What an incredible setting the Royal Botanic Gardens is for a concert or series of concerts that this is a part of. Live In The Gardens is exactly that. Smack bang in the middle of the lush spring filled foliage and lawns. The trees provided an outline of shelter on this typical Melbourne spring evening, the weather unpredictable but bearable at its worst. The day had been fine but sure enough come the time for Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand to take the stage the rain has well and truly settled in.
Franz Ferdinand took to the stage right on 9pm and delivered a blistering set, the now well and truly soaked crowd that crammed themselves into garden area were oblivious to the heavens opening. They were here for one reason and that was to party with one of this centuries finest indie bands.
Without wasting any time Franz Ferdinand take us right back to the beginning with ‘The Dark Of The Matinee’ from the iconic debut had the masses bouncing and in fine voice. Frontman Alex Kapranos has this engaging quality about him that just doesn’t allow you to take your eyes off him. He entices and pulls you in as the band deliver the musical beauty of this song, from its obscure hidden melodies to the quirkiness of the vocal delivery it’s artistic perfection.
‘Night Or Day’ from this year’s “The Human Fear” works so well backing up the opening track, that quirkiness continues and it’s live that you realise that the band are everything they are on record and then some. The always moving Kapranos is the focal point, but when you allow yourself to take the focus off him you truly doe realise that drummer Audrey Tait is simply superb behind the kit, effortless in her playing and having the absolute time of her life. Tait really is the groove and swing to these songs; her execution is on point.
‘No You Girls’ really has everyone bouncing, this energy is feeding Kapranos and you can see that the rain hasn’t dampened a single spirit here tonight. These first three songs have set up what is an incredible performance already. Full of life, energy and cheered on by a crowd that has come to be in full voice, you find yourself smiling without knowing it. This is the first time I have ever seem Franz Ferdinand live and they have already blown me away, and the night has just begun.
What has become instant in this setlist is that they are representing all five albums in the set. It’s a perfectly blended set with the debut and ‘The Human Fear’ being a little more dominantly featured in the set, but every album has its own shining moments represented.
The way in which the set has been structured is very clever and has a natural flow that keeps the energy high and everyone dancing and grooving away. The feeling here tonight is simply infectious. The pop overtones of these songs in the live environment, that danceable backbeat, the dirty bass tone that lays within it all and those lush groovy guitar parts are capped with occasionally quirky keyboard lines and melodies. Guitarist Dino Bardot is such a cool character to watch, his solos effortless and almost felt downplayed at times. His riffs and rhythms completely his own. For a band that at times has three guitar parts intertwining is so perfectly it is a true credit to the band for having the vision they doo in structuring these songs. When I make mention of the three guitar parts I must mention multi-instrumentalist Julian Corrie who really does deliver some serious magic to the bands sound. In refection as a band they are so precise and full, it’s something that I really didn’t appreciate until reflecting and writing this.
The 70’s glam rock inspired ‘Do You Want To’ is sensational live and keeps the energy high. By the time we reach one of my second favourite FF song ‘Evil Eye’ it has become apparent that the influences on this band are so broad, they really are the perfect melting pot of so many styles and genre’s. There’s the seventies glam I spoke of before with touches of new wave Blondie, a little punk attitude, a ton of pop sensibility and the maturity of fellow Glaswegians Simple Minds. Their fearless ability to blend all of this and create something that is uniquely Franz Ferdinand is simply stunning.
‘Love Illumination’ is such a great song live, and boy did The Botanical Gardens just rock this one, singing louder than before, dancing and grooving with so much energy. By the time we reached that opening, unmistakable opening riff of ‘Take Me Out’ (which happens to be my favourite Franz song). You realise just how timeless this song is, to think it is the song that introduced the band to Australia back in 2004, it’s not nostalgia it’s engrained in generations. The crowd tonight was made up of such a broad range of ages, and regardless of age everyone in the Royal Botanic gardens was now in full flight, full euphoria and full engagement.
At this very moment I was taken back to when I first heard Franz Ferdinand on the radio, back to a time where programmers dared to step outside of the realm of safe bet pop and Australian classic rock giving international bands that were a little to the left a chance to becoming household names, giving band a shot at success outside of their homegrown markets was such an exciting time. Breaking Franz Ferdinand in Australia really did lever on this song and inspired so many to follow their career for the last twenty-one years.
My favourite moment of the night didn’t happen until ‘Outsiders’, that funky slice of goodness that once again has the crowd singing along loud and proud. It’s so easy to get lost in this song and the performance it’s almost trance like inducing groove, it is just so much fun. But the moment that simply blew me away was the break down to drums at the end of the song turned into a Tait drum solo, but within that it involved all members of the band joining in and creating something so powerful and dynamic. It was so much fun to watch, there is a chemistry in this band that just leaps at you, and this put focus on that chemistry. What a way to end the set.
With the crowd chanting one more song and the dimmed stage lights refusing to die you always knew there would be an encore. As the chant grew, you noticed the rain again everything that had distracted you from it had stopped. In this time, I also took a good look around the gardens and fully grasped what a beautiful location this is. Apartment windows appeared as if lanterns in the trees, the city’s light pollution created a beautiful glow from all angles. Even more so it was the smiles on the faces of those around me that cemented the show we had seen so far, the love and the fun. The emotional connection of music and humans, just sensational.
It was the screams of joy as the band took to the stage again that refocused my attention. Kapranos once back in front of the microphone says to us “While on the way back to my dressing room I could hear someone say one more song, I hate to disappoint you; but we have four more songs for you is that OK” and the crowd erupted once again.
‘Audacious’ is the first encore and as with every song tonight it was a part of telling Franz Ferdinand’s story. As a band they are concise, their catalogue despite the musical twist and turns along the way really does play well within itself. There is nothing too left of centre or diverse, just songs that have this flow to them.
We end tonight with where we began, the first self-titled album and ‘This Fire’ was the perfect end to an incredible career retrospective.
Tonight, we sang, we danced, we got down and we became one with the soundtrack presented to us. Franz Ferdinand are a band that must be seen and experienced. In the rain tonight they were unstoppable, Melbourne you were unstoppable and I’m sure that Franz Ferdinand felt that, appreciated that and loved that. How it has taken me twenty-one years to see them live, I have no idea. Rest assured it won’t be twenty-one until I see them again.
Again, it’s a true credit to the staff and team behind these events that make them such a success. The care and attention to patrons was amazing and in conditions like these they all need to be praised for their effort.
Setlist : The Dark Of The Matinee, Night Or Day, No You Girls, Right Action, Build It Up, 40’, Do You Want To, Walk Away, Evil Eye, Black Eyelashes, Michael, Love Illumination, Take Me Out, Hooked, Outsiders.
Encore : Audacious, Darts Of Pleasure, Evil & A Heathen, This Fire.
A massive thank you to Linda Freedman, The Mushroom Group and Frontier Touring for the access.
All image credits Shot by Slaidins Photography
Franz Ferdiand Gallery
Comments are closed.