Into Live Music Review: Fontaines D.C.
Artist: Fontaines D.C.
Venue: Glasgow Ovo Hydro
Dates: 4 December 2024
I always knew it would take something remarkable to drag my slovenly ass out of its gig-reviewing retirement. That, and the acknowledgement that John Welsh does it so much better than anyone else. But despite both powerful forces – my laziness, John’s exceptionality – I’m compelled to tell you what I witnessed at the Ovo Hydro in Glasgow on the night of December fourth.
But what drew me to Glasgow’s Enormo-Dome on ‘a night when flowers didn’t suit my shoes’? Well, there’s a parochial line in Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Boys In The Better Land’; a song that I first heard over five years ago. It perfectly sums up the band’s unique identity.
“With a face like sin, and a heart like a James Joyce novel”
The entire song manages to encapsulate local Dublin issues and attitudes and present them as recognisable truths that are universal. It’s a powerful brew. Intimacy and scale; I hope they never lose this duality.
Five years and four albums later, I’m watching them on stage for the first time. Like many of you reading this, I guess the Hydro can be a conundrum. I’ve rarely been moved by a gig in this cavernous bowl the way I have been at the Barrowland, or any other number of venues where the stage is at least in the same post code. To make matters worse, I delayed buying tickets for so long that the elevated, seated tiers were all that remained.
I arrived late. I’m blaming a combination of rain that could strip a tattoo, and the pre-match congestion around Ibrox. I missed the support act. Sorry. That’s both apology, and acknowledgement of their name. I understand they were very good, and that missing them was undoubtedly my loss.
All levels of the Hydro were open; a sure-fire recognition of the draw Fontaines D.C. have become in a relatively short period of time. Their globe-trotting live performances honed to perfection in widescreen festival and small theatre contexts, with the band equally at home in both.
The opening is astonishing. The brilliantly simple staging concealed behind a full height curtain that drops dramatically halfway through the brooding ‘Romance’. The irregular heart from the new album’s cover suspended above the band, and amid a phenomenal light show, it appears to beat along with the dynamic rhythm of Tom Coll’s formidable drumming.
‘Jackie Down The Line,’ ‘Televised Mind’, and ‘A Lucid Dream’ sets the sometimes-contradictory tones that place Fontaines D.C. apart … sharp, yet melodic, punky, yet literate, expansive, yet (and here it is again…) intimate. There are so many highlights it seems unfair to single them out. But ‘Big’, ‘Here’s The Thing’, and of course ‘Boys In The Better Land’ have this capacity audience enraptured. The mosh pit – which Instagram later suggests incorporated another Hydro legend, Kevin Bridges – expands by the song until their last of the main set, ‘Favourite’ (the song of 2024 for this correspondent) appears to have everybody in the standing area swaying as if it was the Barrowland.
So, here’s the thing! Fontaines D.C. have the emotional impact of The Pogues, the imaginative drive of Radiohead, the anthemic hooks of Arctic Monkeys, and the cooler-than-cool attitude of The Strokes. In Grian Chatten they have a singer with the intensity of Ian Curtis and the devilment of Mark E. Smith. They are the most intoxicating band in the world right now.
From my seat way up in the Hydro Gods, I was looking down on five new ones. And Fontaines D.C. provided moments that took my breath away. Memories that won’t fade. If that’s not worth coming out of retirement for, I don’t know what is.
For more on Fontaines D.C. head to their website here.
David F Ross
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