Charles Jensen | Writer

Last night I drove two hours in either direction to see my favorite band, Franz Ferdinand, play a live show.

It was worth the trip.

Although most of their music is already upbeat and peppy, Franz Ferdinand played nearly every song up tempo—a miraculous feat, in my opinion, since most of their songs feature intricate guitar hooks and raucous percussion. Frontman Alex Kapranos was delightfully campy without being fey as he plowed through a superfast rendition of “Michael” (“This is what I am / I am a man / So come and dance with me Michael”). The real show stopper, though, was the seamless play of the last two songs: “Outsiders,” the last track of their newer album You Could Have It So Much Better, started out pretty straightforward until, by the end of the song, they had three men pounding away on the drum kit, creating an amazing percussion line that extended past the end of the song. The drummer kept the bass beat going for a few minutes and the audience clapped along until the rest of the band came back out to end with a burned-up version of “This Ffire,” which appropriately repeats “This fire is out of control / We gotta burn this city / Burn this city down.”

The only song I missed hearing was “Darts of Pleasure,” which I love because it has interesting and weird lyrics:

“You can feel my lips undress your eyes
Undress your eyes undress your eyes
Words of love and words so leisured
Words are poisoned darts of pleasure
Die, and so you die.”

It was a smaller venue, and although our “best possible seats” were in what was affectionately called the “upper deck” (really just the back of the theater), we had a pretty good view of the stage.

I bought a t-shirt like this except blue:

Today it’s my favorite thing in the world.