Well, it was the first annual FLORIDA Cornerstone, and it went off real well. The fairgrounds it was held at was actually quite perfect for a festival of this size. There were three gargantuan covered areas, which housed the merchandise area flanked by two stages on either side. There was an even bigger indoor metal wall/roofed building that housed the indoor stage - and it was cooled to a nice and chilly 72 degrees (don't quote me on the #). With the Central Florida humidity being so thick, the heat was draining, but a visit to the indoor stage was relaxing and refreshing. While the indoor stage and the decapolis/label showcase outdoor stage had music scheduled simultaneously with the other two stages, at least the two big stages were staggered to start when one ended and vice-versa.
On to the music:
While it's impossible (and tiring) to catalog each performance, I will share a couple highlights:
Squad Five-O played tonight, showing a tightly packed crowd how its done down south. They ended with a frolicking encore that included the members of The Kick, which turned the "band" into a guitar army (4 six-stringers + 1 bass), plus 3 vocalists. The tune was "Rocking In The Free World," which would've made ole Neil proud.
Bruce Fitzhugh got a little sentimental in the Living Sacrifice set, which was nice and monstrous-sounding. While not as ferociously loud as I recall Cstone Illinois performances, it was still punishing and tight.
Lance Garvin joined ZAO (that's right) on drums for one of their 7 songs, which followed about 3 songs by new band Jade Meridian (made up of Russ Cogdell, Scott Mellinger, Shawn Koschik, and Stephen Peck). The sound of Jade Meridian is surprisingly melodic (Scott sings) and non-agressive, it still rocks pretty hard. The ZAO set that followed was a blast. Longtime friend/servant of ZAO, Jeremy Ween played drums for five of the songs, Garvin one, and none other than Cogdell for two ("At Zero" and "Autopsy"). While the big smile and perfectly sound drumming of Jesse Smith was missing, it was still ZAO songs being ripped heavily with the guitars of Mellinger and Cogell and that's hard to beat. I guess that was Dan Weyandt on lead vocals, which were very on; and Koschik's bass was solid. For the last song the band had to wait for Jeremy to climb back out of the lake, as he'd apparently thought the set was over, and then one last song played and it was done. No one knows if ZAO will play at Cstone IL or not, so it was special seeing this set.
Unwed Sailor put on an amazing little set, complete with hypnotic sounds, like the creaking of beams and boards from a big wooden ship and the sounds of waves, with the contemplative sounds of the band playing minimalistic notes.
Underoath put on an amazing show; The Party People played their very first gig, and it was happening; Starflyer sounded great. Brandtson sounded tight, as did Cool Hand Luke, who really mixed their melodies, hooks, and energy for a perfect blend of electric pop. The Violet Burning played an energetic rockin' set that was punctuated by Sam West's powerful drumming. The Glenn Kaiser Band also played a whale of a (blistering) boogie blues set on Friday in the cool indoor stage. Blindside was very very "on," which had the crowd responding back with more energy. Before ending with "Pitiful," the band performed an acoustic, sans drumming version of "Silence."
This is just a slight nibble of the many tastes on display these past two days. Kudos to Cornerstone for doing it right.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at May 11, 2003 01:00 AM