Panorama 2006

Those of you that saw my excitement last year will notice that this post isn’t nearly as animated. That’s because it’s 2:43 in the morning. Also there was no dramatic 20 point gap between 1st and 2nd place to keep me giddy. Yes, I’m a pansy. Moving on.

If you want / need the break down of what panorama is and how it works check out my post on Panorama 2005.

Results

  • 7th Fonclaire (robbed… their arrangement was hot) & Skiffle Bunch (also robbed) – 438
  • 6th BP Renegades – 446
  • 5th Desperadoes – 449
  • 4th Exodus – 452
  • 3rd Starlift (who??) – 457
  • 2nd Trinidad All Stars (also the people’s choice winners) – 469
  • 1st Phase II Pan Groove (yes!) – 470.5

Summary

I didn’t hear the entire large band competition. I missed Starlift, Exodus and the Renegades (sad face). I will say again that Fonclaire (Good Times) was freaking lovely. Skiffle Bunch (Colors Again) was hot too, but in a completely different way. It’s interesting that both southern bands tied for last place.

I’ve always been a fan of Phase II because Boogsie is genius but I wasn’t especially impressed with the arrangement. It was different, and at times uncomfortable with lots of repetition. Of course they played last so my brain was in zombie mode and I tend to need time to really listen to an understand some of his stuff. I understand from the announcers that the visuals were something to behold as well so they probably played a big part of the impact of the song.

The announcers also provided interesting commentary… A repeated theme was that there needs to a method other than competition for rewarding bands… which I agree with. There is so much complexity in a panorama arrangement /performance that it’s hard to find common things that can be fairly compared when 8 different bands are playing 8 different tunes by 8 different arrangers. Truly apples and oranges. Of course you can say that you can compare technical skill or balance of sound but at the skill level of these players the differences are minute enough to be negligible The commercials deserve a post all to themselves so I’m leaving that alone.

In Closing

I’m happy… Hopefully pictures and video clips will be up at Pan on the Net soon (which despite it’s fabulous content, is painful to look at and even more painful to navigate… ah well) You can also go there for some of the details I left out like what each band played and who arranged it. This post isn’t nearly as in-depth as last year but I felt like I was getting more noise than signal and since I missed three bands it just wasn’t the same. Also it’s 2:58 in the morning. That’s right… pansy.

Brought to you by Power 102 FM (radio out of Trinidad and Tobago) and the wonders of internet streaming technology.

I’m going to bed now.