An Out of Church Experience

Yesterday, 7/12/2009, I played my first "real" (i.e. non-church) gig. It was part of the Come Together Concert Series in Clinton, NJ. This is a summer series that has musicians on the streets of town on every Friday and select Sundays. Yesterday was also the annual Ducky Race so it got to be one of the Sunday events. I played with Jeanne Resua (vocals) and Wayne Dubansky (guitar). They have been playing together for about a year. They both are in the church choir I play in and asked me to play with them to add a little depth. As my faithful readers will know, I started playing drums at church about 18 months ago, first on djembe then on set. I never figured to play anywhere but Mass, but figured Why Not?

For yesterday's gig, we were told we would be playing at the corner of Leigh and Center Street, Nate and I went down on Friday night to scope out the location and it seemed pretty nice. When I arrived on Sunday, after parking in the Community Center about a 1/2 mile away (thank you Ducky Race!), another band was setting up. They said they were playing at that location. We straighten things out with Annie at Rock The World Cafe, who runs the event and ended up in a great location - across the street from Hallmark, right on Main Street. They provided a tent and extension cords and we got setup in time to start at 2:30.

I don't think I realized how nervous I was - it took me a while to relax and get comfortable. Once I relaxed, I had a great time - I just played. It's certainly different than playing at church - rarely have I not been able to hear the choir due to a motorcycle passing by. The crowd was pretty good, especially early, right after the Ducky Race. We did about 40 minutes and then let the kids from Don't Fret and Take to the Sky do a set. By the time they finished, the crowd was pretty thin. We played until 4:30 and at times we were playing to the cars on Main Street. It was a great day weather-wise and, as I told Nate when I got home, "Nobody died". All in all, I had a great time and would love to do it again.

Happy Immaculate Conception!

I'll admit, I saw this post on the Ironic Catholic Blog, but I figured it was so good I'd share it too. In honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, here is Bobby McFerrin singing Ave Maria with the crowd at a concert.

Revelation Generation

It seems somehow appropriate that my 1st post in a long time is about a Christian Music event, since my first postings in this blog were about the Cornerstone Music Festival. On Saturday, August 31, 2008, I attended Revelation Generation in Frenchtown, NJ for the first time. To quote their website, RevGen is "the premier Christian festival in greater New York and greater Philadelphia. With the best Contemporary Christian and crossover music—from rock to rap to worship to metal—this two-day mega-event is a great way for youth groups, church groups, families, and singles to come together for a dynamic, memorable concert experience. Last Labor Day Weekend." (http://www.revelationgeneration.org/the_event/what_is_revgen.php). I attended in two roles - as adult leader for our youth group, LifeSygns, and as an ersatz photojournalist.

I had a great time at the event, not only because of the awesome music, but because of the access I received with my Press Pass. Not only did I get to bypass the main ticket gate, but I got access to artist press conferences, including Toby Mac and Peter Furler of the Newsboys. For a while, we had access between the front row and the stage, but oddly that was taken away for no explainable reason after the first couple acts. The event took place on two main stages, the NY Stage, which had more pop and contemporary music, and the Philly Stage, which was more rock and metal. Even though performers on each stage were staggered, I spent a lot of time hustling between the stages trying to get pictures of as many of the acts as possible. By the end of the day I was exhausted and felt like I had walked 10 miles!

Here is a link to a web album of some of the shots I took during the concert (I actually took over 250):

http://picasaweb.google.com/mwcawley/RevelationGeneration2008?authkey=h8ZrgJZO8EU

Many of the pictures were taken with a lens I picked up last year (and should have blogged about :( ) - a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens. Yes, it was expensive, but it allowed me to take many of the night time shots without a flash from 100 feet from the stage.

