Every year, the Tennessee Soybean Festival brings the people of Martin together for a week filled with music, rides, events and all the fried food you can eat. One of the highlights of the festival is always Student Night, which is sponsored by the UTM Student Activities Council. The concert is free to students, which is great since most of us are still recovering from buying our textbooks.
This year’s Student Night act was Echosmith. The band is made up of lead singer Sydney Sierota and her three brothers Noah, Jamie and Graham. You probably remember them from their song “Cool Kids” which was EVERYWHERE when it came out. They also have other popular songs like the super cute love song “Bright.”
When Echosmith first took the stage, you could already see the crazy amount of energy in the crowd. Everyone was taking pictures and dancing along to the music, and it was easy to pick out the die-hard fans in the front row who were singing along to every word. Throughout the show, everyone stayed just as enthusiastic as they cheered Echosmith on and Snapchatted every moment.
The band seemed genuinely happy to interact with the crowd the entire night, even mentioning the people who were watching from the apartments above the surrounding businesses. At one point during the concert, an inflatable beach ball starting getting passed around and nearly hit Sydney in the head, but she laughed it off without missing a beat. Later in the night, the band brought out their mom to thank her and have her take a big group picture of the crowd.
Echosmith performed a combination of new songs along with some old favorites and showed off their skills with amazing drum solos and an a capella chorus at the end of “Bright.” The band closed the show with “Cool Kids,” and it was almost impossible to find one person who wasn’t singing along.
Student Night never disappoints with its performers, and this year was no exception. Shout out to the UTM Student Activities Council for making this available to the students every year! Echosmith put on an amazing show, and I think everyone that was there can agree. Now, if only we didn’t have to wait until next fall for the next Student Night!
Photo courtesy of Sarah Knapp Photography