Fontaines DC
Kneecap
BOUCHER ROAD PLAYING FIELDS, BELFAST
Live Review
Photos : Stuart Bailie
The final date of Fontaines DC biggest tour sees the band in a glorious ascendency and one of the biggest groups in the UK. With great power comes great responsibility and they use their space well just like support Kneecap do as well with both groups at the heart of a young generation’s heart and soul. Being in Belfast, the gig has an added level for both Irish bands and a new generation of musicians who are following in their footsteps, reports Stuart Bailie .
Romance is dead. The Fontaines DC tour comes to a feverish end before 40,000 keen faces in Belfast. Grian reckons that it’s been 165 dates in total and he thanks the band’s crew for the skill and support. He seems dazed, yet he’s glad to be in reasonable health – “and I still have my organs intact”. He says his goodbyes with ‘Starburster’ and those gasping lines about a panic attack in the London Underground. It’s a perfect squall until the lights are killed and the band stroll off, quietly.
Grian overcame mental health issues in 2023 and seems robust now, but the Fontaines look inwardly warped. Parts of their live show resembled Depeche Mode around the time of their 101 documentary film, lifted by fame but distorted by the G-force that it exacts. The Irish boys have taken refuge in role play, dressing as spiv-manga ruffians. The tension lifted when they played ‘Motorcycle Boy’ and all the emotions collided. Or when ‘In the Modern World’ echoed around the industrial estate of Boucher Road. The Fontaines DC have become the new lords of the darkened underpass.
The fans still loved the early tunes like ‘Liberty Bell’ and ‘Big’, but the change in their music and their stature has been astonishing. Their post-Romance period is likely to be one of the most compelling returns – as big as they want it.
Grian was on stage previously with Kneecap, performing ‘Better Way to Live’ and giving the homecoming rappers his endorsement. The audience wore the green beanies and GAA tops, equally up for the two acts. Kneecap played their last substantial show at home last December, so there was merit in ‘It’s Been Ages’. They sang about provocation and notoriety. Since their Coachella blow-up in April, after the court hearings and amplified outrage, the song has become self-fulfilling.
They still beam out the giant messages about genocide and complicity. Local politicians have also been trying to ban Kneecap from the Belfast festival site, without success. “As you can tell,” they announced, “we don’t give a f**k about the repercussions anymore.”
They managed without the bottles of Buckfast and much of the hooligan schtick. There is more weight in new music like ‘Sayonara’, produced by Paul Hartnoll to edgy effect. The audience chanted ‘Free, Free Mo Chara’, alluding to his trial hearings in London. He let the the crowd know the context. “I’m not the first Irish man in a British court for terrorism…. allegedly.”
Kneecap, like Fontaines DC, have a new album to make and artistic directions to consider. Behind them are the cartoon capers of ‘Get Your Brits Out’ and ‘Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite’, which the Belfast audience still enjoy. But the gags are thin and public taste can shift rapidly. Hopefully, the Kneecap brief is to get from their Gaeilgeoir version of Licenced to Ill to a more enlightened Paul’s Boutique. The journey will fascinate.
If Kneecap seized up tomorrow, there would be legacy. Enrolments in Ireland language classes have soared exponentially in Belfast, and doubtless beyond. More bands have been emboldened to talk about Palestine and are less fearful of consequences.
Also, they have green-lit music projects like the teenage Backroom Bandits in Derry and Durt Burd in Belfast. The latter are more deeply integrated in the roots hip-hop scene, recording with Leo Miyagee and Belfast’s urban forefather Jun Tzu . When Kneecap gave a support slot to Young Spencer last Christmas, it was a signal that rapper respect could be cross-community. This was a career bump for Spencer, who works in a related scene with the brilliant Becky McNeice and grass-roots producer Eulogy . Improvements everywhere. Future romance beckons.
Stuart Bailie
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