Traveling all the way to the other side of the world only to end up going to see a band from your hometown, may seem a bit mental to some. But when it’s a band as joyous to watch as Franz Ferdinand, you can’t argue. Not to mention the tickets coming all the way from Lapland.
Dissapointingly there was no Scotland/Glesga shout out for us to take advantage of, although the upside of not being in Glasgow was that the crowd about a third of the size it would have been at the SECC. The Palace Theatre in Melbourne (NOT the Palais…lucky someone double checked the address) is in the same ball park as Camden’s KOKO, stretched a bit longways so maybe a tad more capacity, but at the same time managing to feel that smidgin more intimate.
Opening the set with a new song (Bite Hard, according to latest info on Setlist.fm) can often be a bold/arrogant move, but when the album’s been ‘coming soon’ for longer than most can remember, it’s almost a bit of a relief. Most of the new stuff sounds fairly familiar, due to catching them a couple of times at the festivals last year, including the 30-minute piledriver of a surprise set at Glastonbury.
A short way into the set we’re blessed with the enticing drum intro of The Dark of The Matinee, a part of the song which oddly I’d never taken much notice of until that very moment, despite it being a personal favourite. Coincidentally, a few days earlier listening to same song in the car, it occurred to me that 2004’s Franz Ferdinand is just about as solid a debut album as most bands could hope for. Appetite for Destruction or even Definitely Maybe it mightn’t be, but that’s really nothing to be ashamed of, and track-by-track there’s very little to complain about.
At pre-encore time, my mind met with the familiar ‘but there’s so many they haven’t played yet, there’s just not time for all of them’ panic. Kind of like the way you feel after the first song of a White Stripes show. This in turn got me pondering where Franz Ferdinand in fact lie in the grand scheme of things. They have a little bit of everything – the tunes, the charm, the performance – maybe the local connection comes into it somewhere too. Now asking anyone to name a favourite band is madness. Even if there is an answer, it’s still a shitty question. A top three would be a challenge for most. But as Franz restarted the party with Michael, I had a tiny suspicion they’d be in with a shout for the Top Ten. I’m still not sure, ask me again in a few years.