Just to be on the up and up about the Press Pass...I have offered my pictures to the Catholic Spirit, the weekly newspaper for the Diocese of Metuchen. While not a "Catholic" event, many Catholics attended and commented on our choice of the Papal Flag as our place marker. I was actually amazed, not by the amount of Catholics, but by the fact that they knew the Papal flag. We shall see if the Spirit publishes my pictures, but at least I gave them the opportunity to cover an event that built up the faith of the youth of the Diocese.

Fun With Hand Drums

As some of you may know, Nate has been playing drums for a number of years. His lessons have always been on set, but he has played "regular" drums in concert and marching band. Last fall, Nate decided that he was going to play drums at church with his Mom's Praise Band, Pacem, as well as with the yet unnamed Lifesygns band that plays at Teen Mass. While he could have played his set at mass, a hand drum is much easier to transport and a little more mellow for the mass setting. I decided to get him a djembe, an African hand drum since that is what Mr. Barr plays at mass and I knew he would give me good advice on buying one. The one I got Nate is shown on the left - it is a 14 inch djembe, with goat skin head and synthetic body. It is mechanically tuned, since I figured a 15 year old wouldn't want to mess with rope tuning.


Nate has a blast playing his djembe at mass and with Lifesygns. At youth group, he can play it loud and wild. I played the djembe at youth group a couple times when Nate let me and I can tell you it is way too much fun. I also got to play it at Eucharistic Adoration in December. This was the first time I had ever played or sung at a church event and it was moving and spiritual. I decided that I needed my own drum after these events. (For those who don't know, I started out a drummer before playing clarinet, baritone/euphonium and sax). I decided I needed something different in a drum, so after some research, I chose a doumbek, a traditional Middle Eastern drum. My drum is shown on the right, it is a 11 inch, hand etched aluminum drum with a synthetic head. I play at youth group practice to help keep the beat and at mass if requested. Teen Mass is for the teens - we are trying get to an all teen band soon.

Autumn Blaze 2007

On Oct 13, 2007, the Lifesygns Youth group headed out to Continental Airlines Arena for NJ's biggest Christian Music Concert - Autumn Blaze. Artists included Fr. Stan Fortuna, Thousand Foot Krutch, Barlow Girl and tobyMac. I'll include a few photos here, but I have also created an album on Picasa - http://picasaweb.google.com/mwcawley/AutumnBlaze2007?authkey=8ZjUj9VNvCw.

This year for the first time Autumn Blaze featured an overtly Catholic artist who is a priest to boot. Fr. Stan Fortuna is a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a group of monks who are doing awesome things in the Bronx and other places. They live a life of poverty and chastity following the way of St Francis, relying on God and the goodness of others to feed and clothe them. Fr. Stan uses his music (a mix of reggae, beat box, rap and other styles) to evangelize. Some of the Youth Group kids got to talk to him before the show and I suspect most of the audience had no idea who he was as he wandered around the parking lot in his gray robes. He was pretty warmly received by the crowd when he performed which was cool.

The kids, as always, had a fun time - dancing and head banging to the music. It seemed that Barlow Girl and tobyMac were the favorites. Overall, the whole show seemed a bit rushed, like they had rented the room for four hours and had to squeeze in as much as they could.

Mr. P and I scored press tickets and got to sit where the reporters site for hockey and basketball. The short story is that we told Autumn Blaze we worked for the Catholic Spirit and it wasn't until the day before the event that the Spirit said we could use their name. The seats weren't that much better than the kid's and we didn't get any special access but the key thing was we got to bring cameras in. For the curious, my shots were taken with my Canon Rebel XT with the built in flash and a combination of the 18 - 55 and 75 - 300 mm lenses. Although the pictures came out OK, this concert and the Cornerstone Festival led me to upgrade my lens and flash, which I'll post about separately.

