The day started out with a couple of Internet meet-ups with people. The first was the RMC BBQ which seems to be increasingly fractured and distant to me. At one time I was an integral part of RMC, but I probably haven’t visited that newsgroup in almost 10 years now and I don’t know many of the people there. On the other hand, I then attended the first ever “tweet-up” at Cornerstone which was a face-to-face meeting of various Twitter users at the festival. This meeting was much more fun for me as I met several people from across the US and even two brothers from the UK.
After that, it was back tot the concerts. One of the more heavily promoted shows around the festival this week has been the All The Day Holiday show. A good sized crowd showed up and their show was great. I made sure to pick up their new album which they had for a great deal. Following that I quickly caught a bit of the show by And Then There Were None, a metal group that has changed into a pop group with a techno background. It was unusual, but the cover of “Heaven” by Bryan Adams was pretty entertaining. From there, I went over to the Gallery Stage where Allan Aguirre and his family (made famous by Wife Swap) were performing as a new band playing ambient worship music. Calling themselves Men As Trees Walking, the new group was soothing and peaceful, a stark contrast to the vast majority of bands at Cornerstone.
One of the best parts of Cornerstone is that it’s not just a bunch of concerts by a bunch of anonymous people. The more times you go to Cornerstone, the more relationships you build an soon it’s not just concerts, it’s concerts by friends.
Today was such a day. I was torn when I saw the schedule and saw that the wildly entertaining bands Family Force 5 and Relient K were playing on the main stage, but I knew I would be staying up at the Gallery Stage all day today. First Jeff Elbel + Ping would be playing and then a conglomeration called the Square Peg Alliance would be following him.
Jeff Elbel started at Cornersone with his band Farewell to Juliet many moons ago, but year after year he returns to do had work behind the stage as a guitar tech and then take the front of the stage with his band, Ping. Jeff’s shows always feel like a gathering of friends as his sense of humor and catchy songs are welcoming and intimate. This year, his set gave me a chance to make my debut on the Gallery Stage as I leaped up on stage to take a family photo of the band. A couple years ago Jerry came out on stage to throw t-shrts to the crowd, well now we’re even!
Following him, the nine person group formed for the purposes of awesome, The Square Peg Alliance took the stage. Eight of the Square Pegs, Andy Gullahorn, Andrew Peterson, Eric Peters, Ben Shive, Randall Goodgame, Andrew Osenga, Jeremy Casella, and Jill Phillips all took the stage together. The ninth, Derek Webb would be headlining later in the evening. The Square Pegs are not only musicians together, but they also friends living close to each other in Nashville. The close community of friendship makes their collaborations authentic and their performances feel real. Each of them adds a unique sense of humor and talent to the shows as each of them performed individually and also backed each other up on all of the songs.
After an intermission, the Square Pegs came back out for another set of songs. The crowd, which was a little quiet and unfamilar with these artists, started to warm up to them in the second set and the artists delivered another great set of songs. Derek Webb, the ninth Square Peg who would be headlining his own show arrived late, so the Square Pegs went longer than expected. Of course, they had plenty of material to draw from since each of the artists has multiple albums, so adding in some extra songs was no problem. All told, they played about four hours total which is a long concert for anyone.
Derek Webb did finally arrive and after some initial guitar issues, played a solo set of songs featuring some of his favorites and gave us a sneak preview of his new album Stockholm Syndrome. Derek has never been one to shy away from controversy and some of the material on his new album has caused some issues with his label. In the meantime, he has been unveiling new material by way of an Alternate Reality Game online. Check out http://www.derekwebb.com and see if you can follow the rabbit trail to hidden goodies on the web.
At the end of the evening, I checked out Copeland on one of the Encore Stages. They rocked it out a little more than previous times that I had seen them before and I really enjoyed the show.
The sense of community of friendship is strong draw to Cornerstone. Many people come to the festival first for the concerts, but after coming several years, many keep coming back for the relationships, both on the stage and off the stage.