I Found Some Light in a Cold, Wet Field in Franklin, TN

I attended Colony House's "Everybody Is Looking For Some Light: A Drive-In Movie + Concert Experience" on October 30, 2020 in Franklin, TN. It was everything I wanted it to be.

my friend at the show (taken by me)

my friend at the show (taken by me)

Drive-ins have been having a bit of a moment while indoor venues and theaters are closed. Movies might be more traditional drive-in fare, but it didn't take long for music to get in on the trend in a big way, especially during the already typically-outdoors summer festival season. For the most part, it seems like the consensus for these events is that even though it's nowhere near the same experience, it's certainly better than an endless string of livestreams on laptops. There has been some controversy surrounding the safety of these concerts with different set-ups, levels of mask-wearing, and levels of rule-following in general. Remember that Chainsmokers concert from July? The internet lit up with photos and videos of people rushing the stage at their concert in the Hamptons, NY, drawing attention to concerns about COVID safety at socially distanced events. Fast forward a few months and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had this to say on the matter:

While certainly a bit delayed in the context of the news cycle and internet hype surrounding the original event, this fine and oversight demonstrates some level of accountability for event planners.

As a huge music fan myself that has only semi-recently discovered the joy of live shows, I was crushed when my spring and summer concert plans went down the drain. I was unexpectedly back home with my parents like so many other young adults and spent the summer lamenting the lack of things to do in suburban Chicago during a pandemic. I had been following stories about drive-in concerts, but hadn't seen any performers I liked playing a drivable distance from my house. It was only once I moved back to Atlanta to live with my best friend that something finally grabbed my attention: Colony House, one of my favorite bands, was playing a drive-in show only 4 measly hours away in their hometown of Franklin, TN.

Adding to the excitement was the fact that my roommate is also a big Colony House fan-- in fact their 2017 album Only the Lonely was pretty much the soundtrack for the beginning of our friendship. We spent the next year an ocean apart while I was studying abroad, and I would often listen to Colony House to feel connected to her. That's all to say that we both would have been beyond thrilled to see them live without all the extra pent up excitement from months of staying in.

Since we got into Colony House, they had released a new album, Leave What's Lost Behind in January of 2020. This one had a much more soaring, orchestral feel than their more traditional rock sound; the lyrics were less angsty and more nostalgic or inspirational. I've grown to love it more and more as the world has gotten progressively worse and worse. In some ways, they made the perfect pandemic album without even knowing it. So, we bought tickets the moment they went on sale, made our travel arrangements, and waited eagerly for Halloween weekend to roll around. Other people must have agreed with us because the original show sold out so fast they added a second one days later. I can confidently say it was worth the wait.

From a COVID safety/ drive-in concert perspective, I'd say they did a pretty good job. The drive-in set up was a huge field behind a wedding venue kind of in the middle of nowhere that one of the band member's in-laws owns. They had a few food trucks and (of course) a huge merch table full of drive-in debuts and exclusives. Every car got a bag of tortilla chips courtesy of the band and other small complimentary pieces of merch were handed out around the food trucks (organic lip balm! koozies!). Cars were spaced relatively close side by side in rows, but there were probably two car lengths of space between each row.

In terms of staff mask wearing, I only saw one man at the merch table with his mask off, but everyone else from the greeting staff to the food truck employees was being safe. For the audience, it was a little more mixed. The stated rule was that masks were required whenever attendees were outside of their cars. As one might imagine, this was not followed 100% of the time. The various vendors were not as safely spaced out as they could've been, with long and crowded lines blending together in many places. I'd say that about 15% of attendees were not wearing masks in these non-socially distanced spaces. Once the show started and people were back by their cars, mask wearing dramatically decreased. Obviously, I couldn't see everyone because it was dark and very spaced out, but it seemed more like as many of 80% of attendees were not wearing masks in this socially distanced setting. From what I could tell from social media posts during and after the concert, there wasn't a Chainsmokers-esque rush to the stage that would make all of this masklessness exponentially more unsafe. In our section at least, it was easy to stay more than 10 feet away from other groups. The only time it got a little dicey was when people would walk back and forth, presumably to the restrooms or vendor section off to the side. I'd say masks were pretty 50/50 in those instances. Given the two cars lengths of space between each row, though, it was still relatively easy to maintain a 10 foot bubble.

Another COVID-related side note is that throughout the show (both the film and the concert), the band talked about their efforts to raise money for Food for the Hungry, a charity that provides necessary resources to people suffering extreme poverty. Benefit concerts aren't a new idea, but it was a heartfelt and appropriate gesture given everything happening in the world.

Logistics aside, both the hour long documentary about the behind the scenes of making Leave What's Lost Behind and the live show itself were incredible. The film served as a perfect first act, helping to make up for some of the lost intimacy from having the concert in a chilly, spread out field instead of a warm, tightly packed room. Once the music started, you could still somehow feel the collective excitement of the crowd.

Despite the less than ideal circumstances that made this show possible, it was definitely one of my favorite concerts I've ever been to. You could tell how excited the band was to play and how much it meant to them to be able to share their music with us. It was a perfect mixture of fan-favorites from their previous two albums and all of the hopeful songs from their latest. It was exhilarating to dance in a random field with my best friend to live performances of the songs that solidified our friendship. I'm also not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear during their closing performance of "Looking for Some Light," a song about powering through difficult situations and staying positive. In the informational email they sent out before the show, the schedule said:

9:00 PM - Colony House Show

10:15 PM - Go Home Happy

I thought it was cheesy when I read the email (and it's still cheesy now), but it certainly was true and stuck with me a little bit. I think so many people are struggling to feel like they're doing anything to break out of the monotony of our lives during the pandemic. I know I am-- my senior year of college was not supposed to be spent alone at the desk in my apartment bedroom. There are bright spots and things to be happy about, sure, but they all seem fleeting. I also think it's worth noting that for me, there's a difference between feeling happy about something and experiencing happiness. That's the magic of cultural events and getting out to engage with the world. You get to leave the bubble of your life, press pause on your problems, and revel in the glory of beautiful art and collective experiences.

I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to see Colony House live, especially now. For me, the minor inconveniences of the situation made it even more perfect. When else would you get tortilla chips at check in? Or be encouraged honk your horn along to a song? One of my least favorite things about concerts normally is how sweaty they are, so getting to take deep breaths of 40-degree air was an unexpected added perk.

Colony House gave me a couple hours of pure joy amidst all the darkness, so I for one hope drive-in concerts are here to stay while we continue to dig ourselves out of this public health crisis and necessary solitude.