Fontaines DC are the biggest Irish band in the post-band era. Bands are too much trouble – members won’t do what they are told and an anachronism in a world where music, as Bono remarks, is increasingly assembled and not created.
That they exist at all in the current music landscape is a marvel, but they are a band that has progressed with each album and kept a multigenerational fan base.
Fontaines DC in the grounds of Dublin city’s most famous tourist attraction, the Guinness Storehouse, was a match made in marketing heaven.
Last weekend’s Lovely Days Live was a successful attempt to marry top-class music with promotional activities without the flak visited on the Arthur’s Day shindigs a decade ago.
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The Storehouse is 25 years old and looms over the concert venue in the old yard at the front gates. Tickets for this concert and Saturday’s one by CMAT were subject to a ballot and were immediately sold out.
As a music venue, it is not optimal. It feels hemmed in between old buildings, the ground slopes down from the stage making it difficult to see at the back. The organisers should include a big screen the next time – if there is a next time.
Lead singer Grian Chatten stomps around the stage wearing a scarf and shades on a cool and gloomy evening. He prowls and scowls and cajoles the crowd into singing along, not that they need an invitation.
“Dublin in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a Catholic mind,” he sings on Big. There was no rain thankfully, as there’s no shelter.
Fontaines DC are one of the many Irish acts exercised by what is happening in Gaza at present and the looming court case involving Kneecap’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara.
He was charged by UK police with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hizbullah at a gig in London last November. He’s due to appear in court in London on June 18th.
Chatten dedicated their performance of Favourite to Kneecap manager Daniel Lambert, who is also the chief operating officer for Bohemians FC. The club brought out a Fontaines DC themed third strip last year that was very much in evidence on Sunday.
“Never be scared to talk about Palestine,” Chatten said, which was followed by a smattering of “free Palestine” chants from the crowd. Later, he shouted, “free Kneecap, free Palestine” as he walked offstage following the closing song Starburster.
Lankum’s brand of soporific Celtic drone music needs a more intimate venue than this and it did not help that much of their gear never arrived from Stockholm.
The band did, however, get animated about Gaza, as well. “Genocide is for losers. If you do not call out genocide, you’re an even f**king bigger loser,” came the cry from the stage. The muted cheers suggested most of those present were there for the music, not the politics.
