On the 1st of July 2022 Dublin indie band The Coronas played in Trinity College Dublin as part of the Trinity Summer Series originally scheduled for way back in 2020. The band is made up of Danny O’Reilly (vocals, keys, guitar), Graham Knox (bass) and Conor Egan (drums). The 3 permanent members of the band were supported by Lar Kane on guitar, Dave O’Keeffe on trumpet and Danny’s sister Roisin O on backing vocals. Roisin started off the evening with a fantastic support set, followed by Wild Youth before The Coronas finally took the stage.
Roisin O’s fantastic voice and great stage presence stamorted the evening off on the right foot. She played a mixture of songs from her debut album and songs off her recently released sophomore album ‘Courageous’. Roisin played a mix of acoustic and electric guitar while being supported by a full band of bass, keys and drums. The stand out track of the set was definitely ‘2023’ which talked about the celebrations and relief when live music was able to come back. Thankfully this was a year earlier than the song suggests!
Wild Youth were next up on support duties and brought the energy from the word go! They played a mix of new and old songs including ‘Making me Dance’ , ‘Champange Butterflies’ and ‘All or Nothing’s. They definitely did their job as a support act getting the crowd singing along to one of their oldest songs ‘Can’t move on’ which is extremely catchy and is such a good song to get a crowd moving.
The Coronas took the stage at an earlier time of 8.35 but made the most of the evening playing a 20+ song set. The set started off strong opening with their brand new song ‘Don’t You Say You Are In Love’ off their upcoming new album ‘Time Stopped’. They then kept the energy up playing two classics ‘Addicted to Progress’ and ‘San Diego Song’. During ‘San Diego Song’ the band released many large balloons into the crowd which the crowd seemed to really enjoy.
The fourth song up was ‘The Long Way’ which brought the energy down to give the band a break. During this song Danny asked the crowd to take out their phones and turn their lights on which as a beautiful moment. ‘Haunted’ was another lovely moment in the set with the crowd singing along! Soon after this the rain decided to show it’s face and stayed for the reminder of the set, but this could not dampen the fun that the crowd were having.
The next notable moment in the set was during ‘L.A at night’ when Danny took a stroll into the crowd going right to the sound desk and interacting with the crowd for several moments. Throughout the set their were many get pyrotechnics including CO2 and fireworks.
Before breaking into ‘ What a Love’ Danny asked the crowd to turn to the people they came with to the concert and give them a hug. Another lovely moment which showed the power of live music. Danny also discussed the struggles we all had during the pandemic before jokingly saying ‘you thought you had it bad? Imagine being in a band named after the virus causing the pandemic’ a funny moment for all.
The rest of the set included other great Coronas songs including ‘How This Goes’, ‘Mark My Words’ and ‘We Write Our Own Soundtrack ‘. Even though the crowd were soaked at the end of the night you could see the smiles on everyone’s faces, a clear sign of a great gig!
