All Together Now review: Fontaines, Wet Leg, Cliffords... six talking points from Friday night
Fontaines DC at All Together Now on Friday night.
Fontaines DC's last show in Ireland was at Dublin's 3Arena before Christmas and it feels like the entire 30,000 attendees at the sixth edition of All Together Now have turned out at the main stage to welcome them back to Ireland on Friday night. In the interim they've played to 45,000 at Finsbury Park in London.
They're a no-frills rock band; as usual frontman Grian Chatten keeps the talking to a bare minimum: "We're Fontaines DC," he needlessly declares halfway through their 90-minute show. "Free Palestine" and "Fuck the far right", he adds during the show, the latter by way of introducing
Chatten, clad all in black, conducts the crowd through the likes of and with the hopeful refrain "Life ain't always empty", shows the simple but effective way in which Fontaines DC inspire devotion.
It's not all amazing, though, as the middle section of the set needs to shake it free of a plodding couple of songs, then inducing another mass singalong before they finish with a riotous
Earlier in the evening, Spanish rock band Hinds told the crowd that their first gig in Ireland, back in 2016, featured Fontaines on support duty. It's been a meteoric decade for them since - who knows where they go next. Wherever they want - they haven't put a foot wrong yet.
All Together Now has been sold out for months and it feels busier than usual on Friday afternoon. It's the first year that they've opened the site up to all ticketholders for the Thursday, the handful of acts who performed on the night enjoyed good-sized crowds. On Friday, every second person seems to be sporting the Fontaines DC-emblazoned Bohemian FC jersey. Surely the best band merchandise in recent years.
Organisers have made a few tweaks to the site this year. As usual the main thoroughfare has the giant wooden deer statue looking over it towards beautiful Curraghmore House. The Bandstand, scene of lots of fun over the years - including a storming set by the Knocknaheeney's finest the Kabin Crew last year - has had a glowup, becoming the Bandstand Arena, with towering pillars of lights and speakers all around. It looks and sounds great.
Another new addition, between the main stage and Something Kind of Wonderful, is the small new bands tent, called Flourish. It plays host to Cork five-piece Cliffords on Friday afternoon - another band to benefit from the busier than normal early turnout. Judging by the reaction, with almost all the songs shouted back at them, they seem primed to lead the next generation of bands in 'doing a Fontaines'.
Iona Lynch already looks and sounds like the quintessential frontwoman, explaining how Cliffords hadn't even played a show outside of Ireland a year ago. She calls for a moshpit at one stage because "We haven't had one of those before; we're not Gurriers," she jokes of the Dublin post-punk noiseniks who play ATN on Saturday night.
Lynch is happy to declare, halfway through the show, that it's already the best gig they've ever played. It feels like one everyone in the hot, heaving tent will remember for a long time past this weekend.
Another band who have enjoyed a meteoric ascent are Wet Leg, who exploded in popularity with the winking song of the summer 2021, Since then, there have been Grammys and Brit Awards and stadium support slots with the likes of Foo Fighters. For their second album released last month, frontwoman Rhian Teasdale has completely transformed her look.
Maybe it's simply after finding the unexpected new love that informs the new record, but she has gone from a previously unassuming brunette from the Isle of Wight to writhing and crawling around on the ground, flexing her muscles and shaking her ass in silver hot pants.
She looks like the quintessential rock star now. She started the band with Hester Chambers who still writes and performs with Wet Leg but has taken a step back from the limelight due to a heady dose of social anxiety. It's interesting to watch her play guitar in their set ahead of Fontaines DC. She goes long stretches without looking at the crowd but still seems to be enjoying herself.
How could anyone not have fun at a Wet Leg show? Strokes-esque new songs like ("I'll be your davina, I'm coming to getcha," Teasdale sings of the Big Brother host) and sound great, while they also play the album closer, for what they say is the first time. There are a few throwaway, by the numbers rock songs, like that we could do without, but when you have up your sleeve...
ATN has a burgeoning reputation for its dance and late-night focus. As the crowds stream away from the main stage as Fontaines finish up at midnight, they could find Nia Archives, sporting a Republic of Ireland crop jersey circa 2002 World Cup, playing banging jungle music at Lovely Days, erstwhile Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth playing indie sleaze at the Circle, and Saoirse dropping electro-pop and the techno at the aptly named Immerse stage.
As we make our way home for the night, Arcadia, also with a new location in the corner of one of the campsites, is still going strong, flames shooting up into the night sky.
