Fontaines DC’s final song in their Electric Picnic set sums up exactly how the crowd felt about the Irish band: I love you. Arguably the band’s most political song, it slams the “gall of Fine Gael and the fail of Fianna Fáil”, a message endorsed by a crowd that roared the lyrics back to frontman Grian Chatten.
Chatten’s easy stage presence had the crowd enraptured even before the notes of the first song began. The band’s energy began as it intended to go on, and quickly progressed to fan favourites Hurricane Laughter and Sha Sha Sha. Not one for speaking to the crowd, the five-man band let their music do the talking, with Chatten often paying more attention to the tambourine he was playing than the people before him.
Almost 45 minutes into the set, he uttered his first words: “What’s up?” Though the sound, at times, made it difficult to ascertain what lyrics were being sung in the first few songs, the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Lights featured heavily throughout the performance, as did inflatable beach balls — reminiscent of eye balls — that were launched into the crowd during Too Real.
The set was lined with heavy hitters including Big, Boys in the Better Land and Roman Holiday. The pandemic period has been good for them in terms of exposure, though not necessarily in terms of Irish radio airplay. Having appeared on Bohemian Football Club’s jersey, their Dublin heritage is an innate part of their identity, present through their lyrics and accent.
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Still a relatively fledgling band, Fontaines DC attracted an enormous crowd to the Electric Arena on Friday night, having been on the smaller Body And Soul stage in previous years. Passionate and bracing onstage, if Friday’s performance is anything to go by, it will be no time at all before they’re headlining the festival’s main stage.
