Man, the Cornerstone Festival was really cool this year. I don't know what the numbers were (as far as attendance), but there was several generator stages and lots of pedestrian traffic jams at various points and parts of the festival.
As I Lay Dying put on a ferociously tough show. The energy was flowing both ways, as lead singer Tim Lambesis paced the stage. At one point near the end he stopped to talk about faith. He mentioned how faith should embody or cover or find its way expressed in all areas of our lives. He posed the question that if our faith was not working its way out in each area of our lives, then we need to re-examine what our faith is in. Very cool. It's so refreshing to hear someone say something that affirms, challenges, and encourages faith -- especially when they don't have to. You know? We're in a new environment where people have been set free from "proving their faith," so it's cool to see someone speak out when they just as easily could've remained silent and not caused a legalistic fuss.
Becoming The Archetype is all that we heard they were -- tough, brutal metal. It's funny how they rail against the proliferation of metal-core this and metal hybrid of that. They're bringing the metal aggression and distortion the way it thrives -- heavy and intensely.
Mike Pritzl led some moving and recognizable worship (accompanied by John & Michele Thompson) for a special service on the mainstage Saturday night, which was followed by a cool testimony message by David Nasser. It was neat to hear about his conversion and love relationship to Christ, which began with their family fleeing Iran in the late 70s with prayer cries to Jesus that coincided with their passage through immigration as political asylum. It reminded me of a cool time of Cornerstone's past when most everyone gathered at the mainstage for a corporate time. That unity feels real good. Those days are long gone, but these attempts to recapture that are good things.
David Eugene Edwards put on an eclectic and passionate (can I say "quirky"?) performance like you'd expect. It was is he was exorcising demons with his solid jaw and serious crooning and odd instrumentation. This guy is simply a great performer. I had to see his Woven Hand act and would go see him again and again. I'd love to see him on a stage with an old derby hat atop his head over a basket of rattle snakes that he would handle (but that's just a little fanciful thinking on my part...).
The Choir played a nice "evening encore" on the Gallery Stage on Friday night. A few brand new songs and hit after hit came pouring out of this solid band, which now features Marc Byrd on second guitar. It was funny to hear Steve Hindalong reveal a doubt he was having about pulling off a difficult drum fill towards the end of a new song they were about to play. I'll be danged if I didn't engage in a conversation towards the end and missed my opportunity to see/hear if he flubbed it or nailed it. I assume the latter, since no one guffawed.
John Davis put on a spirited performance that showed the stripped-down and raw nature of his songwriting. Accompanied by members of The Lonely Hearts, he wailed away in a bluesy fashion, coupled by much godly encouragement and chatter. It's hard not to love the enthusiasm that this guys bubbles with.
I missed a lot of performances at Cornerstone this year. I went with my family and was responsible for my youngin's, but I saw all the HM Magazine performances, and I was thrilled and pleased at the shows they turned in.
The Showdown ruled. Nodes of Ranvier were heavier and tighter than when I'd seen them last (which means they're great now). Still Remains put on a great show with good sound and a crowd that sang along to their songs. How great is that? When I introduced Gods, who took the place of Extol, I explained why the Norweigan metal band wasn't present. When I polled the audience, "How many of you haven't heard about Extol not being here?" more raised their hands than I expected. It was a bummer to bring a crowd down with disappointment when I was supposed to be getting them excited for Jesse Smith's new band, Gods. I felt sorry for them as so many people left throughout their set. Their music is good in its own right, though.
Once Dead wasn't only Vengeance Rising without Roger Martinez, they were sans Larry Farkas and Glen Mancaruso as well. Glen was replaced by Jim Chaffin a while ago (and some of us knew that to be the case), but poor Larry missed his flight from LA and the dad-gum people at the airlines failed to get him another flight as he waited at the airport for 30 hours. So Doug Thieme had the unenviable task of handling a two-guitar band all by himself. The chunky waves of rhythm were still as meaty and powerful as ever (just not as lively and frenetic), bringing back years of massive riffage that their old band created.
I need to add more to this recap later. I must start my weekend.
Be encouraged this weekend by this reminder:
God has saved us by His grace. It is not the Law that saves us, but faith. Paul warned us in Galatians 3 that we can't finish what was started by the Spirit with our flesh. We can't make ourselves good enough and carry on the work of the Spirit without the Spirit. Legalism and laws are only good for one thing -- to point us to our Savior. With His help we can do some cool things (and we ought to be about doing those things at some point), but we can't forget Who is changing us and giving us our Life by the Spirit. It's not complicated, but us humans almost regularly seem to need to be reminded of this.