what is the sound of truth?
July 12, 2009 Leave a comment
Wednesday morning I had the bright idea to put in my contacts outside at the sinks where there were mirrors, even though I had successfully applied them without a mirror the previous day. The pleasant breeze, however, quickly chastised me for this idea, and I resigned to wearing my glasses the rest of the week. At least Emily claimed I looked good in them.
July 8, 2009 1 Comment
The first night’s sleep wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t that great, either. I doubt the ground underneath our tent was entirely flat. Nevertheless, the bright and beautiful sunlight dragged me out of bed around 8:00 AM. Soon Tim and John were cooking bacon and eggs, a delightful breakfast to start off the day.
July 6, 2009 Leave a comment
The day was finally upon us. The Manly Seven gathered with the Curry women to caravan up to Cornerstone Farm. After packing, pictures, and prayer, we headed off. John and I rocked out to Becoming the Archetype, Brave Saint Saturn, mewithoutYou, and more as we shimmied up Highway 61 in what felt like no time at all. We made a brief stop in Hannibal and pressed onward through The Land of Many Cornfields (a.k.a. northwestern Illinois).
July 10, 2008 Leave a comment
The Night Life
Thursday’s adventures didn’t really end after the P12 tent, but my last note was long enough, and it was technically early Friday morning anyway. One of the random youth groups projected a movie onto the side of their trailer every day at 1:30 am. Tonight they were watching The Goonies, which I’ve actually never seen.
On my way back to the camping area, after a brief conversation with some guy who was just hanging out with the guitarist from Capital Lights, some kid stopped me, doing his best to sound official, claiming to be from the United States Government Library of Congress something something and asking me if I knew what happened on this day 232 years ago. I played along, and we decided that after some people signed a document, they went – not to lunch – but to war – but they probably had lunch first, to get ready.
I joined the youth group for about half an hour of the movie, but it was getting cold and I was tired. On my way back to the campsite, some guys in a car rolled down the window, blaring some electronic music with bells. “Do you like this part of the song?” they asked. “Sure,” I said. “You do? Cool.”
I almost regretted that I was just discovering Cornerstone’s unpredictable nightlife.
Or maybe like the breaking of a dawn…
I found our tent after 2:30 and got a few hours of sleep. Morning was spent cleaning up the campsite and preparing for our departure Friday evening. We heard a band sound-checking on Main Stage at the early hour of 11:00, and Mike suggested we go down and see if it was David Crowder Band. “It isn’t,” I scoffed, but fortunately his enthusiasm was unabated. He went down and waved for us to follow – with the Tiki, of course.
It was incredible – the field would be filled with thousands of fans when the same people took the stage later that night, but for a few moments we were the only five there. A few more fans heard the music and joined us. Once the band knew all the inputs were on and up – including the Guitar Hero guitar rigged to play 5 recorded chords – David Crowder hopped down and chatted with us for a few moments, humoring fans for a few pictures and emanating joy from his funny personality.
I asked him if there would be a sequel to the squirrel music video, and he said that yes, yes there would be, for the song “Neverending,” and that there would be “much violence done to the squirrels.”
After David Crowder returned to the rest of the band, I hurried to the other side of the campgrounds, past the campsites and stages, to get to the barn where they show films. At noon they were showing Persepolis, a simple mostly black-and-white cartoon that tells the story of a young woman growing up in Iran during its revolutions of the late twentieth century. One of my co-workers had watched a preview on one of the computers in the back, and what I had seen of it looked interesting.
The Heat of the Day
I came in twenty minutes late and was surprised at how full the room was – I grabbed a water jug from the other side of the barn (that serves a dance hall late at night – something else I still have to check out at Cornerstone) and made myself a seat in the back. It was an interesting film told in an interesting format (not for children, though), and I was glad I was able to see it (it was nice to get out of the hot sun for a couple hours, too).
Two more noteworthy things happened before my second Cornerstone came to an end. The first was Deas Vail’s second show of the week. Their songs from their debut disc sounded as great as ever, and they played a couple different new songs that have me even more excited about their upcoming releases (I love it when Kelsey plays a two-part drum beat while everyone else is in 3/4!) After the show we got a Tiki picture with the full band.
