Aidan Bissett and COIN are HOT FIRE at The Anthem
Ah, Washington DC. I do love it here, but I do NOT love the traffic. I make it into The Wharf and end up in the same parking garage that made me cry out of frustration before another show the last time I was in it. No tears this time! It did take me 15 minutes to find a spot, though. I swear that place is like a maze! Whatever. I made it to The Anthem (the correct entrance too, they have a separate entrance for media peeps to streamline the entry process for us) a few minutes before the supporting act went on. The staff was just as friendly as ever and got me credentialed and into the photo pit within 3 minutes.
Right on the dot at 8 pm, the lights dim and it’s time for the music. Aidan Bissett! He’s a new artist for me, sometimes I will make a “for the drive” playlist to familiarize myself with new artists. Sometimes, I don’t. Today I didn’t, I like to go in blind every now and again. I’m usually pleasantly surprised and tonight is no different.
Aidan is a cute, tousled hair brunette wearing black bell-bottom style slacks with a super distressed t-shirt. Literally. Huge torn-out spot on the back. Both his guitarist and drummer are sporting mustaches. The drummer also wears a tie over a dress shirt.
They’re very “today” attractive, at least by my standards. They’re a good-looking band! The lighting for Aidan is gorgeous, which helps dress up his visuals…there aren’t any. The screen behind him dons just his name in a simple Arial font. He’s got the heartbreaker look about him though, the kind that has every young girl screaming “Aidan, I love you” between songs.
Aidan’s setlist is fast-paced bangers, and he and his guitarist shuffle around the stage together. “Out Of My League” is his second song and I like this one. The song that follows it is “Planet” and this one the tops “Out of My League”.
“She’s breaking my heart; I don’t understand it. Right from the start, I knew she’s not from this planet” *adds to library*Yup. I did that. Right there in the crowd. Aidan then treats the crowd to a new song called “Dance Around” which causes them to go feral. His music is something you can move to. I wasn’t hip to him before but wow, this is right up my alley.
Aidan and his guitarist take many an opportunity to face off several times as they play, getting very up close and personal with each other. Aidan plays guitar too, did I mention that Between songs, Aidan asks who in the venue is a people pleaser and what makes them a people pleaser.
“What? What?” He fakes not being able to hear before flashing the crowd a big grin and rolling right into the next song. Bissett walks out onto the catwalk speakers a lot and makes sure to show off a bunch for the photogs. He’s got energy and is giving me great shots. I love this guy. Another new song! It’s the first song off his debut album. This one is called “Are We in Love Yet”.
When I was in the photo pit, lots of girls in the front were screaming and losing their minds but the crowd is pretty still from the viewpoint of the sound bar, which is where I am now. Gotta get those crowd shots.
Aidan takes a moment to let us know that it’s guitarist Grant’s birthday. He gets the venue to wish him a happy birthday with the whole venue lit up. He let us know he would be at the merch table after his last song “Tripping Over Air”. A girl SCREAMS when he says this, safe to say she will be there too.
Bissett hops off the stage and runs back and forth in front of the barrier for the last few verses of this song. He ends his set with “My name is Aidan Bissett! Come and get merch!” The lights come up a bit, and the band tosses set lists and drumsticks before they depart the stage.
COIN takes the stage right on time and starts with the vocalist seated, messing with a sound machine of some type. Their lights are dim. SUPER dim and strobing. During the entire first song, I can barely get a good shot. The lighting is slightly better during the other two songs while I’m in the pit, but they used a ton of fog. If you’re a photographer, you know that fog can muck things up. COIN has a lot of moving lights and visuals, song lyrics illuminating the screen behind them, but man that dim lighting and excessive fog presented a challenge. They have the crowd MOVING, though.
After the first three songs that COIN plays, I sit behind the soundboard and have a well-lit and clear view of a set list taped to a monitor. Perfect. I grab a cellphone shot of it to refer to as needed.
The band has 3 monitor-type lights that lift and drop and move all around over the top of them during their set. During their song “Valentine”, vocalist Chase stands up on the piano. COIN is a very high energy, the guitarist in the yellow-tinted glasses and trucker cap is my fav to snapshots of. He’s extremely expressive and animated.
