COIN 2019 Tour- 9:30 Club

COIN brings indie pop back to D.C. with a vibrant set and infectious energy

Via @notbnel on Twitter

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On Monday morning, I got a text from my friend saying “I have two tickets to see COIN on Friday, wanna go?”

Of course I said yes.

I’ve liked COIN for about a year. In 2017, I listened to How Will You Know If You Never Try religiously for about a week and a half, then I rarely listened to it again, due to the fact that I listen to the same playlists over and over. But, when I told my friend “yes,” a familiar wave of excitement washed over me and I couldn’t shake it for the rest of the week. I had a gut feeling this concert was going to be something special.

We got there about 30 minutes before the show started and the line was wrapped around the building. It was not as long as when I saw Billie Eilish there, but there was a sizable amount of people. The show was also sold out.

As the sun set next to the venue and the familiar lights of D.C. sprouted up around us, we froze in the cold, but I was excited, so that overpowered it a little bit. In the end it was worth it.

As soon as we got inside the venue, we joined the crowd, maybe about halfway back from the stage. As soon as the floor started to fill up, I instantly got a different vibe from this crowd. I’ve been to tons of concerts before, but something about this crowd struck me as different. There was a certain energy I hadn’t seen anywhere else before, and by then, I was super excited to see what was in store.

Tessa Violet opened the show with her “cool girl” vibes and a “realness” that really stuck with me. After her first couple songs, she talked about coping with anxiety, which is something I can personally relate to, and I’m pretty sure others at the show could to. It was nice to hear someone talk about it in such a real way with an audience and sing about it as well. She finished her set with Crush, which sounded slightly different from the studio version, in the sense that instead of whimsical beats and the more “indie” sound, it was performed with more guitar, which I enjoyed a lot.

After Violet finished her set, it seemed like the whole crowd was buzzing with excitement. I’m not the biggest COIN fan in the world, but I felt like I was while I was standing in that crowd. An energy was just pulsing through that room in the 20-30 minutes before they started. Mr. Brightside and Candy Paint even came on the speakers and the whole crowd was singing and dancing along.

Finally, the lights shut off and I was greeted with the familiar screaming and clapping I’ve grown to love. The stage lit up with strobe lights in all sorts of different colors. The band came out and started their first song of the night, I Don’t Wanna Dance.

The whole room seemed to light up at this point. As the song continued, I noticed every single person I could see in the crowd was dancing and singing along. It was something I hadn’t really seen before.

The lights on the stage while COIN performed added to the songs perfectly, while not acting as overly-distracting or causing me to have to shield my eyes so I don’t pass out. The aesthetic was really nice, and looked really great in photos.

COIN continued their set with many of their most beloved songs, like Don’t Cry, 2020, Boyfriend, and Are We Alone?

Lead singer Chase Lawrence's passion and energy seemed to transfer to the crowd, as he sang and played with Ryan Winnen, drummer, and Joe Memmel, guitarist. As they reached the middle/end of their set, the lights on the stage dimmed and the familiar instrumental of the beginning of Malibu 1992 started to play. You would think that since it’s a slower song, the crowd’s energy would dwindle a bit, but not in the slightest. The crowd moved with the song and sang every lyric at the top of their lungs. It was truly a beautiful moment to be in and watch.

At the end of the song, Lawrence came to the very front of the stage and put his face in his hands. Everyone, and I mean everyone, screamed and clapped. I really couldn’t tell what was going on at this point because I’m 5’0 and I can rarely see at concerts as it is, but it seemed like a really beautiful moment for him as well.

Right before Malibu 1992, the band played Run and Hannah, which are some of my personal favorites. Again, the whole crowd was moving, the whole time. I was jumping and singing, not even worrying about stepping on the feet of the frat-boy lookalikes next to me. Their set eventually had to come to a close, and their last song, or their second to last song, (I can’t really remember smh), was Talk Too Much, arguably their most popular song. I knew this venue had high energy already, but wow. This took that to a new level. Everyone was moving, jumping, screaming the lyrics, getting on their friends' shoulders, etc. It was probably my favorite moment of the whole show.

Now, the last two songs are a bit fuzzy to me and I don’t really know why. But, what I do remember is Lawrence jumping into the front of the crowd for the last song and everyone trying to run up there like their lives depended on it. It was an awesome moment regardless of how much I got pushed.

COIN said their thank yous and left. I was hoping for an encore to be honest, but they didn’t perform one, which is totally fine, considering they’d played 15-20 songs during their actual set. My friend and I waited in line for merch, then waited outside for a little while, and then decided to walk to Chipotle in the windchill that felt like -20 degrees.

As I walked, I couldn’t stop thinking about this concert. It was such a different experience for me, especially in the crowd dynamic. Every show I’ve been to in the past year-ish, people have been either staring at their phones the whole time or standing still while singing the words. Sure, there were plenty of people filming the concert, but every single person in the crowd was moving. Every. Single. Person. It seemed like we were all moving as one. I have never seen that before at a show. Even the people in the balcony were going just as hard as the people on the floor.

To me, everyone was super excited to be there and stayed that way the entire set. The people in the crowd didn’t just stand there and bop their head; they moved with the music, sung the lyrics to their friends, or jumped during the fast parts of songs like Run and Feeling. It was honestly refreshing to be in that crowd and experience that type of energy for a change.

COIN, all in all, put on a great show. Their instrumentals were killer, their energy was contagious, and you could tell they really enjoyed what they were doing, which was great to see.

In the end, I’m glad I accepted my friend’s invitation. I know this concert is gonna be one that I remember for a long time to come, and I will definitely be going to see COIN on their next tour.

COIN’s 2019 tour still has quite of few stops across the country, including Columbus, Seattle, and San Francisco.

If you can, I highly suggest going out to one of these upcoming shows, especially if you want to jump, dance, or just listen to some great music. I know you won’t regret it.