Fontaines D.C.

With Sorry

Hydro, 4 December 2024

Four albums into their recording career and pinning a label on the band is becoming increasingly difficult. A difficulty they seem more than happy to promote.

There’s the post punk swagger from their debut album Dogrel, with Boys In The Better Land the song that introduced me to the band in the first place, played at a furious rate, the crowd belting out each chorus as one.

As an introduction to the world of music the album brought with it an intensity and anger that still persists in what followed, even if more subtlety demonstrated.

Televised Mind immediately followed by A Lucid Dream, are the only two representatives from second album A Hero’s Death.

This would appear to say more about the set time allocation which focuses attention on the following albums than the quality of songs that were put down for the record. There is little doubt that the ‘difficult’ second album was a huge stepping stone in the journey to where they are now.

That the album was only kept off the No.1 UK album chart slot by someone called Taylor Swift says much about how they had captured the minds of many beyond their homeland!

Third album Skinty Fia did make the No1 album chart slot. Released just under three years ago, the songs themselves may have slowed in tempo and show developments in the studio production levels of the tracks.

However, there is no doubting the lyrics continue to demonstrate the band’s awareness of life’s sensitivities, difficulties and ambiguities that surround them and many others. It’s an album that draws you in from first hearing and like many bands, the live versions of the songs that made it into the setlist were full of the energy that the audience had come to expect. With Jackie Down The Line immediately following set opener Romance and I Love You the penultimate song we were treated to why Skinty Fia deserves further listening

And, finally, the latest album Romance. The story above reflects a band which has sought to continually evolve, and Romance covers that theme in spades. With the exception of Motorcycle Boy, all the album tracks were given the live treatment.

This resulted in an interesting listening experience as the band veered from post-punk, indie rock, indie pop, to anthemic ballads.

Album tracks are often layered to perfection with live renditions often mixed down to ensure the basic structures are maintained. On this showing though, the band created a wall of sound that perfectly reflected what many would have been listening to back home.

Grain Chatten on vocals might not have said too much between songs, however his delivery across the range of tracks selected for the night demonstrated an ability to bring out the best of himself, his fellow band members and the audience.

Conor Curtley on lead guitar, Carlos O’Connell on guitar, Conor Deegan on bass and Tom Coll on drums were such a tight unit that watching and listening to them play as the video camera homed in on them during the set showed once again how talented they are as musicians.

It’s not luck that has got them to this stage of the careers, filling out arenas across the UK and Ireland on this tour. It’s talent, practice and a knack for recording the right songs, at the right pace with lyrics that continue to stab at our own consciousness.

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Support Act – Sorry

Playing the supporting role can’t be easy for any band, especially on an arena tour when everyone is there to see the main act, you’re relatively unknown and those in early enough to catch the support, are there to capture the best viewing spot for the headliners.

Musically it was hard to dismiss Sorry who took to the stage at the Hydro to enthusiastic applause from those already in position for the night and left with a similar level of appreciation by a larger audience after their set.

Their guitar driven indie-rock music was not a million miles away from what would follow by Fontaines DC. The guitars, bass and drums were sounding as you would expect. I’m just not sure what the vocal mix was supposed to sound like but from our vantage point it didn’t seem to do justice to Ash Lorenz on vocals and it took a bit away from the set.

That said, the latest single sounds clear enough, so hope any technical difficulties didn’t translate to the other tour nights.