Selling out Scala at their first London headline show for a long time, The Coronas play to an adoring crowd.
Tonight’s support band are The Carnabys, an indie five piece from the heart of London. They deal in classic indie tunes but the crowd are obviously not that interested, sadly their attention only being grabbed as The Carnabys launch themselves in to a heavy chorus.
The guys try hard to create an atmosphere and also heavily push their new album, ‘No Money On The Moon’, and merch even stretching as far as using their keyboard player as a catwalk model. They play some bigger tracks and it’s clear to see The Carnabys love to do so, getting a rock ‘n’ roll jump out of their frontman Jack Mercer. A hazy summers day in audio form is how I would describe the last track until the a shout of “It’s not my party!” drops the track into frenzy of distorted guitars and a huge chorus, with a classic rock ‘n’ roll ending.
The lights burst into a blinding white as The Coronas hit the stage. Their opener contains the lines ‘I could be more than just a friend…” and this sums up the atmosphere for the rest of the show, as young professional women go week at the knees for Danny O’Reilly and his band. It’s a room chocked full of estragon as I struggle to pick out more than ten guys in the entire crowd.
“Hello London, it feels so good to be back”, ‘All The Others‘ gets the crowd bopping, hips sway and heads nod but no one dares to break into full on dance moves. ‘Fingers Crossed‘ calms down the room with its tribal like drums and simple keys, this track really shows The Coronas song writing prowess.
They play two new tracks and O’Reilly sparks the audiences interest even more with his charm, claiming “if I went to see a band I liked and they went to play some new songs I would head straight for the bar, but I know you guys aren’t like that…”. The two new tunes are ‘Get Loose‘ and ‘One Love‘, the first being a positively danceable track that allows the band to boogie around stage to the intro. The second, ‘One Love‘, has pounding drums and little guitar flicks all over the place in the verse that all leads to a sing along chorus, it’s easy to see the crowd love it and both tracks receive huge cheers.
The Coronas are clearly having fun, launching into current single ‘Just Like That‘ with its scrappy guitar giving the sound bit more bite. The big build of “I don’t wanna be a friend” gets the crowd dancing more and more. Their first of many encores is a solo piano version of ‘Heroes and Ghosts‘ from O’Reilly, the whole of Scala erupts into a giant sing along plus a shed load of camera phones. ‘Feel It Close‘ sends the crowd over the edge as they lose themselves in the music, as O’Reilly climbs the barrier.
Strangely The Coronas choose to end this London headline show with a cover, ‘Heyday‘ by Mic Christopher. “Thank You Scala!” announces O’Reilly, jumps back on to the keys and the band jam out.