Lifesygns has been going to Autumn Blaze since it was a small concert in the fields of Zarephath. In 2003, it moved to Continental Airlines Arena and attracted even bigger names like the Newsboys, Third Day and, my personal favorite, the OC Supertones. The first couple years at CAA it seemed like the sky was the limit for this event and maybe it would have to move to Giants Stadium at some point. It seems though that interest has waned - this year the Arena was maybe half full. The cost of the tickets, other Christian concerts (like Revelation Generation) and the insistence on it being an "outreach" event all contribute, I believe, to the drop in attendance. They should get back to there roots - a fun family event.

Cornerstone Festival - Final Thoughts

Some final thoughts, impressions, etc from our trip....

The Music - We found new bands and styles we liked, we realized that we really don't like extreme hard core and found out it's really cool to be in the front row (at least Nate did). How many kids can say they saw Switchfoot from the front row? The other cool thing is that the artists are so accessible - the sit at their own merch tables and will talk to you after their show. The guys from Hundred Year Storm were genuinely moved when I told them about Mom and their song "Yesterday We Had it All". The other cool thing that makes the artist real is that some of them stayed right in the Holiday Inn Express with us. Kinda neat to see the Wedding on stage on Wed. night and then see them at the breakfast buffet the next morning.

Faith, God & Religion - Two things that stuck with me here....First, a reminder from Kevin Young of Disciple that God loves us unconditionally, no matter what we do. If we are separated from God/Jesus, it's our doing. Second, from Jamie, the founder of To Write Love on Her Arms, when he talked about deciding to say they were NOT a Christian organization. Jamie said he does the ministry because he is Christian and this is where God has led him, but felt he could be much more effective by not identifying the organization as Christian. Part of it (he said) was the negative connotation of the label "Christian" (how sad!) but also his organization is all about helping people wherever they are. (I started this post on Sunday morning before we left and it was interesting that the priest at church touched on both these topics in his homily.)

The Trip - Sure we could have flown out to the midwest and rented a car to go to Cornerstone, but there is something about the concept of a road trip that is special. Even with his near constant Nintendo DS playing, Nate and I got to talk about religion, politics, school, etc. He also got to see firsthand the vastness of the country and see the mile after mile of corn and soy. Despite the 2277 miles and 33 hours in the car (click here for the route), it was a fun, memorable, experience, not just for the music but the time spent together.

So that's all from Cornerstone - to paraphrase a shirt I bought...

Keep Worshiping at Full Volume!

Cornerstone Festival - Best of List

Here are a few "best of" awards from me and Nate:

Best Food: Nate - Pizza Hut Cheese Sticks, Dad - Monster Funnel cake
Best Main Stage Act: Nate - tobyMac, Dad - Flyleaf
Best Overall Act: Nate & Dad - Disciple
Loudest: Nate - UnderOath, Dad - Seventh Star
Most Fun Band: Nate - Switchfoot, Dad - Family Force 5
Best We'd Never Seen Before: Nate - Blissed, Dad - Hundred Year Storm
Weirdest Thing We Saw: Nate - Garbage Men in Suits, Dad - Guys in cow costume
Best T-shirt: Nate - "If You Don't Like Showbread, You're an Idiot", Dad - "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" (Honorable Mention to "Virginity Rocks")

Cornerstone Festival - The Trip Home

Sunday morning was time to say goodbye to Galesburg and head off for Columbus, OH our stopover for the way home. We headed to Corpus Christi Church more mass before hitting the road. I had been told Catholicism was a bit more conservative in the midwest and Corpus Christi was certainly old school. I was transported back to being Nate's age at St. Anastasia's with the altar biys wearing cassock & surplice, standing by the ambo during the gospel and the use of pattens during communion. Not quite pre-Vatican II but they did sing the Holy, Holy and Lamb of God in Latin. After mass, N "needed" a Bizzard so it was a last stop at DQ.

Sunday night dinner was at Bob Evans, since N says we can't get them in the East. I had the Pot Roast sandwich, which will definitely be off the menu once I start the diet. We stayed at the Comfort Suites ("I've been everywhere, man" says the commercial). It was a Suite - Ok it had a half wall with a couch, microwave and a fridge. Too bad the walls were paper thin and the beds were hard. Holiday Inn Express was much better.


