Live Review: Franz Ferdinand gets Showbox jumping

Photo: Mark Von Holden/WireImage.com

Franz Ferdinand @ Showbox at the Market (8/9/12)

Franz Ferdinand wasted no time in getting the crowd jumping at Showbox at the Market Thursday night. They launched right into The Dark Of the Matinee off their self-titled debut, and from there the band and the crowd barely slowed down.

The Scottish band has been touring despite not having a new album since 2009’s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, taking the opportunity to show off a few new songs in anticipation of a release planned for later this year.

But in the meantime, they have three solid albums from which to play popular favorites and sprinkle the five new songs throughout. Right Thoughts! Right Words! Right Action! seemed to get the best response of the batch, as it fit in well with their other high-energy tunes.

Singer Alex Kapranos and guitarist Nick McCarthy played off each other, moving to the tip of the stage, on top of the monitors, and, in McCarthy’s case, right into the crowd.  McCarthy also did double-duty on the keyboards, and a highlight was Can’t Stop Feeling, which featured  a pulsing keyboard riff straight from Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. Sure enough, the band did a brief, mid-song cover of the disco classic.

Take Me Out and This Fire were highlights with massive audience participation. All four band members closed the final song Outsiders by beating away enthusiastically on Paul Thompson’s drum kit. Thompson took a quick trip into the audience as a crowd surfer as the rest of the band left the stage.

“Send him back up when you’re done with him,” called Krapanos.

Setlist:

The Dark Of the Matinee

No You Girls

Tell Her Tonight

Walk Away

Right Thoughts! Right Words! Right Action!

Do You Want To

Brief Encounters

Scarlet  and Blue

Michael

The Fallen

Universe Expanded

Can’t Stop Feeling

Take Me Out

Ulysses

Encore:

This Fire

Trees and Animals

Outsiders