Fontaines DC bring romance to Sydney Opera House Forecourt

They’re one of the most exciting punk bands the world has seen for years — and this gorgeous moment almost stole their Sydney show.

Carlos O’Connell from Irish punk band Fontaines DC engages with the crowd at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Picture: Mikki Gomez

REVIEW

What you won’t get at a Fontaines DC concert is much chat from the band.

Not ones to fill the air with rambling tales from the road, or copy-paste platitudes about how nice it is to be here and this is actually our favourite city, no really guys, we truly mean it, these post-punk poets from Dublin City let their music do the talking.

And that music is an impressive catalogue of clever melodies and gut-punch lyrics that demonstrate why Fontaines DC is widely considered part of a long Irish literary tradition that includes the likes of Joyce and Yeats, and, by many pundits’ reckoning, the most exciting band in the world right now.

Lead singer Grian Chatten offered a humble few “thank you very much”s but little else needed to be said to the sellout crowd in their thrall at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt on Thursday, during an Australian tour of their new album, Romance.

Fontaines DC at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Carlos O’Connell from Fontaines DC in Sydney. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Frontman Grian Chatten serenades the sellout crowd. Picture: Mikki Gomez

The last time Fontaines DC – comprising Chatten, guitarists Carlos O’Connell and Conor Curley, bassist Conor Deegan and drummer Tom Coll – toured Australia, they played in smaller, sweatier venues like Sydney’s The Roundhouse, Brisbane’s The Triffid and the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. This time around, the dramatic vista of Sydney Harbour provided an appropriate backdrop for a band whose new album marks a dramatic elevation from their earlier romper-stomper punk to something more cinematic and a lot moodier, both sonically and lyrically.

“Into the darkness again,” Chatten crooned to open the set with the first track from Romance, as a threatening sky over Sydney Harbour swallowed the last gasp of evening light. (Earlier, UK contemporaries Shame revved up the crowd with plucky punk antics as the forecourt copped a couple of sudden downpours; no one cared about the weather.)

Fontaines DC is touring Australia with their latest album Romance. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Fontaines DC bass player Conor Deegan. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Tom Coll on the drums. Picture: Mikki Gomez

From there, the Dublin boys leapt agilely through their varied – and astonishingly young – inventory of songs. They played fast and fresh punk anthems Big and Boys in the Better Land from their 2019 debut album, Dogrel, wiser-than-their-age observations on life like 2020’s A Hero’s Death and Televised Mind, and musings on Ireland and expat identity like Jackie Down the Line and Big Shot from 2022’s Skinty Fia. Each new song in the tight setlist provided an atmospheric gearshift. For fans, it was all killer, no filler.

Romance, which was named among the best albums of 2024 by practically every rock music taste-maker you can think of, and peaked at six on last year’s ARIA chart, has attracted an even wider legion of Fontaines devotees. Alongside the long-time fans, they contributed to a delightfully mixed bag of a Sydney crowd that also included a decent representation from the city’s Irish community, keen for an antipodean encounter with their Emerald Isle heroes.

Fans at the sold-out Sydney Opera House Forecourt concert. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Guitarist Conor Curley. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Fontaines DC at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Picture: Mikki Gomez

The band delighted with album highlights like Favourite, Sundowner, Bug and the trip-hoppy set-closer Starburster, as the kilt-clad-and-booted Chatten stomped around the stage and geed up the crowd, and Deegan and O’Connell chimed in with the gorgeous harmonies that give Romance its spine-tingling quality.

A memorable moment was when the band launched into their upbeat, jangly new track It’s Amazing to be Young, released just weeks ago, which they’ve revealed in recent interviews was adorably inspired by O’Connell’s infant daughter. (The baby’s arrival saw O’Connell take parental leave from Fontaines DC’s last tour of Australia. What’s more punk than a man on the brink of megastardom choosing to prioritise his young family? Genuinely.)

Fontaines DC at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Picture: Mikki Gomez

Fontaines DC at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Picture: Mikki Gomez

After a full cigarette smoke’s length of a break, the band returned for a four-song encore that included the rousing, anthemic I Love You, a dark love letter to Dublin via a salvo of rapid-fire lyrics decrying the city’s corruption, right-wing politics and assorted “bastards”, which every Fontaines DC fan worth their salt had been waiting for, and spat back in word-perfect unison.

What more needs to be said after that? Just cheers – and come back soon.

Fontaines DC will play the Palace Foreshore in Melbourne on March 8 and 10, and the Golden Plains Festival in Victoria on March 9.

Originally published as Fontaines DC bring romance to Sydney Opera House Forecourt