The trip to NJ on Monday was pretty uneventful. We went through Ohio, W. VA, and PA before getting to NJ. I hadn't been on that part of the turnpike and it brought a lot of memories both from taking Nancy to college and VU band trips. We didn't feel the need to visit Breezewood despite the memories there. One cool thing we saw on the turnpike was windmills on top of the mountains east of Pittsburgh near Somerset PA. This farm produces 9 MW of power and the windmills are 210 feet tall with a blade length of 112 feet. Annual pollution offset is 25 million lbs of CO2.

We arrived safely back home around 6 PM and after unloading the car pretty much crashed. It was a long, fun and exhausting trip.

Cornerstone Festival - Saturday

Saturday's lineup was loaded up with the Cornerstone's "base" - hard core rockers. The Main Stage featured Norma Jean and Underoath as the headliners. Underoath had the coveted closing spot, which has been POD's for the last couple years. (POD is in the studio this Summer - good we get a new album, but bummer they didn't do Cornerstone).

As I said in the Friday post, Nate and I still had shopping to do, so we hit the merch tents as soon as we got there. I had stopped at the ATM since almost everything is cash at Cornerstone. I got a few more t-shirts, CDs and bumper stickers as well as a book. N picked up an old Disciple CD. Even though he thought a lot of the t-shirts were cool, I think he's still a bit shy about "Living out Loud" - I get that, I would have been the same way at 14. After shopping, we ate what may have been the biggest funnel cake we have ever seen. At least a couple pounds - from a place that deep fries their hot dogs and bacon, too. Obviously we were not counting calories on this trip.

The one non-Hard Core band at the Main Stage was Family Force 5 so we headed up to see them after the funnel cake - we needed the walk. I'm not sure how to categorize them - they have 80's feel with break dancing, but sound current, too. The show they put on is amazing, though - high energy, weird costumes, dancers. If you get a chance to see these guys, go for it, it's a wild show. Nate and I watched this set from the hill and the sound was great - the natural amphitheater works. We stayed up at the Main Stage for some dinner since we though the next band was Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. I know nothing about this band other than that they have gotten good reviews in CCM and have possibly the best band name, ever. Unfortunately, they were a no show and were replaced by August Burns Red, a hard core, slightly screamo group. The set was OK and unintentionally funny - the guitars and bass have the whole rocker stance and synchronized head banging thing going on. We decided to pass on Emery and Norma Jean and come back for Underoath.

Since we had a little time before Hundred Year Storm, we caught about half of a set by The Myriad, an alt rock band out of Seattle. We had heard them on Revolution on Sirius and they even better live. Great sound and very tight vocals and music. Exceptional for being in a tent in a corn field. (An aside here to boo Sirius for dropping Revolution, their Christian Rock station. Maybe they don't have Sirius, but 15,000 people at Cornerstone can't be an anomaly. Now I get my Christian rock online at ChristianRockRadio.com.)

Hundred Year Storm was another "must see" for Nate and me. I'll do a whole post on this, but their song "Yesterday We Had It All" really ministered to me after Mom's death. They didn't do that song (odd since it is their single, but this was also their second set on the Festival) but still were amazing. This is another band that is hard to categorize. They called themselves indie rock, but they also had hints of "art" bands like Renaissance from the 80's. The stage show featured TV's showing videos backing their songs. Turns out the CD also has voice overs behind the music of newscasts, etc. Very eclectic stuff, including instrumentals. They closed with a moving song called "Arms" that featured a harpist and closed with the line "Fall into the arms of Jesus" repeated over and over. Great stuff.

