Thursday, April 2, 2009

Franz Ferdinand @ The Commodore Ballroom


It was raining in Vancouver on December 9th as I approached the entrance of the Commodore Ballroom. While fumbling around for my contact number, Bob Hardy (Bassist for Franz Ferdinand) arrived and buzzed up.  Announcing "Franz Ferdinand" when asked who he was with, I wasted no time riding his coat tail up the stairs where the sound check was under way.  A few journalists were scattered around the fringes of the dance floor striving to be simultaneously visible and out of the way.  I was one of 5 or 6 press teams patiently waiting for their 15 minutes with members of Franz Ferdinand; a feeling of every man for himself crept over the room as the sound check had already run over by 20 minutes.

I watched on with envy as the "24" team fitted singer Alex Kapranos with a wireless LAV and set up their three point lighting kit. Damn:  wouldn't it be nice to be working with more than a shot-gun mic and a bounce sheet (to be held by my future sister-in-law, Jana Morton).  One day.  "What I lack in gear, I make up for in interview prep and charisma" I told myself over and over again as we checked our lighting and shot.  Finally, it was our turn with Alex and, as luck would have it, Paul Thomson (drummer) arrived just in time to join us.

Off to a running start, I ask a question in earnest which made them laugh.  Oh well, you can't script an organic dialogue, so I took that energy and ran with it.  Kapranos is a seasoned pro in an interview.  I knew this before hand, having watched many interviews online, but I was not prepared for him to literally grab the mic and pass it back and forth between myself, Paul and he.  "Seems like you're doing my job for me" I jabbed, and he handed back my cherished weapon of mass destruction.  I had control once more.  From then on the interview flowed in a natural, dialogic way: my initial nerves gone, candid responses... the way an interview aught to be.  Until I was distracted by their tour manager Rebecca standing behind my DOP, Patrick Henry, giving me the "wrap it up" hand motion.  Unfortunately this ensued for my final two questions and left a sour taste in  my mouth.  But it's a small thing to fret, having just completed my biggest interview at that time.  So, shaking off the bad vibes, I headed home to change into my favorite pair of electric blue shiny tights and prepared to dance!!

And finally.. show time.  The opening act, Nardwuar and The Evaporators, treated the audience to an unforgettable performance.  It was not for their music that they will be remembered, but rather the head to toe spandex outfits (at least I was not alone) and partial nudity.  Quite the dichotomy.  That's all I can say about that, except that I had fun.

I watched from backstage right as Franz took the stage and commanded the audience with little effort... we were ripe for the taking after the spandex experience.  My first time seeing Franz live, I was pleased to enjoy a group of musicians who clearly knew what they were doing.  Ironically this would also become my single criticism as the set went on: the lack of spontaneity and liveness that comes out of the occasional fuck up or jab at another band member.  That was, until Kapranos began crowd surfing while playing his guitar! And just like that, they had me once more.  I rocked hard to their new tracks from Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, particularly Ulysses.  Closing their final encore with "This Fire" they left us all aflame. 

I tried to get backstage post show. HA!  Fucking forget about it.  Live Nation is as tight as they come.  Not to mention Rebecca with her iron fist refused to sign my performer releases.  Ah well, you can't win em all.  I did get a great interview and saw a kick ass show.  At the end of the day, that's all that matters.  So please enjoy!

Set List

1. Bite Hard
2. Michael
3. Matinee
4. Live Alone
5. Walk Away
6. Do You Want To?
7. Take Me Out
8.Ulysses
9.40'
10. What She Came For


11. Turn It On
12. Fallen
13. Outsiders
14. This Fire


No comments: