The Cornerstone Tradition

Tuesday 07.22.2008 11:27PM

It is safe to say that after 12 years now, going to Cornerstone Festival is a summer tradition for me. This was the 25th anniversary festival and I realized that after next year, I will have been to half of them. It is truly an awesome, refreshing experience for me that I hope to continue indefinitely.

This year started out a bit rough. The plan was to leave Tuesday morning, and Monday night I started to feel sick – nauseous, cold chills, a fever. It came out of nowhere, so I was hopeful that it was just a 24-hour bug. I drank lots of water, took some more cowbell, and by morning my fever had gone down and I was feeling better. We (being Doug, Isha, and myself) left mid-day Tuesday as planned. We camped closer to the main area this year, got a good spot with some shade, right next to the pond. It was peaceful.

This was a light year for me musically, there were not a lot of bands I “had” to see, and honestly I did not go through the schedule in-depth, so I mostly hung out with Doug and Isha at shows they were going to. The favorites that I had to see were Cool Hand Luke (twice, plus the surprise of a new record) and Sixpence None the Richer (back together forever). I saw Photoside Cafe with Isha and was blown away by their acoustic rock (with violin and cello). Not sure about their recordings, but this band is great live. I cannot forget to mention that Skillet's main stage production was one of the best I have seen there – amazing lights and pyrotechnics.

For the 25th anniversary night on July 4th, they closed down everything except for the main stage, which had a diverse line-up of bands from Cornerstone past and present. It was a trip to see Michael Gungor Band – I went to Russia in 1996 with him! The Glorious Unseen was an ambient/indie worship group that I was really impressed with. Charlie Peacock led the thousands there in a candlelit communion service and played some worship, including “In the Light” (popularized by DC Talk). David Crowder Band closed out the night; his songs are not all really my style, but it's definitely a fun experience of worship music. The man is also very entertaining, not just in appearance, but with references to Super Mario Brothers and other throwbacks. Fireworks closed out the night. It was a very spiritually refreshing night for me.

Reading my post about last year, I'm struck by how much things have changed. It seems so long ago. My heart incident was much more fresh, of course. I had only come home from my mom's house about a week or so before and Cornerstone was my first “big trip”. I was really cautious, drank gallons of water, wore my emergency bracelet the whole time. Now it's like second nature and I hardly give those things a thought. Last year I wondered why that girl was so excited and emotional to see me. Now Isha is a really close friend who I quite fancy.

The dates for next year's festival are June 29 - July 4 and you should plan on going! We have already recruited a couple more friends to go. I'm really looking forward to it – the more the merrier!

You should also read Isha's longer, better account and Doug's review covering plenty of bands.

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Long post, but lots of clicky things

Monday 07.09.2007 11:36PM

That time of the year has come and gone again – the week where a bunch of crazy people from around the world all decide to go camping in Bushnell, Illinois: Cornerstone Festival. This was my 11th year at the festival and a pretty special year for several reasons:

  • I was alive and my condition was recovered to the point that the doctors said I could go.
  • Since we're getting “older” and friends get careers and families, fewer of us go each year. My friend Doug was able to go, though, which was cool because he missed last year. Also, without him I likely would not have ventured there on my own.
  • Meeting people who had been praying and thinking about me during my whole ordeal – people who I had not met before. Humbling and encouraging; that's community.
  • Excellent weather. Low 80s with a breeze most of the week, and chilly nights.
  • Refreshment. This week of the year is always a refreshing one for me, but this year seemed even moreso. I love the diversity there, but still with a common sense of community.

Tuesday we drove out there and found a good camp spot next to some friendly Oklahomans. It had rained a fair bit during our drive there, but thankfully no rain had hit the festival yet, so we set up on dry ground. After settling in, we set out to meet up with my friend Isha, who hadn't seen me since before my “incident” (ok, so I still don't really know what term to use to refer to all that). She was excited to see me and gave me a hug; she's a sweetheart. She had cooking responsibilities for their group, so Doug and I wandered around and caught a really good band (Soular) playing on one of the generator stages. New, unexpected music like that is part of the fun of the festival.

