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When we, the forum members of Tastyfresh, think about Cornerstone, chances are we are thinking of the DJ's and dancing. However, when one actually goes to Cornerstone, you quickly see that we are the minority. Cornerstone attendees go for various reasons from the bands, to friends, to experience God, and others just to get away from life. But out of all the reasons people go, seeing DJ's spin is not on their minds a lot of the times. Well this year, dance music was represented in three venues and one impromptu card table near the footbridge.
The first and obvious venue is the dance barn. This venue has switched hands throughout the years and this year it was handled by "The Underground" (www.theug.com ) out of Cincinnati. I was blown away by the work they put into this and you could see it was definitely a labor of love for them. They had a great line-up of DJ's and even had two spectacular flyers made up to promote the dance barn nights and the worship night in the dance barn. I remember I was passing out flyers for the dance barn the night that Sheltershed and HELDbyWILL did their awesome live concert. Many of the people I had talked to, didn't know the dance club existed. They knew "Flickerings" was there during the day, but thought when that ended for the day, the barn was closed. (Who do you blame for this? How can Cornerstone have a legitimist venue open that is in the mailers, the website, and most other official Cornerstone promo material and people still not know it's there? *sigh* I digress.) As I was saying the line-up this year was awesome. Some that stick out in my memory are HypØstatic, Terrence Parker & DJ Moorese tagteam, DJ Ellipse, SS/HBW, Davo & Andy Hunter. The only reason I don't remember Dunamis and Yo-Yo, sets is because I was out passing out flyers and getting people to come over. Unfortunately I missed most of the Ambient Worship night, but I was so beat I could not stay awake that day. Sorry Race and Jamin. You guys can miss one week of "theblend".
The second and not so obvious venue is the main stage. This marked the first year that a DJ has been featured on the main stage. Andy Hunter brought a new element to the stage this year. As I understand it, Toby Mac was the big draw to the main stage on Friday night and Andy had to be scheduled at least a half hour after Toby Mac's concert ended and be billed as an after-hours act. While in it's own way, that sucked, it was still a big step forward fro the Dance Scene's impact on Cornerstone. The crowd had pretty much shrunk by the time Andy went live at midnight, but as the music was playing, more people came back and was dancing and having a good time. Andy's DJ stage presence is so much different from what I have ever seen from a DJ. He spends a lot of time on the microphone encouraging the crowd to get into the presence of God and a lot more time shouting praises to God. He literally is a worship leader, or to borrow a phrase from Matt Redman, the lead worshipper. I have never danced and had so much fun in my life. All the combined excitement of seeing Andy Hunter on the main stage and being in such a powerful thickness of God literally felt like fire shut up in my bones and I was doing all I could to let it all out!
The third venue this year was the Gospel For Asia Stage (GFA), sponsored by OneLifeRadio.com (OLR). This is actually the reason I came to Cornerstone this year. (Being added at the last minute to the Dance club roster was a nice little bonus.) Andy Turner from OLR asked me to come out and play to help raise funds for the Tsunami Relief efforts that GFA are doing. He also had a nice line-up scheduled this year. Some were also playing the dance club, but some were brought out specifically the GFA stage. It was great seeing some guys from my home state of California play at Cornerstone, DJ Pat D and Brian Scroggins (currently K-Ohm, formerly Prophecy Of Panic). The GFA stage was not strictly dance however, but it was about 85% DJ's and dance music. Through these efforts on the stage and the merchandise table in the big tent, OLR raised $600 to help needy families. On the surface that does not sound like a whole lot, but you will be amazed at how far money will stretch for these missionaries. On a side note, if you would like to help GFA one of the best ways you could help is to go to www.freedomsongs.oneliferadio.com and buy the online compilation. 100% goes to GFA and you get a decent track selection on your computer.
Finally, to my guilty pleasure, the impromptu card table full of battery powered gadgets making Cornerstone techno history. I was walking from the GFA stage to the Dance Barn and I just after I crossed the footbridge I saw it. Better yet I heard it. Wow did I hear it! There were these two guys that go by the names of Sp_ceboy and Derek Lotek with a lot of vintage drum machines and a radio transmitter and foot pedals and a lot of stuff that I have never seen before all connected together with patchcords. They were running their sound through two little guitar monitors. I found myself in a predicament. I needed to get over to the dance barn, but these two were amazing! They were, as I like to say, rockin' it old skool. Every sound I heard I saw them hitting buttons for and their hands were all over all this gear. I mentioned a radio transmitter...They were using the static and "whistles" from the slightly off frequencies to add to the music they were creating. It's hard to describe what that sounded like other than primitive techno drum beats meets futuristic reverb. There’s not even a word for it. It's indescribable, yet intoxicating. Since the festival, Sp_ceboy has joined the TF Forums and that makes me happy because I can pick his brain a bit!!!
So as you can see, this year was a good year fro the representation of dance music at Cornerstone. We need to keep this in prayer and all those who are involved in putting it together. Hopefully, I will see you next year! Related links: |
