For a lesson in songwriting and musicianship, there are few bands that you can turn to in the UK quite like Liverpool’s finest, The Coral. Psychedelia as a genre and movement currently is swamped. In a similar way to how there was an indie landfill at the back end of the previous decade, there is becoming a swamp of reverberation that stipulates the three accessories needed to claim ‘psychedelia’ – these are a fuzz pedal, a reverberation pedal and a black turtle neck. Or at least that was until The Coral hit back earlier this year. After years standing in the shadows, watching a movement in British music enter and become at the forefront of hype, they unleashed Distance Inbetween a brave album that took everything garage-psychedelia has given us and just made it, well, outstandingly good. So, here in Brighton at the start of what is beginning to feel like summer, they were to display an immaculate set that spanned from their debut effort right through until their latest stuff. It was to be a magical affair.

The set was cut, right down the middle almost, in a fashion that debuted six or seven pieces off the new album before then cutting to an almost ‘best of’ section. This miraculously seemed to work well though, largely because a lot the new album demonstrates everything The Coral have learnt over the years. The likes of ‘Miss Fortune’, which opened the set, puts forth the exceptional skill of writing choruses that The Coral behold. In a similar fashion to the likes of ‘Dreaming Of You’ and ‘In The Morning’, this is a quick fire psych-pop song that packs in a fierce tempo. The likes of ‘Connector’ further demonstrate the skill they have when it comes to writing riffs. The riffs are big and prominent, they have a bite and there is something in them that keeps you up until 5am, singing it round in your head as the cruel finger of morning beckons.

What really stands The Coral amongst their peers is the pure musicianship that they behold. James Skelly’s voice is marvellous and largely dictates as to why these are not the typical mid-00s ruffians that get labelled as lad-rock or as your nostalgic average-Joe indie rock’n’roll group. In the nicest way possible, these are music geeks; James is shy, leaving his brother Ian to much of the onstage chit-chat, every note hit by Paul Mulloy is precise and articulated using a careful array of pedals. There is no slip up present as the group cut through song structures and time signatures marvellously. Songs on their latest effort show an accumulation of these skills; ‘Million Eyes’ and ‘Chasing The Tail Of A Dream’ both possess drive and tension, perhaps pointing the band more towards a Thee Oh Sees or The Black Angels sort of root. It’s far flung from the British 60s influences that colour earlier material and finds roots on the other side of the Atlantic. Live, you want these to songs hit you, and so do the band, but there’s something in the way.

This is not to bracket all Brighton crowds whatsoever but tonight, the crowd in general seemed to struggle. They really made it hard at the best of times for the Liverpool-based band. They were remarkably and surprisingly tame and this unfortunately made a significant dent upon the atmosphere, despite the venue being filled to capacity. The solace in silence was not necessarily something that would purely feature towards the newer material either. When hit with the rock’n’roll, riff-heavy likes of ‘Goodbye’, the standout singles such as ‘In The Morning’ and the downright groove infused ska number ‘Simon Diamond’; movement was still at a minimum as chin-strokers seemed slightly more bothered about complaining about the lost drip of their American craft ale as opposed to allowing the kids around to have a good time.

This is not to lament the sound though, it was magnificent and crystal clear at all times. As The Coral whipped through numbers such as ‘Pass It On’ and ‘She Sings The Mourning’, big sounds were found and the lighting work glittered above, casting down upon the group and egging them on.

The thing with The Coral is that they have so many songs that are all rewarding of hit status, these flock tonight in the forms of ‘Return Her To Me’ with its country rock’n’roll jive, ‘Jaqueline’ of course – the centrefold and staple point of Roots & Echoes – and the obvious inclusion of ‘Dreaming Of You’. It was a miraculous affair in terms of the music that swilled around Concorde 2. It was unfortunate the crowd could not meet them halfway, however, this did not taint the otherwise perfect performance from 2016’s band of the year so far.
Tom Churchill

Website: thecoral.co.uk
Facebook: facebook.com/TheCoral
Twitter: twitter.com/thecoralband