Kodaline Montreal Concert Review
Ever since releasing their debut album, In A Perfect World last summer, Kodaline has been taking the world by storm. With two stops in Montreal during their North American Tour, we had the opportunity to chat with the guys and to catch their second show at the Corona Theatre.
From the moment the lights went down, you could tell that it was going to be a wild night. Starting off with After The Fall, they followed it up with Pray, and Brand New Day. Love Like This brought the first of many sing-a-longs with the crowd. Singing in perfect harmony, the crowd at the Corona Theatre were more than happy to provide the backing vocals.
Way Back When was up next, and prior to playing it, frontman Steve Garrigan let everyone know that it was drummer Vinny May’s birthday today --he was serenaded by the crowd later in the night. Steve also showed off his french speaking skill telling the crowd, “I don’t speak french, I’m sorry.” During our interview with with the band, we did find out that bassist Jason Boland does speak it quite well, and that he was blown away by the ease at which Montrealers were able to transition between the two languages seamlessly. (stay tuned for our full interview in the next few days)
Steve got as far as singing the first word of One Day before the crowd took over the singing duties. The combination of the sheer power of hundreds of people singing together and the wonderful acoustics of the Corona Theatre created such a magical moment between the fans and the band. Throughout the show the smiles on the band members faces could be seen even from the balcony. At times Steve seemed to be lost for words while chatting with the crowd between songs, mind you, it could’ve also been the fact that the crowd erupted whenever he tried. More often than not, he’d get as far as saying “Montreal!” before the crowd went wild.
The beautifully uplifting song, High Hopes was next followed by Big Bad World. To close out their set they played Talk and ended with All Comes Down. After a few minutes, the crowd roared, but no one was on stage, instead the band appeared on one of the balconies on the upper level. While they had a little trouble quieting the crowd, they managed to fit in an acoustic cover song along with Perfect World before returning back to the stage.
With only his guitar, Steve took the stage, and before playing their song, The Answer, he said that while this song wasn’t on the full album, it was still very important to them. To end the night, they were joined on stage by their opening act LP for a high energy version of All I Want.
While heading out of the venue, it was hard not to hear what people had to say about the show, and yesterday, it was all positive. I heard people say that that was the best $20 they've spent in a long time; one friend thanked another for convincing them to come to the show, and another said that the next time Kodaline come to town, there's no way that they're missing it.
As mentioned previously, prior to their show, we had a chance to chat with Steve, Jason and Vinny; stay tuned for our full interview in the coming days. If you’d like more information about the band, visit their Official website, and for all of your Quebec concert needs, visit our friends at Evenko.