Franz Ferdinand: Do Believe the Hype

There are some rock and roll shows that have a special electricity to them. I remember seeing the Beastie Boys with Fishbone at the Aragon Ballroom, right after Licensed To Ill went number one. That was quite an atmosphere. Even better was Midnight Oil's performance at Metro. It was their first Chicago appearance on the Diesel And Dust tour. The show had been postponed, due to lead singer Peter Garrett breaking his foot, and rescheduled. In the interim, "Beds Are Burning" exploded. Suddenly, the 1,000 capacity venue was packed (with about 500 more people outside trying to get in – I remember standing in line between two blokes from Australia who were trying to get a ticket), and a band that had headlined arenas in their home country brought their full rock power, fueled with chart momentum, into one of the best shows I've ever seen.

The only show that may have exceeded that one for magic and explosiveness would have been the first Buzzcocks reunion show at Metro. It was like a class reunion for Chicago punks, and the classic Buzzcocks line up was on fire, playing hit after hit. Every person in the crowd was singing along to every "Whoa-oh". It culminated in a cathartic version of "I Believe", with the crowd screaming out the chorus, "There is no love in this world anymore" over and over and over until it all became a blur.

I've also seen some bands in their first or early gigs, proving their greatness immediately. The two best examples of that, for me, were RockFour at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, and Frisbie opening for Big Star at Metro and almost stealing the entire show. As great as those shows were, neither band had generated a substantial national buzz (and, I suppose, never have) when I saw them.

However, when I saw Franz Ferdinand at the 250 capacity Empty Bottle recently (the last show of an American mini-tour), there was buzz aplenty. Beyond all of the attention from the British press, Franz Ferdinand had played New York City to rave reviews and also got loads of praise for their show at South By Southwest. And, as I chronicled in my review last month, I think they released one of the best debut albums in ages.

So I was primed for their sold out gig at The Bottle. I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Though there weren't as many punters trying to bum tickets as at the Midnight Oil show in 1987, there were lots of strays mingling outside. The show was obviously a belated booking, as it started at 7:00 p.m., with a 10:00 p.m. show by another buzz band, TV on the Radio, following.

Due to the early hour for the venue, it seemed like there were more people outside the Bottle than inside when things got underway. So the support band, The Race, played to a third full house. Frankly, that was about all they deserved. Combining a fair amount of latter day Radiohead influence with bits of pretension they picked up from other sources (fusion jazz, slo-core, Neil Peart, heaven knows what else), each dragging song made it apparent that their name was intended to be ironic. The songs were deliberately inaccessible, with no real hooks and unintelligible vocals. When you could make out the words, they were quite banal. I suppose that was meant to be ironic too. Not an auspicious beginning to the evening.

It was about 30 minutes before Franz Ferdinand would step on stage (thankfully, The Race only played about 30 minutes), and they had two tech people setting up the equipment with military precision. I had brought two friends along, neither who had heard a note of Franz Ferdinand music. The room finally started to fill. We had spots about 8 to 10 feet from the stage.
Then you could hear the shouts from the back, as the four young Scotsmen walked up to the stage. They strapped on their gear and simply took off. Playing pretty much every song off their album and a few non-album tracks, Franz Ferdinand lived up to every bit of buzz they had generated. There was razor sharp guitar playing and a lockstep rhythm section. Moreover, they had a fair amount of stage presence.

A lot of their presence was just watching guitarists Nick McCarthy and Alex Kapranos, who really get into the music. McCarthy, decked out in an ace mod shirt, was bouncing energy, playing most of the chicken scratch funk licks that inevitably invite the Gang Of Four comparisons. Even better was when he took a turn on the keyboards, freeing himself up to clap and dance just a bit. Lead singer Kapranos also has a presence – he's somewhere between the ping-pong energy of a young Damon Albairn and the theatricality of Jarvis Cocker.

Kapranos would pose a bit with his guitar, and as the show went on, did a little light electric robot dancing. Any rock star-like actions were mitigated by the genuine charm these guys showed during their between stage patter. At one point, Alex asked the audience to give props to their two tech people. Then he thanked their regular sound guy and asked the audience and turn to wave to him. Aw, shucks. Moreover, both Alex and Nick were gracious throughout the entire show.

