Review: Franz Ferdinand

Monday night, a big crowd at the Beaumont Club saw a band living at its peak. It's probably safe to say that Franz Ferdinand won't be larger than it is right now, at least not in America. It drew about 1,200 people to a Westport nightclub on the first day of a normal work week, without a hit to speak of on Top 40 radio or a reality show to inflate its reputation. These days, that's a reasonable measure of success.

 

Photos by Todd Zimmer/Distinguished friend of the blog (zzimfo@gmail.com)

Unfortunately, this show also proved you can draw a crowd into a nightclub but you can't make it dance. The band was tight and taut, the music was vibrant and groovy but the crowd spent a lot of the night spectating. It took some coaching/coaxing from leadman Alex Kapranos to squeeze some participation out of the fans before him, including a hail of la-la-las during "Ulysses." Otherwise, most of them were as docked as Nick McCarthy, who is walking with crutches these days, nursing a sore foot.

The crowd was watching a good show: lots of melodic, well-crafted and -executed dance tunes that blended indie rock with new wave/post-wave and white-funk, some of them embroidered artfully with guitar and keyboard lines and riffs. FF initially drew some comparisons to bands like the Strokes, but its roots go back to rock/funk bands like INXS (and a little Talking Heads). They were also watching an impressive video show projected on a tall screen that spanned the width of the stage. Excellent touch.

This was my first show inside the new Beaumont, which looks like it is going through its own episode of "What Not To Wear." The first thing you notice: the abscence of stank. The second: the better use of space, especially around the expanded bar in the main room. And at least for this show, the sound was cleaner -- and on a night when the volume was as high as it needed to be. The merch table was selling ear plugs for a reason.

The sight lines are still a problem for anyone under 6 feet tall; maybe that affected the mood. (It also looked like this was a date night for a lot of couples; the crowd was split about 50/50 guys/gals.)

The boys from Scotland are touring on their latests, "Franz Ferdinand: Tonight," which, in some parts, veered significnatly from the formulas that made the first two albums so appealing. However, the live versions of the new songs blended well with the old, even the more adventurous cuts like "Lucid Dreams."

Hard to pick out two or three highlights because the band sounded stout all night and the crowd was relativley static -- enthusiastic and appreciative but on the proper side of rowdy and ecstatic. Two songs caused eruptions of singing and movement: "Take Me Out" and the closer "This Fire." This former two-stepping cowboy bar didn't go infernal all night, but at  least for that song, it felt like fans were at least thinking about burning down the house.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

 

 

Comments

[Thomas]

Well, lets face it. We're a ho-hum city.
Yawn.

[Randall]

I don't know where you were standing, but I thought the crowd was more enthusiastic than you give them credit for. It's hard to get a lot of movement in when you're packed in so tightly. I'm not too impressed with the "new" Beaumont, though. Whatever renovations take place are kind of pointless when the sight lines still suck, and it remains to be seen if the sound will be consistently good.

[Steve]

This is 2009! You don't need "Top 40 radio or a reality show" to have a hit song, you need your song played over and over again on ipod commercials (or movie commercials like M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" from Pineapple Express.)

[brent anderson]

"New" Beaumont looks a lot like the old Beaumont with the addition of a drop light or two and some drywall. But last night, who cared? Sounded decent and as you noted, top notch use of the stage and lighting. The band was everything fans could want and to me the crowd responded in kind. Just a happy time and the way live music should be: a love fest.

[Tim Finn]

I moved around the club (except way up front). The crowd was having a good time but was a little too composed; the place never really detonated. I'm thinking of a Rancid show in the old BC -- same size crowd, but much crazier and more into it.

... they did more than add some lights and drywall. That bar is three times the size it used to be.

... and "Paper Planes" was all over Top 40, after the iPod blitz; but point taken.

[Scott]

The show was good, I thought it sounded good too, the crowd was so so, I was suprised it didnt push forward and move back and forth at all, I figured it would have moved some at first but it didnt, I guess people were being respectful to one another. As for the complaints about the line of sight at the club, sorry, its pays to be tall, but its a bar, you might not get the best view but you can get very close to the band, unless you have the dropped floor up front (Granada) or a theatre setting (Uptown) the line of sight will suck, its not perfect but its not bad either.

[mothman]

The show was a scorcher; hey Mr. Excitement (Thomas); slamming KC doesn't make you any cooler.

[brent anderson]

Touche, the bar is much bigger, I stand corrected. And yeah, an Alkaline Trio show I took in there a couple years back was a sweaty, heaving pit of happy people, but all in all, we're splittin hairs. I got my money's worth, and the band performed well and looked like they had a good time, which these days is all I care about.

[mankvill]

Awesome, I wish I would've gone!

[Sam]

I left the show thinking the crowd was pretty good. Thought the show was great, they didn't let up all night. I really like the new album. I actually prefer it to their older stuff

[Vandelay]

Hey Tim, speaking of earplugs, do you ever wear them? Considering the number of shows that you attend, I think it'd be advisable.

[Tim Finn]

Only if i can't get far enough out of the way. A chemical brothers show at the Uptown comes to mind; marilyn manson at the Granada (!). The worst scenario is when the volume is just low enough to fool you into thinking it's not loud but just high enough to make your ears whistle for two days.

[ac]

I thought Paper Planes was from Slumdog Millionaire.