Review of The Coronas at The Olympia Theatre on December 5th 2011
Review: James Hunter
Photos: Sean Smyth
The connection The Coronas have made with Ireland’s twenty-something’s over the last few years is staggering. Having moved from a show where only a handful of devoted fans appeared to a dizzying sequence of nights in the Olympia, it’s foolish to say they’re on the up and up. They are up, and by the looks of the crowd in the Olympia on a cold and windy December evening, they’re not going anywhere.
Cutting a swathe across the country this winter in support of their new album ‘Closer to You’, the band hit the stage with a cacophony from the crushing, and largely female, crowd. Maturity and diversity are hallmarks of all new albums, and as the bands new offering pushes new borders for them, the live show does the same. The acoustic guitar is still front and centre, but singer Danny O’ Reilly is backed up now by sparing use of an upright piano, a feature that was lacking in their summer touring schedule.
They could be playing dustbins on stage for all the crowd cared. They wanted the Coronas, no matter what they did. O’ Reilly has really risen to be a great front man. Constantly caught in throes of his acoustic and forever singing at ‘you’ rather than a spot on the back wall make him a fundamentally likeable singer. The rest of the band, not to be ignored of course, all pull in behind him and together they possess a ferocious energy. The fans lapped it up.
The band often take flack from woolly jumpers for being a slightly scruffier embodiment of artists like The Script. However you can’t deny the popularity, and more importantly the positivity The Coronas have built up for themselves. Having great tunes helps too…
