Los Coronas @ Cherry Bar
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Los Coronas @ Cherry Bar

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My girlfriend’s not going to like this, but I’m in love with another woman: Erykah ‘The Duchess’ Dunville from the Steve Miller Band. There was a psychoactive quirk to her guitar work, and an unsettling junkyard quality to her voice that was oddly satisfying. When covering Bo Diddley, she asked Who Do You Love? I think you know, Erykah. Frontman ‘Handsome’ Steve Miller and drummer Phoebe ‘The Shewolf’ Taylor weren’t bad either. Formerly of the post punk band the Moodists, Handsome Steve had a slightly psychotic but serene look in his eyes. You weren’t sure if he was going to freak out or take you out for a nice counter meal. The Shewolf had an equally unnerving look, and with mallets in hand she was a formidable force.

 

Next thing you knew, Los Coronas appeared on stage like an apparition in the desert. The four Spaniards, joined by a Ukrainian trumpeter, had Stetsons on and guns drawn ready for an old-fashioned shoot out. The bass in particular leered from the small stage, as intimidating as the coffin-hidden machine gun in Sergio Corbucci’s Spaghetti Western classic, Django.

 

Back in Oz for their third year running, it seems they’ve acquired a taste for the land Down Under. Australia has definitely acquired a taste for their instrumental surf rock, which is just downright fun.

 

They’re a bit cheesy, but that’s what’s good about them. The set mixed up originals and songs inspired by classics with a few covers. Johnny Rivers’ Secret Agent Man got a workout, along with Knights of Telstar, their rendition of Muse’s Knights of Cydonia, and Rockaway Surfers, a nod to The Ramones’ Rockaway Beach. They naturally closed with Dick Dale’s Miserlou, held together by iconic sliding scales and emphatic shouts. At this point something in me, something that Pulp Fiction ignited years ago, let loose.

 

BY LEE SPENCER-MICHAELSEN

Photo by Ian Laidlaw

 

Loved: The Duchess.

Hated: Getting cut off from the jukebox.

Drank: Jamo and coke.