It was almost time to leave, but we had time for one band on Main Stage, and one of the most anticipated parts of Cornerstone. No, unfortunately, not David Crowder Band – they would close out the night’s music and worship just before the fireworks.
An Epic Climax
But the evening of celebration of Cornerstone’s 25th Anniversary was set to begin with Flatfoot 56′s first time ever appearing on Main Stage – for a glorious seven minutes! All the dedicated and devoted fans that had sweat themselves dry in the circle pits of the smaller tents now had their chance to dance in the big open field, and we were prepared to give Flatfoot the best show of their life.
As the kick-off time approached, an immense crowd gathered near the stage, and the hundreds of people sitting in their lawn chairs on the hill had no idea what was about to take place in front of them. At least seven fans carried flags with pirate symbols and other decorations, and the Santa lawn gnome was present as well. Its bearer – the leader of the Texas youth group that Jacob fraternized with – encouraged everyone to split into two parts before Flatfoot even appeared, and we would engage in a Braveheart charge as soon as the music started. (Everything from this point on can be seen in the links provided below) The flag-bearers ran around the open space in front of the stage, keeping it cleared as the announcer introduced the band. Some folks handed out small water balloons on one side.
“Are you ready for this?” called out one of the Flatfoot brothers as the crowd roared. “Let’s have some fun together! Happy birthday America, and happy birthday Cornerstone, happy 25th. Let’s rock it out!”
Josh started playing the bagpipes, and the two sides rushed each other – along with a volley of water balloons – clogging in the middle before forming the epic circle pit. I dropped Tiki in the madness and almost lost him – he sustained several critical cracks but remained intact. We ran and jumped and shook our fists in the air while the uninitiated whipped out their cameras in awe. After “Brotherhood,” they played their signature “Amazing Grace,” and we formed lines with our arms across each other’s shoulders for the bagpipey intro before breaking out into another awesome circle pit. By the end of it, my lungs rushed with the hollow ache of a high school track sprint, and my heart glowed with the fellowship.
The entire experience was something I cannot possibly recreate with these mere words, and I can only direct you to the poor quality videos that have surfaced on YouTube in a feeble attempt to place some of the imagery and sounds in your disconnected mind. This clip from someone on the hill gives you a good shot of the charge and overhead view of the circle pit, while these closer shots of “Brotherhood” and “Amazing Grace” portray a closer view of the action and intensity (I run past the camera at 4:02 of the latter clip, just before it pans back to the band; you can see Mike walk in from the left at 4:13; you may be able to find us elsewhere)
Wow. What a way to end it.
And what a week it was.
I hope you can join us next year.
July 9, 2008 Leave a comment
Follow Sound
A hot sun rose again on Thursday morning, and the only interesting thing that happened before noon was Jacob randomly getting a free, worn pair of shoes from folks in a band called Blessed Is He who were trying to advertise by any means possible – including painting an unreadable “BIH” on used footwear.
In the afternoon we saw an anticipated show by one of my favorite bands that deserves to be bigger than they are – Deas Vail still makes pretty music and I can’t wait for the new stuff in August (EP) and January (full-length).
There wasn’t anyone I had to see until the evening, and with the heat and excitement of the past three days wearing down on me, I relaxed at the campsite and listened to my mewithoutYou purchase. 2004′s Catch For Us The Foxes is just as incredible as their most recent Brother, Sister. Aaron Weiss is a lyricist I love listening to, especially under a first experience of following along with the words in the jacket, as the imagery he creates just makes me smile: Jonah, where’s that boat going / Your ship set with eager sails? / There’s a swirling storm soon blowing / And no use, fishermen, in rowing from a consecrated whale! It’s an enjoyable moment I haven’t had since… OK, since Thrice’s second-half EP set came out in April.
