3 posts tagged “music”
some images from Vertical Fest that i went to a couple of weeks ago....
it was a nice day for an outside concert and i had a pretty good time. i rode up on the bike...
the highlights were Children 18:3 (who are brothers and sister btw), Seabird, Me In Motion..... most of the bands i saw were good actually....
but he came out between every show - every show! - and took up all kinds of time messing around that the bands could have had.
i didn't notice it really until they made Children 18:3 get off the stage after only about 4 or 5 songs because of time and i know it was because that guy was out there wasting too much time before he let the band come out!.....
i just got back from Cornerstone yesterday. i thought it was one of the best years in quite a while.
in recent years, it seems that i haven't gone to that many concerts at C'stone. we would get bored and go off the grounds on a regular basis. in fact, some years we went to Walmart in Macomb every day.... but this year was not like that. once C'stone got going, we never left the grounds and i didn't even think about leaving.
the press tent of course kept me busy, but more than that, i was into the music this year. the first thing most people noticed this year that was different, and the first thing i got into was the generator stages. there's been generator stages at Cornerstone for a long time now, but not like this year. there were at least 30 generator stages all set up along the main road on both sides and it was just as crazy as you can imagine. bands constantly playing, one after the other on every stage, whether there was another band right next to them or not. and nearly all the bands were the same: screamo with some breakdowns.... yes there was a lot of mediocre to down right bad music there along "generator row," as i called it. but there were some gems too.....
there was also the return of a few 80's bands that interested me. REZ was fantastic. i always like REZ, but didn't think they could pull it off after so long away from the stage. i was mistaken. the guitars were blazing, Wendi was feeling good and her voice was really strong and fine. even John was obviously practicing. he's a big strong guy and could have hit those drums a little bit harder, but he was pretty much on target all night. and Charlie Peacock came back to Cornerstone after about 12 years. his show was wonderful! he sang the old songs and a couple of new ones that were also good. he had Jimmy A with him as well as Steve Hindalong and Kevin Max. fabulous. and one of the big surprises was DeGarmo and Key. they've been gone for a long time, but they've kept up their chops, fersure. Dana still rocks on guitar and can still sing and preach. they caught Linda by surprise too, with the song "Accepted." she got rather emotional. it was a good old Jesus Music revival.... good times...
i also got into the hard core scene this year. of course Living Sacrifice was ridiculous! but there's a move of the Holy Spirit in the hard core scene that is building like i don't know if i've ever seen before. these bands are serious about God, and prayer, and revival. from what i saw, xDeathstarx, Impending Doom, and Sleeping Giant are at the forefront of it. they are some of the scariest, most brutal bands now, but the shows are so worship filled and anointed.... the second time i saw Sleeping Giant was at the Anchor stage and they had all the Anchor staff come on stage and pray before the show. Thom the singer explained that he felt like the Spirit was not as free there as the other night and that he wanted everyone to start praying and worshiping God. one girl had a vial of oil with her on stage and anointed the band and prayed as the crowd joined in worshiping and Thom began to worship and pray over the mic until the place was noticeably filled with God. once the band got going, the ministry and music was amazing. there's also another wave that's going to hit the hard core scene when Brian "Head" Welsh and Dan Spitz release their separate records. i can hardly wait for those two projects!
it was exciting to me to feel that and see it at Cornerstone this year!
on the non music end of things i also had a good time with Norman and Marie this year. of course spending the week with Linda was great. Shari, Steve, Kyle and Marlene also camped with us. and we met some fun new people that were camping next to us. Nathan and Raul are young and lots of fun. the youth group from NC are good to us as well.
i got to lead a round table discussion at the press tent about "Cornerstone: past, present, and future," with Johnny Herrin, J Robert Parks, John J Thomson, and Doug Van Pelt that turned out ok. it was cool, but we only had an hour and it ended a bit too soon. John Herrin had just brought up and was talking about the roads and showers when we ran out of time. i didn't say it, but that was a great time to rebut his thought that the showers are ok... they are not... but we didn't get to talk about it anymore and that is my only regret of the fest.
