I blogged here about the seminars Sean C and I attended at the Cornerstone Festival. I promised a wrapup about the bands we saw… so here it is.
I’ll give a little summary for each, but not any kind of “rating” because everyone we saw was great… I was impressed by everyone that we actually watched.
After typing some of this… I’m realizing how long its gonna be… I’m gonna bury the summaries in the link below.
LOST DOGS - Wednesday - July 5 - 10:00 PM
This is Christian music’s oldest “supergroup”. (They know they are old so I can say that!) Mike Roe of the 77s, Derry Daugherty of The Choir, and Terry Taylor of Daniel Amos. Missing from the original lineup is Gene Eugene from Adam Again who passed away in 2000. Steve Hindalong (The Choir) played percussion for this set and I’m not sure if he’s a permanent fixture in the band now or not. The songs were a great mix of thought-provoking (Imagine That, Rock Mountain Mines, Crushing Hands) and whimsical (Bad Indigestion) and a few off the new CD (Broken Like Brooklyn, Devil’s Elbow, That’s Where Jesus Is). I’ve been a fan from almost the beginning… the Little Red Riding Hood album in 1993… but this was my first chance to see them live. I’m so grateful for the opportunity. Great show. Great fun!
77s - Wednesday - July 5 - MIDNIGHT
This has been my favorite band since the early 1990s. Until I heard the 77s, Christian music meant (to me) MWS and Amy Grant. Then… thanks to Jeremy G (from CCF Truman State) I heard this “voice calling in the wilderness” so to speak. I know now that other bands like this existed… but at the time it was my first chance to hear a band that played music with themes like doubt and pain and heartbreak… it just sounded so real… and seemed like the songs were written from that crossroads where all of the emotions of life intersect with the scriptures. It was meaningful to me then and remains so to this day. I really enjoyed getting to finally see the 77s live and to shake the hands of some of my “heroes”.
Here’s the set list:
- Perfect Blues
- Dave’s Blues
- Rocks In Your Head
- Woody
- City of Refuge
- Blue Sky
- The Gig is Up
- The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes, and the Pride of Life
- Outskirts
- Nobody’s Fault But Mine
- Can’t Get Over It
- Do It For Love
The Violet Burning - Thursday - July 6 - 4:10PM
I heard of this band years ago… but only earlier this year gave them a good listen. I got their most recent album (Drop-Dead… as in “drop-dead gorgeous”… not “I wish he’d drop dead) and was HOOKED right off. Fortunately, they played several songs of that album… but the other songs made me want to get the rest of their albums ASAP. This is a GREAT GREAT band. If not for my long history as a fan of the 77s… TVB would probably be tops for me. If you like The Cure and/or U2 and/or The Beatles you’ll probably like TVB. This is one of the few Christian bands that truly has their own sound and style… not a copy of something secular. For some psychotic reason… they only had 50 minutes for their set and they jammed it full of great music and spiritual themes. Frontman Mike Pritzl seemed to me what it would be like if Henri Nouwen was in a rock band. I know that’s kinda weird, but that is what I kept thinking.
Copeland - Thursday - July 6 - 7:40PM
I had never heard of this band… but apparently they are pretty popular. I can see why. I did like their music… but I didn’t know any songs so it was a little hard to get into. The frontman is very talented… switching instruments often and has a nice voice. It was nice to just hang out and listen to Copeland. This is currently one of David Crowder’s favorite bands.
Anberlin - Thursday - July 6 - 8:55PM
I had never heard of this band either. If I didn’t look at them I liked them… but I found the lead singer to be too much “Rod Stewart” for my liking… visually I’m saying. And he might have even been wearing ladies jeans… but I can’t say for sure. I didn’t know a single song… but it seemed like everyone else at Main Stage knew ALL the songs… and they did rock. The energy level was very high and they were having as much fun playing as the fans were listening.
David Crowder Band - Thursday - July 6 - 10:15PM
This was a big highlight. I’ve always liked how David Crowder seems to focus on the glory and majesty of God in the lyrics he writes. The songs are fun and scriptural. Due to the nature of his songs… this was the only performance where the words were displayed on the big video screen. It was fun to sing along. Crowder is funny and engaging. He led the audience in whistling and got a great response when he pulled out the keytar. He opened with “Undignified” and rocked for 90+ minutes straight. One of my current favs is “O Praise Him” and he did that one so that was cool. Go see Crowder if you get the chance.
Over the Rhine - Thursday - July 6 - MIDNIGHT
I had heard of Over the Rhine but not sure I’d ever heard any music by them. We went on the recommendation of our camping neighbors. To tell you the truth… we were WIPED OUT by the time we hiked up the hill after Crowder. We pitched our chairs and I was really enjoying the “lounge” style of the music when the song ended and the piano player said it was OK if we fell asleep. I’m glad he wasn’t offended… because I was in and out of sleep quite a bit while listening to the sweet sound of Over the Rhine. Apparently they have many different styles… and we caught them on a simple and soft night. I’m glad… and I’m a fan.
