Fontaines DC, The Ritz. 19th November 2019

When I was younger Steve Lamacq was my tastemaker. Along with John Peel, Lamacq was the DJ to listen to, to keep you in the know about the best new bands. A former NME scribe, back when the NME mattered. I still listen to Steve now, his Roundtable show in particular is always great. It’s here that I first heard Fontaines D.C. (Dublin City... in case you were wondering) last year, but it’s taken me a while to get to see them. There’s so many new bands it’s genuinely exciting when one stands out the way this band do. That said, after the initial excitement of those early songs, I was a little less enthusiastic about the album, but I’d bought the ticket for tonight months ago (always on day of release). Thank god I did! These young Irish punks need to be seen live. Even the few slower tracks sound vital and visceral, that haunting sound, reminiscent in places of early Cure, that for some reason always sounds heightened by the Irish accent to my English ears. It’s songs like Boys in the Better Land, Big and Hurricane Laughter that make you feel like you’re being hurtled around The Ritz though. The sold out crowd goes nuts with airborne drinks and limbs! Fear not dear reader, I tucked myself safely near the mixing desk. Singer Grian Chatten is an odd mix of reluctant star, hand in pockets and dangerous punk snarl, stalking the stage, jerking and attacking the mic. The first mic stand bites the dust inside the opening song. Much of the set, the songs, the performance, is a wall of guitars and rhythm over which Grian spits and drawls his poetic lines of disgruntled youth and it. Is. Brilliant! His moves aren’t rehearsed, it’s pure anger and tension being released and lapped up by an adoring crowd. I’m not adverse to an act, but give me real any day of the week. With zero stagecraft, it’s all about the energy in the room and The Ritz gives back as good as it gets, possibly with the aid of that spring loaded dance floor. After 45 minutes the last song punches us out of the sweltering heat that’s built inside and into the sub zero streets. No encore. No bullshit. Amazing.