Cornerstone Diary, Day One

Dear Diary,

Well, Cornerstone Day One is officially over. Today was Tooth and Nail Day, with just bands that Tooth and Nail Records invited to play. There was actually a great variety of music to hear today, from the arena anthem rock of The Honour Recital to the goth-core of The Becoming. Even good old Project 86 was there (8 Cornerstones in a row?). Hearing the crowd sing along with Andrew Schwab, "I do not need anymore truthless heroes!" was truly one of the highlights of the night.

But two bands really stood out to me today: Becoming the Archetype and mewithoutYou.

Becoming the Archetype is straight up death metal. That's right, not metal-core, not some metal-emo hybrid, but straight-up finger tapping metal.

Here is the Jason of Becoming the Archetype. Yes, at times he did raise his hand as if he were holding a mystical energy orb to help him hit those really low notes. Photo by Neil Beard.

Alex of Becoming the Archetype. Photo by Neil Beard.

mewithoutYou definitely stole the show on the first day of Cornerstone 2006. What is so exciting about mewithoutYou is their creativity. NOBODY (secular or inspirational market) sounds like mewithoutYou. They started out as an art damaged hardcore band, but they have let the art damage finally take over. At this show, they used keyboards, maracas, djembes, acoustic guitars and a harp alongside their normal instrumentation to create a truly psychedelic experience.

mewithoutYou, of course, has always been a very visual band, as well. Lead singer Aaron is one of the most expressive and theatrical artists at Cornerstone, and he was in full form at this show, twirling and shaking out his vocals. I can't wait to catch their main stage performance on Friday night!