It started raining, so we hung around under the stage tents for some Tooth & Nail bands, then went to the merch tents. Nicole, from the Eisley forum, had gotten in touch with me the week before and told me she was going to be there helping (wo)man the booth for her friend's company, Job Apparel Collective. Meeting people that you “know” online for the first time is always an interesting thing (a good interesting, thankfully – in most of my experiences). We had not really communicated outside the forum, but I guess that was enough because there was no awkwardness, it was more like seeing a friend you just have not talked to in a while. She and her church group had been praying for me, which is pretty awesome. Despite her claim of being “shy”, she gave me a hug, which was a nice surprise. Hugs are awesome by the way, and I had two that day.

Wednesday I don't remember a lot about the day. I think I mostly wandered since there was not much music I wanted to see. The weather started off nice, but by afternoon I believe it was raining again. I was excited to see Cool Hand Luke at midnight, so Doug and I went a bit early to get a decent spot. They were great, as usual. I was pretty tired and sometimes their melodic songs did not really help, but I stayed for the whole set.

Thursday was a rough morning. I was volunteering at the fest during the mornings and didn't have a full nights sleep due to the midnight concert (Cornerstone isn't really about “getting much sleep” anyway). During the afternoon I decided to get my first shower of the fest. Yeah, sometime on Tuesday there was a problem with the wells on the fest grounds, so there was no water in the shower houses until Wednesday evening (otherwise yes, I would have showered sooner). Thursday evening was pretty much a no-brainer for me, The Violet Burning, Rosie Thomas, Leigh Nash, and Over the Rhine all played at the same stage. The only conflict was Starflyer 59, which I split half and half with Leigh's set. I didn't make it through much of Over the Rhine, they were the midnight set and I was too tired to do that two nights in a row, so I went to bed after a few songs.

Rosie Thomas was the highlight of that evening. She has such an amazing voice, then when she talks she sounds like a little girl. It's not an act, she just has a totally different singing voice. She's quite an entertainer all-around, saying a lot of funny things between or during songs. Her brother played piano with her and she introduced him, “this is my brother on piano... we just played a love song together. If you think your life is pathetic... you're doing fine.” Of course this is in her little-girl speaking voice and she giggles a fair bit, so that makes it even funnier. She kept making mention of “after the show maybe Sheila will show up” and it turns out that Sheila is her alter-ego stand-up comedian character; she had us laughing so hard.

Friday afternoon I caught a screening of What Would Jesus Buy? which was quite a funny and thought-provoking documentary about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It will be in theaters this December, I recommend checking it out. I ran into Dana there, another Eisleyforumoid that I met a couple years ago at Cornerstone, so we talked for a bit. I went to Whitecross for a little bit with Doug, which was cool and funny at the same time. I left before they played their song I like most, “In the Kingdom”. (Teen Mania people who for some reason are unaware, that's the video that has Ron Luce and Dave Hasz in it.)

Saturday afternoon Nicole and I were hanging out and we decided to go by Dana's camp site to see if we could get an Eisley forum group picture, but unfortunately she had already left the day prior. Scott was there, though; he used to be in the (great) band General Sherman with Dana. It's a good thing we went by there, he was actually looking for a ride back to Minneapolis, which is where Nicole's group happened to be heading. He had a couple other options, but by the end of the night they had all fallen through, so he was able to catch a ride with them. If we had not gone over there, he very well might still be stuck at Cornerstone today. The three of us hung out that evening and saw some good music. My favorite was probably Timbre, an amazing harpist. She apparently plays with mewithoutYou and some other bands, but this was her own stuff and it was beautiful. “If Radiohead and Sigur Ros had a baby and it played a harp, it might sound a little like this when it grew up.”

Despite being really tired (long week), I had a lot of fun that night, probably because it's the “last blast” and I knew we all had to go our separate ways the next day. Leaving is always a bit sad as “real life” needs to resume, but there's always next year. I think I've talked Jamie (the male version) from the Eisley forum to go next year, and apparently we're going to have a “pun-off” since we're both pretty good/bad (perspective) with puns. Ok, this post is far too long now. Congratulations and thanks if you read through all of it.

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Cornerstone X

Wednesday 07.12.2006 11:08AM

So this was my tenth year in a row at the Cornerstone Festival (dang, I'm getting old) and it probably goes without saying that I had a great time (why else would I keep going?). The weather this year was awesome, low 80s most of the time with a breeze and no rain. Typically the weather can be crazy and it's not uncommon for it to pour at least one day during the fest.

