Fontaines DC at Finsbury Park: A success story for solidarity
It all started at the gate. On what was undoubtedly the busiest day of the year in London’s event calendar, 45,000 people flocked to Finsbury Park to see Fontaines DC headline their specially curated show. Simultaneously, London Pride saw rainbows painted on ruddy cheeks in jammed tubes, Sabrina Carpenter’s BST in Hyde Park saw the global pop star perform one of her biggest-ever shows, and Black Sabbath’s farewell gig boomed over Villa Park just over 100 miles away. Life, happening everywhere.
Though it is a relationship many feel threatened by, the day was always bound to be wrapped up in politics. At their most recent show, Fontaines DC welcomed a pro-Palestine activist group to the stage to conduct chants in both English and Arabic, and to address the media censorship of the conflict. Amyl and the Sniffers’ riotous punk punches out and up from the victim’s edge of the patriarchy. And who could forget Kneecap, the Irish hip-hop trio who have been the face of what Grian Chatten deemed a “witch hunt” amid an ongoing terror charge for their own Mo Chara? If they try to silence you, come back louder. The metaphorical megaphone for the muggy Saturday was turned all the way up.
But not everything would be easy. The venue had banned flags on poles, a manoeuvre shrouded ostensibly in the language of health and safety but providing the first and only real barrier to solidarity the crowd would encounter. Still, the young and old alike insisted on doing their part, sneaking Irish and Palestinian flags through the gates to hold them during the day. An otherwise unbothered lot who had learnt the importance of solidarity and activism first-hand from the bands on the line-up.
Early attendees were treated to Irish band Cardinals, who are slowly rising through the ranks after a previous summer spent with the beer-splashed backstages of the London circuit, and Been Stellar, an indie rock band hailing from New York. By the time the two bands were done, things were running 25 minutes behind. Blondshell, whose second album was released in May and deemed “effortless” by Far Out, had an antsy crowd to command. She slid seamlessly through a set that showcased lyrical dexterity, emotional upheaval and vocal prowess, turning heartbreak into power. As she closed out with the 2023 track ‘Salad’, belting, “Look what you did, you made a killer of a Jewish girl,” a sea of converts bobbed in time to her ferocious feminist rock.
Around the edges of the single stage, thousands of people trailed around bars, food carts, and huge merch fans. The tide pulled in one direction only as Kneecap began their afternoon set, plenty of “Free Mo Chara” T-shirts slithering through opportune gaps. The trio sauntered on stage, fizzing as ever with the energy of being spliced into the spotlight of the news, with a million different gazes watching.
What was all the more impressive than a dizzying crowd of all ages, sweating and yelling over one another, was their candid address of activism in the internet age. “I understand that it’s almost inhumane that I’m thinking of new things to say on stage during a genocide, for sound bites,” Chara said, before insisting the situation is “beyond words now”, detailing how food and aid collection areas in Gaza have been trend “into killing fields”.
He insisted that their level reach will never matter more than the depth of their message: “We played in Plymouth last night to 750 people, and we did the same thing, so it doesn’t matter how big or small our audience is, Kneecap will always use the platform for talking about this.”
Fontaines DC frontman Chatten even joined them on stage for their collaboration ‘Better Way To Live’. Kneecap, of course, led the crowd through a “Fuck Keir Starmer” chant, their latest slogan after the UK Prime Minister–yours, not ours, they’d insisted to fans at Glastonbury–deemed their music “not appropriate”. Their final three-song run, racing through the controversial ‘Get Your Brits Out’, the chant-worthy ‘H.O.O.D’, and their most recent release, ‘The Recap’, paints Starmer’s comments as wildly ignorant of a section of society he had leaned on most to spearhead Labour’s latest reclamation of Downing Street. Kneecap’s music is like a laser, slowly burning a hole into the fictitious filaments of the infinite half-truths that make up contemporary politics.
Amyl and the Sniffers charged onto the stage for the final support slot to hold a mirror up to the synergy collecting around the park. The Australian punk outfit had recently played a triumphant Glastonbury set and rode that high only higher into the stratosphere. Only a song in, proceedings stopped for a casualty in a mosh pit; Amy Taylor, ever the frontwoman, yapped through a joke about the Pope and a haircut before launching back into the undeniable anger and relentless edge of their modern rage.
They thrashed through big hits like ‘Security‘ and ‘Chewing Gum‘ while the crowd lapped it up. Taylor dedicated ‘Knifey’ to all the ladies at the event, part cry of desperation, part declaration of war on the femicide state of affairs. A circle pit boomed; behind me, a man with quaking legs stepped out to soak up the glory in the middle. Another man bounded through and removed him from the centre, shouting, “Not for you!” In response, the women took their moment, running in to yell their frustration into the capable hands of the crowd. Here, men learning through music. A display even the most right-wing politicians might struggle to explain without highlighting the holes in their logic.
“I want to join all the people today bringing Palestinian flags and bringing support to those people,” Taylor yelled halfway through the set, “Because I also learn a lot of politics through music. It doesn’t mean nothing that you’re out here like, “I didn’t even wash my hands with soap.” But now I do. You can learn, you can join moments, and you can make change.” This DIY, nuanced, and personalised approach to platforming activism was seen during a moving political speech at Glastonbury, too, and humanises the often faceless political dark zone. Along with Kneecap, she also made her support for Bob Vylan, a punk duo facing intense backlash after “Death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury, known. A parting thought: Amyl and the Sniffers might just be one of the best bands in the world.
After another lull, thousands swarmed around the vast stage, and the Irish rock stars finally appeared before us. They began as if they had something to prove, barrelling through a set top-heavy with undeniable bangers. Chatten, always a reliable if sometimes lacklustre frontman, moved with newfound energy as he stalked up and down the stage walkway like a man carrying the stars on his shoulders. Opener ‘Here’s The Thing’ raced into ‘Jackie Down the Line’, into ‘Boys in the Better Land’.
In a recent interview with The Irish Times, Chatten had ardently discussed his decision to stand alongside Kneecap amid the terror charges. He stated, “If Sinéad O’Connor was still around, she’d be speaking up and [would] probably have another media storm raged against her, as well. So, yeah, that’s what I think about it.” As Chatten stripped off his pullover a few songs in, O’Connor’s unblinking face stared back at the crowd, forever immortalised. In one deft move, Fontaines DC confirmed that this fight–against tyranny, against colonialism, against censorship–has been fought before. The line-up gracing the park didn’t create or lead the charge on intertwining politics with art. It has always been that way.
This is what the future can look like, Fontaines DC insisted, 45,000 new friends wrapped in a new embrace, if we commit to one another and commit to change. The band left with images of a snow globe sat precariously on the stage, characters from 2024’s Romance stuck within them. The storm is raging on. That might never change, but with legends like Fontaines DC and Amyl and the Sniffers to look up to, maybe we can.
