Fontaines DC, Glasgow review: 'a dynamic display'

Fontaines DC | David Hepburn

Fontaines DC, Hydro, Glasgow ★★★★

Mere hours after they were announced as one of the headlining attractions of next year’s TRNSMT, Fontaines DC underlined just why they are capturing hearts in unusual places.

The Dublin-bred, London-based quintet have long been lionised by their countryman Bono but actors Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy have since joined the burgeoning moshpit of celebrity fans and GQ have now hailed them as Men of the Year, largely on the back of their fourth album, Romance, from which much of the set at their biggest Scottish show to date was drawn.

They opened a riveting show with its moody title track, redolent of the creative switchbacks this band have taken from album to album in their determination to forge an idiosyncratic path. The upshot was a dynamic display of welcome contrasts, with drummer Tom Coll barely touching the ground and a barrage of lighting to match as they barrelled into the piledriving Televised Mind, from second album A Hero’s Death.

For many, this was the Fontaines they showed up for – punky, intense, wiry. But frontman Grian Chatten has emerged as an accomplished indie crooner with innate lyricism. This band first bonded over a shared love of poetry before turning up the amps. Perhaps this is what has prompted predictions that Fontaines DC are shaping up to be the new U2.

The strongly melodic Bug certainly justified the musical link (though you would be hard pressed to find a less voluble frontman than Chatten) while the intro to the following Ulysses-quoting plangent ballad Horseness is the Whatness perfumed the Hydro with a whiff of Pink Floyd.

Their breakthrough anthem Boys in the Better Land was a lithe highlight of the main set while a four-song encore still left the room wanting more from this mighty band.