Tom Dunne: I've been saying it for years but you have to see the Fontaines

The announcement of the Slane gigs for Fontaines DC is the latest chapter in the band's incredible rise  

Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC during one of the band's live performances. Picture: Jordi Vidal/Redferns

Fontaines DC to play Slane! Holy Moly, how did that happen? From Mike the Pies in October 2017, supporting the Hot Sprockets in front of 25 people — 40 at a push — to 10 years later headlining two gigs at Slane Castle with a capacity of 80,000 people each. That’s some hurling. And yet it’s been long predicted.

Great things have been expected of The Fontaines since they first set foot on stage. For anyone who has seen them telling others that, “You have to see the Fontaines” has been a mission statement. 

But to already arrive at that special venue in Co Meath… the ‘Irish Bands That Have Headlined Slane’ list is a short one: Thin Lizzy and U2. 

But how much do you know about the Fontaines, really? Can you name all of the band? Have you ever read a long form, in-depth interview with them? Have you ever known a band to make such progress without ever really talking to the audience? Unlikely. The Fontaines are international men of mystery.

I missed the very beginning. Essential engine maintenance took me off radio for four months in 2018/19 just as they launched. However, as I caught up on the new releases I’d missed, the dogs in the street started to harmonise on one tune: “You have to see the Fontaines” they told me.

I was instantly smitten. My kind of band: guitar, bass, drums, vocals. But you have to add something unique to that mix to make headway. It’s just a little spark, a line like “Spits out ‘Brits Out’ only smokes Carrolls” in the midst of Boys in the Better Land. It took my breath away. So simple and yet, so utterly brilliant.

They were off like a rocket after that. They did 157 gigs that year, a gig almost every other day. The last band I can remember that threw itself that head-long into touring was U2. Touring at that level makes or breaks a band. Just staying creative and together in that cauldron is an achievement in itself.

But stay creative they did, delivering the ‘difficult second album’ without delay or misstep, 2020’s A Hero’s Death. The second album is most bands’ undoing. You have your life to write the first, 12 months to write the next one. Twelve months during which you are touring relentlessly. A Hero’s Death was only kept off the UK number one by sharp practice from Taylor Swift.

By 2022, at Glastonbury, it was now English people telling me, “You have to see the Fontaines.” Interestingly, they didn’t seem to know the Fontaines were Irish. Even more interestingly it, it didn’t seem to matter.

That was the year Skinty Fia gave them their first UK and Irish number one. They did 148 gigs that year and if 2023 seemed like a quiet year, a desultory 55 gigs. it was only because vocalist Grian Chatten was busy releasing his solo album Chaos for the Fly. One of the few albums of that year to give US group BoyGenius a run for their money.

By 2024, it was Elton John telling us, “You have to see the Fontaines.” He correctly praised that year’s album Romance as an important album for the band and one that would move them on significantly. It got two Grammy nominations. For a band that got together over a “love of poetry”, the sky was suddenly the limit.

I was struck by their work ethic at this point. They were playing big-size stages the world over, multiple nights a week with zero Pogues-type mayhem or destruction apparent. And the singles just kept coming. Favourite, It’s Amazing to Be Young, Here’s The Thing: gifts to the playlist gods, all of them.

But still, I marvel at how little I know about the band. And I have actually interviewed guitarist Conor Curley. I watch performances hoping to catch some little hint of inner turmoil, some flash of inner band friction or chemistry, some break in the emotion. But no, nothing to see here. Just great songs played brilliantly.

I’m not used to this. I’m used to my bands self-destructing. I’m from a world where its basically a miracle if they make it onto the stage at all. James, The Mondays, Guns N’ Roses, Oasis, The Verve. Volatile — explosive, unstable. All of them  Eastenders Christmas specials.

Not the Fontaines. Slane next year and a new album in October. It’s Carpe Diem writ large. A warm-up in Mike the Pies? We can but dream. But honestly: “You have to see the Fontaines.”