We headed up to the Main Stage to close out the Festival with Underoath and it was packed! The hill was completely covered and the floor of the amphitheater was full, too. We found a spot at the top of the hill where we could see the stage. Underoath was loud and was rocking the place, but about 3 songs in, Nate looked at me and said "I really don't like this" which I had to agree with. I guess we found our "rock limit" - POD, Disciple, Demon Hunter - yes, Underoath and hard core screamo - no. We decided we actually like being able to understand the lyrics.

No encore bands on Saturday, but since we left Underoath early, there were a few bands still playing. We though about more hard rock at the Underground stage, but chose Sleeping at Last at the same stage we saw Hundred Year Storm. They are a 3 man alt band and it was a nice finish to the week. As we headed back to the hotel, we listened to the Hundred Year Storm CD and talked about the week. N didn't even play his DS.

Cornerstone Festival - The Area

The Cornerstone Festival is held on a 500 acre farm near Bushnell, IL. Where is that, you say? Go to Peoria, IL and head another hour west or go to the Quad Cities and head an hour and half south. As Boom says, "Welcome to the prairie". It is corn and soy beans as far as the eye can see and boy can you see - it is flat. I think the highest elevation I hit was a railroad overpass. Oh yeah, in Galesburg, where we stayed, there was huge train depot. Gotta move that corn somehow...



When Nate and I headed to the Festival everyday, we saw these roads with weird names like 2250 St and 1900 St in the middle of nowhere. When I realized that each "hundred" was a mile, a memory from the deep recesses of my brain came to me - it was Township and Range! This is how the government laid out the West. (http://www.outfitters.com/genealogy/land/twprangemap.html). Thank you to the late, great Dr. Elaine Bosowski for teaching me that in North American Geography at Villanova. Nate's mom and I took that course for fun and I think I may have learned more there than any other class that year.





We drove through 4 little towns every day. Our favorite was St. Augustine (pop 150) which pretty much consisted of a few houses, a post office and a Catholic Church. If it had been a litle closer to Galesburg or I-74, we might have gone to mass there on Sunday.

Cornerstone Festival - Organizations and Causes

The merch tents - which officially are called the Exhibition Tents - were host to a varied group of organizations promoting all sorts of causes. Below is a listing of ones I found interesting, not that I necessarily agree or are promoting them:

The One Campaign - http://www.one.org - This is group that is working to end global poverty. They are a coalition of secular and religious organizations working together for change. You probably have seen the ads with Bono and famous actors and actresses.

To Write Love on Her Arms - http://www.twloha.com/ - Ok, so this one I really do think is cool. This is a group that helps kids deal with depression and self-injury. It was started because one guy (the founder, Jaime) helped one girl and has grown into this huge ministry. I think their website describes it best: "TWLOHA's mission is to communicate hope and love to broken people. We also aim to invite and inspire lives of compassion. We believe that "rescue is possible", that we can be rescued and we are called to live as rescuers. In the same way, we believe that all people are loved and called to love others. This is an attempt at community." Despite being founded and run primarily by Christians, they do not consider themselves a "Christian" organization, rather they are doing Christ's work. Nate and I went to a press conference they gave at the Festival, actually it was Nate's idea.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation - http://www.iwillnotkill.org - This is an antiwar/pacifist group that has been around since World War I. What I found interesting is that while they encourage conscientious objection, they really push that youth should make an informed decision, not just sign up.

DiscRevolt.com - This is a company that's trying to change the way music is sold, by giving control to the artists. The concept is that artist upload music to DiscRevolt and then buy download cards which they in turn can sell or give away at concerts. The cards usually have the band's logo on them so it's another form of marketing.

XXXChurch.com - This is an anti-pornography group - they catch attention with wild slogans - a couple of the tamer ones are that they are "The #1 Christian Porn Site" and "Jesus Loves Porn Stars". A bit outlandish, but what I found interesting is that they set up booths not just at Christian events, but at the big porn conventions. Talk about going into the lion's den.

Abort73.com - As you can guess from the name, this is an anti-abortion group. They seem pretty radical, not like blowing up clinics, but really in your face with their slogans and t-shirts.

