This Is The World Calling: Fontaines D.C. bring the Dopamine Chamber to Barcelona

Barcelona welcomed Fontaines D.C. for the third date of their European tour, barely a week after the release of their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber. The Dublin band strolled onstage like there was no tomorrow, and opened with ‘Tongue’ – a marvellously punchy track from their new record.

Multi-instrumentalist Carlos O’Connell’s trippy keys looped beneath its recurring refrain: “Am I allowed to say it / if nobody’s gonna listen?” It’s a lyric that sums up the new record’s ambition to sound the alarm bells about the breakdown of communication in our society.

Grian Chatten has said that he set out to write about the collapse in our understanding of the idea of context, brought about by social media – and the resulting degradation of what it means to be human. This intention was made clear throughout the night, beginning with ‘Tongue’, which uses tape-speed manipulation and vocal sampling to make voices smear and warp. Live, that metallic, distorted sound pierces any defences the audience may possess. It’s the band’s way of making you feel something in an increasingly desensitised age.

Since Romance (2024), their first platinum album, Fontaines D.C. have leaned into dense studio production, and some day-one fans might say they’ve drifted from their grimy, punkish roots. Throughout the set, O’Connell moved between keys, synths and guitar, from the looping refrain of ‘Tongue’ to the slow, distorted guitar intro of ‘Happy For You’. Meanwhile, Conor Curley proved his wide-ranging strengths as a guitar maestro.

Underneath, the rhythm section – with Tom Coll's sure hand on the drums – kept everything steady. Conor Deegan’s bass carried the weight of the songs, and he took to the keys for the encore.

The unofficial sixth member, Chilli Jesson, shuttled between synths, keys and bass. The sound was at once crisp and heavy, a walkway extending the stage into the crowd and the screens framing the band like they were in a movie.

If they were, then it’d be an extraordinarily moving movie. ‘Here’s The Thing’, from Romance, had the crowd in raptures, frontman Chatten hurling his microphone to the ground within minutes. By ‘So I Did You a Favour’, he was striding across the middle of the stage, basking in the sound of a band at the peak of its powers, as the sound turned darker and more typically Fontaines D.C.

His movements were free yet gave an impression of being almost possessed, as if he were shaking something off his body while savouring the spotlight. Around him, the band remained stoic and precise, giving him room to express himself. ‘Boys In The Better Land’, from their debut Dogrel, brought out the tambourine, while vintage footage of the band played on the screens, and the crowd bellowed every word.

Then the lead single from the new record, ‘Marianne’, tipped the hall into murky green-blue, and we were Inside The Chamber. The room sang the entire chorus before the song dissolved into a kind of metallic, Blade Runner-esque distortion.

‘Jackie Down The Line’, from Skinty Fia, was the night’s biggest sing-along, with Chatten staring into the crowd, miming the words and demanding more energy. The piano-led ‘You Miss Me’ slowed things down. ‘Roman Holiday’, also from Skinty Fia, sent Chatten out onto the walkway, with the crowd seeming to follow him. ‘A Hero’s Death’, the title track of their 2020 album, had the whole room, band included, screaming the “bap bap bap” chant from its bridge.

After a quick “Cómo estás, Barcelona” and a “Viva Catalunya” from Chatten – both of which drew loud cheers – O’Connell switched to acoustic guitar, catapulting us into the Romance fan-favourite ‘In The Modern World’. Here, the gig turned into something closer to a spiritual gathering. People hugged, kissed and jumped for joy, while Chatten’s deep, restless voice took us into messianic rockstar territory.

The agonising single from the new album, ‘Happy For You’, arrived under a halo of purple light, accompanied by a slow, distorted guitar. The crowd sang the chorus back, with Chatten crouching as if in lament, a man broken on the inside. The mood flipped for ‘Big Shot’, also from Skinty Fia. With plenty of Irish people in the audience, the tricolours went up.

‘Death Kink’, from Romance, turned into a call-and-response, followed by ‘Mimesis’, the new album’s poppier, ’80s-leaning turn. Its refrain – “Your indifference won’t make me disappear” – evoked the genocides we watch on our phones, far too often witnessing them before merely scrolling past. ‘Bug’ and a joyous ‘Favourite’, both from Romance, followed, with people on shoulders and every hand raised. A groovy bassline led into ‘I Love You’, the Skinty Fia closer, and cups went flying.

When the band left, the crowd refused to accept that this was the end. An “olé, olé” chant and tremulous clapping filled the room. They returned under blue light with ‘Six Shot Morning’, a song that is even gloomier live than on the new record, with Deegan hooded at the keys, as if in a trance.

Then came ‘Japan’, and the arena lit up with phone torches, beautiful and uncomfortable at once: a room recording a song about disconnection. 'Starburster’ was next, delivered as the anthem it is.

For the final song, ‘Where Is Gone?’, Chatten sat down and delivered the closing lines quietly. Local Catalan pop superstar Rosalía, who features on the recording, didn’t appear, but the crowd sang her part so willingly that her absence hardly mattered.

“The picture frame is surely wrong…”

I left with that line still looping in my head, a gloomy, unsettling end to a two-hour set. As I checked my phone, I discovered that, while we were inside the venue, hundreds of young people had gathered in central Barcelona, burning containers and looting shops, leaving several people injured. More than half of those arrested were minors. The call had spread through anonymous TikTok groups – theoretically with no specific political leaning or clear motives, though that, of course, is hardly the whole story. If tonight’s gig taught us anything it is to understand the reality that the use of social media as a covert means of exerting political control and attacking democracy is out of control.

As I cycled home, blue lights from riot police vans flashed across the streets, the same colour that had washed the stage during ‘Dopamine Chamber’, only now emanating from police vehicles. It was as if Fontaines D.C. had spent the night publicly expressing their foreboding about this gloomy, futureless world.

The final lyrics delivered onstage were: “So, where is gone and why don’t I know? / It’s just the start of another show to hurt you / And make you feel alive.”

Fontaines D.C. have surely captured the zeitgeist of our age, one filled with gloomy, often distorted and thoroughly confused emotions. They want to ensure that, whatever happens, we’re still able to feel it.

One thing is for certain: tonight we did, and then some. Long may they run…