The ‘best band in the world’ play the Sydney Opera House
Dublin rockers Fontaines D. C. — hailed as the greatest by Elton John — brought their stadium-ready Romance to the Opera House forecourt for a blistering set blending post-punk fury with emotional depth.
At the Sydney Opera House forecourt on Thursday night, the longest bar line in recorded history stretched out. A sea of lads in Guinness caps, football jerseys, and lurid green trackies, all queuing up for a last-minute libation before the Dublin five-piece Fontaines D.C. took the stage.
The band, formed in 2014 as students at the BIMM Music Institute with a shared love for James Joyce, are riding high off the release of Romance, an album that’s shifted them from post-punk heroes to rock stars with stadiums in their sights. Harry Styles and Coldplay’s Chris Martin are fans, Elton John’s called them “the best band out there,” and they’ve got actor Barry Keoghan shimmying in their music videos.
Produced by James Ford — he of Arctic Monkeys and Depeche Mode fame — Romance saw the band trade some of their early, grime-spattered snarl for something grander, shinier, even (whisper it) radio-friendly. Some fans wailed betrayal. Didn’t matter. The record was The Sunday Times’ Album of the Year, snagged two Grammy nominations, and got them a second Brit Award. In Australia, two tracks placed in triple j’s Hottest 100.
But most music fans don’t give a toss about plaudits or popularity. What really matters is: are the tunes any good live? Ask any of the 6,000-odd, generation-spanning (this reviewer brought her mum) crowd in that sweaty, roaring mass, and the answer will be a resolute yes.
Punk is a riot, but it can be one-dimensional (not to mention straining on a punter’s stamina). Fontaines have learned that tension is just as powerful as release. The set was textural — every song from Romance bar two, five from Skinty Fia, two each from A Hero’s Death and Dogrel.
They built it like a sermon, with the intermittent rain only adding to the mood. A great smog rolled in for Romance, a creeping tune led by a piano line that feels like a cat slinking down a back alley, looking for a fight. The hypnotic Televised Mind thundered, and Big, the opener from Dogrel, saw pints flying as frontman Grian Chatten, dressed in a skirt and sports jacket, barked, “Dublin is the rain is mine / A pregnant city with a Catholic mind.”
The evening reached its peak during the encore, with Skinty Fia’s I Love You — a track that starts as a wistful love letter to Ireland, only to tear itself apart into a scathing critique of the country’s failures. There were plenty of Irish in the crowd, feeling it all, tears mixing with sweat, arms slung around each other as they spat the spoken word verse, where Chatten rails against church scandals, economic collapse, and the generational despair pushing youth to flee.
For all the wordiness of their lyrics, live, the band are of very few — “Hello” and “thank you.” But they didn’t need it. The playing was tight, the energy taut. No bows. No grand gestures. Just five men walking off the stage, job done.
The Sydney Opera House Forecourt series continues with sold-out shows from: Dan Sultan and Jem Cassar-Daley (8 March), PJ Harvey (13 March), and New Order (14–15 March).
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