Happy co-incidences are great. Like when your brother tells you he’s got you a ticket for Franz Ferdinand, the band whose debut you played to death a while back. Then you find out that your current favourite band in the world, whose debut you’ve currently been playing to death, are supporting.

The Arcade Fire are a weird looking bunch. Their album’s called ‘Funeral,’ they’ve done a song for Six Feet Under, so it’s apt that their lead singer, Win Butler, looks like an undertaker and his wife, multi-instrumentalist and sometimes singer Regine, is like something out of a Gothic music box. On top of these two there’s a sideshow of two other multi-instrumentalists, who prove the bez-but-with-talent energy, bouncing round the stage, donning motorcycle helmets, whacking each other with drumsticks, etc.

They began with ‘Wake Up’, the first song of theirs I ever heard, and I got shivers. On the CD the mass of ‘ah’s that make up the chorus are beautiful, ethereal. Live, with every member singing at their capacity, it sounds like angels probably do on a drink-sodden work night-out. It’s loud, that’s the main thing that hits you, but despite the appearance of shouting, it’s beautiful and in tune. By the Lust For Life/ Motown style ending, I was shaking.

Unfortunately this was a shortened set, around eight songs, but every one of them great. They even gave ‘No Cars Go’, from their earlier EP, an outing. They finished up by segueing from a brilliant dancey ‘Neighbourhood 3: Power Out’ to a surging U2-when-they-were-good-only-better ‘Rebellion (Lies)’. By the end they were fucking around on stage, wrestling, throwing stuff about, reminding you that, despite all the funeral connections, their music is more uplifting than sad. The crowd, split between those who sang along and those who were probably wondering who the fuck they were watching, gave them a great round of applause. I hope they’ve won a few new fans – in an ideal world they’d be the biggest band on the planet, but unfortunately that’ll never be. They’re too great for that.

Any other band in any other location might worry about following that performance, but as the crowd started to swell with latecomers, and the Doctor Who theme started, it was clear that Franz Ferdinand - Edinburgh is always going to be a great match. This was a kind of homecoming, a chance to hear some of the new stuff, and to sing along and jump about to the golden oldies.

The great thing about Franz Ferdinand live is that they want to have a good time; that they’re not ashamed to look like they’re enjoying themselves; like they want to be there. So as they break into ‘Michael’ Alex starts off standing on the drum podium, then bounces down. Throughout the gig we get some banter, some gentle ripping off Bob, guitar poses like an Indie version of Keef and Ron. I’ve seen Franz Ferdinand once before, but now they seem even more confident, sure of themselves, and determined to put on a show.

I’m not going to pretend that I know all of the new songs, or even the order in which they played the old ones, but ‘The Fallen’ stood out from the rest of the new ones, featuring a shit-hot double-edged guitar riff, overshadowing even ‘Do You Want To’, which is an attempt to write a pure pop song that’ll get all the McFly lovers singing along. Of the old ones ‘Take Me Out’ is an obvious highlight, but ‘Jacqueline’ is always a favourite of mine. With ‘Matinee’, ‘Darts of Pleasure’, ‘Come On Home’ and ‘Tell Her Tonight’, you’re reminded that their debut doesn’t have one bad song on it. Only ‘Cheating On You’ was left out.

They finished their encore with ‘This Fire’. That song isn’t even a particular favourite of mine but live it becomes something else, driven on by Paul Thompson’s drumming. I’ve heard rumours that Thompson is switching to guitars but I hope they aren’t true, his drumming is shit-hot, and up there on a built-up podium he’s as much a focus as Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy and the quieter Bob Hardy.

I’ve liked them since the ‘Darts of Pleasure’ single, so despite the fact that I wasn’t there at the start, I was still pretty fast. I’m not one of those precious types, though. The same as with Arcade Fire, I want Franz Ferdinand to get as popular as possible. If only Alex would shack up with some Hollywood starlet they might get as big as Coldplay, and the world might have a huge band that doesn’t specialize in sad-sounding ballads (as good as they are at it).

What about Scarlett Johansson?

Iain Bahlaj lives in Fife, Scotland. His short stories have appeared in Front & Centre, Fife Fringe, Chapman, Pulp.net and The Macallan Shorts 3 and 5. His novel, 'Tilt' was published in 2003 (Pulp Books, London). The short story 'Sugar' is a prequel to 'Tilt.' Iain currently works as a night-shift shelf-stacker, while working on a novel about vampires, in this spare time. To visit Iain's showcase on this website, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.