& a blog

there were no less than five encores at the franz ferdinand concert last concert night. each built on the energy of preceeding encore, and each song somehow bringing the energy of the show even higher than it had been before. in fact, before playing the fifth song of the encore, franz ferdinand brought the born ruffians out and proceeded to play a five-minute electronica jam out with everyone on stage tweaking out a synth, playing an electric bass or drumming away at one of three drum sets (including an electric drumpad) on stage. by the time franz decided to play their way out of providence and the united states (this was the last show of their north american tour), they had the crowd in a f***ing frenzy. to the raucous chords of “this fire,” alex kapranos credited each member of the band in the tradition of a jazz outro (“over here on the bass we have mr. bob hardy!”). totally high on the energy of the crowd, kapranos leapt off the stage at the end of the song, striking out the final chords as he was floated around the lupos dancefloor. he fell, but was soon resuced by the concert staff, and got back on stage to join hands with his mates and take a curtain call.

it was unbelievable.

the show was without question the best live musical act i have ever seen. that includes trumping the flaming lips on brown’s main green in the spring weekend of 2007.

no, nothing holds a candle to the indefinite energy of franz ferdinand. for instance, despite being hobbled from an injury in the previous show, rythm guitarist nick mccarthy threw aside his crutches, and jammed out.

the show started with “jacqueline” a classic rock ballad with a great pick-up. starting slow and building into the signature lyrics “its always better on holiday, that’s why we only work when we need the money,” “jacqueline” set the bar for the quality of the show. i had been fearful that the concert would be all about promoting new album, and indeed the encore began with the new single “ulysses” and the second of the set was “no you girls.” but outside of that, the entire show was classic ferdinand, with all of the old favorites from the eponymous 2004 album in stunning live recitation. “michael” “the dark of the matinee” and “take me out” all made appearances in the 1:10 long set. “walk away” one of the best songs off you could have it so much better was also included in the set, and it was probably the slowest song all night, which says something about the pace of the show.

the last song of the regular set was a gorgeous rendition of the beloved ” 40′ “, with Kapranos begging the crowd to sing along with him, and even stopping the melody to hear that we were all singing along.

of course we were. lupos was on fire with the energy of franz ferdinand.i had long suspected that the glasgow boys might be a good, high energy show, but i never expected them to be quite this outstanding. it was a hell of a way to spend a friday night study break during the height of my finals.

ok then, back to this paper.