StopConsuming.org - Their slogan is "The Only Customer of the Church is God". Their idea is that church is not about what we receive but what we should give to the world - grace and love.

Cornerstone Festival - Friday

Friday, we headed down to the Festival around the "usual" late afternoon time frame. N had seen a promo for a band called Blissed that wanted to check out and we both wanted to hit the merch tent before the nighttime acts on the Main Stage. We were pretty excited since the lineup was Pillar, Flyleaf and Switchfoot. Friday night is a short lineup of music, since they have a worship service around dinner time. We decided to hit the merch tent and eat during the worship service - I can hear it already - some scripture reference about God and money. The worship service was run by Jesus People USA (who put on Cornerstone) - http://www.jpusa.org and I suspected there would be an altar call and a love offering. Not that we wouldn't have enjoyed the worship music but I've heard the altar call talk enough times.


Nate made a good choice with Blissed. They are a band out of Toronto who play what I would call 80's rock. Just check out the singer in the pic. The music was good though N said it more my type than his. Funny moment during the half hour set - two guys who were older than me did a chest bump during one of the songs - I said "adult moshing", N says "senior moshing" - nice...


After Blissed and a little dinner, we hit the merch tents - hard. It's possible that Mr. P would still be there buying stuff and talking to vendors, bands and organizations. I bought some shirts and CDs but didn't really have time to hit all the stuff before the time came to head for the main stage. A plan was made to get there earlier on Sat., both to maybe catch so other "new" (at least to us) bands and to have more time in the merch tent. N headed up to the Main Stage and I went to the car to drop off the loot.

N did very well on scoring a good spot - I found him the front row on the (audience) left of the stage. I took up my picture taking spot - a little left and back. Even w/o moshing, the front row is no place for me and my camera. Although the crowd for Pillar was good, the ones for Flyleaf and Switchfoot were the biggest so far. N and I decided it was "mainstream" night since they both have had crossover success. God treated us to another spectacular sunset....

Pillar rocked the place as expected, playing old and new stuff. Flyleaf was amazing - their lead singer, Lacey Mosley, is this pixie of a girl who is so passionate and emotional in her singing. A lot of their songs are based on her personal experience which was pretty rough. Switchfoot was flat out great - they rocked, they were tight and the sound was good (even next to the speaker with earplugs). One cool thing was that both Lacey and Jon Foreman (Switchfoot's lead) did a little "preaching" - both bands are "Christian by faith, not genre" - I guess at a Christian event they can let their guard down a little. Jon talked about being "one" - not dividing the body of Christ before they did "We are One Tonight".

Flyleaf & Switchfoot

After the Mage Stage acts, N and I headed to a set that we had circled on the schedule as soon as we saw it - Disciple. The show was in one of the "encore" tents and started at midnight, so it was a smaller crowd. It was, though, one of the best shows we saw - it rocked, it had worship and had one of the craziest mosh pits we saw the whole festival. (An aside on moshing - I'm not sure I like it, especially at a Christian event. I know it's just supposed to be about energy, but it always, to me, seems to have an edge of trying to hurt each other). Nate and I were just behind the mosh pit and the music was awesome. Even better, right in the middle of the set, Kevin Young, the lead singer, read from Psalm 139 and talked about how God loves us unconditionally. It was probably the best teaching I heard all week. This show embodied what I like about Chritian rock - it's loud, but teaches and worships God.

Cornerstone Festival - Musings

As I said before, it's a pretty eclectic group of people here at Cornerstone. In theory, what unites all (or the vast majority) is that we call ourselves "Christians". So what does that mean with such diversity? I'm sure there are people here who wouldn't consider me a Christian being Catholic and all and others that would look down on the kids in black with bullets for a belt. To me, it's simple, you only need to believe that God loves us unconditionally, Jesus died for our sins and that every blessing we receive is through God's grace. Sure, there's a lot of other stuff I believe because I'm a Catholic, but they just make me Catholic, not Christian.

