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Fontaines D.C., in town, promoting their third album Skinty Fia, were welcomed by packed, revel-filled crowd. Irish bands are always well attended in the Twin Cities, but there was almost a pre-show electric vibe, as if two years of waiting was soon to come to an end.
But first was the opening act, Just Mustard, also Irish, a five member band from Dundalk, playing a seven-song set with a propulsive drum/bass beat and droning guitars laying a wall of distortion for the lead singer, Katie Ball, to blithely sing with an airy breeze above the wailing howl. It was bracing and sweet, all at once.
Then Fontaines D.C. took the stage, the lead singer and emotional leader, Grian Chatten, grabbed the microphone stand and kept spiking it like he was planting a flag, perhaps setting the tone for the rest of his band mates: Carlos O’Connell on lead guitar, Conor Curly on rhythm guitar, Conor Deegan III on bass and Tom Coll on drums.
From the beginning the crowd was ready to join in, mouthing the lyrics to the first song “In ár gCroíthe go deo.”
A punk strain can be found in the DNA of their songs. There were echoes of The Ramones in “Sha Sha Sha.” “Hurricane Laughter” gleefully launched with one hard beat and note and the crowd and gladly joined in by singing the refrain.
Although, Fontaines D.C. paid homage to The Pogues “A Pair of Brown Eyes” with their video “Too Real”, don’t look for traditional Irish music with this band. Their progenitors are more along the lines of Sonic Youth and The Pixies. They are looking to bend the rules as well as reference those who came before.
Even their name references a character in the original Godfather movie: Johnny Fontane, a character loosely based on Frank Sinatra and his attempts to break into the film industry. (The D.C. references the group’s musical Dublin home.)
Whether a horse played into Fontaines DC current unbridled success, an ancient deer is referenced in the title of their third album. The Irish term Skinty Fia roughly translates into “The damnation of the deer.” Coll’s great aunt who only spoke the Irish tongue would spew the Irish Oath when an Irish Oath was needed and the band thought it made perfect sense as an album title.
A love of poetry is what brought this band together when they met at college and it’s the lyrics where this band really sets itself apart. Not very many bands are going to reference literary giants like James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov or create such effusively depressing lyrics found in “Roman Holiday” and “Jackie Down the Line”, songs which brought the crowd surging towards the stage.
And in their lies the soul of their Irish roots or as Chatten best explained the contradiction to Lizzie Manno in a Paste interview:
We’re from the Liberties. [Dublin neighborhood] It’s relatively rough, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. It’s kind of at the edge of the gentrification strip. It’s been surrounded by a dying culture that’s really potent inspiration. There’s a harshness as well. There’s drug use. At the same time, everybody’s so friendly. It’s a combination of friendliness and harshness that’s really inspiring.
| dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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