Fontaines D.C. drew 17,000 witnesses to an sold-out Ziggo Dome on Tuesday marking a massive leap from their 2019 performance at Amsterdam’s Cinetol for roughly a hundred people.
De avond bracht een uiteenlopend publiek naar de Amsterdamse popzaal, met opvallend veel jonge bezoekers en vaders die in de foyer merchandising kochten. Een subtiel glitterthema viel te ontwaren in de zilveren backdrop, de make-up van jonge bezoeksters, en op handtasjes en truien.
Support act Chalk opened the evening. Fontaines D.C. gunt hun supportslot traditiegetrouw aan een opkomende Ierse band, having previously given early slots to acts such as Just Mustard, The Altered Hours, The Murder Capital, MELTS, Sprints, Kneecap and Cardinals.
Conor Curley, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Deegan III, Tom Coll en Alexander ‘Chilli’ Jesson took the stage as the massive FDC logo was hoisted aloft. Frontman Grian Chatten made a delayed entrance wearing a sober black judo suit paired with glittering in-ears and a heavy chain.
Tien stagehands bouwden vooraf het podium om, een precisie die doet denken aan optredens van Nick Cave. A long catwalk split the room, allowing Chatten to move deep into the crowd.
The concert brought together the question of whether the raw, primordial post-punk of Dogrel could be reconciled with today’s more polished electronic sound. The albums in between show the growing divide: on A Hero’s Death, the gaze turned inward; with Skinty Fia, the sound became darker and heavier; and with Romance, the band definitively broke with post-punk for broader, more pop-sensible arrangements.
The concert concluded with an understated rendition of Where Is Gone, proving the band could hold the massive room without leaning on high-energy moshpit numbers.