Grian Chatten Live at Rough Trade East (5/7/23)

On a late evening in July, at Rough Trade East, Grian Chatten takes the stage to a sold-out crowd of 300 people. After 3 critically acclaimed Fontaines D.C. albums, and a few weeks away from supporting Arctic Monkeys in North America, frontman Grian Chatten had taken a step back to release his solo record ‘Chaos for the Fly’. 

The album itself was met with widespread praise and to promote the LP, Grian had embarked on a short tour of record shops. Armed with only an acoustic guitar and a microphone, he expertly proves why he is a revolutionary in modern music. The setlist was rich and succinct, consisting of only 7 tracks. Opening with ‘The Score’ perfectly set the tone of the night-the underlying chords being fingerpicked were atmospheric and captured the audience’s attention.

The 4th song was a surprise cover of ‘The Couple Across The Way’ from Fontaines’ most recent album, Skinty Fia. Originally being led by an accordion, Grian is able to convey the original sound of the song and evoke similar feelings as the Fontaines version with the use of the acoustic guitar. 

The penultimate song performed- ‘Fairlies’- is the most popular single out of the 4 released. After encouraging the audience to join in, the choruses are loud and complement the jaunty guitar itself, the rise in energy creating a perfect juxtaposition from the intimacy of the previous songs.

That feeling of a small community singing along with their neighbours is what Grian is able to capitalise on with the intimacy of a 300-capacity record store. The acoustic guitar is used to its full ability as it goes from slow, moody ballads that enrapture the audience and leave them silent, to faster anthems which jangly guitar chords, These faster songs, specifically ‘Fairlies’, are highlights of the night.

A master of songwriting, it is only right that such an intimate, personal record with some of his best writing to date, can shine truly in small-capacity record stores. The last song, described by the singer-songwriter as his favourite song off the collection, is a perfect send-off to the short tour. There are no slip-ups in his playing or any moment where his voice is off-he was on perfect form throughout the night. Deeply personal and emotive lyrics, a guitar which is vital but not overstated and a voice that feels every lyric sung ‘All of the People’ proves that Grian Chatten is one of the best musicians of the 21st century, live and recorded.