You know you are doing something very special when Elton John expresses his admiration for your work. Such was the case recently when the music legend raved about Irish alternative rock band Fontaines DC On his Rocket hour show via Apple Music, John told the group’s lead singer, Grian Chatten, during an interview, “To me, you guys are the best band out there right now.”

The Rocket Man was wrong in his assessment. Since 2019, Fontaines DC – Chatten, bassist Conor Deegan III, drummer Tom Coll and guitarists Conor Curley and Carlos O’Connell – have released four critically acclaimed albums, the most recent of which Romance from August. Drawing from post-punk music reminiscent of bands like Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, Fontaines DC creates melancholic and anxiety-ridden indie rock, accompanied by turbulent, introspective and outward-looking lyrics.

At least in the US, Fontaines DC, who performed at Britain’s Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds festivals this year, is somewhat of a hidden secret except among their die-hard American fans – but that will most likely change as their career progresses. on this upward trajectory. A clear indication of this was when Fontaines DC performed the first of two nights at Brooklyn Paramount in New York on Tuesday to a very packed audience that reveled in the majesty of the band’s powerful and anthemic rock.

Fontaines DC opened their evening with the subdued and haunting ‘Romance’, the title track from their excellent new record, which perfectly set the tone for their 90-minute show. They finished a majority of the songs Romanceincluding ‘In the Modern World’, ‘Here’s the Thing’, ‘Bug’, ‘Sundowner’ and ‘Favourite’, the latter being perhaps the band’s most accessible song to date.

The new songs seem destined to become standards in the band’s future setlists for years to come, as they join other Fontaines DC favorites such as ‘Jackie Down the Line’, ‘A Heroe’s Death’, ‘Boys in the Better Land’ and the brilliant ‘Televised Verstand.’ In addition to ‘In the Modern World’, the encore consisted of ‘I Love You’ from 2022 Skinny Fia album, and the hip-hop-tinged “Starburster” from the new record.

The band had the Paramount audience mesmerized during the show; several fans in the venue’s standing room jumped up and down as if they were in a mosh pit. Adding to the immersive nature of the performances, the members of Fontaines DC were intensely focused: there was no rock star posing or awkward audience interaction, or even a distracting stage and lighting setup. The only thing on the agenda for this Irish band on Tuesday evening was to rock hard.

Set list:

Romance

Jackie on the line

Televised ghost

A lucid dream

Roman holiday

Big shot

Death kink

Sunset

Big

The death of a hero

Here’s the thing

Critter

Horseness is the Whatness

Nabokov

Boys in the better country

Favorite

Encore:

In the modern world

I love you

Starburst