'm not one of them.

I'm having a blast here at the Golden State Tournament of Bands, the annual marching-band competition held at Buchanan High School. It's a perfect day: not too warm, a nice cloud cover, no real threat of rain, and it looks like my Alaska-strength parka on loan from Sarah Palin won't be required when the sun dips below the horizon. (I have on occasion frozen my kiester off at Fresno band competitions in November. Let's just say that the ear muffs came in handy.) The crowds are sparse so far, so now's your chance to get that perfect seat on the 50-yard line. As for me, I'm comfy up in the press box -- what a view! -- and am settling in for a marathon of musical talent.

I'll be updating this blog periodically through the afternoon and evening. Feel free to keep me company.

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3:30 pm -- I want to say a big word for the small bands. They don't always get the attention and the glory. They perform in the early afternoon, when the crowds are sparse. Even though they're small, they have to perform on the same massive football field as their bigger cousins. One not-so-good musician can stick out a lot more in an ensemble with 20 players than one with 150.

And let's face it: Marching band is a lot about spectacle. That's easier to do when you're bigger.

But the small bands can still pack a powerful punch. We're in Class A competition right now, featuring the smallest bands. So far we've watched the Edison High School Tiger Marching Band & Colorguard from Fresno, Grace Davis High School from Modesto, Ceres High School from Modesto, the Selma High School Black Bear Brigade Marching Band and Color Guard (how's that for a lengthy name), the Waterford High School Marching Band (from near Modesto) and the Thomas Downey High School Marching Blue Knights from Modesto.

Up now is Fresno's own Hoover High School, which is small but spunky. With just 14 wind players, six percussion and nine color guard members, they're putting out a spirited rendition of Aaron Copland. I love their patriot uniforms and those sharp tri-corner hats.

The band that has stood out for me so far is Selma: a small band, but a big sound.

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4 p.m. -- We're in the Class AA category now (bands with 61-80 members including auxiliary). Now we're talking about numbers large enough to really start making some interesting shapes on the field. The Los Banos High School Band kicked things off with an impressive opening move: a rotating clockwise diamond. (There's probably a technical term for it.) Think about this for a moment, band neophytes. It's one thing to march from one yard-line to another in a straight line. (Actually, that's pretty hard in itself.) But to form a diamond shape and then to ROTATE that diamond -- requiring each band member in the formation to take different sized steps to keep the uniformity of the image -- takes not only a lot of practice but also an innate sense to "guide" off one's fellow band members. A band is like a giant, multicellular organism that has to function as a cooperative unit. It's hard enough to get three people to do something exactly alike. Try getting 100.

OK, I lied about the rain. We're in the middle of a shower. But the clouds still look high, and I'm thinking it'll blow over.

Here's the scary thing about the rain: The folks who run the band tournament don't have the final call on whether to keep it going in the event of rain. It's up to the groundskeepers. And everyone knows that the Clovis Unified School District is extremely meticulous about its football fields. So the decision whether to call the tournament is in higher hands. I was surprised to learn from tournament director Richard Delgado that the bands don't really have to worry about their uniforms in the rain. The thing that can get ruined is the plume on the shakos, or hats, that the players wear.

The Madera HIgh School Marching Band & Guard just left the field. What impressed me most about their show was the vibrant use of color: the way the color guard seemed to explode with light and dark pink flags, offset against the vivid blue band uniforms. Later, the guard flashed yellow striped flags that just seemed to pop against the field.

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4:45 pm: Let's get this clear: I'm not a band judge. I'm not down there on the field listening to whether the flute section is in tune or if the diagonals are true. All I do is take in a performance from a layman's perspective. I'm looking for overall impact, color, flair, drama and that certain indescribably something that sets off an average performance from an amazing one.

There are judges up here in the press box, of course, and also down on the field, and it's interesting to spy on them up here as they speak into their little recorders, marking down their scores, scrutinizing the field with practiced eyes.

What I do know is that the color guard is integral to the success of a good marching band. People who are paid to think about such things know how to stage visuals on the field that have maximum impact. In an age of superlative computer effects in our movies, we're used to seeing spectacle on demand -- but I can tell you that to see a line of flags fluttering in the breeze sweep across a field in perfect synchronicity can be as impressive as watching the biggest computer-generated dinosaur on the big screen.

The Hanford High School Marching Band -- which played an original piece by Gary P. Gilroy titled "Luxor" -- just left the field, and they were pretty sharp. They were followed by the Arroyo Grande Eagles Marching Band and Colorguard.

