Cornerstone!

[bananaseleven]

So much happened, but I'll try to get it all in.

Day One:
We pretty much just walked around and watched some little bands (Anathenes, Thirty Seven, To Kill A Monster, I already can't remember...) then went and checked out the giant merch tent when they opened it. For To Kill A Monster, Dane came up to us after we watched Anathenes and was all "My band's playing next. This is what we sound like *played part of a song on his phone that we could barely hear*. If you like it, you should stay. Otherwise you should just stay for my face." So we stayed and watched them and they were pretty good. During one song, Dane put his bass down and ran outside the tent and started doing cartwheels and stuff then ran back in and played again. Such a cool kid. When we were in the merch tent, we ran into Dane and Joey and talked to them and they pretty much became our best friends.

When we were walking to the merch tent, these two guys stopped us and said they liked Lis's glasses and then told us to watch their band, but that wasn't why they said they liked her glasses. So they said their band was Thirty Seven, and I told them that I wanted to see them because of the Punchline connection, and Dylan got really excited and was all "You know Punchline? Steve produced our record." And I showed him my giant pin and said we would be at their set. When we went to their set, they were really excited that we actually came and they showed Moses my pin since he wasn't there when they met us. He was a huge Punchline fan like me, so we had a lot to talk about. Their set was really funny. Moses said something to make fun of girls, then said guys were stupid and didn't have periods to counter it. Moses dedicated a song to us as "the girls he just met who like Punchline" and Dylan was like "Are they here?" and we started waving and stuff and he was all "Oh, hey!" He cracks me up. I was taking pictures, and in the middle of a song, Dylan just yelled out "Don't take that picture!" and it was awesome. They played a cover of I Want It That Way. We talked to them afterward, and Moses asked Jeff and Dylan if they heard him talk about periods on stage and Dylan was just like "I was there!" We got CDs from them and had them sign them and Dylan wrote all kinds of random stuff on them because he is awesome.

Day Two:
I don't really remember how this all happened. I know we saw Dane and Joey around some time and Dane just gave us his number and said he'd text us to tell us when they were playing everyday. We saw them later that day and talked to them and stuff, but I don't remember anything all that significant. Haley, Lis, and I were sitting down eating and Thirty Seven was at a table close-ish to us and they yelled at us. We went over and talked to them and Dylan gave us spoons with the stage and time they were playing. Dylan told us the guy playing at the gallery was his dad, then we all went "really?" and he just said "No, I just wanted to hear you all go 'really?'" I think that was pretty much all we talked about. We went to the merch tent and Showbread had stuff set up and they were all hanging out, so I talked to them and got a picture. Their merch guy took the picture, but he took a picture of himself first and made us laugh in the picture. I think we saw Children 18:3 and Owl City, too. Umm then I think we went and watched Capital Lights, then I went up to Encore 2 to wait for Showbread. I saw A City Alive, Ocean Is Theory, Spoken, and The Blue Letter. When I went over to Encore 1, there was an open spot right on the stage, so I was stoked and had an amazing spot for Showbread. They definitely had the most active crowd of anyone I saw, but it was a lot of fun. The stages are really high, so that was painful, but still really good. Josh talked about God and faith and everything in the middle of their set and I just thought that was really cool. A lot of bands took time to do that, and it's just not something I've seen at the shows I've been to. Josh looked so freaking cool with his shorts, fishnets, combat boots, sweet make-up. That kid is ridiculous. I had to get a picture with him after the show because he just looked that cool. When I asked him, their merch guy ran up and was like "I'll take it!" and he was just generally awesome.

Went over to Encore 1 for Copeland after that and they were sound checking when I got there. I ended up in the second or third row, so that was awesome. They played a lot off Eat, Sleep, Repeat so I was really happy. Everyone was really tired because it was midnight, so the crowd didn't do much. They were all hanging out after the show, so we talked to them and one of them was signing my bag and was like "Who is that? Their signature is almost exactly the same as mine. I don't like them."

Day Three:
I know we saw Thirty Seven this day. We saw them walking around and Dylan told us that he thinks brontosauruses should still exist because they're herbivores and they wouldn't kill anyone. Then Moses was like "But what if they just go and step on everything?" and I don't remember what he said to that, but we showed him Kelsey's dinosaur encyclopedia and he thought it was sweet. We went to their set later and I got a shirt and we talked about Punchline more.

We saw Army Of Me, too. I thought there would be more people there that knew who he was, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one. We went right up the the front and it was really cool. It was just Vince playing acoustic, but it was awesome. Since I was the only one that knew any words, he looked at me a lot. I asked him for the set list after the show and then we talked and he said he recognized me and I said we saw him in Des Moines last year and we talked a little about Punchline and some random stuff. He drove all the way from DC in this tiny little two seat car and it was just crazy to see because I look up to him so much and he's driving around in a crappy car haha. I guess it was just a reality check. It was really cool to talk to him though.

