Lucid Dreams

Franz Ferdinand
Apollo Hammersmith, London, March 9

Endured the interminable tube journey to Hammersmith tonight for my second round with Franz Ferdinand, touring in support of their first new album since 2005, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. After a musically solid but disappointingly corporate encounter with them at HMV in January, I was looking forward to seeing the new tracks in their "native environment."

Having snagged a good spot on the Apollo floor (the venue is a large, old theater, with an interestingly tilted standing section from its days as a legitimate theater), we caught the openers, indie blog darlings The Soft Pack. The annoyingly pushy french girls next to us made a remark about their similarity to "Les Libertines." Which was true in terms of coke-induced speed, but not so much in terms of ability to distinguish one song from another. Their short set was upbeat and some of the songs were moderately catchy, but most were too similar (fast paced rhythm guitar, mumbled lyrics) for me to judge whether or not I would actually enjoy an album from them. Still, infinitely better than last week's dreadful Louis XIV experience and brief, so no real complaints.

Franz appeared after a brief interval opened with Dark of the Matinée, which got the crowd moving (they continued to move during the entire sold-out gig; it was great to see such massive enthusiasm for the band after their long hiatus).

Set list (in sort of order, split more in half than as a true encore):
Dark of the Matinée
Twilight Omens
Do You Want To
Turn It On
Bite Hard
Walk Away
Lucid Dreams
Ulysses
Take Me Out
40'
No You Girls
Michael
What She Came For
Outsiders
The Fallen
This Fire

Practically every song got a massive response from the crowd, although the singles and the tracks from their self titled debut were obvious favorites. 40' was one of the best tracks of the night; the sparse guitar intro silenced the crowd entirely, and the band stretched it for a solid minute. Bite Hard has a similarly escalating intro, which I mentioned in my HMV entry. Michael was a surprise favorite, while Twilight Omens seemed to be a bit subduing after the stomping, chanting opener. The Fallen and Walk Away were the best tracks from YCHISMB (which may have failed solely for its abbreviation-demanding name), but the real standouts were Outsiders and What She Came For. Outsiders began with an extended, slinking keyboard solo and ended in an incredible moment that saw all four band members and a fifth person pounding out the conclusion on Paul Thompson's drum kit (short video of this soon). What She Came For concluded with a spectacular guitar duel between Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy, one of the classic shots in a Franz gig.

Overall, Franz is innovative on stage and seems to be having a great time. They change up their songs live (much to the frustration of fans attempting to sing along), with Kapranos frequently shifting the cadence of lyrics or shuffling the words entirely. There's a huge amount of obvious musical talent in their performances, and they look fantastic . The best of the show comes from Kapranos, who is undoubtedly the most charismatic frontman I've seen. He makes a great comparison to purposefully awkward Brandon Flowers. Comfortable, sharply dressed, tall and slouchingly thin in a way that pairs perfectly with his louche vocals, he is the center around which the band revolves. (He also, incidentally, appears to have not aged since 1997- a fact the NME even found in pertinent to comment on last month.) However, they seem to have fun on stage together, evidenced in their traditional intros at the end of the gig, and their hands-joined final bow.

Kapranos is also the source of the band's significant literary influences. While the entire band is remarkably literate, judging from their clever and topically diverse blog entries, Kapranos is a sometimes-author (his food book, Soundbites, is a fantastic read), and an obvious lover of literature, including direct references to books as diverse as The Master and Margarita and Ulysses (the title of the lead single from Tonight) in Franz's lyrics. The literary references are more diverse, and so was the crowd who showed up for Franz; I was surrounded a group of friends who had come from France for the gig and a pair of Japanese students, intermingled with the Brits who normally form a much larger percentage of the crowd at the gigs I've been attending. In spite of this, the audience connected strongly with each song; Ulysses was a crowd favorite. Franz, and particularly Kapranos in his stage presence, also embody the hedonistic tendencies of the movement I'm studying. Tracks like The Fallen had the entire crowd singing along; clearly hedonism is connecting with audiences well, perhaps reflecting their own values in modern Britain?

The verdict? One of my favorite gigs in London, and gigs in general. Franz is well worth the trip to Hammersmith.