Starting a thread for 2025 gigs as they'll likely start rolling in.
I'll arbitrarily throw in Rob Beckett playing the Olympia on the 26th September 2025 which went on sale today.
Music Snob
Got you.
Yeah, the phrase different horses for different courses comes to mind. In my workplace there were frantic attempts from at least a dozen people to buy Coldplay tickets the day they went on sale (yours truly included). Similar with other very popular artists.
I never warmed up to Fontaines. I think part of the reason is I saw them live supporting Franz Ferdinand when they were starting as a band. At the time I found that Grian Chatten didn't have a good stage presence and didn't seem to know what to do with himself - probably inexperience, this was at the Olympia and at the time (2018) they wouldn't be playing that size of venues. I have their Skinty Fia and Romance albums (on cassettes, as I still collect cassettes 🙂 ), but I wouldn't listen to them regularly.
Of course I'm a music snob. Isn't that a prerequisite for this thread?
To be honest he probably still doesn't have much of a stage presence, they're in the vein of their influences (Clash, Cure, Mary Chain, etc) where not much is said. For me they're a very good but not yet great band. Their momentum is pretty unstoppable though and they're the first Irish indie-ish act to be close to filling stadia since U2 (possibly Snow Patrol) and no eyelids would be blinked were they to headline the 80k EP or 90k Reading fests next year. For standalone gigs they'd have no issue doing Marlay or Hyde Park next Summer. They sold 45k in Finsbury Park before playing to 20,500 over two nights in Alexandra Palace with demand for further evenings. They're bigger than most people realise.
deftly shuffles marillion and inxs albums to the back of the pile on display…
I'll disagree slightly here. I feel with Romance the music has become far more accessible. I'll give you one example - my 14 year old daughter from whom Skinty Fia or Dogrel would not have been on her radar absolutely loves Romance and whilst some of that is from me having it on in the car etc she already knew a good number of the songs from tiktok which would to me suggest they're seeping into the mainstream a lot more especially with a younger audience.
yeah some amount of comments on Guinness show post complaining that’s it’s 21 plus event.
That's really good. Going on a little road-trip next weekend for the bank holiday. Going to throw Romance on from cover to cover. See what feedback I get from the kids. My 10 year old does love the tune I Love You from Skinta. But in fairness, he was force fed it by me. But he is fairly open to new music. 13 year old daughter just dismisses everything in the first 5 seconds, unless it references boyfriends, bitches, slay, dope, skibiddy, bussin, salty, sic etc.
Funnily enough I stuck on Skinty Fia the other day, the only one of their albums I have on physical media, and I was reminded of how my young one (under 5 then) was singing along to the first track on that - Gone is the day, gone is the night, gone is the day..
Yeah . I agree they are not at that level of popularity yet that everyone in work is talking about them .
But growing in following .
They are not pop like those other acts so will not be appealing to those who like Taylor Swift Ed Sheeran or Garth Brooks at all . No offense to anybody who is a fan
There are concerts where people go just because their friends are going and that's fine . And they only know one tune and just enjoy the night socially .
But I would not consider Fontaines would be in that category.
Might be another story to be honest after this concert with Kneecap who are putting themselves up on a hill to…
Hope they don't get dragged down by the controversy .
My young lad is 18 and loads of his mates are into them, he's not a hardcore music fan yet, still very much influenced by Tiktok and they're all over Tiktok for ages now. I love that they have a following consisting equally of youngsters and the, ahem, more mature end of the spectrum. Love that there's an Irish act that we can all share.
A bit weird that you dip your toe in the music thread just to post that.
Fontaines are a little like Arctic Monkeys in reverse.Arctics most popular music came early in their career wheras its later albums with Fontaines.
Early stuff is what the majority AM fans go to see, even if last few albums wouldnt be for the average fan of 'You look good on the dancfloor'.
They sell out arenas, and headline shows like Glasto.
Fontaines are a probably a couple of really popular songs away them being in the Glasto headlining space.
My 17 year old loves them. Hearing a lot more Fontaines in my house these days. Maybe I will come to like them by osmosis!!!
My two primary school kids love 'em. My sister's two lads (14 & 12) adore them and have seen them twice (ATN and Iveagh I believe). Their appeal is multi-generational and you hear them everywhere. Hell, even commercial Irish radio have finally deigned to give them some airplay.
Pohoda, the Slovak music festival I go to every couple of years (capacity 30k) has them as one of four headliners this year alongside Massive Attack, QOTSA and Iggy Pop. They've more or less conquered mainland Europe and the Antipodes. It's really only the US remaining though they're nearly there. Success in the Indie album charts with Romance and they scraped into the Billboard top 100. They ain't going away.
For a first post ya gotta admire its accuracy.
Didn't work for me with a previous partner and her incessant play of a Freddie Mercury solo album. A doomed romance.
I'd have thought that the very Cure-ish Favourite would have appealed?
There's a Wish era Cure vibe off a lot of that record.
I see some Tory politicians are trying to get the Fontaines / Kneecap gig in Belfast cancelled, the Brits and the Yanks not happy with Kneecap.
Just saw one MP wrote to Glastonbury about it...no reference to the other few festivals they're doing.
New album better than previous for me
To get the theme of the thread back on track...
The Beths are playing the button factory Thursday Sept 18th
It certainly wasn’t easy to get tickets for them after they sold out (relatively early on), not the usual affair where there’s plenty of tickets unsold on TM the day before.
What you’re saying about their music isn’t really correct though, look at the reception to Bug and Favourite. I think Romance is very much this generations AM and these songs aren’t going away any time soon.
(Croke Park is a stretch atm but the Aviva isn’t, especially if they were to bring along a decent support act)
The first time I heard the opening track all I could think of was early Music for the Masses era Depeche Mode (and funnily enough some of the imagery in the Starburster video reminds me of the Anton Corbijn Depeche Mode videos.
"The Biths".
Very weak tea.
Hey ! …. I love Marillion (Fish - era)
shush, you'll blow our cover!
(there was nothing wrong with Hogarth, just very meh..)
Love 'em.. just well-written fun indie-pop!
Flaming Lips were great last night - a treat in store for anyone going tonight
There's some Irish artists playing Orlagh House in Dublin over the 1st weekend in July. Nice to have option of seeing a few acts outdoors outside of a festival. Wonder could the other headliner be say Villagers after their Helix gig next month.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wf.vanillicon.com/v2/fd886e8068d0cf75a5ff800614b8489e.svg)
