Tonight sees us at Scotland’s finest venue for Franz Ferdinand’s homecoming show. There’s a considerable buzz about the place, and there’s quite a few folk in attendance who look like they weren’t even born when Franz Ferdinand burst onto the scene – now over twenty years ago. If the warm-up music seems slightly incongruous at times (Baccara’s ‘Yes Sir I Can Boogie’ anyone?’) it also includes Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Chase’ which still sounds brilliant over forty years later.
First up is support Master Peace. Peace Okezie to his family, he released his rather excellent debut album How To Make A Master Peace last year. His music seems to take a lot of points from the same era in which our headliners first emerged, mixing in rap, punk, nu-rave and a fair bit of indie. (Almost as if to prove a point, one of his songs fades into Arctic Monkeys‘ ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.’) He really knows how to work a crowd and the Friday night audience fall for him in a big way. ‘Panic101’ may be the highlight but with the response he gets to songs like ‘Start You Off’ and the closing ‘Home’ it’s clear the only way is up. Future Barras’ headliner? Utterly conceivable. This is why you should always try and catch the support act.
Franz Ferdinand have just released The Human Fear, which in all honesty might be their best album since their 2004 self-titled debut. Yes, it’s that good. The line-up may have changed over the last few years, but it’s certainly not just a vehicle for frontman Alex Kapranos, because the whole band are very much playing together and there’s a whole load of new influences coming in. They were always an excellent live act (I’m fortunate enough to remember them playing tiny venues when you could literally see the whites of their eyes – I have very happy memories of nights out at both York Fibbers and Edinburgh Venue in late 2003, neither venue with us now, alas), and they move with ease from new songs to classics.
So the 25-song set opens with ‘Bar Lonely‘ before they launch into their second top forty hit ‘The Dark Of The Matinee‘ which gets a deafening roar from the audience before a note has even been sung. I’m standing at the back of the Barrowlands, but the sheer joy of the crowd is unbeatable (though if vaping in gigs could go the same way as cigarette smoking I wouldn’t be complaining). Certainly you don’t need to win a home ground over, but there’s 1500 very loyal fans here who are rewarded for that loyalty.
Yes, there’s songs I wish they had played (‘Eleanor Put your Boots On‘ is a lost FF classic, as far as I’m concerned), but to hear the new songs live is a confirmation of just how great the latest album is. We get the Greek-sounding ‘Black Eyelashes‘ and the very welcome re-appearance of Master Peace on the fine ‘Hooked.’ Not only that but we also get a fine spread of classics throughout the years, including ‘No You Girls‘ and ‘The Fallen.’ They finish with a stirring version of ‘This Fire‘ and it reminds me of just why I would tell anyone who would listen in 2003 about how they were going to be the next big thing. Here’s to the next couple of decades.
