26 October 2021 (gig)
27 October 2021
Once in a while a band comes along that feels different, feels right and feels of the moment. Fontaines DC can be put firmly into that bracket, even if their moment has been somewhat delayed.
The Pandemic put paid to the band touring 2020’s ‘A Hero’s Death’, a fearless follow up to 2019’s Mercury nominated ‘Dogrel’ and there was a palpable feeling of expectation and suspense amongst the sold-out crowd at the Bournemouth O2 Academy last night.
‘A Hero’s Death’ was written whilst the band toured with IDLES in early 2019 and it would be easy to make comparisons between the bands, the energy, the following, the connection between band and crowd. But that wouldn’t be entirely accurate - Fontaines DC, although deemed as a ‘Post Punk’ band, are less raging against the machine and more lamenting the loss of an age that is slipping them by, a loss of community and culture - something that seems even more accurate given the effects of the last 18 months on society as a whole.
That feeling of wanting to come together, at a gig that for many would be their first in a very long time added a pulse of electricity to the air as Fontaines DC took to the stage after excellent support band ‘The Altered Hours’ had got everyone fully into the swing of things.
Frontman Grian Chatten paced the stage, arms out goading the audience, all nervous energy and magnetism as the rest of the band settled into the rhythm of ‘A Hero’s Death’, the repetition of the opening lines 'life ain't always empty’ never seeming truer. Chattens poetic, melodic, voice at odds with his high energy presence on stage, moving, fidgeting, relentless - but it works. The band doesn’t have a big stage set-up, they don’t need it - they’re happy to let the songs do the talking and happy for Chatten to take centre stage.
At not much over an hour long, the set is punchy, quick and with no let up - there’s no in between song banter and no downtime as we hurtle through fan favourites ‘Sha Sha Sha’, ‘Chequeless Reckless’, ‘Televised Mind’ and ‘Hurricane Laughter’. Throughout Chatten evokes the athemic attitude of peak Liam Gallagher, the shambolic magnificence of Pete Doherty and the often on the nose but on the money lyricism of the Street’s Mike Skinner. The show closes with ‘Boys in the Betterland’ before a rapturous encore encourages one more track, ‘Liberty Belle’; sending a mostly sweaty but happy Bournenouth crowd off chanting into the night.
