Fontaines DC at 3Arena: Masterful and compelling display as âthe gall of Fine Gael and the fail of Fianna FĂĄilâ fills the air
1 Like
Can you copy and paste that up?
Fontaines DC at 3Arena: Masterful and compelling display as âthe gall of Fine Gael and the fail of Fianna FĂĄilâ fills the air
How good can Fontaines DC get? At first of two Dublin concerts they answer that question with aplomb
Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC midsong as the band play their biggest homecoming shows at 3Arena in Dublin. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni
Fontaines DC
3Arena, Dublin
â â â â â
Seven years ago, Fontaines DCâsDecember show in Dublin was at the Workmanâs Club, a 300-capacity venue on Wellington Quay overlooking the Liffey. Then, during a five-year growth spurt, they released four critically acclaimed albums. Their songs, once imbued with the rain and sweat of Dublin, haunt other territories now. Come spring, theyâll be in Japan, Australia, South America, then 24 dates in North America, then back to Europe in the summertime. Now, they are at the mouth of the river, playing the first of a two-night stand at Irelandâs largest indoor venue.
This yearâs album, Romance, explored inner, liminal, and theoretical spaces, potentiality replacing the parochial. The question is, how good can you get? Fontaines DC endeavour to answer that question tonight.
Arriving on stage behind a large curtain to the strains of Kojaque over the PA, the latest albumâs tentative opening title track, curtain falling, is followed by Jackie Down The Line.
[ Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC: âWe were speeding off the edge of a cliffâ ]
As Storm Darragh howls outside, it would be usual for frontman Grian Chatten to conjure a storm inside, with his trademark frenetic stage prowl. But here he appears relaxed, louche even, certainly focused. Televised Mind cracks the whip. A Lucid Dream creates a maelstrom in the crowd. A Palestine flag hangs near Carlos OâConnell, and a spontaneous Free Palestine chant breaks out, which the band applauds.
At scale, another track from Romance, Horseness Is the Whatness, is gorgeous and shimmering, ending in a brilliant if brief avant-garde distortion. This razor-blade-in-the-bobbing-apple approach is loaded with risk, and delightfully so. Nothing is on solid ground here. This is a band constantly unseating themselves, never settling into the obvious, becoming intentionally disconcerting at moments, as though setting themselves little challenges along the way to expand and twist their catalogue into a conjuring for which only they know the incantations.
Boys In the Better Land feels like a rock classic at this stage, and both its delivery and reception are ecstatic. Favourite is another wonderful moment. They stroll off and return with In the Modern World, potentially their finest song to date, which prompts a mass singalong.
I Love You rips through the crowd, a week after the general election, with thousands of people screaming the lyric: âThe gall of Fine Gael and the fail of Fianna FĂĄilâ. The song ends, the stage bathed in Tricolour lighting for a different kind of ferocious national anthem.
This is not the same band that played the Workmans, or Vicar Street, or anywhere else theyâve been the past half decade. This is a band constantly teetering on moments of flux, and embracing change. Masterful, sophisticated, and compelling, shirking the obvious is clearly a creatively rewarding choice, because ultimately, whatâs the point unless things are evolving?
1 Like
Very good last night though I possibly expected a bit more. Four stars for me.
Are they the best band in the world right now?
Belter after belter after belter
1 Like
Fontaines DC 
Washington DC
1 Like
New song
Subjective
