Fontaines DC review: Chatten in flying form for superb gig at Vicar Street, Dublin
Fontaines DC live at Vicar Street, Dublin. Picture: Eoghan O'Sullivan
At the second of three hometown gigs in Vicar Street, kicking off an Irish tour which closes another stellar year for the five-piece (unfortunately, the tour omits Cork), Grian Chatten only says two things to the audience: A hello comes halfway through and “This is gonna be our last song,” precedes I Love You. Indeed for much of the setlist, he doesn’t need to even sing as the lyrics are bellowed back at him by an enthralled audience.
Whether the personal defiance of Televised Mind off Grammy Award-nominated album A Hero’s Death (“Now you don’t care what they say”) or the more obvious adrenaline shots of Boys in the Better Land and the snappy Big (“My childhood was small but I’m gonna be big”), it’s clear just how much Chatten’s words mean to people. From the start, friends are on each other’s shoulders whipping their shirts around their heads, crowdsurfers quickly appear and disappear. It feels revelatory.
