{"id":610737,"date":"2026-09-01T02:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610737\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T02:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:10:13","slug":"fontaines-dc-slane-will-be-a-crowning-moment-for-the-biggest-irish-band-since-u2-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610737\/","title":{"rendered":"Fontaines DC: Slane will be a crowning moment for the biggest Irish band since U2 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Fontaines DC<\/a> step on stage at Slane Castle<\/a> in June 2027, they will make history as just the third Irish band to headline the 80,000-capacity Co Meath venue. The group, with members from Mayo, Dublin, Monaghan and Spain, follow in the footsteps of Thin Lizzy<\/a>, who starred at the very first Slane in 1981, and U2<\/a>, who topped the bill in 2001.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve made it to the top the hard way, starting in tiny venues around Dublin and touring Britain, Continental Europe and the US incessantly since releasing their debut album, Dogrel, in 2019. That record was one of the year\u2019s most acclaimed. Rolling Stone praised its \u201csmart, upbeat songs\u201d; GQ would herald Fontaines as \u201cthe band making bands cool again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fontaines DC have gone on to win a wide fan base with their maximalist post-punk sound, which at various points in their career has drawn on Irish mythology, classic 20th-century literature, and singer Grian Chatten\u2019s mental health struggles. <\/p>\n

Admirers include Elton John, who described them as \u201cthe best band out there at the moment\u201d, and Olivia Rodrigo, who covered the song I Love You last summer. That profile is sure to soar further with the release of their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber, in October, preceded by the synth-pop single Marianne.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an extraordinary ascent for the musicians who met at the BIMM Dublin music school and, in November 2018, were second on the bill at the (now demolished) 1,000-capacity Tivoli Theatre in Dublin. <\/p>\n

However, their rise hasn\u2019t been without controversy and there was much mirth early in their career over their somewhat cartoonish embrace of the personas of bohemian Irish poets. They name-checked Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan and nodded to James Joyce in explosive punk number Boys in the Better Land.<\/p>\n

That enthusiastic evocation of a certain idea of Irishness was lapped up abroad but was greeted with a degree of eye-rolling at home. <\/p>\n

The nadir was a July 2019 profile in the New York Times which had a parody-like quality. The piece quoted singer Grian Chatten talking about \u201cdrinking bad Guinness until it tasted like good Guinness\u201d and described him as having \u201ca rolled cigarette in his hand and a Flann O\u2019Brien novel in his overcoat pocket\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fontaines DC at Electric Picnic: \u2018Banger after banger\u2019 as headliners pay tribute to late managerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There was also a backlash in 2025 when the band\u2019s bassist, Conor Deegan, weighed in on the presidential election on Instagram. \u201cHeather Humphreys is the candidate of the mind colonised by Britain,\u201d wrote Deegan, who by that point had relocated to the UK with the rest of the band. \u201cHumphreys embodies the old FF\/FG Anglo-Irish mentality: an Ireland reshaped in the image of Britishness, governed through the same modes of control and hierarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But since moving to London, they\u2019ve wisely cast aside the bedraggled Irish poet persona. In 2022, their third album, Skinty Fia, gave them their first UK number one and some of the most positive reviews of their career \u2013 \u201cbreathtaking\u201d, said the NME \u2013 while 2024\u2019s Romance received an even more rapturous response (\u201castonishing\u201d, went one five-star review in the UK).<\/p>\n

\"FontainesFontaines DC on the main stage at Electric Picnic on Sunday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Why have they become so popular in such a relatively short time? The answer is that they have reminded a younger generation of the life-changing power of rock\u2019n\u2019roll. Sung in his natural Skerries, Co Dublin accent, Chatten\u2019s lyrics, in particular, evoke the grit of everyday existence. Their 2024 hit Starburster, for instance, chronicles a panic attack he suffered in London \u2013 a sort of mundane experience with which many of his audience can readily empathise. Unlike many bands, they\u2019ve also been good at reinvention \u2013 moving on from relatively straightforward post-punk to pummeling electropop and grungy hard rock.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fontaines DC to play Slane Castle in June 2027Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Slane will be a crowning moment for the band. However, the venue arguably needs them as much as they need it. The castle\u2019s glory years as a rock destination came in the mid-to-late 1980s, when it welcomed Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Queen. Since then, the star power of its headliners has been mixed. Metallica and Foo Fighters have played Slane. But so, too, have meat-and-veg acts such as Stereophonics and Kings of Leon. In July, there were two shows by Luke Combs \u2013 an artist whom many non-country music fans will barely have heard of. <\/p>\n

If Slane marks a career high for Fontaines, it will also be a bittersweet moment, as it will come almost exactly a year after the death of their manager, Trevor Dietz. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very hard time for us over the last couple of months,\u201d Chatten said when the band played the UK\u2019s Reading festival at the weekend. At Slane next year, they will have the opportunity to honour their late manager\u2019s memory and to seal their own legacy as the biggest Irish band since U2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Fontaines DC step on stage at Slane Castle in June 2027, they will make history as just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-610737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}