Great show yesterday in San Antonio.
Stretch Arm Strong opened up a huge show at San Antonio's Sunken Gardens Amphitheater. Also on the bill were MxPx, Good Charlotte, and New Found Glory.
This was THE show to be at for a young male. The ratio was something like 20 girls for every boy. Wow.
Stretch kicked butt. A couple new songs, as well as "For The Record" and "I Melt With You."
MxPx came out to the intro of The Who's "Baba O'Reilly," to which they played along with for a few measures once plugged in. They whipped through several songs, including two new ones that were really good. The first (I think) was called "Broken Hearted," and had big hooks and a great melody. The second was really heavy, with some metal drumming that was nice. They closed off with "Punk Rawk Show," to which Herrera introduced as a song, "we've been playing for ten years and a song we'll play until we die."
Both bands did a professional and courteous job of warming up the crowd for Good Charlotte (who returned the favor to MxPx, who took them out on the road last year) and New Found Glory.
Two interns are arriving this week, to get a taste of deadline right away. We hope to have our files shipped to the printer on Friday, and take in a nice 3-day weekend.
Great show last night in Austin. Most enjoyable Pedro set I've seen.
Bunch of old album review archives going up today, thanks to Katvia, a German exchange student who decided to help us out today.
Deadline is close to being over. Great content this issue -- Stretch Arm Strong cover story, Bruce Cockburn, Daniel Lanois, Blind Boys of Alabama, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Nodes of Ranvier, Duvall...tons more.
Later
This just in from Bruce Fitzhugh:
Hey all.
this is it for real this time. Due to personal family obligations and issues that have recently come up, Living Sacrifice will not continue to tour after next week. We are very sorry to have to cancel our west coast dates and all others in June and July. Our final shows are listed below. If you would, please get the word out so that these final shows will be successful.
We have no plans to do any other tours or albums as we feel that the time has come to move on. thanks to all of you who have been a part of Living Sacrifice and the success we have had over the last 13 years. God Bless you all.
Bruce, Lance, Arthur, Matthew, Rocky and Cory.
Final shows:
5/13 Memphis, TN @ the Rivers Edge
5/15 Omaha, NE @ The Ranch Bowl
5/16 Minneapolis, MN @ the New Union
5/17 Elgin, IL @ the Wonderland Ballroom
5/18 Indianapolis, IN @ Emerson Theater
6/28 Little Rock, AR @ Vino's
7/5 Bushnell, IL @ Cornerstone Festival
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.
Hitting the airport in a couple hours.
This week has been busy (selling ads for the July/August issue, getting ready for the fest, and keeping up with the day to day magazine things and odd deals we're involved with). It should be fun to relax and hear some great music.
If you're coming to the fest, please come by and say hi.
I take the "back roads" to work often - to avoid the traffic on the main roads due to construction. On the way in today, I saw a red pickup truck (probably a Ford, because "Ford is the best in Texas" the jingle says) plowing through the tall grain, driving in big curves and circles. Curious, I kept an eye on it. When I was closer, I saw that it was corralling a gazelle, which was sprinting away at high speed, carving a nice line in the tall grass. Beautiful sight.
Then I saw two zebras standing side by side, enjoying each other's company. Further down there was a large but tight circle of probably 50 to 60 deer all sitting down, with one deer in the middle standing up, as if he were addressing the crowd. Then he bent down and rubbed his nose and head on the ground, his little tail sticking up in the air and wagging with fervor.
Did you know that the big base that sticks out and where people get in and out of a submarine is called a "conning tower?"
My weekend in Houston was very enjoyable - even though the South Texas heat sapped every ounce of energy outta me. The festival is put on by a self-professed nobody named Bob Hamilton. He was the guy spotted roaring across the property in a Harley before most of the attendees arrived. He basically puts on a show for teens, hip hop and R&B enthusiasts, and little kids. There were moon walks, puppet shows, and back to back concerts on three stages. Sure, I was expecting a bunch of local talent that was large on "good hearts" and small on musical talent, but I was surprised and impressed with the guts and unapologetic staging of deathcore bands playing the mainstage at noontime. That's just cool.
Hundreds of volunteers had great attitudes - even over in the kiddie park with the rides and such. Yes, you could walk around and spend way too much money on trinkets, t-shirts, bad fast food and even magazine subscriptions; but you could also register your name and address and get fed all day long with some grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, or link sausages for no charge at all. I must say that this fest lived up to its name. It was truly a unpretentious blessing for the community.
Whether or not the whole affair was underwritten or if it will remain a financial burden on those that put it on, I believe they can trust that they were successful in doing what they so simply set out to do. Blessing.
By the way, since we launched this great new site a couple months ago, we've been meaning to load it up with content. I apologize for the time it's taken and that we haven't delivered the motherlode yet, but come the end of the July/August issue deadline and we might just get it up here yet.
Going down to Houston this afternoon to take in Bless Fest. We'll be seeing bands like East West, Spoken, Disciple, Justifide, and Texas bands like Naos Project (love those guys). Should be fun. We'll be offering a killer deal on subscriptions there (subscribe for one year and walk away with six free cds). Hopefully, it'll go well. The cds are mostly out-of-print gems we scored from Rad Rockers.
Have a great weekend and be encouraged to lift each other up in prayer. If you see a prayer request on our message boards from a fellow reader, pray! We don't have to get all heavy and personal, but if we see someone suggest "pray for us," then a gentle request of our Father to bless that person and be with them, etc will certainly be a good thing. (sorry for the soapbox)
The Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack comes out next Tuesday (5/6/3). And this weekend, the guys in P.O.D. will be on the show "Entertainment Tonight - MTV," which has quickly become MTV's #1 show. They will air the new video, "Sleeping Awake," and have some interview footage with P.O.D. Times are: May 3rd (1230P EST) & May 4th (100P EST).