Toronto – As Franz Ferdinand lead singer stands up on the stage and sings “You’re so lucky, lucky, you’re so lucky” to the sold out crowd at Lees Palace last night, it suddenly hits you, damn, I am so lucky (he’s so lucky..he’s a star..). In what can only be describe as a sneaky booking, Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand played Lees Palace tonight as part of a their ‘getting ready for new album by playing lots of small clubs to remind hipsters who we are’ tour.
It has been awhile since Franz Ferdinand was on top of the indie pop rock world – the second Franz Ferdinand album was not exactly the showstopper many had expected, however, as most people realize tonight, the material from the first album is still as solid as ever and songs like ‘The Dark of the Matinee’, ‘Michael’, ‘this fire’ and obviously ‘take me out’ still hold its own.
On to the show, like I said, it was sold out. Luckily, Lees Palace has been hit with so many overcrowding fines that I think sold out at Lees these days is probably not as crowded as sold out at Lees from a couple years ago. I still remember seeing Kasabian there a few years back and it was so crowded i swear if I moved my hand in a circular motion, I could have slapped 25 people. So it was sold out, but everyone had okay room I think.
Toronto’s own Born Ruffians opened, and I am sure they put on a good show as usual. I arrived at the tail end of the show, so I can’t speak about how they were, but based on past viewings of this band, I am sure they were okay.
At around 10 pm, the lights dimmed and Franz Ferdinand came out to the quite the applause. I am not going to recap the whole show song by song, but it was a good 70 minute show with a nice blend of new material and songs off the first and second album. The band definitely were into it – Nick McCarthy even ventured out onto the side bar to play guitar for awhile. Having seen them at the Horseshoe almost five years ago, you can see how much Alex Kapranos has improved as a front man. He dances, swoons, moves, plays the maracas and sings with all the convictions of a rock star. He gazes into the crowd during songs, demands a response and always gets it. (that is called ‘Call and Response’ in concert lingo) It is fairly obvious that the crowd responded best to the material off the first album – I could listen to Take Me Out live over and over again. You could even argue the concert didn’t get off its feet until around the fourth song, when they launched into ‘Michael’. The only glaring omission on the set list was ‘Darts of Pleasure’. The encore included new single ‘Ulysses’ (which sounds solid), ‘Outsiders’ and ‘This fire’.
Overall, a very solid show – the new stuff seemed decent and the old stuff was great. I guess its just a friendly reminder from the Scottish lads that they are still alive, up and kicking.
4.5/5