One of the most prominent bands in the latest resurgence of post-punk, Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. delivers shouty societal commentary and brilliant electric riffs similar to bands like Squid or the more gently spoken Dry Cleaning. They were supposed to take their superb second album A Hero’s Death on tour last summer but, due to COVID, the tour was postponed. Now, they finally bring their newest post-punk masterpiece to Sheffield. The band has truly shot up since their first album, Dogrel, was nominated for the Mercury Prize and recognised as album of the year by record store Rough Trades and BBC Radio 6 Music – but will this tour live up to the very high expectations?
Their most recent album, A Hero’s Death, was written during their long 2019 tour for Dogrel. Where Dogrel is boisterous and headstrong, A Hero’s Death invites you to their struggle of piecing together who they were before hitting success. Though still deeply embedded within the loud, high-tempo genre of current day post-punk, A Hero’s Death shows the band’s solemn and expressive side. It explores their detachment while on tour from the traditional working-class Dublin neighbourhood, where they first met and started writing songs. The difference is clear when listened to separately, but when they alternate between albums in front of a hyped-up audience, even the angstiest of lyrics finds itself optimistic and assertive.
There was no mistaking that the postponement of the tour had provided ample time for each person there to learn every word. Pent up anticipation was apparent as the crowd erupted into action on the first note of the opening song, ‘A Hero’s Death’; for the whole duration of the set, mosh pits appeared spontaneously throughout the crowd, proving inescapable no matter how far back you were.
They commenced the set by throwing out long stems of delicate lilies into the crowd – a surreal contrast to what was to come – before taking on an unchanging state for the rest of the show. Guitarists in jackets and trousers, heads down, stone-cold focus on their urgent, anxious rhythms. Frontman Grian Chatten wore Adidas tracksuit bottoms and an oversized jacket, sleeves drooping beyond his hands, and later revealed his own Fontaines t-shirt underneath. His rambunctious, frustrated performance set the tone for the audience as he took long strides around the mic stand – breaking it after the first song – and smashed a tambourine, requiring a stagehand to crawl on and offer a replacement. The band worked together tightly, repeating riffs to build suspense in the eager crowd before allowing the energy to burst out.
The energy and collectivism of the audience were more than strong enough to take pessimistic songs about struggles with identity, like ‘I Don’t Belong’, and transform them into unruly anthems celebrating individuality. The setlist proved to be a consistently energetic, angry affair that left no time to breathe. The exception to this being the first of the two-song encore, ‘Roy’s Tune’, which masterfully took hold of the crowd with its comparatively solemn, emotional tone. Honest, raw, and depressing, it prompts reflection on the state of society and the past year through which the gig has been postponed. Immediately after, the band relieved us all of that burden and returned to their unstoppable temperament with ‘Liberty Belle’ (one of their oldest songs, though still true to their music today), accumulating all of the energy and passion of the night into a short yet consuming couple of minutes.
While the performance was everything you could have hoped for, there wasn’t anything extra to it. Perhaps purely because – for them – Sheffield was just another stop on a months-long tour. In terms of music and energy, they couldn’t have provided more; in between the music though, not a word was spoken. It could be argued that these smooth transitions between songs upheld the overarching rhythm of the night, but it would be remiss to say that a brief line spoken to us all out there wouldn’t have been appreciated. When the audience offered up every word to every song, their words were lost in the music, no response nor interaction. The night was, by all means, exhilarating – but a few words, even a “thank you Sheffield”, could have gone a long way.
Rating: 4/5
