In music circles, Fontaines D.C. are no doubt one of the biggest success stories of 2019. The Dublin post-punk quintet’s rise has been meteoric, winning over fans across the globe in just a matter of months. Aimed at keeping the momentum going, they’ve greeted the new year with an updated video for “Liberty Belle,” which you can watch below. The single is off their critically acclaimed 2019 debut LP, Dogrel. The band are also plotting a return to the U.S. They play Coachella in the spring. Fingers-crossed more North American dates will follow. UPDATE 1/16: Fontaines D.C. are playing The Governors Ball Music Festival in June. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 17 at noon.

The group landed on our radar in November 2018 when they signed to Partisan Records and released the Hugh Mulhern-directed James Joyce-inspired video for “Too Real.” Not only was the music fierce, but the video showed off their personality and earnestness. They seemed down-to-earth. We wanted to get to know them better.

Like Girl Band and Murder Capital, Fontaines D.C.’s Dublin roots heavily influence their musical output. Their songs are about the Irish experience and reference specific places and characters they know. For Dogrel’s first track, “Big,” the lyrics speak to Ireland’s inferiority complex, while “Sha Sha Sha” is about the dreary life of a Dublin cab driver. Easy-on-the-eyes frontman Grian Chatten delivers the charged lyrics, but the group share songwriting credits equally. Besides Grian, other members include Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan III, and Tom Coll.

The five-piece spent the spring of 2019 releasing Dogrel, killing it at SXSW, crisscrossing America on their first official U.S. tour opening for IDLES, and making their U.S. TV debut on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (see video below). The boys were on a tear. In the following months, they continued touring up a storm, jet setting between Europe and North America, while also working on a new record inspired by the Beach Boys. The band’s year closed out with both Rough Trade and BBC Radio 6 Music naming Dogrel “Album of the Year.”

With 2020’s arrival, the next stops on the Fontaines D.C.’s hit list are Australia and New Zealand. The group head down under later this month. They also pop their Coachella cherry in April.

As for their new video for “Liberty Belle,” it percolates with good cheer and makes us want to see Fontaines D.C. at a music festival ASAP. Directed by Mark William Logan and Greg M. Purcell, the video is made up of tour highlights and inter-cuts footage of the band performing and goofing around with shots of fans of all shapes and sizes enjoying the music.

The band released a video in 2017 for the Darklands-recorded version of “Liberty Belle.” The earlier video is actually similar to the new video. Both show the band hanging out together and performing. However, in the recent version, they have thousands of fans and are playing huge venues. If you juxtapose the videos, they play like a before-and-after-success story.

You can pick up Dogrel now. Included below are the band’s upcoming tour dates. We’ll be keeping an ear out for more U.S. shows and details on that new album.

Fontaines D.C. Tour Dates
Sat 11 Jan – Rock City, Nottingham, UK
Sun 12 Jan – Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis, UK
Mon 27 Jan – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 20, Auckland, NZ
Fri 31 Jan – Corner Hotel, Melbourne, Australia
Sat 1 Feb – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 20, Bowen Hills, Australia
Sun 2 Feb – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 20, Sydney, Australia
Tue 4 Feb – Paddington RSL, Sydney, Australia
Fri 7 Feb – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 20, Port Adelaide, Australia
10-12 & 17-19 April – Coachella 2020, Indio, CA
5-7 June – The Governors Ball Music Festival, Randall’s Island, NYC