Earlier this year, Dublin rockers Fontaines DC unveiled their latest album Skinty Fia to follow 2020’s A Hero’s Death. Known for riding the wave of Joy Division-influenced post-punk by making dreary yet invigorating anthems, one song on the LP that introduces some color is “Roman Holiday,” which they brought to The Late Late Show With James Corden last night.
Vocalist Grian Chatten sings in a hypnotic drawl as he paces the stage and surrenders his body to Ian Curtis-like twitches. The instrumentation is vibrant and immersive, sometimes slowing down into a meditative, shoegazey state and then building back into a strong whirlwind.
Upon unleashing the song in April, Chatten said in a statement about it: “‘Roman Holiday’ makes me think of the wide streets of north London in the Summer and the urge to discover them at night time. The thrill of being a gang of Irish people in London with a bit of a secret language and my first flat with my girlfriend.”
It came with a very dramatic and entertaining video involving a kidnapped teddy bear that was “the result of attempting to challenge the monarchy and watching too much of The Rockford Files.”
Watch the band perform “Roman Holiday” above.
