A couple weeks back Daigle, Jill & I hit up HOB Dallas for some Scottish indie-rock stylings from the great Franz Ferdinand and I have to say it was some pretty impressive stuff. I had missed them on their previous trips to Dallas, most recently because I didn’t want to bother going to Nokia. Nokia just seems like a terrible place to see a band like this. Fortunately, on this tour they were hitting the House of Blues in Dallas which, while certainly not my favorite venue, is at least a pretty solid place to see some rock and roll, and they brought it big time.

First up when we arrived was Born Ruffians, who I had heard a bit about here and there, and was looking forward to seeing. They were running the sets extremely early so we pretty much caught the last two songs of their set, but they were really good and I would really like to see them again based on the limited live exposure and the songs I have heard here and there. They had good energy and a good sound, would certainly be worth showing up early for.

As they were playing you could see a giant vertical dance floor looking thing (for lack of a better term) behind them with drapes on various objects around the stage. We come to find out that this is FF’s gigantor projection backdrop and the drapes were all over their instruments.

As they came out on stage we noticed that Nick was on crutches (Alex said he was injured), and he played the entire show basically from a stool they had set up in front of his keyboard, though he did play guitar’s/etc/everything from that spot. I think the end result was less crazy jumping (or just Alex doing it the whole time) but it really didn’t detract from the rock or the greatness of the show.

These guys were pretty awesome, they tore through a great deal of the new material as well as a plethora of classics from the first two albums, and it all melded together into a great dance-rock out. Everyone in the crowd was going pretty nuts and all of the rocking out and posing by Kapranos certainly just added fuel to the fire. The sound was pretty amazing and spot on and they certainly delivered in terms of just showmanship and energy and technical ability as well as anyone could possibly hope for. Maybe there wasn’t as much synchronized/dueling jumping around with Nick as there might normally be, but as I said the injury really didn’t detract from the show much if at all, because they still rocked faces off.

These are one of those bands that is probably well beyond being edgy or fresh or new due to their popularity, but they are also a band that has some really great songs and can really put on a great live show. The new material fits right in with the classics and there really is not a down moment in the show, they just keep hitting it with the energy high and everyone going crazy. I really recommend checking them out if you have not seen them before because again, despite their being pretty popular, they are still into it and having fun and bringing some serious rock unlike some bands I know. I think if you like any or all of their albums you won’t really be disappointed with the show, it is good stuff.

Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls (Live) – Original From Tonight:Franz Ferdinand

1234...141516►