Ironworks, Inverness, 13 October 2009

Franz Ferdinand

FRANZ FERDINAND graced Inverness with their presence again with a sell-out performance in the Ironworks. This was their third time playing in Inverness, but my first time hearing them live since previous venues have not allowed young’uns (by that I mean under-16s) to attend. I’d been waiting for months to see them so my anticipation was high; and they did not disappoint.

The band formed in 2002 and released their debut album, Take Me Out, at the beginning of 2004. Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar), Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboard and backing vocals) and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals) make up the Scottish band which verges on many genres such as rock, indie and dance.

They started with a bouncy rendition of ‘Do You Want To’ which quickly got the already excited crowd going, and continued with favourites like ‘Ulysses’, ‘No You Girls’ and ‘Turn It On’ from their most recent album, and also many from their debut and second albums like ‘Dark of the Matinee’ and ‘Take Me Out’.

Rather funky drum playing, which had something of an electronic tribal feel about it (if that’s possible…), by all band members ended their pre-encore performance but soon they were back on stage due to much demand.

The evening drew to a close with a new song, its stand out line “Where are your friends” a little more solemn than previous tunes, before heading back up a notch with ‘Lucid Dreams’ and a final rocky yet rave style instrumental finale.

If I’m nit-picking then my only issue would be the support band, which, although not terrible, was not great either. That, and having to wait 40 minutes after the support had finished for Franz Ferdinand to start (apparently they’d been fairly prompt in other venues – maybe they just wanted to stay in Inversnecks a little longer?…).

However, in the grand scheme of things neither of these really matter since, once started, the main act certainly lived up to expectation. Most of all though, I really hope they come back!

© Jo Gratton, 2009

Links

• Franz Ferdinand
• Ironworks