The Cornerstone Survival Guide (http://www.cstonesurvival.com) had some good ideas along these lines....

• "Be prepared to be offended. Not everyone shares your views on abortion, homosexuality, the death penalty or the Clinton presidency. If you find that someone is wearing a t-shirt espousing views that you don't like, ignore them. Or better yet, talk to them about it. You may make a new friend, and more importantly, you may learn something.
• Not everyone holds to the same "holiness standard" that you do. Some people smoke, drink, and wear two-piece bathing suits. Try and focus on the beams in your own eyes before plucking slivers out of theirs.
• Remember that not everyone has had the blessing and benefit of a good upbringing. Sometimes the people who seem to be the most rude and obnoxious are at Cornerstone because they really are trying to live a Christian life. It isn't easy for a lot of people to transcend their upbringing (or lack thereof), show grace and understanding with such people. This doesn't mean that you should be a pushover, or should tolerate abusive or dangerous behavior. It just means that you should try and settle problems with people in a gracious and understanding way, rather than immediately going to security."

As an aside, there are at least 2 other Catholics here - one had a Benedict 16 shirt on and the other a Cardinal Ratzinger shirt. I wore my JPII shirt from DYD but didn't get any comments positive or negative. Wish more Catholics were exposed to Christian music - most don't even know it exists. (I know Boom, Mr. P and I are trying to get the message out) The music quality is good and the message is better.

Cornerstone Festival - Thursday

Before heading out today, we got ear plugs and had lunch at a Dairy Queen which we can't do in the East. Pretty much same quality as a Wendy's I'd say.

The main stage bands were supposed to be Pigeon John, Skillet, Anberlin and Relient K. Unfortunately, Relient K's bus caught fire on the PA Tpk, so they were a no-show. (http://www.timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=69670&r=1). They are just one of the many bands trying to do both Creation and Cornerstone. Stupid to schedule them the same w/e if you ask me. So without Relient K, Anberlin became the headliner and they added Jonezetta as one of the openers. Pigeon John was LA hip-hop which neither N or I cared for. Jonezetta was ok - pretty standard rock stuff.



Before the headliners, there was an awesome sunset. This pic shows the sunset and also the "natural" amphitheater that the main stage sits in.








Skillet and Anberlin blew the place away. Serious wall of sound stuff - N was 2nd row and I was just slightly further back but with no one in front of me so I could get pics. Both N and I had our hearing protection and it made a world of difference. You could still feel the bass (are your pants supposed to move by themselves to the music?) but no numb ears in the morning. It cuts out some of the treble and maybe muddies the sound a bit but that may have been the mixer. I saw another post where they complained about Anberlin being too much bass and distortion. I thought Skillet's mix was much better.

Skillet & Anberlin

As we walked out, we stopped at one of the "after hours" shows - a band called Seventh Star. Very screamo but you could still hear the message - I think one of the line was "you can't do that in God's house". N and I haven't done a lot of it, but if you just wander around there are bands playing everywhere and you might just happen on something good (or really bad ). Anyway the weather was cool and cloudy so we weren't completely wiped by the end of the day.

Cornerstone Festival - Wednesday Night

Nate and I headed back to the Festival around 4 and got to watch a thunderstorm pass just east of us and the festival. I love how you can see the whole storm and that it is a lot further away and bigger than it seems. Not sure I could live in a flat tree-less land but it's cool to visit and for N to experience - he's been East coast/west coast but this is his first visit to the Heartland.

We spent the whole night up at the Main Stage. David Crowder and tobyMac were the headliners, but the Wedding, Everyday Sunday and Fireflight were pretty good "openers". N and I were about 20 feet from the stage for both DCB and tobymac. Both were awesome in different ways. DCB gets everyone moving and I think N called it "rock worship".



