For the past decade, the idea of a rock band once again capturing or defining the zeitgeist has been considered fanciful at best, or otherwise deluded. Genres rise and fall with popularity, but rock? The chances were slim, with culture geared towards solo pop acts, rapid rises for rappers and dance crossovers.
Now, we have Fontaines D.C. to fly the flag. Since 2019, the Irish five-piece has worked diligently to become a contender: debut album Dogrel was a ramshackle arrival and 2020’s A Hero’s Death cut through despite the industry stasis of the pandemic. Skinty Fia (2022) proved that the band could further evolve and grow as songwriters, before 2024’s Romance brought Fontaines acclaim outside Europe and onto their big battleground: America.
Romance featured a number of gigantic tunes – “Starburster” (195 million streams on Spotify); “Favourite” (131 million) – and landed the band its first Grammy nomination in the best rock album category. Fontaines’ lime-green aesthetic – slimier, sicklier than Charli’s shade of Brat – and fearless innovation marked the true arrival of a band who could attract cross generation fanbases and impress critically and commercially.
Its follow-up, the recently-released Dopamine Chamber, is the group at the peak of its powers, embracing synth-pop, industrial sounds and classic songwriting for a critical and commercial smash. The album hit No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and scored the year’s third-biggest opening week, behind only Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo. On the Billboard 200, they landed at No. 14, their highest-ever peak.
Across Europe, the picture was similarly rosy, with No. 1s in the Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium and top five finishes in Denmark, France, Poland, Sweden. Little surprise, then, that the band wanted to kick off the extensive live slate on the continent with a run of arena headline shows, which will hit the U.K. and Ireland in the coming weeks. Even bigger dates are set for 2027 including the London Stadium and a historic appearance at Slane Castle in Ireland.
As Fontaines’ triumphant run begins in earnest, these were the seven best moments from the show at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome on Tuesday (Nov. 10).
