Franz Ferdinand review- its a bit late!!!

Franz Ferdinand with support from Roots Manuva- Alexandra Palace, Friday December 2nd.

Its been a bit too long since the concert to fully write a review so this is going to be a brief one- but to sum it all up FRANZ FERDINAND PUT ONE HELL OF A SHOW ON AND YOU SHOULD ALL BE GOING TO THE BIG DAY OUT TO SEE THEM!!

I thought potentially it might only be an Alex Kapranos one man show a-la Coldplay styles where the rest of the band did their thing in the background, but both the other guitarist Nick McCarthy and bassist Bob Hardy all contributed to the stage show which at times almost seemed choreographed?! During Dark of the Matinee all three guitarists walked towards the crowd and at times Alex strutted around the stage with a somewhat rock'n'roll arrogance?!

Anyway the band opened (I think) with 'What you meant' which I was surprised as I thought they might go for the first-track-of-the-latest-album routine, which would have been 'The fallen' which i think is an absolutely fantastic track, but sadly didn't sound that good like. On the contrary, Dark of the Matinee which sounds ok on the album was brilliant live.

The concert, anyway plodded on through various tracks off their two albums. The 'unofficial last song' before the encore was 'Darts of pleasure' which was an extended version as the various members of the band introduced themselves and they talked a bit. 'Take me out', 'Do you want to' were all crowd pleasers.

There were also some very nice touches to some songs also. The very beatlesesque 'Eleanor put your boots on' had a more upbeat tempo to match the mood of the gig, and 'Outsiders' during the encore saw the addition of two extra people playing drums (on the same drumkit and one wearing a crash helmet). That addition gave me a whole new appreciation of the song and was definately one of the stand-out tracks of the night. The final song of the night was 'This fire' and before we knew it, it was all over and time for sleepy byebyes.

Good entertaining show- obviously as the age range was somewhere in the region of 7-70! I don't think I have ever been to a gig where little seven year olds are pushing their way through trying to mosh with a camera! Very odd..................................................

I think that was all really..... jolly good night was enjoyed by all!