You Couldn't Have It Any Better

There aren't many bands that I would drive two hours to see, especially on a work night. In 2002, I drove to Portland from Eugene to see Paul McCartney on his solo US tour, but he's a legend. He was worth the trip.

So is Franz Ferdinand. The band, not the dead archduke.

The Scottish (what else?) band's concert Wednesday night at the Ogden Theatre in Denver was the best concert I've been to. Better than Sir Elton who I just saw a few weeks ago. Better than the Smashing Pumpkins jamming at the Richmond Coliseum. Better than front row center at the Counting Crows at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Franz Ferdinand just rocked, and they looked good doing it.

I don't know exactly why I enjoyed the concert so much. Maybe it's because I like all the songs of the band's three albums, so there was no chance of a bad set list. Maybe it's because I had the perfect seat directly in front of the stage, but one level up so as to be above the bulk of the crowd instead of surrounded by it. Maybe it's just because the band seemed like they were having fun, so I had fun, too.

Lead singer Alex Kapranos danced and jumped around in shiny red shoes while I tapped my dark green Doc Martens, my concert footwear of choice. Steel toes don't matter if they're stepped on. And my Docs look cool.

The evening started off on the right note when I got off work early enough to head to Denver to grab some dinner at a hip brewpub and still get to the theatre in time to snag prime seats. The opening band were the entertaining Canadian goofballs "Born Ruffians". Though I'd never heard of them, they were a fun start to the night. The lead singer moved like Buddy Holly, and the bassist was dressed like a lumberjack, but I particularly enjoyed watching the drummer Ahmed Gallab. He had great stage presence as he twirled his sticks.

Turns out the drummer was a new addition to the band, who had just joined for the tour. Good timing!

But the Canadians were no match for Franz Ferdinand. They kept the crowd going with upbeat songs and matching background lights on their slick stage set. They chose the perfect starting song, "Jacqueline", with the lyrics I particularly agree with: "It's always better on holiday, that's why we only work when we need the money." From there, they moved on to fun songs from their new album--"Bite Hard" was particularly good live--as well as my favorite song from their first album "The Dark of the Matinee." They played a good mix from all the albums and changed up some of the songs just enough to keep it interesting. "40 feet", a short song from their first album, became an Event.

They even played the version of "Lucid Dreams" with my name in it. I gave them a shout when they mentioned me.

At one point all the band members played on the drum set together. It both looked and sounded really cool... and then they threw out the drumsticks to the audience, which was a fun ending.

I tried to find good concert footage of Franz Ferdinand on YouTube to link to this blog, but most of the video and sound quality on there is really poor. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that these guys put on a great show and are a blast to listen to.

You Tube did have some spliced together footage of "Doctor Who" set to Franz Ferdinand songs, such as "I'm Your Villain" showing images of ultra-bad guy The Master and "This Fire" with clips from the episode set around the explosive eruption of Pompeii. I'm enough of a geek to find this amusing, especially since David Tennant (the current Doctor) is an attractive Scotsman as well.

The concert left me still in a good mood the next morning. I walked to work, cranked up Franz Ferdinand on my I-pod and sang along with a smile.