Some mondays are worse than others, had to use my backup emergency coffee this morning and spoiler alert, it was shit. Not the best start of the day so I definitely needed a post punk kick in the arse to jumpstart my system.
Thankfully, I realized a couple of weeks ago that the good lads from Fontaines D.C. had made a Tiny Desk perf last year, and I was saving it for one of those days. These are probably my fav performances to watch on Youtube – the diversity of artists and the focus on the music only is always the best companion while pretending to get some work done.
If you know me, you also know that I have a tendency to move all things Irish to the top of my listening list. There’s this saying or quote from a now dead dude that goes like “God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world”, well God probably missed the shot with Irish musicians because they never ever disappoint.
I’ve been listening to these particular boys in a better land for quite some time now. Their 2019 Glastonbury set and the lockdown performances were part of the strings I held onto to salvage some of my sanity during the pandemic. If music is therapy then ‘Dogrel’ and soon to be out ‘A Hero’s Death’ were the sound the seemingly dying world needed. I hadn’t heard anything like them in a while, those heavy and suffocating vibes reflecting the state of my mind lying underneath the pile of shite going on in our sick sad world – and yet emotions rooted so strongly within our human consciousness that it felt like a light coming through the darkness of muddy waters. As much an anchor as a salvatory buoy – songs tough enough to hold onto through the storm, preventing you from drifting away in the current madness.
We all made wicked promises to ourselves back in those days – mostly because promises meant there would be a tomorrow to fulfill them – and one of mine was that I needed to see them live. It took about 3 years but I did. And the full circle of salvation washed over me – and washed me over – even better than I could have imagined. Are they the best live ‘young’ band you can see? I’d say, most probably. Even in a world where whiskey exists.
I am intimately convinced that to get Fontaines D.C., truly get them, you need to experience them live and truly feel their music on a physical level. It will carry you spiritually, but just wait to see what it’ll do to your guts, to your blood, your flesh and bones and all the soul glue in between. And I’m not even gonna start on Grian’s charisma on stage (yet) – that lad was born to be a frontman.
So I urge you, if you can, when you can, however you can – catch them live.
Then, maybe then, you’ll have a slight idea of how good poetry can be when led by the Irish.
In the meantime, there’s always this.
