Currently Listening The Weak's End By Emery Ponytail Parades (acoustic) see related

Cornerstone

So, since I have not updated this thing in forever, I thought I'd copy my blog about going to Cornerstone festival from MySpace onto here.  So here it is, enjoy.

So I got back from another amazing Cornerstone on Sunday, so I'll just list some of the highlights for you all.
On monday (Tooth and Nail day) I saw Destroy the Runner, recently signed to Solid State, which sounded a whole lot like As I Lay Dying, and I mean a lot, and the acoustic set with Devin from Emery, which was quite amazing, he has an incredibly voice and did some great acoustic versions of Emery songs (he's not touring with them this summer as he just got married, the rest of the band was on Warped tour in California), and I caught the end of the Fold, and then saw Becoming the Archetype, and there's really only one way to describe BTA, and that is metal, their sound, their look, everything about them was just so metal, and so good. Then I saw August Burns Red, who is my favorite metal/hardcore band right now, they just blow me away, and their concert definately did not disappoint. After that I saw As Cities Burn, who I have never really gotten into, but they definately put on a great show, I just kinda wished I would have known the songs, and then I saw Dead Poetic, who were pretty dissapointing, they played several new songs, and I didn't like a single one of them. Then Showbread played their set, which was great (very energetic), but it worries me how much their lead singer Josh Dies is looking more and more like Marylin Manson. Then was mewithoutYou, who played one of the best concerts I've ever seen, their new songs sounded all so amazing, and they played some old ones too, it was just all around amazing.
Then on Wednesday I saw Devin (of Emery) play again, which was fairly similar to the first set, but still very very good. Then I saw the Chariot on main stage, who is supposed to have a great live show, but they just didn't sound that great on main stage, and definately didn't get the crowd into it, and after that was Norma Jean, who sounded great, I definately have a lot more respect for their vocalist after hearing him live (even if he isn't as good as Josh Scogin) and to close their set, Norma Jean played the ever-amazing song Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste, which was phenomenal as their old vocalist Josh Scogin (of the Chariot) came out to scream along with Cory (Norma Jean's current vocalist) and then Aaron Weiss (of mewithoutYou) came out to do his guest vocalist part, I later heard someone joke that the only way it could have gotten any better is if Jesus himself came down during that song. Then was As I Lay Dying, who played a very solid set, complete with some incredibly huge hardcore dancing pits. Then was Underoath, who was absolutely amazing (except for the really annoying kid right next to me singing off-pitch as loud as he possibly could to every single song) Then at midnight I went to see Lovedrug instead of Demon Hunter (I heard DH was super good) which I didn't really regret since Lovedrug played an amazing show.
Then on Thursday, I saw mewithoutYou play on main stage. At first I was curious how they would do on main stage, since they seem like they would be better on a smaller venue, but they were still incredibly good. Their show was one of the weirdest Cornerstone's main stage has ever seen, complete with a guy in a bird suit dancing around on stage. One of their new songs, which they ended both sets with, is just... hauntingly good, it's just amazing beyond words, so you definately need to get the new CD, "Brother, Sister" when it drops on September 26. Then was Copeland, who is a great band, but is vocally driven, and their vocals just seemed to suck, partially because of the sound mix, and partially because he was singing (or so it seemed) an octave lower than usual and doing none of his usual falsetto singing, which made their whole set sound lame, so I left halfway through (after hearing "You Have My Attention" which was the only song that sounded good) Then I went to the HM mag stage and saw a newer band on Floodgate records, called Bernard, who were absolutely amazing, during their entire set, they had a projector set up playing random, black and white, grainy video clips (matching the songs) that seemed to be from the 1950s or older, which complimented their eerily peacefuly sounding music, their sound is something between the Myriad and Cool Hand Luke, so definately check them out. Then up next was Mute Math, who put on a show that was definately one of the best I've seen, there's really no way to describe it, but the energy was insane, so if you ever have a chance to see Mute Math, absolutely take it, because you must see their live show for yourself. Then was Zao, who put on a very energetic great show, but I left part way to to check out the new Cool Hand Luke (with only one original member) they sounded fairly similar to their older sound, just with piano.
Then on Friday, I saw House of Heroes, who put on a good show. Then I saw the Myriad, then War of Ages, and then Chasing Victory (who if you haven't checked out, you need to). Then I saw Becoming the Archetype again... wow. Then I saw Haste the Day with their new vocalist. The new vocalist has a great scream, but a little lower than Jimmy's (the old vocalist), kinda similar to August Burns Red's screamer. A lot of people seemed to not like the new guys scream, b/c it was different, and their used to Jimmy's scream.
Then on Saturday, I saw Timbre (she played harp with mewithoutYou on both of their sets) play some of her music on the harp and sing, and wow, that was some of the most incredibly beautiful music I have ever heard, there's just no other way to describe it, and I also didn't know you could do harmonics on a harp, but apparantly you can. Then I saw Chasing Victory again, and then I saw Bradley Hathaway doing his poetry, which was pretty hilarious, but I was very sad, since seeing Bradley meant I had to miss seing Leigh Nash (formerly of Sixpence None The Richer). Then I saw August Burns Red again, who were again, phenomenal.
So that's what I can dig out of my memory about Cornerstone, but I'm sure there's a lot more up there, and I'm sure that I've forgotten several bands that I've seen, but I hope that gives you a rough idea about what my Cornerstone was like, and if you've read this entire thing, thank you, I hope it was worth your time.

Dan