FONTAINES DC + THE ALTERED HOURS – O2 ACADEMY BOURNEMOUTH 26.10.21
Tonight is the penultimate date of Fontaines D.C.’s 2021 UK tour, and it’s a tour that I’ve been lucky enough to attend on two dates: at Leicester De Montfort Hall as well as tonight at the O2 Academy Bournemouth.
Special mention needs to be made of the support band The Altered Hours who are Elaine Howley (vocals/percussion), Cathal Mac Gabhann (guitar/vocals), Patrick Cullen (bass), Nora Lewon (drums) and Jack Horgan (guitar).
Also from Ireland, they come on like a cross between The Velvet Underground with a hint of Siouxsie And The Banshees. They look fairly prim but their performance is anything but. There is an underlying tension in their music which threatens to break out at any moment, but never quite does. Vocalists Elaine Howley and Cathal Mac Gabhann ably share the lead duties, both clearly living the songs with every fibre of their being. They’re a must-see live band, although their recorded work doesn’t quite match their live intensity, although I’m sure that will come. They have just dropped their ‘Convertible’ album – Listen to it on their Bandcamp page HERE. The purchase options are available HERE.
Catch them performing live at the Komedia Studio Bar in Brighton on 18th November. Purchase your tickets HERE.
The Altered Hours setlist:
‘Cement’
‘Open Wide’
‘Hey No Way’
‘All Amnesia’
‘Colour Scheme’
‘Smoke Your Eyes’
‘Everyone Is Inside’
Find out more about The Altered Hours by visiting their ‘linktree’ HERE.
Fontaines D.C. consists of Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan III (bass), and Tom Coll (drums). They are all about intensity, and manage to put that across both on record and onstage. However, their entrance to the stage gives no hint of the maelstrom to follow, as all of the band (with the exception of drummer Tom Coll) walk to the front of the stage and throw bunches of flowers into the crowd. They won’t last long……
The aforementioned maelstrom begins with the opening song ‘A Hero’s Death’, and barely lets up for the entire show. Vocalist Grian Chatten (tonight modelling a stylish Outkast T-shirt) is a man of few words between songs, but tonight he surpasses himself by uttering not one word. Not a solitary one. He does manage to wreck a couple of mic stands though. At one point he parades around the stage with one of the unfortunate things slung over his shoulder.
Guitarist Carlos O’Connell continues to hone his guitar hero moves, and luckily has the chops to justify them. During ‘Too Real’ Carlos (such an appropriate name for a guitarist!!) doesn’t play bottleneck, but he does play guitar with a bottle, to eerie effect.
For most of the Fontaines’ set there is possibly one of the biggest mosh pits I’ve seen, stretching from the front of the stage to the mixing desk, which is almost at the back of the hall. There is also much crowd-surfing, and the band members occasionally look out into the crowd and grin approvingly.
The set is fairly evenly split between the band’s two albums: nine from ‘Dogrel’ and six from ‘A Hero’s Death’. This is the point where the importance of Grian not saying anything comes into some kind of context: he usually makes an announcement that they don’t do encores, and there are two more songs left. He doesn’t say that tonight, and lo-and-behold, they return to the stage for ‘Roy’s Tune’ and ‘Liberty Belle’. Well, we were a bloody great audience…..
At breakfast in my hotel the next day, a guy was complaining that the set was quite short considering that the band has two albums out. Frankly, I’m not convinced that either the band or the audience could cope with that level of intensity (think The Ramones) for more than the hour and a quarter that we got. A great show from a great band….and that’s an understatement!
Fontaines D.C. setlist:
(Intro Tape) ‘Dirt In The Ground’ by Tom Waits
‘A Hero’s Death’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘A Lucid Dream’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘Sha Sha Sha’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Chequeless Reckless’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘You Said’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘I Don’t Belong’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘The Lotts’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Living in America’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘Hurricane Laughter’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Too Real’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Big’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Televised Mind’ (found on 2020 ‘A Hero’s Death’ album)
‘Boys In The Better Land’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
(encore)
‘Roy’s Tune’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
‘Liberty Belle’ (found on 2019 ‘Dogrel’ album)
