Venue:
Kentish Town Forum
Date: 08/09/2015
I have no idea what drew me to this mash-up between one band I knew little about and another I was largely ambivalent. Such is the draw of F.F.S. – Franz Ferdinand Sparks. The project intrigued me, but I had no idea how their album of literate bonkers pop was going grab me over the summer.
Fast forward to early autumn, some horrible news, a couple of beers and a stonking hot pork bap in the Southampton Arms up the road and I was ready for some escapism.
The support act, Pure Beauty, veered between some good grooves and anonymous noise. I’ve seen worse, but there was nothing to make me raid the merch desk. And then at 9pm FFS hit the stage with. Starting with ‘Johnny Delusional’ and ending with ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’, the intervening hour and forty minutes flew past as they delivered tracks from the album interspersed with hits from each band, deftly delivered and razor sharp. What’s more, is they really appeared to gel with Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos’ vocals complementing each other well. Ron Mael’s deadpan demeanour was matched by FF’s drummer and bassist. As a single band they either really got on well or were incredibly professional (or indeed both). There were no visible or audible seams detectable from my plot in front of the mixing desk and the sound was reasonable, though not hitting the quality of The Decemberists last time I was at The Forum.
I’m not sure if this collaboration has legs beyond a single album, but let us celebrate that they had the nerve to make it and even more to tour it. I was certainly dancing for the second time this year. I think I’m going soft. Great fun.
The audience:
It was busy, with a mix of ages, genders and facial hair. Phones were wafted, but any chatter wasn’t overly intrusive. The audience was largely good natured and entered into the event with enthusiasm although a couple next to me did exchange sharp words over something or other.
It made me think..
Bands playing mid sized venues should still employ a good light show. It does make a difference.
Glad to read that they pull it off. When I read about this project I was rather baffled as to why.
But they seem to have succeeded rather well and I’m pleased.
They were ace in Manchester – I’m much more a Sparks fan than Franz but together they’re something else – they also did 3 songs each of their respective bands – the Franz hits obviously went down a storm but I was blown away by the fact everyone seemed to know the words to No.1 Song in Heaven and the crowd response to when they played ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough..’ was one of the loudest and longest I’ve heard in all my years of gig going. Both bands brought out the best in each other – Franz benefiting from Sparks experience and off-kilter melodic sense and Sparks benefiting from having a punchy indie beat combo behind them instead of seasoned musos
It was interesting to see how they’ve ‘matured’ in the last few months. I’m a big Sparks fan and a medium FF one so the project has always made sense to me – it seems odd to read reports using the phrase “the unlikely pairing” which has cropped up in quite a few articles… actually, as a constant Sparks fan since the early days, it’s simply odd to see any of their projects written about in a daily newspaper at all, let alone all of them!
At the Troxy gig is June, about two weeks after the album came out, there seemed to be far more Sparks fans in the audience than FF ones but at the Forum, there seemed to be a far more even spread of S, FF & FFS fans. They would never have got away with the induced “Piss Off” chanting at the Troxy but it’s great fun now.
I’ll certainly be buying a ticket next time they’re in town and I do like the way they seem to try to add extra songs in the set although I must admit that “Sherlock Holmes” seemed a very very odd choice and is obscure even for a fan like me.
I think my only two criticisms of the evening were that This Town has been cut down so there’s less guitar posturing than in June (this is a rare opportunity to wig out with two guitars and they’ve dropped it) and those back lights – far too bright, from my (otherwise excellent spot pretty much in the centre of the dancefloor area) I missed a lot of what was going on because the lights were shining directly at us.
I went with a FF fan who doesn’t have the FFS album and his highlight was the drumming at the end of No1 Song In Heaven and he wants to see the band again too.
I’m struggling to grasp that it was 1h 40m, it certainly didn’t seem that long, but that would explain why I was home later than I normally am after a Sparks gig!
That support band was a bit odd weren’t they? A lot of Pigbag and a bit of Haircut 100 all delivered rather earnestly. Sparks (when they’re not supporting themselves) does have a history of odd support bands though. One of the Shepherds Bush Empire gigs in the 90’s I never did work out what was going on during the support and what about the Surf Rock band that did things like Anarchy In The UK they brought to the Southbank about 10 years ago?
I’m not too optimistic about them getting to Stockholm, so I was pleased to find this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm4WxgjvBa8
A complete concert filmed in Paris in June.
Interesting to read in the comments above about how the set has changed slightly as the tour has progressed.