University of LiverpoolThe Dubliners burst brilliantly back on stage with literary-hearted rock that’s up there with the Smiths or the Pogues
![Fontaines DC review – sparks fly for once-in-a-generation post-punk poets](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c04bfbe17add784495c1ebbce0ef0a5add0c4a4/0_877_3900_2340/master/3900.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTUucG5n&enable=upscale&s=4d9d33b0a4ab59dcef7b8d43c171a81a)
The pandemic meant Fontaines DC never got to tour 2020’s bleak masterpiece A Hero’s Death, which – following 2019’s similarly acclaimed, Top 10, Mercury-nominated Dogrel – established the
Dublin poetic post-punks as the kind of guitar band that comes along once in a generation.
However, finally, here they are, lashing out tracks from both albums before an audibly adoring public to the point that crowd hysteria transforms Liberty Belle from a dark song about “ready steady violence” into a joyous, liberated, gleeful celebration.