2:15pm: After checking out some more generator stages, I stroll down Main Street a bit further, and I see a huge crowd spilling out of the Indoor/Encore 1 Stage. My sister, a previous attendee, told me that if I see a huge crowd I should follow them, because they probably know something I don’t. I end up seeing my favorite band all day, All The Day Holiday, from Cincinnati OH—they’re already halfway through their set, and they’re actually pretty awesome. Live it’s a good blend of guitar-based, experimental indie rock—I write in my notebook that they sound like a cross between Explosions in the Sky and Death Cab for Cutie—and it’s a nice departure from the heavy bands I keep running into and passing by on the generator stages. More electronic elements come through on the record, and it’s pretty obvious that these guys have listened to a lot of Radiohead. There are a lot of people here—the tent is pretty massive, but there are at least 200–300 people here—and it looks and feels like a community, with everyone sincere in their support for the band. I really enjoy their set, and when they announce that they’re selling their new CD for only $5, I decide to search them out later in the merch tent and pick up a copy. It ends up being the first CD I buy at Cornerstone, and—significantly, as someone pretty devoted to vinyl—the first CD I’ve bought in two years.
3:30 pm: I end up back in the Sanctuary Tent, where the Day of Metal is in full swing, in time to catch The Burial. They’re easy to classify as metal/screamo, and their Myspace page classifies them as “Christian / metal / death metal,” which is semantically confusing, to say the least. This band isn’t as tight as The Overseer, but I get the sense that they have more passion for what they’re doing. They’re definitely not amateur, however, and the lead guitarist—a guy named Todd, I find out later—has some really good licks. The tent is mostly populated by metalheads, young and old alike. Today there’s also a small merch corner here specializing in Christian metal CDs and t-shirts, and the graphic design isn’t different at all from what I’ve seen outside of the Christian scene: gothic lettering, fantasy scenes, all black, and so on.
Near the end of the set, the band takes a break between songs to talk a little bit about their beliefs, and why they’re at Cornerstone. It’s mostly Todd speaking, and he’s reminding people to fight against letting the Devil inside (both individually and communally), to allow God to be a part of the festival experience, and to engage in conversation with and learn from each other. He quotes a Bible verse—“seek ye first the kingdom of God”—and also claims that this music, this fellowship, this gig, “this is our sanctuary, this is our worship.” It leaves me wondering how worshipful crushingly loud and aggressive metal can actually be—Christian metal this abrasive is a new experience for me—and what about the circle pit in here, is that also worship? The band then encourages the audience to get more physically engaged with the music: “Don’t worry about looking foolish while headbanging,” Todd says, “because the only one watching who matters is God, and He doesn’t care how you look.” The audience appears to be receptive to the music—it’s hard to escape when the volume can be physically felt—but what about the message? Like most death metal and grindcore, the lyrics are practically unintelligible, and were it not for the between-song preaching and witnessing, the nature of the band’s message as Christian would probably not be very clear at all. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued, and make a note to check out the Bible study they’re leading the next morning, and perhaps another set if I can. I wander around the merch tents afterwards, eat some more food, and follow the crowd out to the Main Stage.
5:45 pm: I don’t really know what to expect of the Main Stage, but I quickly see that it’s probably what I should have expected based on other festival experiences: a huge pro music festival stage with an extension that bisects the crowd, like I’ve seen at Lollapalooza, nestled at the bottom of a bowl like Alpine Valley. It’s got a huge video screen, pro sound tent with spotlights, multiple cameras (including a remote arm), a number of concession tents, and a merch tent. At the crest of the hill are another couple of concession tents. There are tons of people milling about the stage on foot, lots of people spread out in lawn chairs, behind the crowd, and many more on blankets sitting on the hillside. Oh, and golf carts—apparently the Main Stage is a sufficiently long distance from the campgrounds (maybe a half mile?) to prompt some people to drive their golf carts out here, and said golf carts are parked both inside the bowl at the bottom of an access road (which continues along behind the stage for load-in/out) and at the crest of the hill—some people even watch the show from inside the golf carts. It’s rather humorous.
As I walk up to the crest of the hill, I see a small group giving away food: they have a huge pot of tomato soup cooking, they’re making four grilled cheese sandwiches at a time over a camping grill, and just giving the food away. I’m one of many people taking them up on their generosity. The group cooking and serving the food is fairly young, likely late teens and early 20s, and I ask one of the guys why they’re doing this. He says that they’re part of a Bible study group from Quincy IL (only about one hour away) and they just decided to do something nice for everyone. He doesn’t go out of his way to witness or preach to me, and this is my first taste of unconditional Cornerstone generosity.
The first Main Stage band is Capital Lights, an unremarkable pop/rock group clearly enjoying themselves. I took no notes about their music, which means I was unimpressed, but I did note how they’re being explicit with their faith: the lead singer stops at one point, and says “I know this is a Christian festival, but not everyone knows what that means”—and apparently what it means is that the band has a “deeper purpose,” and that “each one of us is deeply in love with Jesus Christ.” He continues talking a little bit about what it means to have Jesus in your life, and ends by appealing to the audience: “If you’re here today and you don’t understand that [Jesus]…” then come talk to the band, talk to those around you, and find out what Christ means to those who have come to Cornerstone for fellowship.
