Fontaines D.C.
w/ Jadu Heart
Marathon Music Works; Nashville, TN
April 30, 2025
Photos by Elizabeth Marsh
Since exploding onto the scene with their commanding 2019 debut album, Dogrel, Irish post-punk and alt rock outfit Fontaines D.C. have become one of the preeminent acts in modern rock. Even despite the Covid-19 lockdown, during which they swiftly delivered 2020 followup A Hero’s Death, the quintet have been on an impressive, prolific tear, releasing two further full-lengths (four in total)- 2022’s global breakout Skinty Fia, and last year’s Grammy nominated, sonically adventurous Romance, which recently received an expanded deluxe edition- and have seemingly been touring endlessly to bigger and bigger crowds worldwide. After a 2022 Music City debut at Brooklyn Bowl, and a pair of dates in support of Arctic Monkeys at Ascend Amphitheater the following year, FDC recently returned for their latest Nashville headliner, this time at Marathon Music Works, along with English shoegaze and dream pop duo Jadu Heart.
Following an impressive, vibey performance from Jadu, the sold out crowd had packed in, and the anticipation for Fontaines was palpable (this was definitely the biggest, most passionate Fontaines D.C. crowd we’d witnessed yet). Awash in moody, monochromatic light, and dripping in their typical Irish cool style (singer Grian Chatten gave Nashville some love in donning a Layla’s t-shirt), the group aptly began the show with Romance opener and title track, “Romance,” which is a slow-build intro for the album which perfectly doubled as an intro for the show. After that though, and somewhat surprisingly, they pivoted straight into some older tunes, immediately amping up the crowd with buzzy Skinty Fia single “Jackie Down the Line” and then “Televised Mind,” from A Hero’s Death, setting the tone for the evening on incredible high, and getting everyone rowdy and ready to sing along.
After a couple more Skinty cuts- “Roman Holiday,” another fan fave, and “Big Shot”- it was finally time to get back to some new stuff, with newest new track (the one and only single from the deluxe version of Romance), “It’s Amazing to Be Young,” marking one of the standout moments of the night (honestly that song is so much better than what you’d typically expect from a bonus track). From the angular and hard-hitting early tunes like “Big” to the propulsive and poppier new ones like “Here’s the Thing,” the grungy “Nabokov” to early earworm (and probably the first Fontaines D.C. song we ever heard), “Boys in the Better Land,” the rest of the show was dynamic, high-energy, and varied, pulling a lot more from the entirety of their catalogue than expected, yet still managing to incorporate nearly all of the new record as well.
The main set wound down with one of the best Romance songs, “Favourite,” which, like all of the recent songs, really showcased have far the band have come since their scrappier, gothic, post-punk leaning earlier years (which, again, was only like half a decade ago). Despite clocking in at a total of 20 songs, including the four-song encore to follow, the performance flew by, and was completely devoid of fat (does FDC even have even boring songs?; we’d venture to say no). Reemerging for an encore, they took it as a chance to play several more Romance cuts in the home stretch, plus the most popular Skinty Fia song yet to appear, the moody and virally popular “I Love You,” which was followed by most popular recent single, “Starburster,” to end the night, and to make the crowd lose their minds one last time. If more bands were this good, this cool, and this magnetic live, rock music might be in a stronger place right now. But at least we have the best of the best like Fontaines D.C. around to carry the torch.
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Setlist:
Romance
Jackie Down the Line
Televised Mind
Roman Holiday
Big Shot
Death Kink
Sundowner
It’s Amazing to Be Young
Big
A Hero’s Death
Here’s the Thing
Bug
Horseness Is the Whatness
Nabokov
Boys in the Better Land
Favourite
In the Modern World
Desire
I Love You
Starburster