Four albums have seen them catapulted from pub gigs to selling out two nights at Alexandra Palace.
Words: Jake Hawkes.
Photos: Patrick Gunning.
Fontaines DC have come a long way in a short period of time. Four albums have seen them catapulted from pub gigs to selling out two nights at Alexandra Palace without breaking a sweat, all at a time when a lot of guitar bands struggle to break through the Kentish-Town-sized glass ceiling.
As frontman Grian Chatten struts onto stage in huge bug-eyed sunglasses, motioning the crowd to give it some welly, it’s clear the band are relishing their success. If the thousands of lads screaming the instrumentals of each song like they’re football chants are anything to go by, the crowd feel the same way.
‘Jackie Down the Line’ gets a reception bordering on volcanic, while ‘Big Shot’ prompts a singalong which is probably audible several postcodes away. Even away from the crowd-assisted choruses, the crowd is in the palm of the band’s hand – ‘Bug’ prompts a flare down the front and more mosh pits than most bands see in their entire set, while ‘Sundowner’ sees Curley step up for vocals to a mammoth cheer.
While it’s incredible that no matter how much the crowd swells at each Fontaines gig, they all still know every word to cuts from the first album, this is clearly a band who are streets away from where they started. Grian said way back in our 2020 interview with the band that the difficulty with touring their debut was “There were so many songs like ‘Hurricane Laughter’… and sometimes I don’t feel like ‘Hurricane Laughter’,” and with a setlist which draws from every album they’ve released, it’s an issue they’ve long overcome.
It’s a gig short on audience interaction, save Grian’s heartfelt shout of “free Palestine” and a short apology for a technical issue halfway through the encore. When they do finally come back on to finish the set, it’s with another apology and a promise to play an extra song to make up for it. The hammer blows of ‘Too Real’ and ‘Starburster’ may not have been a planned part of the setlist, but there couldn’t be a better example of the range of sounds Fontaines now have to call upon, and the fervour with which fans will greet old favourites and new classics alike. We at Dork love a bit of hyperbole, but we’re not exaggerating when we say this could be the best live band in the world right now – or at the very least the best who feel like they still haven’t reached their peak.
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