Food Like That
Then it was time for our generous North Carolina youth group friends’ famous annual Thursday night mega Spaghetti Dinner, where hundreds of (poor?) (freeloading?) (grateful?) campers line up to take part in seventy pounds of spaghetti. It took long enough that the Main Stage acts for the night went under way, and I bobbed my plate and fork to the beat of Jonezetta. Leeland followed, and we took a few pics before walking across the campsite to the P12 tent to check our volunteer friends’ promised dessert.
We found an empty basket by the sound system that said “Free Dessert.” We thought we had come too late. As if on cue, Bethany showed up with some brownies and rice krispies, placing them in the basket – we were actually right on time! She said they didn’t have as much as they usually did, and I sort of felt bad about mobbing their supply, but they were really good.
We got back to our campsite in time for Hawk Nelson to take the stage. Oh, Hawk Nelson. I admit I used to sort of like this poppy punky band. Smile, It’s The End of the World was 2006′s fun summer album. But I just can’t get into them anymore. Maybe it’s because when I went to see them with Falling Up the lead guy was dressed like a Backstreet Boys reject wooing giddy 12-year-olds in the front row. Or maybe it’s because they’ve turned into the Jonas Brothers for the Christian market. I was also kinda bothered by their cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which didn’t exactly (in my eyes) mesh with the video screen promotion of Hawk Nelson’s inclusion in an all-girl conference meant to improve their self-respect and confidence. Oh, Josh, picky, picky.
As Mike, Jacob, and I headed down to the Main Stage to try to press in closer for The Almost during the post-Hawk exodus, I did have fun singing along to “One Thing I Have Left” and pretending I was getting into the show.
Maybe we, why don’t we just watch this show for half an hour…
The most entertaining part of The Almost happened before Aaron Gillespie took the stage. Since they flew in from Warped Tour, they didn’t have time to sound check earlier in the day, so their nerd-ish roadie strummed some guitars and did vocal checks with lullabies like “My mom’s the best mom / Better than your mom” (or something like that), and the crowd loved it so much they spontaneously chanted “One more song” – the only time I’ve ever heard an encore for a sound check.
The Almost’s set was OK, and I enjoyed the songs I knew, but I still can’t convince myself that I like it enough to get the album. I totally respect and admire Aaron for his incredible music abilities – masterful drumming and vocals for a demanding band like Underoath and still having enough time to record a side project and even keep touring as Underoath prepares for their new September release. His non-UO stuff just doesn’t grab me as much.
Anberlin was up next, and before Mike and I pressed in even closer Jacob asked for my camera to try to get a picture of Aaron and Tiki. We were able to get only a few feet from the stage, but I feared I would never get my camera back in time to take pictures of Anberlin.
There was a longer pause between sets as Jamie from To Write Love On Her Arms made an appearance. It was his pre-Anberlin talk at Main Stage last year that gave me a fuller introduction and admiration for this wonderful organization. I and many of those around me can easily downplay or remain ignorant of the massive destructive effects of depression, suicide, and self-injury. It breaks my heart to know that there are many thousands of young women who have trouble understanding love because their parents and peers only gave them hate and rejection. I have many thoughts about TWLOHA which could suffice for a note of its own, but here I’ll just say I’m glad somebody’s making a difference.
Just before Anberlin took the stage, the fan behind me called out, “Josh – your camera!” Jacob had pressed in two rows behind me, returning the camera and rushing off with an excited “Check out the first picture!”
Because of all the talking Anberlin got a late start, and they were dangerously threatening to cut into my much anticipated The Glorious Unseen’s set over at the Anchor Stage tent. It was an odd set – out of the nine songs we stayed for, only three came from Cities, their latest full-length. In fact I left almost wishing I had skipped Main Stage that night for DeGarmo & Key’s reunion set (I grew up on my dad’s old cassette of The Pledge.)
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A Long (Optional) Dissertation on My History With Anberlin
I guess here is where I have to explain my complicated history with Anberlin. I’ve known of them ever since I got their first single “Change the World” off a good ol’ sampler CD (another staple that the Internet killed) and actually saw them open for Relient K on one of their first tours. Then came their second album, and its still-popular hit “Paperthin Hymn” felt to me so much like their first hit (try singing one chorus over the other) that I wrote them off as an uncreative and uninteresting. Even so, I streamed Cities on MySpace early last year – but still wasn’t hooked.
