Fontaines D.C. debut new songs and tear through old classics at intimate London show
Fontaines D.C. played a tiny London show for War Child last night (February 4), debuting new songs from third album ‘Skinty Fia’ – see footage, reaction setlist and more below.
The show, at The Dome in Tufnell Park, came as part of BRITs Week, which will see the likes of Damon Albarn and Bastille also playing intimate shows in the capital over the next few weeks around the 2022 BRIT Awards, which will be held at The O2 in London on February 8.
Opening the show with ‘Too Real’ from 2019 debut album ‘Dogrel’, the band played a 14-song set sprinkled with new material alongside old classics.
“Youse are a guinea pig and a half,” frontman Grian Chatten told the crowd after the full live debut of superbly catchy new single ‘Jackie Down The Line’, the first preview of new album ‘Skinty Fia’, which is set to arrive on April 22 via Partisan.
Chatten was on animated form, giving thunderous renditions of ‘Televised Mind’ and ‘A Lucid Dream’ from the band’s 2020 album ‘A Hero’s Death‘ and asking the crowd to join him in the chaos. For ‘Hurricane Laughter’, he joined the crowd in the front row, enjoying the intimate surroundings of a venue far smaller than the band normally see.
Alongside ‘Jackie Down The Line’, Fontaines D.C. played two other songs set for ‘Skinty Fia’. First up was ‘I Love You’, which the band first debuted at their huge Alexandra Palace show late last year. Starting off as a slow and melodic track, the song then ended with a fantastic, visceral outro from Chatten, who bellowed out the track’s closing lyrics with more energy than we’ve ever seen from him before.
After oldies ‘You Said’ – dedicated by Chatten as “a sincere and earnest prayer” for the wellbeing of guitarist Carlos O’Connell’s new family member (he became an uncle on the day of the show) – and ‘Big’ saw circle pits erupt around the school hall-type venue, the band gave a world exclusive debut of new track ‘Roman Holiday’.
Carried along by O’Connell’s acoustic guitar and an opening riff from Conor Curley that had more than a hint of Noel Gallagher‘s licks from his Oasis days, ‘Roman Holiday’ swapped the bombast and rage of ‘I Love You’ for a swinging rhythm closer to ‘Jackie Down The Line’ and providing another window into what to expect from ‘Skinty Fia’.
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Fontaines D.C. played:
‘Too Real’
‘Televised Mind’
‘Sha Sha Sha’
‘A Lucid Dream’
‘Jackie Down The Line’
‘I Don’t Belong’
‘You Said’
‘I Love You’
‘Big’
‘Hurricane Laughter’
‘I Was Not Born’
‘Roman Holiday’
‘Boys In The Better Land’
‘A Hero’s Death’
This comes as the band recently spoke of their growth and maturity displayed on the upcoming record, leaning more towards melancholy and emotion rather than punk agression.
“We don’t want to remain a band who walk on stage and claim, ‘This song is about this!’ We want to make something more impressionistic,” said frontman Grian Chatten. “We don’t need to raise our voices all the time.”
Guitarist Carlos O’Connell added: “There’s something valuable in the fire of youth. But your emotions become more considered.”
The band’s next scheduled show will be supporting Sam Fender at his enormous Finsbury Park gig in the summer.
Meanwhile, Fontaines D.C. were also recently nominated for Best Best In The World at the upcoming BandLab NME Awards 2022.