David Crowder did a version of Come thou Fount that melded in Amazing Grace that just rocked but also was so worshipful. Even though the rain had cooled it off a bit, it was packed in and moving by the stage so we were drenched. Not sure my old ears and knees are really up for this but I'm loving it.







TobyMac was as always out of control. The crowd seemed a bit subdued at the beginning but really got into when he did the old dcTalk In the Light. He ended with Jesus Freak and Extreme Days - and pretty much brought the house down. N and I were way too close to the speakers - my left ear still feels muddled today. Might need some ear plugs.




We didn't get back until almost 1 AM and N slept almost to 11 AM. Nate is having a blast - jumping, head banging, worshipping - no mosh pit though - I do need to bring him back to his Mom in one piece!

Cornerstone Festival - Wednesday Afternoon

Wednesday is the first "official" day of Cornerstone, not just for me and Nate but for the music and everything else. You can actually get there on Monday to setup camp (N said no camping and I agreed) and Tuesday have some music sponsored by some of the record labels.

N and I headed to the Festival around noon to get the lay of the land - I had no idea what to expect. Even though things were just getting started, I could tell Cornerstone was huge both in the stuff going on and the physical size of the farm. N and I walked around the whole property - we checked out the Main Stage (as you can see in the pic), the merch tent, and some of the food. It was in the high 80s and none of the bands we really wanted to see were playing yet so we headed back to the hotel to chill (literally) for a while. It's a 45 minute ride each way but the car is air conditioned and there are very few trees at the Festival - welcome to the prairie.

A couple initial impressions (though they certainly are influenced by that this is Sat AM when I'm writing and we have 3 nights of rocking under our belt)....I'm not really sure how to describe Cornerstone - It's big and sprawling but has a wildness about it - I think it feels somehow random even though I'm sure it's highly organized, it just doesn't have that corporate feel about it. The people here are as diverse as they come - maybe not so much in race, but you have aging hippies with pony tails, emo kids, goths, families with kids and babies and "generic" teenagers, as well as the guys like me who probably go to a corporate job during the week. The camping is completely crazy - people drop a tent next to the road, next to a stage that has music until 2 AM, anywhere almost.

Cornerstone Festival - The Trip Out

OK, so maybe Friday of the Festival is a bit late to start blogging on Cornestone, but the idea to stop sending email and start blogging only came to me last night. Hey, I'm 43, not 23 and part of the texting and blogging generation. Anyway, a lot of the blog so far will excerpted from emails I've sent - cheating? sure but their my emails. Thanks to Boom and Nancy for putting up with my long winded emails about this trip.

So we headed out on Monday, 6/25 for the heartland. It was me, Nate and Jeff (my landlord's wife's son) leaving just at 9 AM as planned. Jeff was with with us since his Dad (who he spends the summer with) lives about 30 miles off of the planned route to Cornerstone. Jeff and Nate spent most of the trip (OK, all of the trip) playing their Nintendo DS's. It's pretty cool - the DS's can talk to each other so they can chat or see each other if they are playing the same game. Day 1 was home to Angola, IN - about 10 hours with stops. Pretty uneventful - I-80 for lots and lots of miles. I loved when the Nüvi at one point said "Next Turn in 328 miles". One note on Angola - not much there except for the intersection of 2 interstates and some outlets. 2 comments from Jeff - "good thing Mom isn't here or we'd never get away from here" and (to me) "they don't call it a pie in IN - it's pizza - if you order a pie they think you want an apple pie".

The second day was drop off day for Jeff. We got him safely to his Aunt at the Troppa-tanna Tanning Salon and were back off to Cornerstone. I listened to my iPod on random to keep sane while N kept on with the DS. We drove through a couple classic midwest storms today - we could se them coming for miles and then watched the rain come like a line. Not sure why it's that way more out here, maybe the terrain. We drove almost all the way to Iowa before heading south on I-74. We got safely here to Galesburg (the birthplace of Carl Sandburg - who knew?). About 7 hours on the road.