Mumford & Sons, Weezer, Twenty One Pilots, Chance The Rapper and other big groups and artists were among the lineup for the 2017 Hangout Music Festival that I attended with my best friend Kellee. All of them were incredible and I would give my left foot to see them again. However, the most memorable performance I saw at the festival was given by a young indie pop band called COIN.
It was the first day of the festival. We had just arrived and saw our first band perform, The Strumbellas. They were really awesome, honestly, but I felt very overwhelmed by the huge crowd and the adrenaline that was inevitably pumping through my body, so I didn’t really get to enjoy their performance. Kellee and I began to shuffle our way through the crowd in search of water and our next show.
After buying two bottles of water for a whopping $5 each, we made our way to the Mermaid stage and sat for an entire hour waiting on COIN, a band that we only knew one song by.
Unlike most bands, who pretentiously make their fans wait at least an extra 15 minutes to begin the show, COIN stepped out right on time at 2 p.m. sharp. The crowd was small, but “those COIN boys” (as many like to call them) gave the highest energy and most upbeat performance of the festival.
Most of the crowd hardly knew a word to any song, but there’s something enchanting about watching a band give all they’ve got to an audience that’s hardly ever heard their name.
After the festival, I became obsessed with COIN. Over the course of a week, I had listened to both of their albums at least 10 times and had almost every song memorized. I followed the band on every social media outlet, including the individual band members. I repeatedly watched live videos of their shows to try and get back what they gave me at Hangout fest. I couldn’t get enough.
Then they announced a part 2 to their “How Will You Know If You Never Try” tour and to my luck, Nashville was one of their stops. I bought two tickets the minute they were released on July 10.
After a four-month wait, the day finally came! The concert was general admission, so my friend Alexis and I left early enough to get there two hours before the doors opened in order to secure a good standing spot. Once we were let in, we still had another two hours of standing and waiting for COIN. Let’s just say, the anticipation for this concert was real.
Finally, 9 p.m. hit and COIN ascended the stage, on time again.
This time around, the crowd knew every song and I knew every song (in fact, I knew almost every detail about COIN at this point). Their energy was 10x what it had been at hangout, and they were even more enchanting than they had been before.
For an entire hour, I danced, I sang, I screamed, and I cried all for the love of a young Nashville-based band that I had never even heard of until 6 months prior. There’s just something about watching a band give all they’ve got to the people they love.
