Let’s try. Not to mention Ireland, Joyce, hype and poetry. Not to let anything slip about the new album, Romance, coming out in August and the resulting long chat with the group. After all, the promotion has its own deadlines and they must be respected. What remains? The impact. That of their songs, that of their concerts. If there is a podium of groups in circulation similar to the rock tradition, the certainty is that there is room for the Fontaines DC, there is. Here I am.
“Tradition is not something you receive as an inheritance, but something that is built every day” said Gae Aulenti. This is what the quintet has done since the beginning with its sonic, geographical and literary roots. This is what he continues to do in concerts, where the approach is anachronistic: in a period in which the live performance is perfect, a show built to the second, the Fontaines DC they sound – well – as if they were at one of those contests where emerging groups try to snatch a recording contract from small independent labels.
With this approach, the songs of Dogrel They sound quite similar to the record version, as do those of A Hero’s Death. While the songs of Skinty Fia they are stripped of possible sequences that emulate studio (post)production. The tone is punk, many songs sped up. Then, there are them. And, above all, Chatten.
The tension he transmits arises from the precarious balance between his world and the external one. That is, he remains inside a shell: he moves with a tempo that does not coincide with that of the songs, he turns around the microphone, he stares at a point while there is hell around him or he jumps before an attack explodes. That shell, however, has cracks. From there passes the bond with the public, which he encourages by dramatically raising his arms, as if lifting a boulder. He almost always does it while muttering something.
The others do nothing but express their personalities: Carlos O’Connell and his bravado, Tom Coll keeping power, precision and his shy nature glued together, the cinematic world of Conor Curley and the opaline world of Conor Deegan III. In this gap between people and performers, which is sometimes truly minimal, much of the charm that the group exerts live develops.
I’ve written this several times and it will happen to me again, I think: i Fontaines DC on stage they are magnetic, they draw you into their world. You enter it slowly, between a very tight piece and another dilated one. Yes, it’s like the story of the Pied Piper. However, at the time, he didn’t have word of mouth that resonated through social media.
So, i DC Fountainstwo days after playing at The first summer, arrive in Rome. The beginning with Romance He sets the bar straight away: power of sound, ability to hold the stage, aggressive play of light. Jackie Down the Line it’s an unexpected singalong – complete with “do do do, la la la” shouted at the top of the audience’s lungs – and Televised Mind a psychedelic blast is confirmed live. Thus continues the interweaving of songs from the last two albums: the melancholy of Roman Holidaythe guts where Big Shot comes from, the hyphenated choruses of I Don’t Belong and the tank Skinty Fia. Checkless Reckless it sounds like in Dogrel but, since it was recorded live there, we could say that it always sounds the same. In the best sense: bold, hypnotic and robust.
The pairing A Hero’s Death And Big it rains on an Auditorium that is divided between those who crowd surf, those who undergo the collective hypnosis of these guys and those who sing the songs trying to keep up with Chatten’s slowing down and lengthening. How Cold Love Is it is a run-up to prepare for a typhoon that originates from the sequence A Lucid Dream, Too Real And Nabokovbefore stretching the muscles in Sha Sha Sha and give in to the sparkle of Favorite. Boys in the Better Land he now plays with a classic, with the initial guitar chords to light up the audience, ready to face the chorus. And, speaking of choruses, the final one of Starburst, the first song of the encore, is rightly lengthened: the call and response effect with the audience works too well. In the end, I Love You and that cathartic moment – this time lasting just enough to avoid our teary eyes – which is always imbued with spirituality.
What remains? Hurricane Laughter. A song that, live, really makes you see the wallpaper coming down from the walls. But they didn’t. And here’s the thing: i Fontaines DC they can afford to do this too. Imagine with the new album what we would have to give up at their concerts.