Then at last Cornerstone, Relient K’s bus infamously caught fire, preventing them from coming and spontaneously adjusting the night’s schedule, giving Anberlin the closing slot of the night (it also gave the energetic Jonezetta three shows in one day). This allowed them to do an encore, where they played “Fin,” the epic eight-minute closing track from Cities that wasn’t streamed on MySpace.
That was the beginning of my journey as a fan.
Cities grew on me to become an enjoyable album, and now that I truly know “Fin” I wish I could go back to that unplanned encore and hear how Stephen sang the vocals without the overlapping lyric lines and without the choir behind him. Anyway, I’ve come a long way from shrugging past Cities to eagerly anticipating the release of New Surrender on September 30.
But wait… the new song they played at Main Stage this Cornerstone reminded me of past melodies, and the lyrics seemed more a return to the relationship angst of Never Take Friendship Personal than the challenging thoughts hinted at by Stephen’s poetic blogging about the new record. Guess we’ll have to wait and see… I’ll be buying the album on release day either way.
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A Chance To Say Goodbye
The Glorious Unseen got started a little late, but it was an incredible worship experience, especially since I already knew all their songs and was able to flow right with them. I know the well-meaning folks dislike the emotional junction of “worship experience,” but, with last night’s toga party still in my mind, I was struck by the notion that the emotional thrill of engaging in worship with other believers is not very different from the camaraderie of sweating in a circle pit, except that here the focus is even more directly on God and surrendering to his love and grace – something more real, not less.
Soon it was time to visit our volunteer friends, although Robbie Seay Band wasn’t quite done and they weren’t ready to close down yet. Mike and John went off to get some coffee and never came back; I helped Bethany and friends take care of the infernal flaps and said goodbye.
Though the festival had two full days remaining, my brothers and I had to leave the following evening to begin a trek to Oklahoma for a family reunion. Fortunately – as if the rest of the week hadn’t been enough already – the next few hours would contain enough fun for two days, if not the months to come.
July 8, 2008 Leave a comment
I know these notes are ridiculously long, but I primarily do it for my own recording. And if people actually want to read it all, hey, I won’t stop you 
The Fun Continues
By Wednesday morning it was time for a shower in the shower halls that everyone agrees smell like eggs. Don’t ask me why. Then Stephen and I caught some early worship at the Anchor Stage with Sean Michel. There was a funny little kid rocking out to his ukulele.
John and I made our final Wal-mart run, which included some more excellent eggs and bacon and some extra bedsheets for the upcoming Flatfoot 56 toga party. As we got back to camp, time was running out before Wavorly’s show at one, and I hurried to get to the tent on time.
But it was all for no avail. Before Wavorly started, a guy from The Wedding (who was scheduled to play after Wavorly) was like, “Hey, so since we’re playing like 3 times this year we decided to have some fun with this set and do a little Wavorly vs. Wedding battle where they play a few songs, we play a few songs, we cover each other’s songs, etc, etc, etc…”
I interpreted this as, “Since we’re playing more times than Wavorly, we’re gonna screw over their set because we think we’re awesome.” This didn’t help my already-strained image of them as wanna-be “we’re-so-hardcore” kind of rockers. See, we wanted to see Children 18:3 again during the time The Wedding was supposed to play, not stick around for two hours to see Wavorly play some disconnected, scattered songs. John and I watched Wavorly play two songs and left. Mike, Jacob, and Stephen came along later and stayed for five songs – four by The Wedding and one by Wavorly which was only a Wedding cover. (I think it was at this point that John cracked that it’d be funny to go to a show by The Wedding and hold up a sign that said “Up next.. The Divorce”)
But you don’t care about my complicated relationships with bands, right? At any rate, the next hour more than made up for it.
We saw Children 18:3 again, where they put on another amazing show. My favorite part, though, was when David told everybody to turn around and stretch their hands to the front gate, and say to those protestors, “We bless you in Jesus’ name.” He explained that they didn’t agree with what they were saying, but that they’re probably still our brothers and sisters, and he wanted to show them forgiveness and love instead of condemnation and hatred. I wish I could see the look on the leaders’ faces if they learned that this surely-heathen goth-dressing punk rocker was, in fact, blessing them.
