By the last day of Cornerstone, I’m always feeling tired and ready to sleep in my own bed. On the other hand, I know time is running out. I have to soak in every last of moment of the festival that I can before it ends. So I spend the whole day gloriously exhausted, but happy to be so. There are still some good bands to see before its all over.
Caroline Faust plays the first show of the day on the New Band Stage. Backed up by The Urban Sophisticates her set of jazzy pop music harkens back to an older style of music from artists like Ella Fitzgerald. The crowd really gets into it when The Urban Sophisticates give an encore performance at the end of Caroline’s show.
We then catch Escape From Earth, a total throwback to old theatric rock and roll combined with a modern alterna-pop sound. This band is a great deal of fun, featuring all sorts of pick tricks, bouncing them off of their guitars, throwing them in the air and catching in their mouth and all sorts of that. Throw in a cover of “Always Something There To Remind Me” and you’ve got a great show. It’s good to see rock and roll start being fun again.
We quickly catch the end of Nevertheless and then from there go to the Gallery stage to catch part of the show by Josh Garrels Garrels has a distinctive voice and was accompanied by some unique instrumentation, which helped set him apart from the typical singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar.
I was pretty tired by this point so I took some time to do a blog on the Cornerstone Festival website and rest a little bit. I could hear some of John Davis’ set from the Gallery Tent, but I was pretty worn out and the air conditioning felt good, so I stayed put. What I heard of the show sounded pretty good though. I did leave and go to the Gallery Tent for Judd and Maggie. They are backed by a big name label, but they are still a little rough around the edges for me. To their credit, I did really enjoy their home spun folk sound and look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
Next is Leigh Nash on the Gallery Stage. I have to confess that I was a little apprehensive about this show. The last couple of times I had seen Sixpence None the Richer it just seemed like they were slogging through the show and they were weighed down by so much emotional baggage. So, I came into the show wondering if it would actually be enjoyable with Matt Slocum’s absence. I’m happy to say the show was one of the most pleasant surprises of the week. Nash was refreshed and invigorated and her new songs were perfect for her voice. She sang “It Is Well With My Soul” a capella with the crowd and even indulged the crowd in an encore of “Kiss Me.” I was very happy to see her have a good show and her facial expressions are so cute.
Only at Cornerstone can you go straight from Leigh Nash to P.O.D. The band has been a Main Stage staple for years now and they were essentially the grand finale of the festival. As always, the band was powerful and energetic. We were somewhat disapointed that there were no pyrotechnics at their show this year as we had been looking forward to it all week. It’s not my style, but that’s the beauty of Cornerstone. There are so many opportunities to check out so many styles.
I’ve been thinking about the diversity of the festival and to bring it all around to the beginning of the festival I have been thinking about the protestors that greeted us the first day. The signs read “Cornerstone Dishonors God” and they had a list of reasons why the festival dishonored God mostly to due with the appearance of the people at the festival and they acts/films they allow to perform here.
Maybe it’s that diversity that disturbs some people here and exhilirates others. Were there things here at the festival that dishonored God? Surely there had to be. At a place with this many people, some sinful things are inevitably going to happen. However, at the same time, I saw a lot that honored God. I saw people in fellowship, people in prayer, people in worship, people in deep discussion. I’m not sure you can use a blanket statement to condemn such a diverse enivronment where so many right and wrong things are happening. Thank goodness, I can praise God for right things that I exprienced here.
All of my pictures for Cornerstone are now uploaded to Flickr!