THE CORONAS – THE CROXTON – MELBOURNE – 21.11.2024
Review and photos by Craig Eriksson
It was the luck of the Irish tonight at The Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne seeing Dublin trio The Coronas play a raw and intimate show. It felt like we were in their homeland with the wonderful contingent of Irish in attendance hearing their rich thick Irish accents as they talked amongst themselves. We were lucky enough to be right up front at the stage barrier and next to me was a young Irish girl called Orla who we got chatting to before the show. Orla said she has seen The Coronas four times at stadium concerts in Ireland and the UK. Orla was pinching herself in disbelief and couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be so close to the stage. When lead singer Danny came into the crowd during the show and shook our hands, I honestly thought Orla was going to faint.
The Coronas formed back in 2003 and are from Terenure, Dublin, Ireland and are here in Australia on a mini tour (3 Australian shows – Melbourne, Sydney, Perth) before they head off to Europe to promote their new album Thoughts & Observations released on 27 September 2024. It is their 8th studio album and I’ve listened to this 3-times before attending tonight and it’s a powerful and melodic album with beautiful song lyrics and vocals. If you want to get a great taste of their music and appreciation of just how amazing this band is live, take a listen to Live at the Olympia (Dublin) recorded at their homecoming show back in 2019.
The band:
Danny O’Reilly – Lead vocals / acoustic guitar / keyboards
Conor Egan – Drums
Graham Knox – Bass guitar
Touring Musicians –
Roisin O – Backing vocals / piano / keyboards (Danny’s sister)
Lara Kay – Lead guitarist
Cian MacSweeney – Keyboards/ saxophone / acoustic guitar / backing vocals
The Coronas are a big deal back in Ireland and no doubt may become huge in Australia as they gain more popularity once the new album takes off and gets more airplay. Judging by the reaction of punters tonight, the next time they visit our shores they will definitely be playing a much larger venue. For those unfamiliar with this band, their 2009 album, ‘Tony Was An Ex-Con’ won Best Irish Album at the 2010 Meteor Awards beating Snow Patrol’s ‘Up To Now’ and U2’s ‘No Line On The Horizon’ among others.
To learn more about the band and their success, Greg Phillips from Australian Musician recently had a wonderful interview with Danny O’Reilly – LINK>
The Coronas band name derived from the film ‘Almost Famous’. The brand of typewriter the music journalist (William Miller) used was a classic Smith-Corona. In the film, this aspiring teenage rock journo did his freelance music reviews on this typewriter and ended up landing a job with Rolling Stone magazine.
Irish singer/songwriter Conleth McGeary was the Support. McGeary was on stage singing solo and playing an acoustic guitar and did a great job warming up the crowd, playing a short set of his original material.
The vibe in the Croxton was buzzing with excitement as fans eagerly waited in anticipation for The Coronas to come on. Much to the delight of fans, The Coronas played a one and three quarter hour show, delivering a 24-song set. The show was magical!
They opened with CONFIRMATION from the new album and went on to play 6 more songs from THOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS (2024) giving us a nice taste of their new songs (THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT LOVE IS; SPEAK UP; GHOSTING; SINGING JUST FOR YOU (ON OCCASION); UNBELIEAVABLE SCENES and the beautiful HEARTS FOR EYES.
It was interesting to see three keyboardists on stage. Danny alternated between playing keyboards and acoustic guitar. His sister Roisin O has an absolutely beautiful voice and is a singer/songwriter and well known solo artist in Ireland. Roisin sang a wonderful duet with her brother on LOST IN THE THICK OF IT. MacSweeney alternated between keyboards, saxophone, backing vocals and even sang SOUNDTRACK with Danny providing backing vocals.
Energetic touring lead guitarist Lara Kay jumped around the stage really getting into the music and Knox on bass had his own chilled groove shuffle but Conor on drums is the true heartbeat of their sound.
The vocals of Danny O’Reilly are deeply rich and sonorous. He has an infectious smile throughout and you can see he thoroughly enjoys what he does. This flows out into the audience, creating a feel-good vibe. It would seem the Irish are all born and bred into music and the crowd sang along with Danny in such a beautiful, emotional, harmonious manner that you would think The Coronas brought them along with them as their back-up singers. Goosebumps throughout most of the ballads tonight.
The Coronas provided a wonderful smorgasboard of the back catalogue –
HEROES OR GHOSTS (2007) – SAN DIEGO SONG: HEROES OR GHOSTS
TONY WAS AN EX-CON (2009) – LISTEN DEAR;
CLOSER TO YOU (2011) – ADDICTED TO PROGRESS; DREAMING AGAIN; MARK MY WORDS
THE LONG WAY (2014) – None.
TRUST THE WIRE (2017) – GIVE ME A MINUTE;
TRUE LOVE WAITS (2020) – HAUNTED; LOST IN THE THICK OF IT
TIME STOPPED (2022) – STRIVE: IF YOU LET ME BE
The Irish Guy on the other side of me was holding up his phone with a message to Danny which read: CAN I PLAY HEROES OR GHOSTS WITH YOU. Danny saw this message and winked with acknowledgment. Danny invited him up on stage to sing this song and the fan was incredibly excited and confident as he grabbed Danny’s acoustic guitar and performed a wonderful rendition of the song.
It is hard to pick out the crowds favourite songs tonight because it seemed they loved every tune the band presented. Some noticeable stand out songs – San Diego Song, Closer To You, Heroes or Ghosts, Give Me A Minute and Speak Up.
When the band went off for a short break before the encore, the Irish crowd chanted “One More Tune”. At first I couldn’t work out what they were saying as its generally “One More Song”. I had to ask Orla and she laughed and said: Yes, we say One More Tune in Ireland!
At the end of the show, a very humble Danny expressed his sincere and heartfelt gratitude to all that attended tonight and expressed how incredibly blessed the band are with the ongoing support of their fans.
SET LIST:
Confirmation
Addicted to Progress
Strive
The Long Way
Haunted
That’s Exactly What Love Is
Lost In The Thick Of It (duet with Roison O)
Dreaming Again
Ghosting
Listen Dear
If You Let Me
Speak Up
All The Others
Give Me A Minute
Singing Just For You (On Occasion)
Soundtrack (sung by Cian MacSweeney with backing vocals by Danny)
Mark My Words
Unbelievable Scenes
Just Like That
Heroes or Ghosts (Irish guy next to me was invited up on stage to sing)
ENCORE:
Hearts For Eyes
Closer To You
What A Love
San Diego Song