As the crowd was still applauding the new songs, Grian Chatten suddenly slowed his pace: "This has been a difficult year for us. I want to sing this song for you." With that, the band launched not into a new album track, but "Favourite," a single from the 2023 Romance era. He didn't elaborate further, but most in the crowd understood he was referring to manager Trevor Dietz, who passed away this past June.
The show took place Thursday night, October 15, at London's Roundhouse, a venue with a capacity of roughly 3,300. All proceeds from ticket sales, after costs, went to mental health charity CALM. Fontaines D.C. had previously partnered with CALM on a branded T-shirt, and for this show released a special-edition CD to raise additional funds. The gig also doubled as the release night for new album Dopamine Chamber, which officially dropped at midnight during the show. The band has a stadium-scale tour lined up for next summer, with a run of arena shows planned beforehand.
The setlist shifted back and forth between old and new material throughout the night. Opening tracks like "Boys in the Better Land," "Jackie Down the Line," and "I Love You" drew huge responses, while new album highlight "Marianne" was sung back to the band as if it were already a classic. The brooding new track "Happy For You" received its live debut that evening, while "Japan" got off to a rocky start — after a false start and a restart, Chatten quipped, "Thanks, everyone — next song," and moved on. Chatten kept up the band's usual low-key stage presence throughout, occasionally stepping forward with open arms to rally the crowd, and twice shouted "Free Palestine," drawing an enthusiastic response from the audience. Bassist Conor Deegan III wore a T-shirt reading "PALESTINE" on stage that night.
One of the few moments he directly referenced the new album was when he said, "We're putting out a new album tomorrow," sparking a huge roar from the crowd before the band launched into "Happy For You." Another quiet moment came during "Where Is Gone?" — Chatten sat at the edge of the stage and sang through the entire song, including Rosalía's verses. For the encore, the band returned to the stage to perform Dopamine Chamber opener "Six Shot Morning" followed by "I Love You," the latter earning one of the biggest reactions of the night. The closer was a collaboration between Chatten and guitarist Carlos O'Connell: with O'Connell on keys, Chatten sang "In Heaven," the track featured in David Lynch's Eraserhead, before segueing into the high-intensity "Starburster" to end the show.
In his five-star review of Dopamine Chamber for NME, Andrew Trendell wrote that the album "cements Fontaines D.C.'s status as one of this generation's definitive bands," describing it as something pure and honest forged out of noise and collapse. Meanwhile, Chatten recently told MOJO that the band plans to take a break once this tour wraps up: "The best thing we can do is step away for a while, take stock, and give everyone a break from us for a bit." He also mentioned he's working on his second solo album, the follow-up to 2023's Chaos for the Fly.
