July, I went to Cornerstone and Tomfest. I had the most amazing time of my life. I went with the greatest people!!
I saw and met most of my fav. bands. The best hightlights of the trip were meeting Reese Ropper and Jeff the girl of FIF(Five Iron Frenzy), Branden Eble & Bill Powers of Tooth & Nail Records, Jeff from Squad 5-0, Underoath, mainly Octavio(guitar) Well, all the bands I met were so nice and enjoyed meeting all of them.
After both the fests, we spent a couple of days in Seattle. When we were there, we got a tour of the Tooth & Nail office. That was extremly exciting!!!

The adventure all started in Edmonton, AB on Friday,July 29, 2001. We drove all the way to Cornerstone in Bushnell, Illinois. That was a long drive. We got there by Sunday morning. We set up camp(by the way, we had an awsome campsite thanx to Myk, Kirsty and Audrey), and relaxed all day, and went to an awsome show in Peoria, Illinois that night. It was another hour drive. I saw bands like The Deal, Figure Four, Underoath, NIV(No Innocent Victim), xDeciplex AD, & another band I can't remember what they're called...Anyways, if that wasn't fun enough, the next day we went rollerskating while some bands played. I got to see Calibretto 13, Side Walk Slam, & a bunch of others!
The next day was Tooth & Nail Day. That was an awsome day. I got to see alot of my fav. bands. I saw bands such as MG! The Visionary, Blenderhead, Ghoti Hook, Joy Electric, Slick Shoes, Luti-Kriss, Zao, Society's Finest, & Living Sacrifice.
Now, the day after T&N day, Cornerstone officially starts, which by now is the 3rd of July, Wednesday. I can't even name all the bands I saw, cuz' I sure did see alot of them, but I'll name as many as I can. I saw Figure Four, NIV, xDeciplex AD(again), Brave Saint Saturn, Third Day, Larry Norman, !!!STRYPER!!!, Few Left Standing, Starflyer 59, Danileson Family, Embodyment, Hopesfall, Saved By GraceMike Knott, Ill Harmonics, Deliverence, Earthsuit, Ultrabeat, ect...
Whew. That was a long and hot week. We left Cornerstone on Sunday morning. That would make it the 8th of July. We had a long drive ahead of us. On our way to TOM Fest in Stevenson, Washington. We had to be there by Tuesday nite.
If your ever in or near South Dakota, you have to stop at a place called Wall Drug. It is awsome. They have free ice water!! & of course 5 cent coffee & great food! And they had this backyard thingy in the back of the store. There was a huge T-Rex and growled and got kinda scary. But, I didn't get scared...really, i didn't...Anywho's, my fav. part of te backyard, was the giant 6 foot rabbit with antlers that you can ride!! I'll try and get the pic. of it up as soon as i can. There were also alot of cool things to ride, like dinosaurs, horses, marry-go-rounds...
Weell, after our big adventure at Wall Drug, we continued our long drive. We did get to TOM Fest by Tuesday, 10th and got a good campsite again. I saw many great bands at TOM also. I saw pnaumavox, elianai, dennison Maars, the Status, the Blamed, Five Iron Frenzy, Rock & Roll Worship Circus, Stutterfly, Witness Protection Program, No Tag Backs, Squad 5-0, the Dealines, Denote the Apex, Elderstaar, Uplifted, Project 86, P.O.D.,
Thee Pirates(RIP), Skanabata, Brutal Fight, Headnoise, Puller(RIP), the Violent Burning, Gryp, Ghoti Hook, Joy Electric. Whew. That's alot of bands. I am forgetting a few bands, but i can't remember who I'm forgetting. We left Tom Fest Sunday the 15th in the morning.
If the weeks haven't been exiting enough, we stopped in Seattle for a couple days. The first day we were there, we got a tour of the Tooth & Nail Office. That was very exiting. Everone there was so nice to us. Bill Powers and Branden Eble are super cool. The next day after that, we went to this museum thingy called Experience music. At first I thought it was going to be really boring and uninteresting, but actually it was really interesting. I'm not really into museums, but this place anyone's gotta like it. It's interactive. You get this little thing that looks like a palm pilot...sort of...and you get headphones and it talks about each section of the museum. There's every type of music. Heavy Metal, grunge, skate punk, rock, blues, regae/ska, had a big section devoted to Hendrix...and there was a huge display of guitars (like acoustic, electric, bass) and the origins where all the music started and all that sorta stuff. After all the museum stuff, there's still more cool things to do. You can get your picture taken playing instruments pretending your in a band on a stage. They also have all these practice rooms for drums, guitar, bass, keyboard, sound board thingys, DJ. turntables with beginner interacitve videos. That all took about 5 hours to do all that, and we still could have stayed longer. Gotta say, it was well worth the money that we payed. After the experience music museum, we went to another show at a club called Club Impact(i think) in Tacoma, Washington. At the show, i got to see Zao, Underoath, and a couple other bands i can't remember who else was there. It was a very good show. A lot of fun. It is now Tuesday, 17th(i think). After the show in Tacoma, we were on our way home, around midnight:o{
I really wasn't ready to go home yet. I wanted to stay for another few days, but it was nice to get home, and sleep in my own comfortable bed. Sure beats sleppin' at those rest stops!!!


The pic you see here, is the group of wonderful people i went with. They are super cool!!