We went over to merch again and Josh was hanging out at Emery's booth, so we talked to him and he said this show would be better than the other two times we've seen them and he was just cool because he is. We were walking around more later and I looked and saw Nate so we went and talked to him. Kelsey didn't have her CD, so we only go pictures. We went back to our tent and then back to merch later and Nate and Josh were walking around in there together. Nate saw us and came over and signed her CD and Josh was all like "Your picture's in there somewhere...That's not your name..." and other random stuff.

I don't even know what happened after that other than going to see Emery that night. We went down right before they went on, but somehow ended up second row, which was awesome. Josh danced and was amazing. The crowd wasn't bad except I just had my hand on the rail and the guy closer to the rail kept elbowing it really hard and I currently have a giant bruise there. Emery's a really fun band, so it was obviously awesome. We went over to see if Josh or Dave would come out after their set because Haley wasn't there when we talked to Josh to have him sign her poster and we hadn't seen Dave all day. The guy that went on after them was a founding member of Korn and just a generally creepy dude. He had lights or something in his hair and did the weird growly singing thing that sounds terrible.

Day Four:
I don't remember what we did during the day. I think Kelsey and I were around merch a lot because she wanted to find Anberlin. We were walking back to the tent and we heard Godspeed and we walked by main stage, and it was Anberlin's sound check. That was really cool to see. Stephen still wasn't there, so it was all instrumental with some backing vocals and that was weird. Monster was supposed to play at five, but the stages ended up getting mixed up or something so another band was playing. Joey was saying that he really wanted to play and would come out to our tent and play if we were up for it. We obviously said yes, but it would have to be late because of all the bands on the main stage and then Anchor at midnight.

We went to main stage really early because Kelsey was set on getting a really good spot for Anberlin. Bluetree played first and I think there were only two people that were even paying attention over by us. It seemed like most of the people down there were doing the same thing we were.

So onto mewithoutYou. They were easily one of the best live bands I've seen. Aaron is adorably awkward. He was all "Peace be with you. Thanks for coming." and all this stuff and he was just so cool. They had a harp, piano, flute, trumpet, and accordion at some point in their set, which I thought was really cool. Aaron said "A member of our band is supposed to be speaking at the Jesus tent tomorrow...but we're going to Detroit, so that wasn't well planned." and he was the one that was supposed to be speaking and he said Detroit like Dee-troit and it was just adorable. He had maracas and was hard core dancing with them and when he was done, he just put them in his back pocket. He asked how much time was left toward the end of the set and then goes "We have two more songs on our set list, but it's time for three more songs." so everyone shouted out songs and he goes "Well, I didn't understand any individual voices, but I see a cardboard cutout of a fox." so they went with that. They were just a really fun band.

Next was Shiny Toy Guns. It started raining a little before their set, or maybe a little into it, but I don't remember. So they came out and the girl was super sparkly and had these silver high heels and I have no idea how she was dancing around like that in them. There was one song where she didn't do anything and someone in the crowd had this light saber thing and she was like "I want one! Can I borrow it for this song?" and took it and then just sat on the edge of the stage and waved it. Not too much noteworthy happened during their set.

ANBERLIN! So Jamie came out before they played to just give a little brief on TWLOHA and this little kid Elliot came with him. People kept waving at him and he would wave back and stuff, so everyone was laughing and aww-ing and stuff. Then Jamie went to introduce Anberlin and he gave the mic to Elliot to say Anberlin and it was adorable. So they came out and obviously rocked it. The lights were annoying and they used a ton of smoke, but it was still a really good show. The crowd was the calmest I've ever been in for Anberlin, which was a pretty nice change. Everyone there was singing, though, and that always makes for a better show. They didn't talk pretty much at all, just went straight through the set with (*fin) as their encore again. That is such an epic song.

Then we ran over to the Gallery for Zach Williams, Anchor & Braille, and TWLOHA. Jamie was just introducing Zach when we got there, so we grabbed chairs and dragged them up as close as we could go. No one was into him at all and it made me feel really bad, but he put on a good show and has an awesome voice. He was talking about this song he wrote for his wife when she was in a horse accident and starting choking up, and I felt bad because it was completely silent because everyone was listening and that's such a hard thing to just talk about, but he did and he did great. Then Anchor went on and they played I thin four songs and almost everyone left after that. Stephen started on guitar, then switched to keyboard and said he felt like a little kid because the chair was short and he should be sitting on magazines. Then Nate brought the drum stool over so he could reach and it was all good. Then he goes "This isn't my keyboard, so I'm looking for a different sound." and pressed some stuff and then played this really synth-y sound and started singing Don't Stop Believing and then goes "I feel like I should be playing the Final Countdown." and attempted that and failed horribly haha. So he finished his few songs and Jamie came up and spoke. He talked about Michael Jackson and how pain is what likely drove him to where he was. He hoped that he met God and that God apologized for everything that he had to deal with. It was really cool to hear him talk about something beyond the basic Renee story and I told him that after and he said that was really good to hear. He kept saying that no one talks about pain because of shame and it's just not something you talk about in the middle of a cornfield at one a.m. on the fourth of July. A counselor came out and talked more about pain and shame after Jamie and almost everyone was gone by that point. Zach Williams came out and played one more song after everyone spoke. I went and talked to Jamie after that and then went back toward our tent.