My favorite of the Class AA bands was the Woodlake High School Tiger Band & Guard, which just put on a rousing show. I loved their starting formation: Each band member with right foot forward in a sort of "Mercury on the run" pose, as if they were frozen in mid-stride. Then the explosive beginning. At one point, during a percussion-only interlude -- in college we called it performing a "special drill" -- the band members took out pocket-sized flags and waved them along with the color guard. The effect was a boisterous,giddy mob-style feel What you could sense from the field was a sense of energy, of dynamic enthusiasm, and it pumped up the crowd.

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5:40 p.m. -- It's stopped raining, AND I'm not freezing. Life is good.

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6 p.m. -- The Sanger High School Apache Marching Band kicked off the Class AAA competition (81-100 members) with some interesting music -- "Minimally Speaking" by Richard Saucedo. They were followed by the Ridgeview Wolf Pack Vanguard from Bakersfield, which did a program featuring the song "The Mask of Zorro." The opening of the Ridgeview show was intriguing: a long, straight line of musicians zig-zagged into a Z.

How do I explain what is so good about Beyer High School from Modesto, the next band in the lineup? It's almost as if this smooth, suave ensemble was operating under different laws of gravity than the preceding bands. The opening measures of "A Moment," written by Gary P. Gilroy, featured the band members practicing fluid dance movements that would be at home at a modern-dance studio. Twisting their necks, flailing their arms, snapping their legs -- it was if they were somehow lighter than the rest of us, just this close to dancing right up into the air. I have colleagues in the arts journalism business who think it's silly to think of marching band music in terms of serious choreography, but make no mistake: This motion had soul. At one point, as the band members wiggled the plumes on their hats as if they were a barnyard contingent from "Chicken Run," I'd even go as far as to call this performance inspired. The minimalist ending, which smoothed into a spine-tingling moment of a single line frozen on the field, topped off a really fine show.

I was also impressed with Clovis East High School, which just seemed to get stronger and stronger as the show progressed. (It started off a little on the sci-fi geeky side, with the color guard holding up cutouts of numbers as a recorded narrator intoned each one -- it reminded me of a bad experience with directory assistance.) There's something very powerful about concentrating your whole color guard section in just one place on the field at certain special times, and the Clovis East guard really came through. And the band's musical dynamics were very effectively used for dramatic contrast.

Rounding out the Class AAA competitors, Kingsburg High School gave a strong musical performance with "Celestial Journeys."

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6;45 p.m.: Rather than wait till the end of the evening to give all of the awards, the smaller bands get that business out of the way right now. It's always amusing to watch the proud line of band representatives standing on the field waiting to receive their awards. (Each band usually sends its drum major, color guard captains and perhaps a musician.) The line is such a motley assortment: different colors, hats, capes, sashes, plumes, gowns, etc. It's like a bunch of extras at a Hollywood commissary. When their name is called, the reps strut forward proudly, perform an elaborate salute and return to the line with held head high -- whether they came in first place or last.

And the awards:

SWEEPSTAKES AWARD for Classes A, AA and AAA: Beyer High School

CLASS A:

3rd place: Thomas Downey High School
2nd place: Selma High School
1st place: Grace Davis High School

Caption awards:
General effect: Grace Davis
Music: Thomas Downey
Visual: Grace Davis
Auxiliary: Selma
Percussion: Grace Davis

CLASS AA:

3rd place: Los Banos High School
2nd place: Hanford High School
1st place: Madera High School

Caption awards:
General effect: Hanford
Music: Hanford
Visual: Madera
Auxiliary: Madera
Percussion: Los Banos

CLASS AAA:
3rd place: Kingsburg High School
2nd place: Ridgeview High School
1st place: Clovis East High School

Caption awards:
General effect: Beyer
Music: Clovis East
Visual: Beyer
Auxiliary: Clovis East
Percussion: Clovis East

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7:15 p.m. -- El Diamante High School just finished, and I'm not sure if I witnessed a field show or an exorcism.

With an aesthetic that could be described as the Inquisition meets the movie ad campaign for "Twilight," this very good band performed a routine that included theatrical fog, large chains, monklike chanting and a mysterious figure in white rising from a large box that looked like a sarcophagus. All it needed was Tom Hanks and a cardinal and we would have had "The Da Vinci Code."

What I loved about this routine was its theatrical attitude: It felt gruesome, even primeval. There were points when the musicians on the field actually shrieked and moaned. Grim and foreboding, the music built to a point of excruciating tension, as if someone were on the rack and getting squeezed ever tighter. The marching was amazing, especially when the band actually ran across the field in perfect step.

