The Greatest Moment in Music History

This is David Achter de Molen, singer of the now-defunct Dutch rock band John Coffey, walking on the crowd at the Pinkpop Festival in 2015.  De Molen was the central figure during the greatest moment in music history.

Once upon a time, there was a rock band from the Netherlands called John Coffey.

The band was named for the supernatural character in the spooky Stephen King novel, "The Green Mile."  The members of the band appear to not have read the book, but watched the movie instead.  

That's fine.  

They were a hard rock / thrash / post punk -type band.  I'm not sure how you would categorize them.  I don't love their music, generally speaking.

They made a few records, which were released by small independent labels in the Netherlands and Germany.  You would say that they never quite reached the big time.

They were, however, a somewhat popular live band.  They played hundreds of shows and toured relentlessly.  Mostly, they toured the Netherlands, and nearby countries like Belgium, Germany, France, and England.  

But they also played shows as far west as Los Angeles, and as far east as Moscow.  At different times, they were on the same bill as the Foo Fighters, and Snoop Dogg.

They existed from 2005 to late 2016.  Their heyday was in the mid-2010s.  In an era when rock music was dying or basically dead, they lived something close to a dream, then fizzled out.  

They also took part in the Greatest Moment in Music History.  Oddly enough, there was no actual music involved.  

"The Moment" took place at something called the Pinkpop Festival, on June 13, 2015, in the town of Landgraaf, the Netherlands.  It was captured live as it happened:

Did you SEE that?

The band's singer, David Achter de Molen, is standing on top of the crowd.  That part alone is not necessarily a big deal, and happens rather a lot.

In his youth, Thee Optimist often rode the top of the crowd at similar shows.  Dare he say, if you have never body-surfed the tattooed masses, you haven't really lived?

But then suddenly, someone in the crowds throws a beer.  The beer flies through the air, and doesn't spill out.

De Molen catches the beer as though he has magnets attached to his hand (the kind of magnets that are attracted to clear plastic).  Then he drinks the beer.  

Magic.  Pure, unadulterated witchcraft.  It is likely that this sequence of events never took place before The Moment, and will never happen again.

One commenter is on the record as saying, "This is the greatest moment in human history.  Everything we've built has lead to this."

That may be an exaggeration.  But it also may not.

John Coffey, as they were.

Words of Wisdom

"I was starting to doubt myself, because I thought, “Well, I think this tastes of beer,” but I wasn’t sure even after, because I saw all kind of discussions starting.  It was beer, because we talked to the guy throwing the beer and basically, he could confirm it.  He just had a new beer and he thought, “Well, let’s throw this.”"

- David Achter de Molen 

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