IDLES and Fontaines D.C. Live: A Father/Son Experience
Idles @ Neumos w/Fontaines D.C.
May 28, 2019 in Seattle
By Jake and Andy Bookwalter
My 14-year-old son Jake took me to see IDLES and Fontaines D.C. at Neumos at the end of May. By “took me” I mean I bought the tickets and the cheeseburgers and drove us to and from the venue, but he convinced me back in November that this was a show not to miss and, holy crap, he was right. Here are some of his thoughts…and a few of mine.
Me: Did you hear any other influences in either band? Any obvious references?
Jake: Fontaines D.C. kind of sounds like the Irish Joy Division. IDLES are just original. They don’t sound like anyone.
Me: I kept hearing little reminders of Ian Dury in both bands, but I can’t really point to where the similarities are.
Jake: (Plays pieces of a couple of Ian Dury and the Blockheads songs, looks at me blankly.) Huh.
Me: You should definitely listen to The Fall. I think they’ll sound familiar. Definitely a lot of Joy Division too. The way that Grian Chatten (Fontaines DC lead singer) paced around the stage avoiding eye contact reminded me of Ian Curtis as much as the music did. Definitely a little OCD spectrum there, but he makes it work. So what was your favorite part of the show?
Jake: When Joe (Talbot, IDLES lead singer) crowd surfed at the end.
Me: There was a lot of crowd surfing, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a band leap into a crowd that much.
Jake: How about you? What was your favorite thing?
Me: During IDLES set, when the huge security guy with tattoos all over his face yoinked the guitarist from Fontaines D.C. back over the railing before he did a trust fall into people he probably shouldn’t have trusted.
Me: The coolest part of the night by a million percent, if I may get all mushy for a minute, was seeing you emerge from the crowd, smiling like a psychopath, covered with sweat (mostly not yours), knowing that this was a show that you’d measure future shows by. These were also two bands that you pretty much discovered on your own, unlike the dinosaur punk bands that I’ve been jamming down your throat for the last few years. Well done!
All of the photos in this post are by NadaMucho.com photographer Eric Tra. Read his review of the IDLES/Fontaines D.C. show here and see even more of his photos in the album on our Flickr page.
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