It’s rather unusual to have an overseas young band to play a gig in Athens when it doesn’t even have an album out yet. Nonetheless, last Thursday Fontaines D.C. from Dublin, Ireland, made their live debut in Athens and managed to sell out the Death Disco club, proving that sometimes word of mouth and a handful of strong singles are enough to get people interested in all corners of the world, even though supposedly rock is not in anymore. Just look what kind of records are getting the critics’ vote in many established year-end lists.
However all is not lost yet; indie rock might be down but it’s definitely not out and with passionate new bands like Fontaines D.C., it’s still fighting back! If 2018’s rock sound belonged to bands like Idles and Shame, Fontaines D.C. seem eager and able to continue the guitar counter-attack in 2019.
The five young Irishmen have already switched gears with the two excellent singles they released this year (the double A-Side "Chequeless Reckless / Boys in the Better Land" and the recent "Too Real") and based on what we witnessed during their storming set here, they are on course to be one of the bands of 2019 with their upcoming debut album. If the studio recording can capture their raw live energy, I have no doubt we’ll have a lot more to say about them very soon.
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| Fontaines D.C., live @ Death Disco |
The show opened by two local acts, The Man & His Failures, the side project of Manos K. from Mani Deum who presented his debut EP "Persona Non Grata" and s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ , a power trio who play an interesting instrumental mix of post-rock and post-punk and recently released their debut album “untrue”.
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| The Man And His Failures, live @ Death Disco |
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| s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ , live @ Death Disco |
Check out below two tracks from Fontaines D.C.'s powerful performance at Death Disco, "Hurricane Laughter" and "Peddlers":
Fontaines D.C. - Hurricane Laughter, live @ Death Disco (Athens, Dec. 13th, 2018)
Peddlers, live @ Death Disco (Athens, Dec. 13th, 2018)
