Friday, 10 January 2025

Franz Ferdinand - Pryzm, Kingston - 9th January 2025

I've become quite a fan of Banquet Record's album release gigs at Pryzm since my first one to see Wet Leg.

When I saw that Franz Ferdinand were playing one to support the release of their latest album, The Human Fear, I hurriedly joined the scramble for a CD and ticket deal and managed to get one for the later of the two sets.

Lauren and I had seen Franz Ferdinand 15 years ago (wow, really!) at the O2 Academy in Bournemouth and my abiding memory was of a great gig, with an encore that never seemed to end!

It was a very cold evening as I set out for Kingston and I joined the queue for about 20 minutes while the early set crowd exited and then we made our way into the welcoming warmth of Pryzm, a nightclub/disco most of the time, except when hosting Banquet's frequent mini-gigs.

I dropped my essential coat in the cloakroom (I noticed a fair number of people in the gig still wearing heavy coats throughout!) and made my way upstairs.

As there were relatively few people in by this time, I decided to go to one of the areas to the side of the stage. The view from the left wasn't great, but looked better, when I looked across, from the other side, so I made my way there.

I found a spot directly behind the sound engineer's desk, which was an interesting place to be, with a decently unobstructed view of the stage from the side, although, sadly, the drummer was hidden by equipment - I could just make out the front of the drum kit.

Over the stage in lights were the words "Franz Ferdinand" and two large screens to either side showed the onstage action in black and white throughout.

The band came on around 9:30 to the strains of the Police Squad theme tune (I'm pretty sure it was that, anyway) and loud cheers and applause from the crowd.

Usually with these mini-gigs you get nearly all new tracks (the aim is, of course, to introduce the audience to the new album) perhaps spiced up with an old favourite or two.

So, it was no great surprise that they opened with the first track (and first single) from the new album, "Audacious".

I'll be honest, I'd only ever heard the chorus of this song and I wasn't that keen, but the rest of the song has a strong tempo and I enjoyed it far more than I expected.

They followed that up with another good track from the album, "The Doctor".

It was, though, a real pleasure when they played "Darts of Pleasure" next and it definitely generated an increase in the crowd's enthusiasm, although the first two songs had been loudly applauded.

A track from the new album was played next, "Bar Lonely", which I enjoyed and seemed to go down well, but then the familiar intro to "No You Girls" (one of my favourites) started. The crowd really liked that and the excitement ratcheted up a notch.

The playing was as good as I'd rememebered from before, punchy and up tempo guitar indy rock and they sounded great.

Alex was energetic on stage, while the rest of the band played their part. From where I was the drumming was especially clear and really drove the performance - Interestingly a young woman, Audrey Tait, replaced the band's original drummer, who'd left a year or two before, but any fears that a replacement wouldn't be as good were soundly dispelled, the drumming was a highlight!

Other tracks from the album followed and I'm looking forward to hearing them in recorded form now (I'm writing this before my copy of the CD, released today, arrives!), along with, possibly their best known track "Take Me Out", which was brilliantly performed and bought the house down.

At one point, Alex said "We played the next song on the first set, let's play something else" and someone shouted "Michael" from the crowd, which was supported by others (myself included) and so that go played, seemingly spontaneously, but I did wonder if the suggester was a plant - Maybe I'm just cynical - It was a good track to play, though. ("Love Illumination" was the only song from the earlier, shorter, set that wasn't played, so I guess that was it).

After a couple more album tracks, Alex told us they were going to dispense with the usual leaving and coming back for an encore and did we want another song - Of course, the response was positive.

He then asked if we wanted "Matinee" or "This Fire" - After a bit of pantomime of getting the crowd to cheer for each song (of course, the cheer was from everyone for both!) they finished by playing both old favourites, rounding out with "This Fire" (the lyrics of which seemed oddly relevant as the news was full of the LA wildfires that day!).

I'd come expecting mostly new stuff, but hoping seeing them a second time wouldn't taint my very positive memories of the first time I saw them.

With a set packed with old favourites as well as great sounding new tracks and a performance packed with energy and power, I came away even more enthusiastic about Franz Ferdinand than ever and even more convinced that they're one of the best bands I've seen live.

What a great start to my musical 2025! If you can, go see them soon!

Setlist:
Audacious (New Album)
The Doctor (New Album)
Darts of Pleasure
Bar Lonely (New Album)
No You Girls
Night or Day (New Album)
Take Me Out
Do You Want To
Build It Up (New Album)
Michael (Audience request)
The Birds (New Album)
Hooked (New Album)
The Dark of the Matinée
This Fire