On our way back to camp, I saw someone wearing a familiar baby blue T-shirt with the catch phrase, “I could talk about this stuff for hours,” and I met an Apple Store employee all the way from Maryland. As we neared the campsite, we heard the familiar strings intro of Skillet’s “Comatose” coming from Main Stage.
One advantage of camping close to Main Stage is you can hear in the afternoon when the bigger bands are sound-checking for their night shows. The field will be filled with thousands of adoring fans in a few hours, but almost no one knows they’re down there for those few moments, giving you an unparalleled chance, with a little luck and timing, to say hello.
Anyway, for years John has insisted that he knew the guitarist from Skillet, as Ben Kasica’s family has a history with New Covenant. So John and Mike headed down to Main Stage, and even though Skillet was done sound-checking before they got there, Ben – and new drummer Jen – took a few minutes to talk to the few fans who were waiting. Ben recognized John and also promised a Tiki picture later.
We’d promised our neighbors that we would check out their band More In Sorrow on one of the generator stages that afternoon, but first we had to get our togas ready. Flatfoot 56, in typical awesome random fashion, had been advertising that everyone should bring (modest) togas to their Wednesday midnight show, so we broke out the bedsheets and safety pins and prepared our costumes. As we headed out to visit our neighbors, our togas drew much attention, for while news of the toga party had infiltrated most of the camp, few people had put theirs on this early. A golf cart rushed past us as Bethany – I think – called out, “Hey, Tent Boy!”
Main Stage
We went back to camp to eat and prepare for the evening, as Wednesday was the kick-off night for Main Stage festivities. We helped our generous North Carolina youth group neighbors take care of some “excess” chili, then headed down to catch some Family Force 5.
There are a few disadvantages to Main Stage with all of its majestic size and sound, extravagant video screen, and luxurious lights and pyrotechnics. There is a loss of the intimate atmosphere of the shows in smaller tents, as it’s much harder to get as close to the bands. And the impressive video screen shows an unending and repetitive cascade of advertisements and promotions between the bands.
Look, I’m glad Compassion International helps sponsor Cornerstone, and I support their ministry and integrity. And it’s true that we’re so spoiled that we could afford to help out more starving children across the world. It’s just a shame that they have to shove it down your throat so much at Cornerstone that you feel like they won’t be happy until everyone stops going to Cornerstone and sponsors children with the money. (As Mike started singing, “Everyone needs Compassion…”)
I was also slightly bothered by Relevant magazine’s use of the intro to “The Adventure” by Angels & Airwaves as the background music to their promo video. There’s nothing wrong with A&A, once you get past Tom Delonge’s, well, Tom-ness, and the intro (which does sound pretty cool) worked for the clip, but come on, this is a Christian magazine advertising at a Christian music festival, and there’s 500 songs that would have worked just as well and would have given somebody some appreciated exposure, but instead they went with an overhyped mainstream band. How much did they have to pay to use that clip?
Family Force 5 had a typical fun show, complete with Hulk gloves and the dancing bunny.
Skillet was also enjoyable, especially with the presence of a talented violinist who looked like he was plucked straight from an orchestra.
However, when Jacob told me about the Showbread show that occurred at the same time, I regretted not seeing them instead, especially since this was my third time seeing Skillet, who, while entertaining, was not much different from previous shows.
Showbread, on the other hand, did a very different show from their short set on Tuesday. They recently put out two albums at the same time that each tell a dark, redemptive story with the accompanying booklet, and the music serves as more of a soundtrack to the story, with minute and second markers in the text to help guide the reader. On Wednesday night, they played straight through one of the stories, complete with video clips on TV screens and dedicated fans singing and screaming along to the underlying lyrics that weren’t even included in the booklets. I’m sure it was an incredible experience, one that will probably never be duplicated at Cornerstone.
