5:00 pm: I walk back to the patio that overlooks the Main Stage to grab some free spaghetti, only to find that the line is at least 45 minutes long. I settle in for a long wait, preferring to get some free food over dropping money over at the food court. I end up talking to the three friends from Muskegee, MI (two guys and a girl) in line behind me while I’m waiting. The two guys are in a band together named Audrey, and came to Cornerstone last year for the first time after wanting to come for a few years. They were close to convincing their parents to let them come the previous year, until their parents found out how much it was going to cost! This year is the girl’s first time at Cornerstone. Compared to this year, they had a worse experience last year due to the prevalence of metal bands and trendy fans; this year the whole festival is much more diverse, and in their opinion the Main Stage lineup is also a lot better. Cornerstone is different from other festivals they’ve been to (like Unity and Icthus) because it’s more diverse and more accepting of alternate experiences and perspectives—they appreciate the “positivity”—and they do plan on coming back in the future, as long as they can get off from work. Their own local scene died a while back and they don’t have much of a chance to hear bands they like on the radio: the older scenesters back home didn’t take the younger generation seriously, so there was really no one to sustain the scene as the older members started leaving the scene; there was rampant fighting for a while and the scene had a really bad reputation, but they’re slowly rebuilding it, with a lot of basement and church shows (and no fighting!). Faith really isn’t a big deal for these three, but they appreciate when others are honest about their faith (instead of putting on a façade for the Christian audience) and they’re not being preached to.

6:30 pm: I take some time to write up some more notes after enjoying my spaghetti, and then head over to the Main Stage for some of the bigger bands. I catch Project 86, but am not very impressed. Haste the Day, however, are pretty heavy, and the encourage some serious moshing and circle pit action. This is another band who talks about their faith during the between-song banter, and the singer mentions that they’re a Christian band, and they play music to glorify God, and that we should all learn to exhibit God’s love in our everyday interactions with people. There’s no preaching, no altar call, and they get right back to rocking after this brief interlude.

After Haste the Day’s set, I decide to head back to the midway—I’m hungry, and I want to be sure to get a seat for David Bazan’s set in the Gallery Tent. I get a vegetable wrap and eat it standing up—it’s been a long day!—and then buy a cup of coffee before heading over to Gallery. The previous band—Gasoline Heart—is finishing up, and there’s still plenty of seats available. I expect Bazan’s set to be pretty crowded, and when he finally takes the stage, I’m not disappointed—at one point I look back and see that not only are all the seats taken, but people are standing up outside the tent and behind the seats. David Bazan is definitely highly anticipated.

In between the two sets, however, I get to talking with the guy sitting next to me. He’s this totally friendly guy, a bit younger than me, named Matt. He recently relocated from Terra Haute, IN to Nashville after reprioritizing his life to focus on being less selfish and more in tune with his friends and community. This is his third Cornerstone, but he wasn’t here last year. This year he’s here with All The Day Holiday, and I mention that I really enjoyed their set. We talk about the profusion of heavy music throughout the set, relieved to have found some common ground with both ATDH and Bazan. He grew up listening to a lot of emo and Christian hardcore, and we have a few favorite bands in common, like The Get Up Kids. We also talk a little bit about Bazan, and he tells me the story of how Bazan went on a tirade against organized Christianity and closed-mindedness last time he performed Cornerstone, and this is the first time he’s been invited back in about four years or so. This story is hearsay, Matt promises, but it’s good nonetheless—Bazan has always been vocal about his criticism of organized religion and church, believing instead that faith ought to be more personal and less didactic. Matt and I exchange phone numbers before we part, since I tell him that I’m considering coming out to Nashville later this year. He tells me to call him if so.

10:00 pm: David Bazan plays morose singer/songwriter stuff, but he has a sense of humor about it. He plays a couple of Pedro the Lion songs, at least one cover (Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”), some new stuff, and takes questions from the audience. I’ve seen him before, and this is standard procedure: he allows the audience to ask him practically anything they want, and answers as honestly as possible. After hearing Matt’s story about the last time Bazan was at Cornerstone, he seems a little reserved, perhaps less likely to say something that could be interpreted as being offensive. In interviews he’s discussed the Christian scene with disdain, but it’s pretty clear that he’s happy being here.

12:00 am: Flatfoot 56 is supposed to start playing at midnight, but the previous band runs a little long, so it takes a while for them to get setup. Camp Busted Guitar recommended that I come out to see Flatfoot, and it’s only as I’m standing there that I realize I’ve seen this band before—they’re Chicago South Side punks who play smaller venues in the city, and I actually brought one of my DePaul classes to a show of theirs at the Beat Kitchen two years ago. They didn’t strike me as particularly Christian at the time, and I’m interested in seeing them in this context. It turns out that the punk kids here truly love this band, love the mayhem they inspire, and the Underground Tent gets really hot, smelly, and dusty soon after they start playing. I stick around for a while, but I’m getting tired, and want to check out The Chariot before heading back to the dorms.

12:30 am: Okay, so I don’t really know what to make of The Chariot. Their sound is murky, muddy, dark, and rather hard for me to get a full sense of, but it’s along the lines of experimental hardcore. The band members are climbing along the lighting rigs, one of them is blowing fireballs out of his mouth, and it strikes me as rather dangerous and perhaps ill-fitting of Cornerstone. There is, however, a huge crowd here, and the first group of kids I spoke with earlier today told me to expect insanity at this set. I’m still not very sure what I make of them. Neither The Chariot nor Flatfoot 56 discuss their faith or reasons for being at Cornerstone while I’m watching them perform tonight. I’m getting pretty tired and head back to the dorms, my head spinning.

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