After the amazing and jam-packed day on Thursday, I felt like maybe the rest of the festival would be a let-down as I started to get tired from 3 AM night times and being away from home. Thankfully, there was still a lot of great concerts to see and Friday was a pleasant surprise.

The Urban Sophisticates start things off right on the New Band Stage. It doesn’t seem right that a band that has already earned critical and popular praise at Cornerstone should have to start over again at this stage, but the band played well enough to win the crowd all over again. Their brand of hip hop and horns was smooth and hypnotic and reminded me somewhat of The Roots. Caroline Faust joined the band on vocals for a couple of songs and plays her own set tommorrow.

I catch a couple songs of Luminate on the Impromptu Stage before heading over to the Gallery Stage. Chuck and Jerry are working the merchandise and cameras for Jeff Elbel, so I show up early to see Allie Peden who plays a folksy set of Americana music featuring a Dolly Parton cover. Jeff Elbel and Ping follow on the Gallery Stage unveiling a ensemble featuring Jeff’s tounge-in-cheek humor. The highlight of the show for me was an incredible cover of U2’s b-side “North and South of the River.” The show also featured Jerry’s debut on the Gallery Stage throwing t-shirts to the crowd. There’s only one way up from here, Jerry. Mainstage is next.

For dinner, we retreated to the quiet part the grounds for dinner at a campsite. I don’t think I had ever been to this part of the festival area. I didn’t know that such a quiet, peaceful part of Cornerstone even existed. It was sort of nice to get away from the noise of the generator bands and crowds of people. We sat around and had good conversation as the day began to close. This is part of Cornerstone almost as much as seeing the bands.

I didn’t really have any big preference for what I wanted to see in evening, so we all hike around the lake down to Main Stage again. We see MxPx and their entire punk rock show. Surprisingly, I actually recognized a couple of the songs and even more surprisingly I actually enjoyed the show. I’m not a punk fan, but it was actually a lot of fun. Afterwards, Relient K took the stage. This band is infectous, but I left the show early because there was a show at the Gallery Stage that I didn’t want to miss. I was kicking myself though as they launched into a “Top Gun” suite as I was walking out of the ampitheatre. I’m sorry I had to leave.

I was even sorrier when I arrived the Gallery Stage because Ester Drang was still soundchecking when I arrived. I could’ve stayed and seen the “Top Gun” suite. Grrr. Nonetheless, I actually enjoyed Ester Drang’s set quite a bit. The material on their newest album seems a little more focused and less abstract, almost like a movie soundtrack. The music was beautiful and enjoyable. Starflyer 59 finished up the evening at the Gallery Stage. The show was short and sort of non-descript. Not really what I would’ve expected from a midnight Gallery Stage show.

Tommorrow is the last day. I’m tired, but I’ve got energy for one more day.