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I would have never laid odds on the success of Fontaines D.C. The Irish quintet’s post-punk sound always seemed too artful and spiky to crack through the public consciousness in any marked fashion. Much to my surprise and delight, the group has broken big in the wake of their fourth studio album, Romance, headlining stadium gigs in the U.K. and, closer to home, selling out the Roseland Theater on Saturday night.
The band was supposed to have played the venue last summer but had to cancel a few dates due to frontman Grian Chatten having issues with his voice. The wait only trebled anticipation for Fontaines D.C.’s eventual, triumphant return to the States. I’ve been going to so many smaller shows of late that I have forgotten how full-body electrifying it is to feel the buzz coming from a capacity crowd as it responds to the first notes of a favorite song or Chatten’s slightly awkward flailing at the audience, encouraging it to get loud.
I’m not sure how much the group was prepared to meet this new moment. Outside of Chatten, the rest of the band stuck to their spots onstage in a show of charismatic anti-charisma that only the greatest U.K. acts can pull off. And the vocalist proved an unsteady presence at the center of the storm, loping around his bandmates à la Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown. Chatten offered little in the way of stage banter outside of a quick, “Sorry, it took us so long to get here,” and the whole band had little interest in drinking in the worship of the amassed fans. They played with incandescence and road-tight strength and then got out of the way before the dust could settle.