Twilight Omens

Franz Ferdinand
HMV Oxford, January 26

Got up incredibly early (in line around 645) to get wristbands for the Franz instore, then returned later in the day for the gig itself, and even though we showed up much later, somehow got a far better place in the crowd than we had at White Lies. At least we were in front of the stage this time.

Franz themselves sounded great, but I can't wait to see them in an actual gig. Their new album has much heavier, slicker production than either the debut or YCHISMB, but Tonight is about a night out in clubs, so the music feels like it needs to be heard in that situation. Somewhere a little seedy would be best; there's a dark, dirty sound to the weird percussion and whispered vocals on tracks like No You Girls and Bite Hard that just isn't meant for somewhere as corporate as a brightly lit HMV. That combined with the giant mob of press (on stepstools, no less) that blocked the stage for about the first half of the set, left something to be desired atmospherically. The band seemed to agree, Alex chirping "Bye photographers!" when security ushered them out.

Lack of atmosphere didn't mean that the band itself wasn't technically strong. As an instore, it was a fairly abbreviated set of around 8 songs, all from the new album with the exception of Tell Her Tonight mid-set, when Nick took over the vocals. The addition of keyboard to their live setup creates a somewhat different sound than the hard, angular guitar hooks from Franz Ferdinand, but also makes the sound more complex. Sadly there was no drumming with human bones on the live version of No You Girls. I've got my fingers crossed for the next gig.

The set list was something like:
No You Girls
Bite Hard
Ulysses
Live Alone
Tell Her Tonight
Turn It On

Bite Hard and Ulysses were my favorite tracks, particularly Bite Hard. It's very dynamic live, transitioning from whispered intro up to the fast paced guitar break at the end. Ulysses comes across well for similar reasons, although it's another track I think will play better in a more appropriate venue (especially since it's the most Albion-influenced track, it deserves a little more seedy romance). Lyrically it just didn't translate to the atmosphere. When you hear "I'm bored, I'm bored, C'mon let's get high" in an HMV, you're sort of like, "What, over in the Jazz vinyls section?" It wasn't really a fault on Franz's part though, and they sounded great. Plus it was fun to see them in such a small venue (only 300 people) at a point when most of their gigs have crowds in the thousands.

Anyway, they also did a signing, so I got the album signed. Alex Kapranos touched my hand. If this were some sort of lame Gossip Girl style blog I would put OMG here, but it's not so you'll just have to imagine that it was quite a moment.

The verdict? Franz, awesome. HMV, not so much. Can't wait to see them at Apollo Hammersmith in March for a better perspective on the new album and the chance to hear some old tracks.

Pictures TBC