after i go through my pictures i'll post some and talk about the fest a bit more.
in the 70s and 80s i had a rather large vinyl record collection, i guess i still do. i haven't thown out or burned any of my records and when i was collecting them i had more than anyone else i knew. i love music and i loved going to record stores and picking up lots of music. some popular, some imported, some rare, some just below the radar, and some of those bands no one has still ever heard of..... i was a real collector....
i started my walk with the Lord in 1985. in the summer of '85 i sat in my kitchen at the time and prayed to God about my life and my addictions. He delivered me from a mess of drugs, sex, rock and roll, etc. and i felt great! i really was cleaned up and felt fresh and clear for the first time ever. i had been high for 13 years straight [i do mean 13 years. every day. all day], and when i wasn't high any more i could see better, colors were clearer, sounds were sharper... i used to tell my druggie friends that i was now high on the Most High... yeah, back then it sounded more clever... :-)
ok, so once i began walking with the Lord, like many before me, i wasn't sure what music i could listen to. i had collected so many records and had so many different kinds of music, but i was always high when i listened to music. or did anything else for that matter... but what music could i listen to now that i wasn't smoking pot, or doing acid, eating pills, or snorting something?... i wasn't sure what i was going to do about music so i just stopped listening to music for a while. i did have some "christian" records in my collection. and i did try those a couple of times. my mother had bought some Randy Matthews and some Keith Green that i had now. and i'd bought some Rez Band for some reason... they were good... i liked them... but they didn't seem to impact me like i wanted. i liked powerful, thoughtful rock music which some of this is, but i was looking for more.
when i was new in the faith, i went to church a lot! when the doors were open i went. and i went to lots of different churchs. if i heard about a Bible study i'd go and try it.... so one night i went to a church that i hadn't been to and sat down for a study not knowing what to expect when the guy sitting in front of me asked me about music. we started to talk and i told him that i hadn't been listen to anything for a while. but we talked some more and i guess i told him some things that i liked and he suggested i go buy a record called "Fearful Symmetry" by DA. fortunately i remembered what he said and i did buy that record. i think it was actually a cassette tape.... that music moved me! i listened to that record non-stop for quite a while....
i was thinking about it recently, how fortunate that i sat there in that place at that time! and how blessed i am that that guy (angel?) was into DA and not some awful christian music of that day, there were so many other cheesy singers/artists doing cheesy ccm back then. and lots of christians were into it... yaknow, not that many people even knew who DA was back then (and still don't), but somehow i sat by one music fan who did.
since that first record buy, i fell in love with Daniel Amos. now i have everything the band has ever recorded. i also have everything and anything that Terry Scott Taylor has touched in any way musically. Daniel Amos/DA/Da, the Lost Dogs, Swirling Eddies, the Raptures, the Farm Beetles, solo recordings, Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor, Sprinklerhead, and so on, :-) ..... i've been listening to DA and Terry for 20 some years now and still love it! all of it! and look forward to new music from him every time i hear he's in the studio. his music is creative, smart, deep, thoughtful, current, some of it's dated now but i love that too. it can be very serious, or very funny. i've learned quite a bit from him actually. when i was a young christian i learned a lot about grace from him. and that God was not going to fit into any box you might try and put Him into and/or label you may try and stick to Him. i also learned things about grieving, and hope, and family, miracles, heaven, and life from Terry's music. and some of the best concerts i've ever been to have also been Daniel Amos concerts, and Lost Dogs concerts, and Swirling Eddies concerts....
i'm still a record collector, it's just turned into CDs... i listen to all kinds of music too... and i still have more records and CDs than anyone else i know. but my DA/TST/LD/SE/etc. CDs are especially prized....
i guess i just wanted to say that i'm blessed and happy to be a Terry Scott Taylor fan!
