The Hunna / Coasts / Courtship. at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (21 March 2018)

It was a little truth, and a little Dare—

The 7^th Street Entry in Minneapolis hosted a co-headlining show by two of the UK’s most upcoming bands- from Hertfordshire, The Hunna and from Bristol, Coasts as a capacity crowd filled the club on a weeknight.

The three-band evening was opened up not by another UK band, but the sunny electro-pop of Los Angeles duo Courtship. (yes, with the period at the end of their name), who borrowed Coasts drummer for their thirty-minute set.  The twosome of Micah Gordon and Eli Hirsch have played with other acts, but joined together in 2016 and have released a handful of songs so far (‘Bad Fun’ being the latest), en route to an upcoming full-length. 

It was the band’s first time in town and they were well-received on songs like ‘Sun Roof’ and the island   grooved rhythm of ‘Tell Me Tell Me’ (mentioning that the song was written about liking someone, but being rejected) with Hirsch also saying that local station GO 96.3 was the first radio station to play a song of theirs. Despite any dour lyrical content, their sound is unabashedly poppy, positive, and warm filled- an ideal antidote to current news headlines. 

The five-piece known as Coasts then took to the stage for their forty-three minute set, beginning with a short instrumental before giving way to 2015’s ‘Modern Love’ (not the Bowie track, but one on their 2016 self-titled debut full-length [Warner Bros Records]) and properly introducing themselves to the audience.

The quintet (Chris Caines-vocals; Liam Willford-guitar; James Gamage-bass; David Goulbourn- keys; Ben Street -drums) plays anthemic indie-rock that outdistanced the small walls of the Entry, with vocalist Caines displaying a bit of Bono-esque bravado in his stage presence. 

“Last time we played here, there was probably half the amount of people here” Caines said, looking upon the capacity crowd “so that’s f**king great! So, how many of you have seen us before?” Caines asked, “…five people”, he chuffed, taking that as a challenge to make a good first impression to everyone else. ”I’m having the most fun of our little tour, Minneapolis”, Caines admitted after a stirring ‘You’ and people happily clapped along with the infectious ‘A Rush of Blood’.

“Let’s have a jump-around” Caines asked, before ‘Tonight’, singing “you bring me together and my world starts to blur” and Coasts closed their set with their third-ever single ‘Oceans’, a song which dates as far back as 2013, but released here on their 2016 debut. 

After a short break, the amplifiers were turned up and rawk entered the building in the form of The Hunna, in support of their upcoming sophomore full-length, Dare (due May 25 on 300 Ent/High Time Records).  The quartet (Ryan Potter-vocal/guitar; Dan Dorney- guitar; Junate Angin- bass; Jack Metcalfe- drums) plays an aggressive yet melodic blend of indie-rock and it was clear that most of the crowd was there to see them. 

“If you know any of these songs, sing along” singer Potter said ahead of their hour-long set, “let’s have some fun!” as the band began with the lead single from their previous album, ‘You and Me’, also admitting how Minnesota Nice was a true thing, based on everyone they’d met.  ‘Never Enough’ got people singing the chorus back to the band and clapping along, with the group sometimes reaching Biffy Clyro-levels of volume as the song progressed.

“This amount of people, for only our second time here, is incredible” Potter noted, perhaps forgetting they also did a quick unplugged set at the nearby Mall of America’s main rotunda (of all places), on Black Friday Weekend of Nov 2016.  “Put your lights up” Potter said for the slower ‘Sycamore Tree’ which brought cell phone flashlights waving into the air, while the new driving ‘Flickin’ Your Hair’, was a rolling taste of the upcoming album. 

The day before the show, the band had the night off, so managed to go and see the Timberwolves win their basketball game, something they also did the previous time here, Potter said, calling the team their favorite and admitting it to be “one of the greatest days we’ve had, as a band”, asking the crowd to howl the lyrics to ‘She’s Casual’, one of their earliest written songs. 

The title track from the upcoming album would follow, “a little bit meaner” Potter said, certainly one of their crunchiest tracks to date and ‘We Could Be’ was written about all the times they were almost signed to a label, but then not, turning those experiences into a catalyst to do things on their own terms. 

‘You Don’t Want it With Me’ is the latest single from the upcoming album, a bass-driven thunder boomer with classic riff and the band saved time by playing the set-ending ‘Bonfire’ without leaving and re-emerging as an encore, though the crowd refused to leave following it, yelling for another song, though that would be the end.

“We are a long way from home and it does really mean a lot that all of you people are here” Potter would say beforehand, “We’re just four best friends that love playing music together”.  

(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)