6:30 pm: KJ-52 takes the stage. The “52” in his stage name comes from the parable of Jesus feeding the masses with five loaves of bread and two fish. This is bland white boy party rap, totally clean, inoffensive, and deadly boring. He does do a lot of crowd interaction, getting people to dance, throwing complementary souvenirs out, and convincing the crowd that they’ll end up on his video blog, but there isn’t much musical substance to back it up. I can’t really tell how this fits into Cornerstone, both musically—this is the only hip-hop I actually hear all week—and philosophically: he only mentions his faith in passing, and his music doesn’t really seem to be inspired by his faith, aside from staying away from potentially offensive language. Perhaps that’s all it takes—he’s okay because he’s clean?
8:00 pm: Red. Not much to say other than they’re bland hard rock, stuff you hear a million times a day on modern rock radio, without anything special. The highlight is a straightforward cover of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” (off of the 1993 eponymous “wedding album”), complete with a note-by-note solo. Inoffensive and utterly forgettable.
During set changes, which last a good 20–25 minutes, commercials are broadcast on the giant screen. Here’s a list of the commercials I remember:
- Nutrilite, some type of health supplement promoted by Amway.
- Compassion, an organization that allows you to sponsor a child, providing them with food, water, medication, clothing, education, and—this must be stated—religion.
- Green: Book Zero, a fantasy novel that concludes a series by Ted Dekker. I’m intrigued enough to google it later, but annoyed enough by the never-ending promotion that I don’t even bother reading the website to know what the book and series are about. The commercial references timeless series that present humanity’s ethical battles as fantasy, including both C.S. Lewis and Tolkein. I doubt Dekker is even remotely as good.
- The band Dekree. Based on the commercial alone, I easily predict I will absolutely hate this band.
- Buy your tickets for next year’s Cornerstone at the merch tent! Because the best souvenir is the one that brings you back next year. Guaranteed to get the best prices by purchasing at the fest.
- Also, check out Cornerstone online to relive some of your favorite moments through their carefully selected and screened photos and videos. Not once did I see someone who looked like a staff photographer or videographer in any of the tents and at any of the gigs I attended. Needless to say, they certainly didn’t appear at the generator stages. So, the documented Cornerstone, who’s festival is that one? Documentation—both formal and informal—provides yet another set of perspective streams to consider.
- HM magazine
10:30 pm: Throughout the evening, the changing size of the standing crowd down at the stage and the ratio of people walking down the hill vs. those walking up provide a good gauge on the relative popularity of the Main Stage bands. The last one of the night is definitely the most anticipated—although the Main Stage crowd clearly anticipated Relient K, my notes are minimal, which indicates that I wasn’t very into this band. I’m rather tired by this time of the evening, and the band didn’t really excite me. People around me talking about the band excitedly—Relient K haven’t played Cornerstone in a few years: last year they were on Warped Tour, and the year before their bus broke down (and apparently burst into flames?) on the way here. The band does talk about their faith a bit more than the other bands tonight. Their music is inoffensive pop-punk, just the type of safe stuff I would want my kids to listen to if I were a parent. I don’t know any of their songs or records, and make a note—I’ll be making a lot of these notes—to check them out when I get home. One thing that does charm me is their tribute to The Office, complete with a short original melody and then a cover of the theme song itself. “We wrote a love song to a television show,” lead singer Matthew gushes, “which I think everyone should do, at least five times in their life.”
Midnight: After the Relient K set, I walk back over to the Encore 2 stage to see Copeland on my sister’s recommendation. There’s a lot of buzz for the other band playing tonight, Austrian Death Machine, and later when I’m leaving they’re tent—it sounds absolutely brutal. My ears are already killing me, and my head’s hurting—I’ll end up taking some Advil for a headache in the morning—so sticking with Copeland was a good choice. It’s a lot mellower, emo/indie rock, and the audience seems content to chill out after the long first day of Cornerstone. I stick around for about forty minutes before deciding I need the sleep more than I need to hear the band. If I wasn’t alone, it might be a different story, and at the end of the first day I’m definitely regretting not having come with someone. I haven’t really spoken to anyone all day, and I make a resolution to have at least five conversations with strangers over the next couple of days. I drive back to the dorms and do my best to fall asleep, but it’s freezing—the air conditioning is on full-blast, and there’s apparently no way to turn it off. I sleep fitfully because of the chill (having only brought a single fleece blanket), but wake up refreshed and ready to attack Cornerstone for Day 2.
[More posts on Cornerstone Festival 2009]
Ah, the live album. Rainer Maria was always a great live band: Kyle Fischer’s boundless energy lit up the venue, Will Kuehn’s drumming held everything together, and Caithlin DeMarrais’s vocals were a degree or two more delicate and revelatory than on record (see “Rise”). That said, the live record Anyone in Love with You (Already Knows) (Polyvinyl, 2004) isn’t a live show: the tracks (representing all four previous albums they had released by this time) are culled from six different shows over three years, and it just feels weird to longtime fans. The production is consistent across the album, so there are no auditory cues that this is a compilation, but the pacing is all off, “Tinfoil” starts the set (as it starts 1997’s Past Worn Searching) instead of the encore, and plenty of live mainstays are simply missing. On the plus side, it’s great to hear a more mature band reading songs from their back catalog, such as “The Reason the Night is Long,” “Rise” (both on 1999’s Look Now Look Again), and “Soul Singer” (the single non-album track here, on the Atlantic EP, 1999). The live mixing reveals new elements at times: although not as tight as on record, Rainer Maria’s performances always had some musical surprises; and we can even hear Fischer’s vocal choruses, as on “Mystery and Misery.”
