The Coronas Marquee, Cork

Irish indie-rock group The Coronas wowed their Cork fans in the Marquee last night with a concert full of originality and flair.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Danny O’Reilly was on fire and held the audience in the palm of his hand, notably with ‘Listen Dear’.

He even forgot the lyrics of one song, ‘This is Not a Test’, but made a virtue of the error. The showmanship started with the band playing behind a white curtain, lit to great effect.

As the band bonded with the Cork crowd, Danny said: “Five years ago we played to 30 people in the Old Oak; now we’re playing to a fully packed Marquee. Thank you Cork.”

The pre-gig hype promised an evening of great craic and the audience gave itself over totally to a night which delivered on that promise.

As an adolescent myself, I appreciated the youthful vibe sent out by The Coronas. A ‘fun’ band in the best possible sense, they really know how to help an entire generation’s troubles and worries drift away.

The line “Let the colours always blind us” from the hit ‘Addicted To Progress’, symbolised the bright and empowering, if not overbearing, lights of city life.

Despite touring the world, winning countless awards, and becoming an international success, the band members have retained a deep bond with their Irish fans. They even performed a few songs in their native tongue. Each band member seemed to be entirely enjoying the concert as the audience recited the lyrics to the hits, and even to some of the brand new material.

Also worthy of mention were support acts Róisín Ó, a singer-songwriter with a bright future, and Roy 7, a band whose hits were clearly already very familiar to this audience.

— Rebecca Dermody