Recently embarking on their Greater Glasgow European Cultural Exchange Tour, Franz Ferdinand took their third date to Dundee’s newest live music venue: LiveHouse. Already hosting acts such as Mumford & Sons and Kaiser Chiefs this year, the sizeable venue is gaining a reputation for bringing some much needed vibrancy and variety to live music in the area. With the event being sold out, the queue was already snaking down the nearby streets by the time it got to doors, however, entry was swift, leaving punters plenty of time to hit the bar or check out the wide range of merchandise on offer.
Opening up on this tour were Home Counties who were bringing their multi-Korg experience to their largest audience yet. Their set was filled with delightfully frantic songs from both full length releases, sufficiently warming up the sold out audience for an energy packed evening.
Formed in Bristol, Home Counties‘ sound took the punchy dual vocals of The Tings Tings, the percussive latin-infused rhythms of Friendly Fires and combined these with the pounding electronics of LCD Soundsystem. There is no way you’d have got through their set without some toe-tapping action involved.
Some may have recognised track Uptight from gaining an illustrious spot on the EA Sports FC 25 soundtrack, however, it was newer track Humdrum which provided the stand out moment of their set.
After a punctual half hour changeover, it was time for the main event. Exploding on to the stage with The Dark of the Matinee, Dundee were fully under the Franz Ferdinand spell, with sharp-dressed Alex Kapranos commanding the packed out room from start to finish. The set spanned their career with newer songs such as Hooked having as much audience impact as their biggest hits of the past. Needless to say, Take Me Out still created the most eruptive moment of the night: a mob of Scottish joy bouncing in unison to a timeless anthem.
Seeing them evolve with the moving times from solely guitars to adding electronic elements, their sound still remains quintessentially their own and with newer additions of Scottish music scene stalwarts Audrey Tait (Hector Bizerk) on drums and Julian Corrie (Miaoux Miaoux) on keys and guitar, their live show continues to soar to a level no less than exceptional.
If Franz Ferdinand are not our greatest export from the guitar band boom of the 2000s, then surely Alex Kapranos is at least in the running for our most engaging and intriguing frontman.
Enjoy the full setlist below.