Franz Ferdinand @Bowery Ballroom, June 13th

It's starting to become a ridiculous, sick and twisted game...take (insert name of favorite indie band here) and have them play a "secret" show at (insert name of small venue holding less than 1,000), and chances are, I'll be there. Last week, it was Interpol at the Bowery Ballroom; next week, I'm gonna have to find a way to get my paws on a White Stripes at Irving ticket; then the following week, I'll be at Wilco at Warsaw.

Well, tonight, it was Franz Ferdinand at the Bowery (again), and the bouncer waived me through without looking at my ID (again), and I ran into the usual suspects including the Music Sluts, Heather, Julie2, and Wawa (again), but this time I brought SoCo along for the ride.

Despite all the redundancy, you'd think I'd be bored (*yawn*) with a gig like tonight's Franz show, but they popped the cork on the champagne for this gig. This was my fourth time seeing these Scottish laddies, and certainly the most intimate time. In the past, I quite enjoyed the throbbing masses especially during their biggest hit, "Take Me Out," when you could feel the floor vibrate with all the bouncing, but tonight's venue lended itself quite nicely for the task at hand -- charm the crowd with reminders of past gems, while launching a good handful of new tunes that are forthcoming.

While we still went nuts for "Take Me Out," "Jacqueline," "Michael," "Walk Away," "40'" and so on, we also were able to appreciate the new stuff, which I quite liked. SoCo declared it a good heaping of Gary Numan, prolly due to the increased presence of keys/synth. One of the songs featured a thumping on the synth that reminded me of "Laura" by the Scissor Sisters.

The best part about seeing Franz at Bowery is being able to see the little teasing gestures done by lead singer, Alex Kapranos. Even his eyebrows would twitch in an enticing manner. He exhibits an effortless rakish charm that balances well with the straightforwardness of the bassist, Bob Hardy, who still has such a sweet babyface, even with the bearded scruff. I remember loving Hardy back when I saw them the first time at Roseland in September of 2004. He is all business up on stage, but his bass line is crucial to Franz's sound.

I was not so thrilled with the crowd this time (some people should be banned from 'dancing'), but you take what you can get. At some point, I'll have to draw the line and just say no to yet another secret show, but you can't really take heroin and put it in front of the junkie and expect him to say no thanks, now can you...

(Another bunch of scalawags from Scotland)