{"id":1207,"date":"2020-03-05T16:18:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2020-03-29T13:45:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T13:45:55","slug":"fontaines-dc-the-murder-capital-homelessness-benefit-dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"Fontaines DC, The Murder Capital, Homelessness Benefit, Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Everything about this event seems pointed, anointed and morally sound. A bill of music curated by the Fontaines DC to raise around \u20ac70k for the homeless cause in Ireland. The faithful are tightly convened at The Olympia, aware that this is an epochal moment, a night when the new acts are in the ascendant, the sense of civic rage is acute and the political system is as cracked as the Liberty Bell herself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fifth year of Rock Against Homelessness and while the theme was never not critical, the revulsion has now translated into electoral votes, occupations and feet on the street. So it seems absolutely right that a generational change is enacted on the stage also. To echo an old punk maxim: \u201care you taking over, or are you taking orders<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Fontaines are unassailably on the correct side. All those component parts \u2013 the empathy, the noise, the sly wit and humility \u2013 resound perfectly. They play behind a hazer fog and Grian still has that awkward aspect. Here\u2019s a band that did not consciously aim to confront late-stage capitalism in a city that\u2019s all mortgaged out. But they\u2019ve accepted the brief and have responded with the best songs and the sentiments that fit so well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Only right then that their entrance is soundtracked by Luke Kelly. The band have used his narrative, \u2018For What Died The Sons Of R\u00f3is\u00edn\u2019 on numerous occasions, notably at Glastonbury 2019. But to hear the old Luke recording and the sense he makes of busted idealism is perfectly apposite tonight – \u201cwhen we have sold enough of Ireland to be but strangers in it<\/em>.\u201d Here\u2019s the time.<\/p>\n

So when they play \u2018Hurricane Laughter\u2019 the transition from Luke to Grian doesn\u2019t not jar and The Fontaines make the sound of a fierce reckoning. That translates into a mosh at the front and an incentive for Carlos to scale the balcony, playing off the edge of it.<\/p>\n

It would be forgiveable to see the band assuming their greatness tonight but that\u2019s not blatant. The message across the bill is that Ireland\u2019s artists have a kinder dispensation and an equitable spirit. This was apparent with the Mary Wallopers, bringing banjo and royal strangeness with \u2018Cod Liver Oil And The Orange Juice\u2019. Their Dundalk compardres Just Mustard are further down the career line and they embrace glimmer and abstraction, calling out an uneasy story. Altered Hours also favour the shoegaze textures but don\u2019t connect so readily.<\/p>\n

Stefan Murphy looks like he\u2019s hauled out of an outlaw bar in Texas, doused in the fumes of regret and schooled by Waylon, Kris and Johnny. He\u2019s fought hard for the soul of Dublin over the years and his inclusion tonight is fitting. He has a long-gone Mighty Stef association with northsiders Melts who deliver florid exclamations and a glam-throb anxiety that recalls Suicide.<\/p>\n

Kneecap represent the Nordy dimension, west Belfast and the Creggan. Their arrival is raucous, unfiltered and keenly received. They get bonus cheers for attacking Fine Gael and an election poster is presented with withering style. \u201cBlue shirt wankers!\u201d they say, causing us to remember a former, fascist connection. The hip hop beats are unaffected, the words do not flinch, RT\u00c9 takes a lashing and the Brits are dismissed. \u2018C.E.A.R.T.A\u2019 is a lesson for the homies and Gaeilgeoir\u00ed. The transgressive stuff is mostly laughed off and there\u2019s a thin cover of satire but calling Leo Varadkar a \u201cspastic\u201d is uncool. Words have a better potential, mo chairde.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Murder Capital by Stuart Bailie<\/p><\/div>\n

Murder Capital are magnificent, road-drilled and James McGovern needs no coaching on the homeless theme. Those songs are studies in disenchantment, hard cases for the prosecution. It\u2019s an astounding deal, the sound is vast and the singer commands that strange area of hurt and unwilling exile. Like you\u2019d expect, \u2018Feeling Fades\u2019 is a swirl of streets, alleys, dead ends and James walks it like a tender hooligan.<\/p>\n

The Fontaines take us home, with beautiful inevitability, to \u2018Dublin City Sky\u2019. They have channeled the ache and the disbelief. They have shared the sense of ever-tightening abuse and ridiculed the baldly ambitious. We would ask for little else. And still they go searching, for a kinder hand, for the better land.<\/p>\n

Stuart Bailie<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fontaines DC, The Murder Capital, Kneecap, Just Mustard, Melts, Altered Hours, Stefan Murphy, The Mary Wallopers<\/em><\/p>\n

Rock Against Homelessness, The Olympia, Dublin, 03.03.20<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everything about this event seems pointed, anointed and morally sound. A bill of music curated by the Fontaines DC to raise around \u20ac70k for the homeless cause in Ireland. The faithful are tightly convened at The Olympia, aware that this is an epochal moment, a night when the new acts are in the ascendant, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digwithit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}