Fontaines DC at Finsbury Park [GeorginaHurdsfield_tinyraindropphotography-38]

IF you hadn’t heard that Finsbury Park was open again for festival season, the packed out pubs around the station on Saturday might have given it away.

The World’s End, Twelve Pins and W.B. Yeats had punters spilling onto the street from around 11am.

It’s no surprise to hear an Irish accent in north London, but they definitely predominated on Saturday, with more than a few comments floating around about the glacial speed of service in English pubs and many opting to queue out the door at nearby off-licences to have a few cans on the pavement instead of waiting for pints at the bar.

It seemed that every fifth person was wearing the unofficial uniform of the day: a blue jersey by third division Dublin football club The Bohemians, emblazoned with ‘Fontaines DC’, the five-man Irish punk rock band of poets who would take to the stage later that night in front of 45,000 people for their biggest show to date.

But there was a roster of musicians to play first, including Irish-language rap trio Kneecap, whose popularity has boomed in the year or so since they were booked as a support act for the day festival.

The opening line of their hit Get Your Brits Out – “guess who’s back on the news? It’s your favourite Republican hoods” – is apt given recent media furore around the group that did little to dampen their irreverent energy and vocal pro-Palestine politics in Finsbury Park.

Mo Chara, the band member facing terrorism charges in British courts, gave a shout out to the Met officers policing the concert, telling the crowd: “Kneecap gigs have always been about inclusion, so I’d like to make sure all our undercover cops are having a good time.”

He paused and laughed: “You miserable ****s.”

This was an apt lead in to the tune Your Sniffer Dogs are Shite that set off multiple mosh pits bouncing to its titular chant – all good humoured despite a slightly macho vibe and male-heavy demographic, with people picking each other up if they fell and holding lost jackets over their heads to find their owners.

Australian rockers Amyl and the Sniffers similarly knocked their head-banging performance out of the park.

In a yellow two-piece, vocalist Amy Taylor never stopped moving, belting out every lyric at 110% and making her own statements of support for Palestine.

“I learn a lot of politics through music, so it doesn’t mean nothing,” she said.

Then it was time for Fontaines DC, whose frontman Grian Chatten maintained a broody intensity as the park went mad for three bangers at the top of their set – Here’s the Thing, Jackie Down the Line and Boys in the Better Land.

Wearing his now distinctive long kilt with high boots and a silver bomber jacket over a Sinead O’Connor t-shirt, Chatten prowled and pranced the stage, twirling a long mic cable, his voice no less rousing in its softer moments than it is when everything goes off and he’s waving his arms for the crowd to shout louder.

They played music from across their albums, including the rarely performed Liberty Belle from their 2019 album Dogrel, but perhaps the biggest songs were saved for the end – I Love You, Modern World and gasping anthem Starburster, that concluded the triple encore under neon green and pink lights as it got dark while “Free Palestine” lit up the screens.

In the pit, fans were launching flares from each other’s shoulders, while further back where the sound was just as good, people were enjoying the music from picnic blankets, dancing and singing along.

The crowd control left a little to be desired – several people had to be lifted out of the front by security guards – but the performance was flawless.

If you get a chance to see Fontaines DC, take it.