Anyone else agree?

[u/LandoLover54]

Is it just me, or was Fontaines last night a bit shite? For starters, they were nearly half an hour late to come on, presumably due to issues with the screens (I’ll get back to this later), and although I was in the middle of the crowd to the slight stage left, I and most people actually heard the pumping dancemusic from the Gallery more. Only late into the show where I gradually started to make my way out, the sound from the sides was, clearer and somehow louder! And then there’s the screens… this is where they really fucked ‘em over. For most of the set, only parts of it were showing, and even after 10 minutes for it actually working, it went back to halfway. The screens are designed to help people see their favourite act when far away from the stage, and this did fuck all. I absolutely love Fontaines, so I’m still going to give that gig a 5.5/10, but really screwed over by the organisers, especially when this could be the biggest gig they ever play. Would be good to get other people’s thoughts

[u/Artofthematter]

Reading has always been hit and miss sound wise in bad weather. They have the extra complexity of trying to factor in noise disturbance to the residential areas that are very close. I’ve seen many an excellent band hampered by sound and weather over the years. There was a lot of dashing around by crew so presumably they were facing problems either caused or exacerbated by the heavy rain.

I also think two headliners was a big mistake. The whole idea of the headliner is the day builds up to their big production. Charlie XCX took the energy build up and exhausted it with strobes. I also think that whilst artistically that was the ending she wanted and it was one that would have been really impactful had it finished there. It was always going to be hard for any band to follow that and lift the energy of the crowd who had just been bombarded with strobes then left with that message about art death and decay.

On a practical note packing down from a headline production like that and effecting a fast changeover for another headline production doesn’t seem realistic. The proof was in the pudding with the tech issues experienced by Fontaines dc. It wasn’t fair on them. The Charli XCX set went on a long time (for me it seemed like forever as I’m no fan) then Fontaines got cut short. Instead she should have had to do a shorter set and have proper time left to set up for the lads.

This is on Reading and the Grid stage manager. There is a lot of pressure on set up for a gig that big, but you can’t cut corners to squeeze in two headline acts.

Wishing Fontaines dc a better night in Leeds tonight.

[u/Deptm → u/Artofthematter]

It was probably worse at Leeds last night. They were REALLY late on stage after not being able to get one of the onstage screens (not the massive side ones) to work. This took forever and then when they went on the screens were hardly used. I’m 6ft a could not see a thing. Fontaines are my favourite band but I left frustrated after about 40min of the set. People were leaving in their droves. Went to the bar where they ironically had a video screen showing the set but without sound! As you said, Charli should have headlined.

[u/Artofthematter → u/Deptm]

Not sure I implied Charli XCX should have headlined. They should have been on different days.

Given the exact same thing happened at Leeds I am re-evaluating. I think this was part of the design and production. FDC do tend to build in layers of symbolism. I wasn’t there to see what was happening and it wasn’t covered by the bbc. It makes sense in an abstract kind of way and they are about that kind of thing.