Friday, Jan. 31, the indie pop band Coastal Club performed in Lodge 1 of the Sadler Center for an event called Fridays@5. The event was put on by event-planning committee AMP Live and was free for all students to attend.
Coastal Club hails from Cincinnati and consists of Alexandre Hirlinger (vocals/guitar), David McGuire (drums) and Avery Benter (vocals/guitar).
Cassie Palmer ’27, who has been a fan of Coastal Club since 2020, had the idea to bring the band to the College of William and Mary, and was able to organize the event through AMP.
“I got the opportunity to see them in concert over the summer,” Palmer said. “I got to meet the band and exchange social information with them, because I had talked to them about being part of AMP, and the possibility of possibly getting them to do a concert with us.”
Palmer was able to get in touch with the band’s booking agent and begin planning the event with AMP. The process involved finding a space and time as well as AMP coordinators.
“There’s a lot of moving parts, and I can’t claim that I’m the only one that does it,” Palmer said.
When Coastal Club agreed to come and play for the College, they originally didn’t know that it was a fan who had decided to book the event.
“Our booking agent just told us, there’s this college that wants to have you guys out in Williamsburg, Virginia. We’re like, yeah, let’s go for it, sounds great,” Hirlinger said. “And then it wasn’t until I saw Cassie’s post about the show that I was like, this is for Cassie. Awesome.”
During the performance, concert goers sat with friends at decorated tables in Lodge 1 while the band performed their songs. They played a mix of upbeat, intense songs while also sprinkling in more emotional, slow pieces. Audience members could be seen singing along and dancing to the music.
“I think the coolest single moment is when you see somebody in the crowd who is singing along, singing the words alongside of us. It’s like, my gosh, you knew the song ahead of time. The song connected with you enough,” Hirlinger said. “It resonated with you enough that you learned all the words and can now sing it along and scream it along and have that kind of connection.”
Benter loves performing for a different reason.
“There’s just something about getting into a room full of new people every time that, the only consistent thing is that we’re doing it together,” Benter said. “There’s just moments on stage where we just lock in together, and there’s just something special that happens. At the end of the day, if no one ever came to a show again, we had all these shows that we got to play together, and that was always enough.”
During the final songs of the night, Coastal Club encouraged audience participation by having everyone get on their feet and dance. During the final song, Hirlinger rushed into the crowd, jumping up and down while audience members cheered and danced along.
“I think there’s something really special about a group of people that’s all on the same wavelength,” McGuire said. “Being able to help create that environment for it to happen, I think is one of probably the most special things in life.”
Lydia Blizzard ’28, a member of AMP, was another long-time fan who attended the event.
“I also don’t go to a lot of live music events, so, this is a really great opportunity that was free and I could just go see one of my favorite bands,” Blizzard said.
After the performance, the members of the band chatted with fans and signed merch that was available for purchase. Students lined up to take pictures with the band members.
“Coastal Club is a smaller band, and they have some really awesome chill indie music,” Palmer said. “So, I hope we have more people on campus listen to them because they’re up and coming, and if you like COIN, if you like Hippo Campus, if you like Flipturn, you’re going to really enjoy them, and they’re really down to earth.”
You can find Coastal Club on all social media platforms under the username of @wearecoastalclub to keep up with them as they release new music and tour in new locations.
“A lot of what we draw inspiration from is that sort of unbridled joy and optimism, enthusiasm for life. There’s been moments where we hit that heavy, and then moments where we go and dive deep into some heavier topics, some stuff that is a little bit weightier. But I think overall as a band, I want people to leave Coastal Club shows feeling just a little bit lighter,” Hirlinger said.
