Two people on stage, one song, four years in between. Fontaines D.C. headlined La Route Du Rock festival in Finistère, France on August 15, and when they got to "Roman Holiday," frontman Grian Chatten invited Kurt Vile up on stage to finish the song together. Vile and his band The Violators had actually played the same stage earlier that day, and instead of leaving after their set, he stuck around and became the surprise guest.
What made this collaboration so special is that "Roman Holiday" was written for Vile in the first place. The song appears on Fontaines' 2022 third album *Skinty Fia*, and Chatten previously told *Rolling Stone* about how it came to be: "I'd say the song was inspired to some degree by Kurt Vile. I watched him play in Croatia two years ago and I was envious of him. The sun was going down, and there he was, completely relaxed." He continued: "Ten minutes before we go on stage, we're all slapping each other in the face, and I was envious of someone who could text his kids, walk on stage, and just play a great show." One side warms up with face-slapping, the other calmly texts the kids before strolling on stage — that contrast was the starting point for the whole song, and this shared stage moment finally brought that scene from years ago into reality.
That night, Fontaines also played two new songs, "Marianne" and "Six Shot Morning," both of which had already premiered at their first headline show of 2026. The full setlist ran from "Boys In The Better Land," "Jackie Down The Line," "Big Shot," and "Hurricane Laughter" to "Starburster" in the encore, with "Roman Holiday" placed in the middle of the main set, officially credited as "performed with Kurt Vile."
The two actually go back further than this. On the 2021 Velvet Underground tribute album *I'll Be Your Mirror*, Fontaines covered "The Black Angel's Death Song" while Vile took on "Run Run Run." At the time, Fontaines bassist Conor Deegan III told NME it was "cool" to be on the same album as Vile, calling their own cover "an absolute banger."
This show also came after the passing of the band's manager, Trevor Dietz, whom Fontaines has described as "the sixth member" of the band. Their first performance since his death was an earlier farewell livestream from BBC Maida Vale studios. Earlier this year, the band also released the single "It's Amazing To Be Young," contributed a cover of Sinéad O'Connor's "Black Boys On Mopeds" to the War Child charity album *Help(2)*, and worked on the soundtrack for *Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man*. As for their fifth studio album, the band has recently confirmed it's in the works, though no further details have been announced.
Fontaines will continue their tour through France, Switzerland, and Austria over the next few days, headline Reading & Leeds Festival at the end of the month, and return to Ireland to headline Electric Picnic on August 30. Kurt Vile released his tenth studio album, *Philadelphia's Been Good To Me*, this past May, and will appear at End Of The Road Festival in Wiltshire, UK next month.
