Irish punk rockers Fontaines D.C. have had quite the breakthrough campaign this year, with their debut album Dogrel (released via Partisan Records) getting some well deserved critical acclaim. We caught their U.S. debut at Union Pool back in March and then saw them open up for IDLES at Brooklyn Steel.
They have been touring hard continuously throughout the summer and returned for a pair of sold out headlining club shows at both Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom. We caught the latter performance (on September 10th) which kicked of with an opening set from the Montreal-based art-punk outfit Pottery, who released their great debut EP No. 1 back in May via Partisan as well (and who we saw caught earlier this year at Rough Trade NYC). They set up the tables perfectly for Fontaines D.C., warming up the crowd with their electric supercharged performance.
It seems that Fontaines D.C. are following the trajectors of IDLES, slowly but surely climbing the ladder towards bigger venues, making their name on great recordings and even better live performances. There’s no doubt that Dogrel offers up some of the finest musical moments that 2019 has to offer, but to experience their sound live is an entirely different beast. They wasted no time getting the crowd all kinds of crazy, kicking off the show with “Hurricane Laughter,” and immediately setting the tone and never deterring from their smart yet ferocious set of pure rock and roll.
This was a noticeably more confident Fontaines D.C. than the band I saw at Union Pool. Now don’t get me wrong, they were still fantastic that night, but they have been touring for months and it showed. “Too Real,” “Big,” and “Liberty Belle” took a new pummeling shape at Bowery Ballroom, and new song “Televised Mind” serves hope that their sophomore effort is near and will be as great as what came beforehand. The band was locked in and fed off the bonkers energy of the crowd which never stopped moving for a second, with crowdsurfers flying over the crowd and onto the stage, with the set-closing finale of “Boys in the Better Land” seeing a bunch of fans joining the band on stage to close things out in ever-appropriate fashion.
Find a full gallery of both performances posted below and give
Pottery:
Fontaines D.C.:
Fontaines D.C. setlist:
1. Hurricane Laughter
2. Sha Sha Sha
3. The Lotts
4. Television Screens
5. Roy’s Tune
6. Televised Mind
7. Too Real
8. Chequeless Reckless
9. Big
10. Liberty Belle
11. Boys in the Better Land
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