Watch Fontaines D.C. Play “Desire” Live For The First Time

For months, Irish post-punk greats Fontaines D.C. have been touring behind their much-esteemed new album Romance, but they haven’t been performing one of its prettiest songs until very recently. The band spent a very long time tinkering with “Desire,” experimenting with different ways to record the song before landing on the string-section version that they included on the LP. This past weekend, they played the song live for the first time.

On Friday night, Fontaines D.C. played at London’s Alexandra Palace, a massive venue with a capacity of about 10,000 people. DIIV and Sorry opened. During the encores, Fontaines gave “Desire” its live debut. They’ve played two more gigs since then — another Alexandra Palace show on Saturday and Cardiff’s Utilita Arena last night — and “Desire” has been on the setlist for both of those shows, as well. Watch fan-made video of the song’s live debut below.

Romance is out now on XL.