Krystal Myers - Friday - July 7 - 7:40PM
I thought about leaving this off… as I’m not sure I’m ready to live with the kidding about going to a “chick-rock” band. But the truth will set us free, right? And the truth is… Krystal Myers is good when she’s singing… and really weird when she’s talking. Another truth is that Sean and I played cribbage during her whole set. Another truth is that she’s really big in Japan… which means she’s probably big in Taiwan too… and that’s cool because her music is clean and most popular western music in Asia is not clean.
MxPx - Friday - July 7 - 8:55PM
Another band I’d heard of… but I didn’t seen to recognize any songs besides “Punk Rock Show”. This band has been around a while and have a huge following. I liked their music although it was new to me. I’m always amazed at how full of a sound can be produced in trios… and this was no exception… great music and a fun time for the fans as we were all getting ready for the next band we saw… Relient K.
Relient K - Friday - July 7 - 10:15PM
Thank you Alex Cobb for introducing me to Relient K when you were in Taiwan last year. We were playing cards and listening to music and I kept cracking up at the lyrics… ends up it was Relient K. I quickly procured their records and they’ve kept me laughing ever since. I don’t really know how old these guys are… but they are way to young to write such ridiculously true lyrics. Sean C and I got up close for this one and we were the only people over 30 up there. It was a blast… and the time passed quickly. We tried not to drop the people body surfing although we didn’t participate in such activity ourselves… Once I got kicked in the head and my glasses flew off… I gave them up for dead, but they providentially flipped over my head and into Sean’s hand. A little bent… but they actually fit better now than before so that is cool. In addition to the usual favorites “Sadie Hawkins Dance” and “Be My Escape”, etc… they played a “Top Gun Medley” with songs from that great 80’s movie - Top Gun. Wow… what fun!
Dead Poetic - Friday - July 7 - MIDNIGHT
Sean and I had heard of DP and we knew they were from the “scream-o” genre… but we didn’t know any songs… and we didn’t care. We just chilled out and listened to some great rock songs and really not as much screaming as I would have thought. Not much else to say here as we couldn’t understand a single word.
Day of Fire - Saturday - July 8 - 6:30PM
This is a pretty new band… but they are also pretty good. I have their recent album (Cut and Move) and it is pretty good so I wanted to see them live. It was good… and rocked… but I really have nothing more to report so I’ll move on.
Project 86 - Saturday - July 8 - 7:40PM
I was there… I promise… but I seem to not remember anything about this except where I was sitting. I think I must have been tired.
Leigh Nash - Saturday - July 8 - 8:40
I think I talked Sean into this… but neither of us were disappointed. You might not know Leigh Nash… but you might know her old band Sixpence None the Richer… and even if you don’t know them… you’d know their hit song “Kiss Me”. Sixpence has split up now… although Leigh was sure to share that they are all still friends. Mostly… she sang songs off of her upcoming album… her first solo album. The songs are perfect for her. She closed by singing “It Is Well (With My Soul)” acappella and reading the words off of a sheet of paper. She is funny and honest. She came back out and sang “Kiss Me”. Guys… if you want to get something your wife will really like to listen to… get Leigh Nash’s new album (Blue on Blue) when it comes out on August 15th. Actually… go buy it on the website and for $12 you’ll get an autographed copy… a free live CD… and free shipping. Cool. Welcome back Leigh.
P.O.D. - Saturday - July 8 - 10:15PM
I’m not sure what to say… other than their big hits… I didn’t know much else. I also didn’t realize they did so much reggae… but I loved it. Tons of energy… tons of fun… tons of loudness… nice. The only thing that disappointed me was that I kept thinking that fire was going to shoot out from behind the 2 huge lion heads mounted one on each side of the stage. They did have red eyes at least.
Disciple - Saturday - July 8 - MIDNIGHT
OK… this is Sean’s favorite band… or is at least one of his favorites. I probably wouldn’t have gone if that were not the case… but I would have missed out BIG TIME. These guys rocked harder than anything else I saw all week. What a great way to finish the festival! The songs truly ROCK… and the lyrics are straightforward about Jesus. There was preaching (excellent by the way!) and praying and lots of jumping and slamming and general mayhem. I’m not sure how much Disciple I’ll actually listen to as I’m usually trying to get stuff done while I listen to music and Disciple rocks WAY TOO HARD for me to get stuff done to… but I’d love to see them again sometime if it worked out.
Well… there ya go… the Cornerstone wrapup. I’d love to go again sometime… in fact I’d go every year with my family if we lived in the USA. We’d camp out… we’d make friends… we’d take in the seminars… we’d swim… paint… rock out… and eat lots of trail mix and Ramen noodles. And I’ll bring a can opener and towel next time.
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1 Living Beyond Ourselves » Blog Archive » First 10 Songs // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:47 am
[...] was when I saw them at the 2006 Cornerstone Festival with Scott. You can read about that experience here. As you can see from Cornerstone, they finished their set with Do It For Love. It was [...]
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