“Into the darkness again…” croons Grian Chatten from backstage at a jam-packed Roadrunner in Allston, MA. The singer of Fontaines D.C. is not yet visible, though bandmates Carlos O’Connell and Conor Curley have entered the stage in advance of his arrival. The song, playing both album- and set-opener, is truly startling – it marries huge, cinematic, Hans Zimmer-esque walls of sound with possibly the creepiest xylophone-sounding keyboard ever devised; Chatten’s voice lilts at the midpoint with a quiet menace that rivals anything Thom Yorke might have made in the Kid A or Amnesiac era. Preceding LP Skinty Fia saw the band flex new sonic muscles, but Romance embraces wholly what that album only hinted at. He finally emerges from backstage, clad in a flapped hat, a long coat, and sunglasses despite the indoor setting.
While ‘Romance’ into ‘Starburster’ was one of the most audaciously unhinged one-two punches the Dublin band could pull on the album, they situate each on the opposite end of their live show. In person, ‘Romance’ instead dissolves into ‘Jackie Down the Line’ from Skinty Fia. It was on this record where Chatten’s narrators truly started to turn dark and self-aware – “Maybe my goodness has died,” he’d just mused on ‘Romance’, and ‘Jackie’ is an equally strong self-effacement of character. The lyricism is matched by Chatten’s nervous energy as he stalks the stage – confidently perching at the edge of the monitors often, peering out over the crowd, sometimes with a tambourine – but never lingering anywhere for too long, especially not during the frantic rush of ‘A Lucid Dream’. The pendulous riffs of ‘Big Shot’ segue into the centerpiece of the set, a trio of songs from Romance. ‘Death Kink’ – casual title, that – showcases not only the album’s unconventional use of onomatopoeia with its deadpan “ha-ha-ha”, but also the odd breath control Chatten exercises throughout the album. It also connects lyrically to the title track: “When you said that I was bad, that was fine/ when you said I could be good, I wouldn’t have it”. Some of the narrators present across Romance seem rather convinced of their wretchedness.
The verse of ‘Here’s the Thing’ is sung in an unheard-of key that feels like an inversion of normal melodics, and Chatten walks about with a mic stand, lights flickering from red to a pulsating blue, matching the panicked breaths of the song.. After a plethora of new stuff, they circle around to debut Dogrel with ‘Big’, the track that introduced them to the world for many listeners; hearing it is a powerful callback to the band’s origin. It ably demonstrates their development, using by far the most conventional arrangement of the band’s six members – boasting an addition from Chilli Jesson for the tour – but hits no less hard for its being more traditional. Soon after, as if to emphasize contrast once again, ‘Nabokov’ sees the band at their most shoegaze-influenced, Chatten’s languid delivery of “I did you a faaaaaavor” complemented by an airy, hypnotic backing vocal from Conor Deegan. The unmistakable silhouette of a tall-boy beer can flies up into the air, perfectly timed with the start of classic ‘Boys in the Better Land’, scattering a spiral of droplets that shine in the light from the stage. From above, one can see the telltale white flashes near the front from small flashbulbs erupting within the housing of disposable cameras, and the song ends with a crowdsurfer tumbling over heads.
The more I spin Romance, the more convinced I become that ending the album (and the main portion of their set) with ‘Favourite’ must be a bit of an in-joke for the band, fading out what is easily their weirdest album with a damn fine pop song. It could have slotted in nicely on Chatten’s debut solo effort, Chaos for the Fly, released between Skinty Fia and Romance. The same could be said of what follows their return from backstage, one of the best tracks from Romance: ‘In the Modern World’. The instruments swell with some of the greatest emotional heft they’ve ever summoned, but at the apex of the chorus Chatten repeatedly declares: “I don’t feel anything in the modern world”. Gorgeously arranged, Jesson playing the keys to summon the string sounds, Deegan once again provides a perfect foil to Chatten’s lead vocal in a song that feels immeasurably dreamlike.
We thus arrive at the final two songs of the evening – penultimate number ‘I Love You’ straddles a conundrum that’s even more pointed in Boston. It’s the paradox inherent in the Irish identity – culturally lauded around the world, but at home this generation see more clearly than ever the faults of their homeland, just like the 20- and 30-somethings of America now do with their own. It’s a furious exorcism mixed with an uncomfortable reckoning. The conclusion of the night is a more fun affair, the swaggering triumph of ‘Starburster’. As the inaugural Romance single it immediately heralded that new ideas were afoot in the FDC camp. It snakes along on Tom Coll’s drumbeat in a similar manner to Skinty Fia’s title track, but everything else about it was resplendent with new strangeness. The audience, fully incensed by now, assists in the massive, abrupt guttural inhalation at the centerpiece of the song’s chorus. It’s one of the most deeply startling choices in recent musical memory, but the band has in excess of 3000 people doing it with them, so can you really argue? Against the odds, the sound makes for an undeniably-catchy inflection point.
In September of 2019, Fontaines packed Great Scott, the dearly-departed (yet-soon-to-be-reborn) Boston club, mere minutes from where Roadrunner would come to exist years later. At the time they were moving solely on the strength of their debut Dogrel, but for those in the know, who had the good fortune to spot the band when they existed to the American public as a collection of scattered singles, that was more than enough to notice their promise – and fill the place to the brim, a trend they’ve continued ever since.. There’s certainly no shortage of excellent bands coming out of Ireland right now, but more than ever, Fontaines DC have confidently stepped to the front of the pack. Romance is easily among the best records of 2024, and is something to be held aloft on the virtues of its range and inventiveness, backed by a band that becomes stranger, more compelling, and more creatively themselves each time they land on American soil.
Photos and review by Collin Heroux
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