Flyleaf followed Skillet to close out the night on Main Stage. I saw them last year as well, and while I’m very glad for the huge mainstream exposure “All Around Me” has gotten them, my appreciation for their marketable rock sound has only continued to wane. Besides, it was starting to sprinkle, and it was getting cold at night wearing my toga.
Toga Party
So I found Stephen and headed over to the Underground Stage (which is an above-ground tent) an hour early for Flatfoot’s toga party. There was still a whole other band to play, but we found one of the Flatfoot guys and got a Tiki picture with Stephen. He found us a minute later with a surprising question: “Can our guitarist bring the Tiki cup on stage during the show? He was looking for a chalice to use…”
We were honored and delighted.
The tent continued to fill as The Last Hope played, and every four or five fans had donned a toga for the momentous occasion. While waiting for Flatfoot, we met Richard, a long-time fan who was at his first Cornerstone and first Flatfoot show. With the incredible experience of one Cornerstone and three Flatfoot shows behind us, we knew he was in for a treat.
Midnight struck, and the band came on the stage with several other togaed folks. Tiki saw it all from his spot on the guitar amp.
They staged an official announcement…
…sprayed some Pepsi, and kicked off the show. Despite the fullness of the tent, the fan density adjusted enough to clear a large circle pit and allow fans to run laps for pretty much the entire length of the show (with the exceptions, of course, of the Gears and the Braveheart charge). I cut in and out with competing levels of exhaustion and a desire to join the camaraderie, and it was a blast. If you’ve never been a part of it, it’s very difficult to describe the pleasure of the friendly unity that comes from running around with and running into people while listening to Celtic punk with bagpipes and mandolins. Everyone looks out for each other, and it’s very rare that someone gets hurt – although with the pressing of the crowd combined with toga malfunctions on big boys I know I felt sweat on my back that wasn’t mine.
In addition to the fun music and incredible fellowship, Flatfoot 56 shows are enhanced by the constant encouragement thrown out by the band members. They don’t stop with the obligatory “We do this for Jesus YAY!!” (which is all well and good and has its place). They challenge their fans to engage in discipleship, to love the unloved, and to never try to go it alone. All of these factors make Flatfoot 56 a perennial Cornerstone highlight.
They closed with “Amazing Grace,” followed by an encore, and then I took another trip to the P12 tent to see if my volunteer friends needed help closing down for the night. I’m sure I reeked something horrible, but Bethany and Mike, who had been able to join the party for a little while, graciously refrained from commenting. It only took a couple minutes to close the tent flaps, and I was able to hitch a golf cart ride back to our campsite.
Three days down, two to go.
July 7, 2008 Leave a comment
Chapter One
Lately, for whatever reason, no matter when I go to bed, I’ve been waking up at something like 7 or 8. This held true on Tuesday, where I was greeted by a morning sun and a sky-blue sky. I overlooked the beautiful, peaceful lake while reading some Psalms. John got up, got out his little Propane stove, and cooked the bacon and eggs we had purchased at Wal-mart on Monday night. As a plug for any ladies interested and eligible, John is a good cook.
Most of the music didn’t get going until after noon, but we decided to check out some of the smaller tents and experience the morning scene. We caught the very end of what looked like a cool worship session at the Anchor Stage before heading over to the Impromptu Stage to see who our friend Jay had allowed to play.
Scottish Rat Shop
This turned out to be one of the most entertaining shows of the week – a fun punk band from Scotland called Rodent Emporium (or as the lead guy explained, “In American, that’s ‘Rat Shop.’ “) They churned out good old school punk style rhythms with hilarious punk style songs with lyrics about recovering from break-ups (I’ll get over you in my own way (x3) / I’ll build a model airplane) or embracing manliness (I’m a man, I’m a man, I’m a man, I’m a man, not a woman!). We left this amazing show with some CDs and T-shirts.
Tooth & Nail Day
We headed over to the bigger yellow tents to see some of the Tooth & Nail bands. I stopped by the T&N merch booth and picked up some long-awaited discs by Underoath, mewithoutYou, and Children 18:3.