This year was odd in some respects. For one, I missed camping with Doug and Sheryl since they weren't able to come this year. Same for the Ohio crew that we usually camp with, or at least hang out with. There were several other friends who came with us for the first time though, including the Wolfy crew (“Wolfy. So hot right now. Wolfy.”). They played one of the generator stages on Wednesday, then the New Band Showcase on Thursday – got quite a good response and sold 50 CDs at Thursday's show.

Other musical highlights of the week included Mute Math, Cool Hand Luke, and those talented Iowans in General Sherman (musicians, unicyclists, and yo-yoers). They'll be playing in Indy on July 28th, by the way.

Next year it's June 25 - 30. You should consider coming.

Hello, Control Currently Listening
Hello, Control
by Brandtson

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8 years and counting

Friday 07.09.2004 06:21AM

I was told a day or two ago that I “need to update.” I already knew that, of course, it was just a matter of deciding what to write specifically, since I had a lot of ideas and trains of thought going on.

So, Cornerstone.

We camped in “The Shire”, which is quite an appropriate name as the terrain really reminded me of The Shire. No hobbits or earthen homes with round doors, though. Since I work nights at FedEx, I volunteered to drive out there right after I got off work, in order to get in the gates early and get a good camp spot. Once I got there, most of the day was spent napping since I was exhausted from driving straight through (coffee was my friend during the drive). Eventually the rest of the crew (Sheryl, Seren, Doug, and Mark) got there.

Cool Hand Luke was the first very notable concert I saw. I caught a bit of them last year, but this time I saw their full show and wow.. they are amazing. The music is fabulous, of course, but their attitude and song content is what makes it so much better. They're quite humble guys, and totally serious about their faith and using their music as outreach. Some Christian bands are corny/fake when they say “we give all the glory to God”, but these guys go a step further to make it clear that they're not seeking glory at all, that their songs are for God's glory and that they're not just for entertainment, either. They weave Scripture throughout their songs in clever ways, too, rebuking and exhorting Christians at various times.

Their sincerity, integrity, and creativity will all combine to make them quite effective in their outreach, I think; whereas I honestly find a majority of Christian music that is supposedly geared to “outreach” just ends up preaching cliches to the choir. You can preview their new album on their site. I strongly recommend them.

we all follow
but we're standing still
reciting dead words
with hopeless zeal
we're all preachers
with our mouths closed
clothing messages
in sugar coats

Then OC Supertones was the other highlight of the first night. I don't know if they were at Cornerstone last year, but if so they were probably at Main Stage. Main Stage is Ok, but honestly it's so huge and wide open that it's not as much fun as, say, the Encore stages. Since they were playing the Encore 2 stage and I hadn't seen them in a while, I was looking forward to it. It started off quite nicely when Matt, the singer, came out and very authoritatively and loudly declared “starting now we are declaring WAR on all the kids who think they're too cool to dance!”, which got a good reaction out of the crowd. And dance we did. Skanking, moshing, getting the sweat of 20 or 50 people on you - great times. They played a fair amount of their older stuff, too, which is nice because it's more ska and thus easier to dance to.

Having gone for 8 years now, I think I'm enjoying the non-music aspects of the festival a lot more, even more than the music. It's just awesome to meet all sorts of fellow believers from across the nation (and world), and realize how diverse the Church really is. Plus, seeing the Church in action in a way that we don't, typically - being the Church, apart from any particular church building or church program/organization. It serves as a good refueling time and encouragement to continue to be the Church every day, not just at Cornerstone. At least that's how I view it. So the music is great and I still enjoy it, of course, but there's a lot more to it than just that. As it's been said many times before, I'm sure, “it was never just about the music.”

So if you haven't been before, I highly recommend you do whatever you can to make it at least once. I'm pretty sure this will/has become an annual tradition for me, so hopefully I'll see you there sometime.

I wanna hide beneath the pretty paint
I wanna be okay with everything
I wanna be transformed and stay the same
I wanna be dry in the rain

running in thie stupid circle
running in this stupid circle
our souvenirs won't be worth a single thing
and TRUTH will never be “in”

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