Contemporary note: Every Friday, I want to dig into my past blogging/writing experiences and renew that piece with a contemporary note. I must preface this post a bit. In 2008 I tried to get a band together. I could be all embarrassed about that especially because it didn't work out or by the fact that the Insomniac Tour was just a bunch of my friends that I bribed to come out to see an acoustic set in the parking lot of a Waffle House, but that's not how I role. I decided to repost this blog for Friday Rewind because many of my friends are at Cornerstone right now. I went to Ichthus instead. Also, I mention the Crooked Door, which is a coffee shop in my hometown that I played before leaving for C-stone. There's probably a ton of references you won't get if you're not up on the music scene (or my music), but I'll try to post some links for whenever you've got tons of time for an internet scavenger hunt. If you do that, I can't see why you would have enjoyed this piece enough to do the research. I'll shut up.
"Cornerstone Experiences"
I envisioned that my Cornerstone experience would be independent of the insomniac acoustic tour…I couldn't be more wrong.
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Cornerstone (as I consider it) with a special show at the Crooked Door, where a drink has been introduced in honor of my song "Autumn Serenade". Jacob introduced the drink first as a hot beverage, but he's also made it into a smoothie beverage. If you can envision what autumn tastes like then you can taste this drink. I really recommend it whenever you're in ....Marion.., ..NC.....
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The show drew some attention. I didn't expect the coffee house to be so full. Two years ago I would have thought I you were crazy if you said that I would be singing in a full coffee shop to friends and strangers. The show was energetic and a great chance to get some practice with the public and get my music out there. The highlight of course was "Autumn Serenade", but I feel that I got the audience more involved with the song "Vacation" (which will be undergoing a name change within the next few weeks). As well gaining great feedback from "An Unfinished Anthem".
After the concert, we spent the night at the Withrow's, meeting a new friend and violinist Red, and her friend Chris. The morning we left we met ....Israel...., who is an awesome lead guitarist. We then headed up to our first stop in ....Florence.., ..KY.....
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In ..Florence.., ....Israel.... and I jammed on a new song called "Adrenalin" and we planned to play it for our C-stone concert.
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The next day we made it to Cornerstone in the late afternoon. We set up camp and saw Maron and just hung out. Then that night we met the drummer to The Skies Revolt. He went to college with my friend Jason who went up to Cornerstone. After he left at about 12:30 an Australian dude from the band JaeL (never heard of them until c-stone) came bearing a trash bag of popcorn. We (our group) talked to him until at least 2:30. He shared stories about how they are one of the top Christian Rock bands in ....Australia.... but came over here. We share stories behind some of the bands in CCM, and it honestly seemed a little depressing. A summery of the CCM/Christian Rock scene is a lack of innovation and a rejection of record companies. I have to say if Tooth and Nail made an offer to The Bridges Project, I'd accept it!
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I have to say that the music last year at Cornerstone was much better. The bands were more spread out and there were more that I was obsessed with. But this year the community and new friendships not to mention getting to spend time with old friends.
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I will say this though, Anberlin was sooo much better this year perhaps because their moshpit was insane. I also saw The Almost for the first time and I really enjoyed them live, except the mospit was a sleeper for a hyped up punk band. They covered Coldplay's "Yellow" so well though. This was the first year that I enjoyed the moshpit fully.
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Last year I (being my first rock concert taken with my introverted personality) didn't like the moshpit until the last concert at Disciple. There is something awesome about practically wearing the guy who is next to you then shoving him into some other dude while all you can smell is sweat and fuel from the fuel that the band uses for pyrotechnics. But I didn't quite get that last year. It's kinda awkward when there are a ton of girls in the pits who usually just want to sing and see the band. No one sets out to push the girls around, but it happens when the music gets moving. I was so surprised how awesome Anberlin's pit was. I was expecting people just to sing to the poetic rock music, but instead they played their heaviest songs and the guys screamed from the pits pushing the poor chicks all over the place. Julia had to be the exception. She was like the queen of the moshpit! She could push, slam-dance and head bang as well as, if not better than any of the guys. Seriously, you guys need to get in a Christian moshpit (if you fall down someone always helps you up!). And if you want you can mosh and body surf at a Bridges Project concert.
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Saturday, we started up our own stage. The Bridges Project headlined, but was opened by Red playing some tunes on the violin, sometimes accompanied by ....Israel.... on the guitar and Kari on the drums. Then ....Israel.... did two Death Cab for Cutie songs and a Tool song.
I'm not going to like. I had been planning my Cornerstone set for some time. Next I am planning the plugged in show. The Bridges Project opened up with a tribute to my old music: "Malaguena" leading directly into the original version of "Defense Mechanism". I actually planned the set the day before, but I think it worked. Red added an extra effect on "An Unfinished Anthem" and "Fade Away" which had a full fledged violin solo. Of course "Vacation" had the sing along quality. ....Israel.... added an effect to "Autumn Serenade/ Winter Came Early that Year", as well as "Watch it Burn" which of course is a tribute to my 11th grade beginnings as a songwriter.
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An encore was brought as we did an awful rendition of "Happy Birthday" for Paul's birthday, so I did parts of "Parabolas".
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Bottom line it was an incredible time. And as an added bonus; I met back up with my friend Josiah, who told me about a free download of music recording software. I will hopefully get some tracks up on The Bridges Project page by the end of the summer and if I like it enough I'll make "Unfinished Ep."
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Well, I gotta go, I've got a ton more Myspac-ing to do than I care to admit to. Then I've got to get back to life and hopefully practice for some recordings. Until you can hear it, continue to check out Bridges Project tour dates!
-Originally posted July 10, 2008, on "The Life and Times of Tyler.Kent." MySpace blog of MySpace.com/tylerkbarrows
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