That graciousness was merited, as the audience pretty much went nuts the whole show. That going nuts was merited, as Franz Ferdinand is a great live band. While they aren't at a point where they completely transform their songs live, they succeed at bringing an extra level of energy to their performance. On a few songs, the tempos were just a hair faster (thanks to machine-like drummer Paul Thomson, who somehow managed to contribute some backing vocals), and driven by Thomson and Bob Hardy, who clearly graduated from the John Entwhistle School of Stoic Bass Players. Sometimes, his fingers were the only thing moving, but he may be the best musician of the whole lot (which is saying something), as his playing was the foundation for everything everyone else did.

I'd like to tell you what they opened with, however, I was not taking notes. I do know that after blistering the audience with three or four songs, they pulled out "Take Me Out". This is the song that propelled them to English glory, a number three smash. The crowd was already won over by this time, but this took the show to a new level. The song starts with a brief blues-pop verse, before breaking down into a disco-rock throwdown. I can't remember the last time I've been to a rock show where so many people started moving. The recorded version (which I'm playing as I type this) sounds tame compared to what I heard the band lay down on stage.

It's at this point where this turned from a good show to something truly memorable. The crowd roared. While I'm sure they've gotten this reaction at some of their other American stops, you could see the band was taken just a bit aback. And they fed off that energy.

A couple tunes later, they lit into the album opener "Jacqueline". This was also a big crowd pleaser, as many could be seen mouthing the chorus: "It's always better on holiday/so much better on holiday/that's why we only work/when we need the money." The jagged guitar parts sounded so crisp and alive.

Then came the defining moment of the show. With a garbled introduction by Alex, the opening notes of "The Dark of the Matinee" were played and already, it was obvious that most of the audience shared my opinion that this is THE Franz Ferdinand track. Alex may not have hit all the notes (he was bit tired from all the energy expended, I suspect), yet he had the attitude and the band really drove it home on the extended chorus at the end. When the song ended, the explosion of applause was louder than the band, initially. It lasted for about a full minute, to the point that a couple band members looked almost embarrassed. Almost.

During "Dark" I noticed that the lilt in the melody of the chorus (where Alex and Nick harmonize on "it is mine") sounds like something Ray Davies might have whipped up in 1967. I also noticed how the Sparks influence the band has talked of manifests itself on the keyboard intro to "Auf Achse" and during the instrumental break of "Come on Home", where there's this bass-and-drum syncopation that is typical of *Kimono My House*-era Sparks. This, of course, makes me very happy.

I should also mention that on "Michael", the band tore at the chorus with passion and frenzy (this was another big crowd favorite). One of the non-LP songs they did was simply a speedy funk rock number that was as skittish as The Woodentops, and was brilliant. That "40'" came off live as the great lost Comsat Angels song. And the extended encore version of the pumping dance floor killer "This Fire" was half as long as it needed to be.

Franz Ferdinand is going to be touring all over the place this year, so don't miss them. It was the best concert I've seen in ages (and I had seen the brilliant RockFour be brilliant nary two weeks prior, to give you an idea of how much I liked FF). And my friends, FF virgins, bought shirts and got the disc the next day.

NOTES:

A few readers might know that I make a weekly list of Chicago shows that I send out to folks. I have now created a Yahoo Group that folks can sign up to in order to get the list. The site is called Chicago Pop Show Report and you can join by going here:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/

If you have any problems getting on, e-mail me at:

Mike_Bennett@fufkin.com

On another note, if you want to keep up with the Chicago music scene, go to http://chicagomuzik.blogspot.com/ . It's fairly new, but has some good info.

Finally, next month, I intend to review some DVDs in my column (for sure, Ray Paul, The Undertones and Freaks And Geeks) and also catch up on some of the indie releases that I haven't had time to review. We get sent a lot of good stuff at Fufkin, and I'd like to at least give a couple sentences to some things that have been stacking up in my music room, that are worth mentioning. (By stating this, I also force my hand and have to do it!).

Photo credit: Double Exposure Shot: Courtesy of Kathy Michelfelder

__________________________________________

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

____________________________________________________