The Coronas, live at The Olympia

One of the golden rules with almost any live show is that the audience participation number will always elicit the most enthusiastic response from the audience. For there is nothing an up-for-it-crowd like better than exercising their collective lungs at maximum decibel levels. (The subsequent applause is as much for their own heroic efforts, as it is for the band up on stage.) The thing about The Coronas is that virtually all of their snappy, melodic, guitar-pop numbers are irresistibly audience participation-friendly, and their shows have become one massive singalong. The songs, especially the really popular ones, ‘Grace Don’t Wait’ , ‘Listen Dear’ and ‘San Diego Song’, are almost scientifically designed to invite a massed response - and you don’t even need to know any of the words, as there are any number of, “whoo-oh-oh-oh’s” within the choruses to ensure no one is excluded from the party.
This may go some way towards explaining the south Dublin quartet’s extraordinary popularity with the home crowds (especially the female contingent, who outnumber the lads by about three to one.) But it doesn’t exactly pin down exactly why they have succeeded on such a grand scale, while others have failed. They’ve certainly paid their dues and grafted hard over the last five years but their sound remains a pretty generic one, while the songs won’t exactly change your life.
For now, none of this matters and halfway through their six-night stint at the Olympia the band’s likeable, ever smiling, frontman, Danny O’Reilly seems genuinely humbled by the reception. “This week has been really amazing,” he says, above screams and screeches. “I remember coming here years ago to see bands like The Frames and Picture House – I never thought I’d be up here on stage doing the same thing.”
When he sits down at the piano for, the ballad, ‘Someone Else’s Hands’ there is the kind of response that Robbie Williams ‘Angel’. The immediate future looks bright: ‘Addicted To Progress’ the first single from their new album is already a hit with the crowds who lap it up during the encore before.
Whether the scale of their Irish success will eventually translate internationally is anyone’s guess but at home, they can do no wrong!

Click here to browse our pics of the gig.