Fontaines D.C. in Bristol – review and photos
We sent photographer Adam Davis-Powell and reviewer Chloe Padfield along to Fontaines D.C. in Bristol. Here’s the scoop.
A packed out Bristol 02 sees poetic post-punk group Fontaines (a nod to one of France’s greatest poets of the 17th century) D.C. (their beloved Dublin City) storm the stage and deliver their, until now – untoured masterpiece, A Hero’s Death. Following the success of Dogrel, this young band, who met at Music College in Dublin, have already tasted widespread early critical acclaim. But there’s a lot more to these chewy lyrical guys than rebellion. Their music is a warm hug for those of us feeling trapped between history and the modern woes of life, and so is the gig, drawing a crowd spanning from teens to old-age rockers.
Jumping between Dogrel and their 2020 album, – the set list migrates our minds in minutes from rage to true empathy. A Lucid Dream makes for true punk-blues, enabling the forceful yet versatile Curley and O’Connell’s guitars to harmonize and deconstruct with meticulous method. Drummer Coll provided perfect pulse and subdivision for I Was Not Born and seamlessly showed his transition into the more melodic tracks of the night.
The band’s lead vocalist Chatten, complete with green Adidas tracksuit and black cowboy boots, minces the stage – hands outurned like an artform and microphone used as a humorous prop, he paces the stage with swag as if constantly looking for an exit – and instead turns to rial up the crowd with his tangled tambourine.
We’re given vivid visuals through songs like Sha Sha Sha that Ireland has – and will always – be a place where gentrification rubs shoulders with cabbies and drunks pissing on pub corners. This stark contrast is shown in their headline opener – A Hero’s Death – with elusive prospects of escape from a grey and bleak world – “Sink as far down as you can be pulled up, life ain’t always empty”.
Televised Mind towards the end of the set list sits well with the wildly dancing audience at this stage – arms and beers flying around agreeing to the lyrics – a nod to the zombie millennial world too distracted by a constant stream of media that sometimes we are all fucking helpless. But we are picked up again with Chatten letting us know “If you’re a rock star, porn star, superstar – doesn’t matter what you are – get yourself a good car, get out of here” – and just like these naughty Irish boys, with half-optimism, we head off into the Bristol night as girls and ‘Boys in a better land.’
Words by Chloe Padfield. Photos by Adam Davis-Powell.