Capital Lights put on a good show, with a catchy pop punk/alternative sound something like Relient K with a dash of old Panic! I’ll probably pick up their debut that releases on Tuesday the 8th. Later in the afternoon we saw Children 18:3, who still has my favorite album of the year for 2008. These three home-schooled siblings from Minnesota have a name that sounds like some youth group worship band; they dress like goth punks (except for drummer Seth, who looks like an Abercrombie model);
but they sound like the freshest, tightest, three-piece alternative punk band in years, and the brother-sister vocal trade-offs of guitarist David and bassist Lee Marie are simply delightful.
They rocked the tent with their catchy songs and crazy talented musicianship (we also saw guys from Flatfoot 56 and Capital Lights in the crowd). John and Mike both became instant fans, as will you if you ever listen to or see them.
The band Ruth played a quick set, and I had a chance to tell Dustin at their merch booth that while I love all the Tooth & Nail bands, his is the record I put on when I need to get back in that attitude of surrender and renew my focus.
We went back and cooked some of the hot dogs we practically stole from Wal-mart (packages of 8 for 68 cents! Made with Chicken, Pork, and Beef….). By now the big merchandise tent was open, and we walked through to check out the different T-shirts, CDs, charities, accessories, and other odds and ends. I was browsing through some cheap old CDs when I heard a “Nice shirt.” I looked up to see Justin and Kelsey from Deas Vail commenting on my shirt that bore their band’s name. They recognized me – even with glasses (who wants to mess with contacts and solution while camping?) and unshaved stubble – from May when they played at Sam’s church and spent the night at our house. They were putting up posters for their shows later that week.
This was followed by shows from Jonezetta and Showbread. Showbread’s dedicated fans always make their shows a great experience. I was disappointed that The Glorious Unseen’s late-night slot for Tooth & Nail Day had apparently disappeared, as I was looking forward to some incredible worship. Fortunately, they played later in the week.
It was close to midnight, and we went back to camp and broke out the acoustic guitars and light percussion, browsing through some worship songs we remembered. After we went to bed we heard that worship music in the distance again, and Mike and I decided to figure out where it was coming from this time. We walked through hundreds of yards of campsites and the music wasn’t getting any louder. Indeed, it was starting to be drowned out by the night life of the camp sites closer to the music tents and stages (a stark contrast to our quieter side of the camp). The music had stopped, but there were very few tents with lights on at one in the morning, and we found one that still had some people in it.
“Was there just music playing in here?” Mike asked.
“Yes – some awesome worship!” a young woman told us. We met Amy, Bethany, and other volunteers who were more or less in charge of the tent, coming from Chicago as part of the church that helps put on Cornerstone (or something like that). We learned that this was indeed where the music had come from, and that they had worship every night at midnight. It was too bad we had just missed it, but “maybe you’re here for a reason,” Amy suggested. “Besides, we could use some help closing the tent down.” So we made some friends while clasping and unclasping tent flaps – they called us Tent Boy 1 and 2 before learning our real names.
If we had checked out the music last night or come at a different time, we might have just seen the worship and left when it was done, or missed them altogether. These sorts of “random meetings” are pretty much the rule at Cornerstone, where anything from the timing of a bathroom break to a tying of the shoes can determine who you’re going to run into or stand next to at a show. Brought together by a love of music and fellowship, almost everyone is friendly, and half the fun of Cornerstone comes from interactions with people you don’t (didn’t?) even know. (Jacob has a lot of fun stories about hanging out with a youth group from Texas, who would do hilarious things like send someone farther up the road to learn a person’s name, walkee-talkee it down to the main group, and have them all chant the name loudly as the confused person walked by.)
Oh yes, the fun was just beginning.
July 6, 2008 Leave a comment
Wow. Cornerstone Numero Two for me was even more fun than the first one – despite the fact that we had to leave 30 hours before the festival ended. This year I got less sleep, met more people, had more worship, and just had an all-around greater sense of community and uplifting experience.
Preface
Monday was only a half-day at Cornerstone, but it was a wonderful introduction and it laid the groundwork for a lot of things that happened later.