I was on my way back when Kelsey stopped me. She was hanging with Joey and Dane and they were working their way to our tent, too. Dane grounded Kelsey and me because it was raining and we weren't wearing jackets. He also said we should go swimming and Kelsey said we probably couldn't and he goes "Psh, those rules don't apply to bands." Then we were walking and a car was stuck and we were just standing there for a little bit and Joey's like "So, do we help?" and Dane goes "I have to help, I'm Dane!" and ran over there and did stuff. Then we kept walking and there was a bus and some people standing outside and Dane just goes "Who are you?" and they say Anberlin and he just goes "Oh...I'm Dane." and we talked to their bus driver and Kyle a little bit and then Dane and Joey said they should play on the main stage since is was empty and then they could tell people they played main stage at Cornerstone. Then Dane decided he wanted to slide down the giant hill around the main stage and somehow did it without falling. He emptied all his pockets and everything first then just slid down and ran back up and we kept going. Then Joey was like "Where are we going?" and I said it was just up the hill and they were all "UP THE HILL!?!" and asked why we were they and we said Haley told us where to go and Dane said we should punch her in the face. And Dane was like "Stuck cars, talking to Anberlin, big hills. I did all three." So we got to our tent finally and they played a few songs and Joey was saying he didn't want to sing too loud because it was two in the morning but Dane said to just do it. So he did for a few songs and people were telling us to go to bed and were shining flashlights into our tent and stuff and Haley just says "Go talk about machine guns!" and they didn't say anything else haha. So Monster played a few songs and on the first song, Joey stopped and goes "Ok, so you know Dane is our bass player, right?" and Dane screwed a bunch of stuff up and it was funny. Dane sat down and it was wet because of all the rain and just everything was soaked and it was really funny. He was sitting on his leg and then pulled it out and was like "Ahh it'd asleep. I could just cut it off right now. It's so dead." and then his butt fell asleep and he was just crazy. He was messing with the lantern trying to angle it so he could see the guitar and was like "You should just throw this away." and I took it to show him that it's a flashlight too and he was like "Don't do anything fancy." and then he was amazed and kept playing with it. He said it was like a Transformer and Kelsey was like "It just goes up and down..." and he's just "It's not a fancy one. Is that all it does? Yeah, that's pretty much all I got." Then he was messed with Kelsey's stuffed animals and making Squirt hug Steve but then he choked him. Kelsey was texting and Dane was like "Who are you texting? Tell them to go to bed." and was making Steve shove his face in her phone. Then he was telling Lis and Haley how we were grounded and Haley said we were older and Dane said we weren't more mature and I said Kelsey is only four and Lis and Haley agreed and Dane just goes "I think you're four." Haley said something involving the word "funner" and Dane was like "We're just so awesome that we make her use grammatical errors." Then Dane laid down and was playing and was like "I play all my shows like this...just not here." and then started making shadow puppets and they all made the same noise and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. And Joey just said "It's been a long week...clearly a really long week for Dane." because he was just laying there laughing at all his animals. He kept making a dog thing and then used his thumb to make a horn coming out of it's head and it was just ridiculous. He made a dog and then used his other hand to give it legs and made it walk and we were all just cracking up at everything. They left around three and then Dane texted Kelsey and said I was "mega cute" or something. That was definitely the best night. Then Haley found a shirt and we found out it was Dane's and yeah. I don't even know. Joey and Dane are just awesome.

Day Five: Sucked sooo bad. It started raining the night before, but it was pretty light. We woke up and everything was soaked. It just kept coming down and we decided to just leave because Monster and Thirty Seven wouldn't even be able to play. We got everything together, then ran it out to the car trying to fit it all and not get too wet, but failed at both. We took the tent down and got soaked and it sucked so much but it was funny. We were packed into the car because we just threw stuff in instead of trying to organize it. We stopped at a gas station on the way back and determined that we looked homeless because we were all wet and in pajamas and in a packed car with crap thrown in garbage bags and just looked overall gross.

On some day, there was a spider in the tent and we were all screaming and laughing and then Lis finally killed it because we were all grossed out but it was just funny because we all hate bugs.

Random quotes: "I have to help, I'm Dane!"
"I'm Dane, who are you?"
"Yeah, well you eat oat bread."
"That's the face he makes when we're having sex."
"Go talk about machine guns!"
"China juice!"
"Who are you texting? Tell them to go to bed."