I'm not sure about the theology of it all, and I'm curious whether audiences in the red-state enclave of Visalia were totally receptive to the tone of the show. But you know, it seemed somehow fitting to present a marching exorcism in Clovis.

It was kind of hard for the Tulare Union Redskin Band & Colorguard (what are we, still living in the 1920s?) to come after the eye-popping impact of El Diamante, but the band had a nice, punchy sound.

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8:15 p.m. -- OK, this is cool, folks. Mary Lou Aguirre, Mom blogger extraordinaire, is sitting in the crowd at the stadium waiting for her daughter, Natalie to perform with Clovis High School. I texted Mary Lou and asked her to take a photo of the Lemoore High School Band, which was just on the field, and send it to me. And here it is brought to you completely wireless:

And while this blog is strictly non-partisan when it comes to individual high schools, here's a pic of Natalie and her friend Jim all ready for her Clovis High School experience, courtesy of proud mama Mary Lou:

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8:45 p.m. -- Let's catch up with the action. The Tulare Western High School Band and Color Guard had a solid show. They were followed by one of my favorites so far for the evening: Bullard High School. Starting off with the band members in a woozy stance, swaying slightly, they unleashed a sharp, brassy sound. This is where the competition really begins to get tough. The theme of the show was metal -- as in the material substance, not the genre you'll find on iTunes -- and I think the Bullard folks handled the "story" behind their show a little more seamlessly than fire-breathing El Diamante. There was something about this show that I liked in terms of flow and rhythm. And the band's gold flags shimmering in the night sky were just gorgeous. I realize that Bullard isn't the biggest, but there's a smoothness to its performance that was impressive.

The Lemoore High School Band had some nice moves, including a staggered diagonal box turn on the field that really had a lot of finesse.

And then it was Clovis High School. With absolutely no sucking up to Mary Lou, who will probably never invite me for a guest stint on her mommy blog anyway, I once again had a new favorite on the field. I found it to be a lyrical, poetic show -- exquisite, really, in the way the choreography had an organic elegance that complemented the material without overwhelming it. From the drama of the opening, with the whole band clumped between the 30 and 40 yard line in a hunkered down position, to the elegance of the formations, I thought the show was beautifully paced and calibrated for maximum emotional impact. (The staggered rifle catches were amazing.) As the bands get bigger in size, it's easy to blow the audience back in their bleacher seats, but the much harder thing to do is to find the nuance. Clovis did it.

Monache High School and Buchanan High School are more in the vein of flood-the-field-with-sound bands, and they both are pretty good at it. While Monache's marching style, done to a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" routine, seemed a little more old-fashioned than the other bands in its class, it did have a peppy and endearing style. Buchanan, which had an Egyptian-themed show, wowed the crowd with a pyramid-sized wall of sound. But it didn't seem as much like theater as the Clovis show did. (And I couldn't figure out what the band boosters were doing on the field pushing the props around -- that might be allowed under the rules, but it detracted from the visual effect.) Don't get me wrong: Buchanan is strong. But I think it could use a little gracefulness to match the brawn.

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9:03 pm. -- It's pouring rain right now. The last band, Clovis West, is just taking the field.

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9:16 p.m. -- I can't remember the first time I saw the Clovis West High School Band perform -- certainly more than a dozen years ago. I was impressed then, and I'm impressed now. There's a wallop to their sound that's more than just freight-train loudness: It weighs down upon you like a small but proficient brass section in a professional orchestra. And Clovis West's marching doesn't seem gimmicky, just solid and with great finesse. It's unfortunate that the heavens just opened and are letting down buckets of rain on these poor Clovis kids, but I guess that's what sometimes happens to the folks who come on in the last act. You wouldn't know that the field is more slippery than a Minnesota senate vote-count, however. I don't see a trace of apprehension or any dilution of that celebrated Clovis West confidence. Like I said, I'm a layman, but I think this big-school contest is between Clovis West and El Diamante. I'll find out in a few minutes.

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And the awards:

SWEEPSTAKES AWARD for Class AAAA and Class AAAAA: Clovis West High School

Class AAAA

3rd place: Bullard High School
2nd place: Clovis High School
1st place: El Diamante High School

Caption awards:

Music: El Diamante
Visual: El Diamante
General effect: El Diamante
Percussion: El Diamante
Auxiliary: Bullard

Class AAAAA

2nd place: Monache High School
1st place: Buchanan High School

Caption awards:

Music: Clovis West
Visual: Clovis West
General effect: Clovis West
Percussion: Clovis West
Auxiliary: Buchanan

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