It all started with Mr. Tiki. My brother Jacob had this random plastic Tiki-man cup that he got from helping out at VBS or something, and we decided to take pictures and video of “Mr. Tiki” documenting his adventures through Cornerstone and the subsequent family reunion. It began innocently enough – a few words by Mr. Tiki in the car – and it grew to become a hilarious driving force in our Cornerstone experience.
After last-minute stops to Wal-mart, houses, and filling stations, we left O’fallon around 11:00 on Monday morning, June 30, 2008. We had to take a slightly different route out of St. Louis since Highway 79 was still flooded in several parts by the cresting Mississippi. Fortunately, the bridge at Hannibal was still open. We stopped for lunch at Wendy’s – where the manager saw my fest shirt from last year and noted that one of their employees was already on his way.
We crossed into Illinois with few problems until the country roads started teasing us with their multiple names. We got confused but never more than a mile off the correct path, and we pulled into the line of cars in front of the entrance at around 3:30, blaring Switchfoot and Newsboys as loudly as my car’s poor speakers could reasonably handle. While waiting to have our tickets processed, we passed some Christian-rock-is-from-hell protestors, complete with signs and bullhorn. This amused me, but it’s important to remember for something that happened Wednesday.
Anyway, we got inside and discovered that our camping spot from last year, near the top of a hill overlooking both main stage and the lake, was not yet taken, and we staked out our territory, complete with three tents for the five of us. (I initially thought this was overkill, but between bodies and belongings, we used every square inch.)
We found our Lindenwood friend Cecily before making a penultimate Wal-mart run at the town of Macomb, about twenty minutes away. Back at the campsite, we made some sandwiches while being offered leftover potatoes and green beans from our generous North Carolina youth group friends (the only vegetables we got all week – shh!).
A Light Introduction
Then it was time to do some light browsing before the big stuff started on Tuesday. We saw a decent indie rock band called Quiet Company, and a contemporary/alternative band called Candlefuse that had played at Mike’s church. We saw some of the fun Celtic punk rockers Flatfoot 56 guys already there – the tall boys are hard to miss – and got pictures with Mr. Tiki (but the fun was only beginning for Mr. Tiki and Flatfoot, as you will see).
At some point we stopped trying to get Tiki pictures with so many random strangers, saving him for the bigger prizes, but on Monday night we got a pic with a fellow standing outside the Impromptu Stage tent, and a conversation followed. Jay was from Raging Storm Records, which puts on the Impromptu Stage and gives free 15-minute slots to any band that signs up, in addition to longer scheduled slots.
We walked around some more and saw a guy playing guitar on the side of the street. This is where I must introduce you to the Gravity Principle. The more people that are watching someone play, the more other people are likely to be pulled in under the subconscious impression that “they [he] [she] must be good.” People were just walking by Jesse pouring his heart out like Glen Hansard on a crowded street, but Jacob, Stephen, and I stopped to hear a few songs. Pretty soon a morphing crowd of about a dozen had gathered. He was happy for an audience and we left with another Tiki pic.
We started looking for the nearest Johnny-on-the-Spots, but we went the wrong way and ran into a crowd of people running, jumping, dancing, singing, and beating on all sorts of percussive drums and sticks. We joined them for a few minutes, traveling down the roads and entertaining passersby with our rhythmic clappings, chantings, and rousing choruses of “Amazing Grace.”
We were already having a blast, and we hadn’t even heard any bands we had planned on yet. The first came at 11:00 in the Anchor Stage, where Ivoryline entertained the early attendees before their Tooth & Nail Day slot on Tuesday (Tooth & Nail Records is the primary “Christian rock” label). They were my favorite band I had never heard of last year, and they have a catchy alternative sound, but the sound as well as the guy’s vocals get boring or annoying after too long – both recorded and live. We left before the show ended and headed back to camp.
Before we fell asleep after midnight, we heard some worship wifting through the distant air: “Come.. Lord.. Je.. sus.. come…” Mike and I almost got up to figure out where it was coming from – but if we had figured it out at the wrong time we might have ruined what happened later. On this unsuspecting Monday night (Tuesday morning?), we simply slept.