“We put out our new album like a month ago. Has anyone listened to it? It’s called “We’re Not Afraid Of Music Anymore” and that’s what we’re doing right here. Expressing ourselves with you. We’re also not afraid of our catalog anymore, so here’s some old songs”, Chase prologues before going into their next chunk of the setlist. “Boyfriend”, “Hannah” and “Met You In A Dream” are standouts for me. “Hannah” is especially cute because it’s dedicated to Hannah. I’m not sure who Hannah is but I’m certain one of COIN’s rabid fans in the front row would be able to tell me.
Chase takes a moment to speak to the audience between songs. “Coin is a band, that’s true but it means nothing without you”. Chase tells us their first show outside of Nashville was at U Street Music Hall here in DC and there were maybe 20 people there. “How many people…it doesn’t matter how many people are here tonight. You guys are bringing all that energy of those 20 people and more. This is amazing.”
Chase got a little sappy telling us that COIN and DC have a forever connection unlike any other. The band cools things down after an upbeat and dancy set with a song called “222”. It’s a slow-paced emotional piece on the piano. Extremely touching, this is one of my favorites this evening.
“Hey, love, you know I’ve been on a long way back home. Hanging out the open window, taking it slow. Yeah, we got room to grow”
The vocalist freezes at the piano for what seems like forever. It’s quiet for a few seconds, then the crowd begins cheering. It takes me a moment to realize that Chase is crying. The crowd cheers harder. This is a beautiful moment. I see him wipe his face with his sleeve and rest his hands on his lap. “Where do you start….I” he lets out a laugh and goes silent again. I feel my eyes start to tear up.
Chase is still at the piano and asks the crowd if “we can all sing one together”. It’s called “Let It Out”, his voice shakes a bit from the emotion he just shared with us.
During “????” on the setlist (yes it says that) Chase jumps down to the barrier to mingle with the crowd. He runs back and forth, bouncing around. I can only see his hair flipping around, that’s how I tell where he is in the pit. Joey is the guy on the guitar that I mentioned earlier I liked, I learned this when Chase introduced the band.
Since I have a clear view of the setlist, I know that after the next song, “Problems”, it’s time for my favorite two COIN songs. So, I take the opportunity to take a bunch of crowd shots during this song so that I can set my camera down for my two favs.
“Malibu 1992” and “Talk Too Much” are my most beloved songs by this band. “Malibu 1992” is the first song I heard by them. It’s somewhat of a slow burn, very relax-y type of song, and wow does it blow me away to watch live?
The lights are like a slow sunrise behind the band and the members are all totally in the zone and knocking this song out of the park. I was excited to hear it live and they exceeded my expectations. “Talk Too Much” was fabulous as well, catchy and electric, and lots of black and white visuals behind the guys featuring stand-out words from the song. The band plays one more jam, “Leaving The Light On”, which gets the most support from the crowd. Everyone has their hands up and is waving their arms back and forth in unison. It’s heartwarming to watch from behind the soundboard because I have a bird’s eye view of the crowd and the band.
The song concludes and COIN departs the stage. Not for long, though. They’re heavily encouraged via cheers to do an encore and they happily oblige. The band members take the stage once again with a grin and play two more songs for us, “Strawberry Jam” and “Crash My Car”.
During “Strawberry Jam”, I’m on-stage right in the crowd and I watch a couple of girls hold each other and sway together. It’s adorable. I head over to the merch table to scope things out, then head out the front doors of the venue to listen to “Crash My Car” from outside beside the water. It’s slightly muffled but still audible and I enjoyed listening while decompressing a bit from being in a huge crowd.
Both Aidan Bissett and COIN brought it tonight. I went into this show mostly blind, only being familiar with two songs by COIN and Aidan being a new artist for me. It’s safe to say Aidan Bissett earned a new fan in me and I found several more COIN songs that were later added to my library. COIN is a band, a damn good one.
Catch COIN on tour!
Setlists of the night:10/26 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
10/27 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
10/29 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
11/1 – St.Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live
11/2 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
11/3 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live
11/7 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
11/8 – Birmingham, AL – Avondale Brewing Company
11/9 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
2/8 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
2/9 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Great Saltair
2/11 – Boise, ID – Revolution Concert House
2/12 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
2/14 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
2/15 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
2/16 – Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
2/18 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
2/20 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
2/21 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
2/22 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
2/24 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
2/27 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
2/28 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
3/1 – Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center
3/3 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
3/4 – Fayetteville, AR – JJ’s Live
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