Photo credit: Carrie Musgrave
One of my seminal moments from my first year in Toronto was attending Franz Ferdinand’s first show in Toronto. At the time, it was like, “Wow, this cool band that’s gotten all the hype is playing a show in this cool city I moved to.” It was one of those moments that only reinforced that I made the right decision moving to Toronto
Fast forward 18 years later and I’m still in Toronto and Franz Ferdinand is playing a greatest hits show. Time definitely flies.
I could go on and on about the new venue they played in or how far it is from anywhere but realistically, the main thing that gets me about a Franz Ferdinand show 18 years in is just how fresh some of the songs still sound.
Franz Ferdinand has never really deviated from their M.O. – they want you to have a good time and dance to their music. While you could go on a whole narrative about how that might have limited some of their post-debut success, what was clear from the first song is that this directive meant that when you go a Franz Ferdinand greatest hits show, you are going in for 90 minutes of bangers.
Executing the set with minimum banter and clocking in at under 90 minutes, the Franz show was an exercise in efficiency. The hits didn’t stop coming and there was little time for the audience to rest, probably much to the bar’s chagrin
While a lot of the audience definitely favoured the material off the debut record, it’s pretty clear that the hits from the past few records are also embraced with much love as tracks like “No You Girls”, “Do You Want To”, Evil Eye” and “Always Ascending” kept the floor poppin’.
Of course the two standouts remain “Take Me Out” and “This Fire.” Franz has always put “Take Me Out” in the middle of their set and even having seen it live a bunch of times, this song still gives me goosebumps. The buildup and the drop remains one of the best rock moments at a live show for my money
“This Fire” has ended the last few shows and I think it’s mostly because people like to shout “burn this city.” Either way, both tracks were the icing on the cake that is a Franz Ferdinand show, which even 18 years in, is still a treat.