The chameleonic success of Fontaines DC

Romance is Fontaines DC as stadium fillers, but they’ve not sold out, they’re still very much Dublin City’s finest.

“Dublin in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a Catholic mind.”

In 2019, when Grian Chatten’s emphatic words reverberated through our speakers, it would’ve been impossible to imagine where Fontaines DC would be after six tumultuous years. More than that, it would be impossible to imagine that, after four sonically, aesthetically, and lyrically shapeshifting albums, “Dublin in the rain” would remain comfortably in the possession of the band.

The way in which Dogrel’s cacophonous melange of punk-poetry shifted into the confident melancholy of A Hero’s Death, and then into the diasporic punk-balladry of Skinty Fia reflected the band’s ability to gradually evolve while still maintaining the character of their lyrical heritage; however, 2024’s Romance brought about a sense of chameleonic shock, with Dublin City’s finest morphing into Y2K alt-rock gods.

In an interview with Marvin Magazine, Curley expressed “I had always figured we were a 100 to 200 capacity band that had been blagging it up this whole time and that one day we were going to get found out. But after that show, I bought into the idea of our songs being able to fill a bigger space.” The moment the band hit the stage at their first major festival headliner, Green Man in 2021, it was clear that the people were in the palm of their hand, and more importantly, they knew it. Romance is just that. It’s Fontaines DC manifesting and expertly controlling aesthetic, stylisation, and poetry as a means of putting the crowd exactly where they want them. Rather than abandoning their heritage, Fontaines DC utilised Romance as a means of communicating it to an arena-sized stage.

After getting new haircuts, a new curtain, and a newly signed XL deal, Fontaines Dublin City have taken full control of every aspect of their sound, image, and message. And they brought it to Glasgow.

If Romance is an ever-shifting, arena-sized place, Chatten and Co used their night at the Hydro to prove they could take you there. As the latest album’s titular track played over the drop of a distinctly backlit green curtain to introduce the band, they revealed an exposed speaker set up, scattered across the stage that mimicked the intimacy of a rehearsal room; while a foreboding, strobe-lit inflatable heart simultaneously loomed in the background. This type of tense spatial awareness is tantamount to the trajectory the band’s eclectic setlist plots through their sprawling discography – delineating how they’ve earned a precipitous rise to now commanding packed-out arenas.

Actions and consequences lie at the heart of such trajectory, dictating a pulse for the set as “Jackie Down the Line” and “Televised Mind” were played in quick succession, positioning Skinty Fia’s punk flare against A Hero’s Death’s melancholic introspection. “Roman Holiday” continued to build upon this through its psychedelic visuals on side screens, whilst at the same time, rows of curtains rose to illuminate stars and shapes behind the faux-beating heart being hit by strobes. The scene served as a confrontation of a singular night in Chatten’s bedroom, with the wider dreams and fears stemming from spatial evolutions both lyrically and acoustically. Ensuing shifts in energy between “Big Shot” and “Death Kink” engaged with the pressures of staying true to the band’s heritage. Amidst the audience and their growing expectations, the latter song was characterised by pink and green strobes, cycling through feelings of love and envy to make up the emotional resonance (and colour scheme) of how the band seek to interpret romance.

As the set approached its middling point, the lack of space between songs to create tension and discord became clear, and the abrasive consequences of placing conflicting emotions and beats next to each other transcended the faux-hearts palpitations on stage to a mutual feeling within the crowd. That is, until a consistent tempo was established through classics “Big,” and “Hurricane Laughter,” serving its tour debut, followed by “Here’s the Thing,” to show the thread thundering through from their first album to their latest. However, the newest single “Bug”, acted as a smooth refrain with its mellow chorus and orchestral segue into “Horseness is the Whatness”, juxtaposing not only heart rates but also the agoraphobic nature of the bands current sound, adding a live sense of warmth. This phenomena served as the foundations for “Boys in the Better Land” to reconcile both intimate and distant versions of the band by returning to their Dublin heritage – placing it on a map towards the abstract nature of Romance as the echo of the band’s first Glaswegian appearance in Bloc+ six short years ago reverberated around the room. “Favourite” closed the main set, inverting the opening by achieving a state of balance in the dreams and fears that characterise the band’s journey thus far, with sunny idealism from the saturated yellow lights showing what romance could be – far beyond a destination, but an ideology consequent of conflicting emotions.

However, the afterglow was all too brief as the band returned after a short break for an encore to round off the night. After the main set revolved around a psychedelic trip to explore romance, this is the hungover morning after. “In the Modern World” and “Desire” portray an apathetically monochrome picture compared to the vivid colours and emotions of before. The psychedelic visuals subside in favour of a more prolonged moment with the band, unbroken by the bipolar constraints of a cardiogram. Skinty Fia’s break-out hit “I Love You” characterises this moment as one of angst, as the trademark chanting echoed around the room, and afterwards Chatten made his first notable aside of the night to say: “This is our last song.” Enter “Starburster,” the nigh-celestial encapsulation of a panic attack fuelled by Conor Curley craning over synthesizers as romance in its multitudes is finally realised. Whilst its exact meaning can be debated and the bands acoustic spaces juxtaposed, one thing is for certain – their movement continues upwards.