Franz Ferdinand at The Midland Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-04-03)

FRANZ FERDINAND TOUR DATES

Our only ‘fear’ was a fear of missing this show!

One of our favorites, the veteran Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand has returned with a brand-new studio album The Human Fear, and lead single, “Audacious” (the album released at the beginning of the year via Domino Records) and are out on another worldwide tour in support and stopped by the Midland Theatre in downtown Kansas City.

The evening began with a short but potent set from new-ish band Telescreens, who formed in 2016 and are NYC-based, but have only recently been making wider waves. The band has a couple of recent releases under their belt (2023’s “Stare Wide” EP and last year’s album, ‘7”) and a buzzing single called ”Phone Booth.”

Their sound is self-described as “carefully crafting a narrative & new sound nostalgic of old rock and roll while maintaining a modern approach to sonics,” but it also definitely has a punk/garage edge too.

Singer/guitarist Jackson Hamm is the type that respectfully won’t take ‘no’ for an answer in terms of working the crowd hard enough, that there is really no other choice except to be on board with them. Hamm gives enough of his all during a performance, that his guitar strings were down to only two early on, and he did a fair amount of singing and talking directly to the audience, away from the mic.

The loud foursome (Hamm, keyboardist Josiah Valerius, bassist/keyboardist Austin Brenner and drummer Oliver Graf) exude an urgency and immediacy not seen enough in most newer bands and is a compelling stage presence too, all of which that ensures we’ll likely see them live again soon.

When Franz Ferdinand is playing in town, you know you can look forward to an upbeat, life-affirming good time with some of the most clap-along songs in current alternative pop rock.

We’ve loved them every time we caught them live, including their last trek which celebrated their greatest hits, and a collaboration with the eclectic band Sparks, which made us appreciate both bands together and separately, even more.

Their ninety-minute set began cheekily with a taped intro of “The Naked Gun Theme” (we’re not sure what to think about that upcoming Liam Neeson reboot yet) and immediately launched into “The Doctor” from the new record.

As usual, singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos looked dapper, dressed in a wool jacket (which became too hot for him too quickly) shiny black loafers, and a pair of bright red socks. 2009’s “No You Girls” got the crowd moving in place and “Night or Day” was dedicated to local public radio station 90.9FM, where they did an on-air session, the day before.

Older hits like “The Dark of the Matinee” and “Do You Want To” got predictably loud responses, but so did a lot of the new songs like the riffs on their newest single, “Audacious” and the flourish of Greek rembetiko on the new “Black Eyelashes”, which of course, traces to Kapranos’ own heritage and is different-sounding than anything we’ve heard before from the band.

Kapranos asked the audience to travel conceptually back to a time, to a time before mobile phones, and pleaded as a favor to him, to simply live in the moment and take in the experience of their biggest hit, “Take Me Out” from when it was written (in times before cell phones) and most obliged, choosing to clap and jump along instead of taking a shaky bad phone video.

The new “Hooked” had a great…err, hook to the chorus and the main set would end with 2005’s “Outsiders” and Kapranos introspectively singing, “The only difference is what might be, is now what might have been”.

The encore started with the earlier “40’” about metaphorically standing on a cliff of that height and contemplating results of a possible jump…which also seems to tie into the exhilaration and dread of fear, as on the new record. “Build It Up” did exactly just that, and increased momentum was at a high for the night-closing, “This Fire”, with the stage bathed in red lightning and the crowd jumping, dancing and clapping along.

Almost two-and-a-half decades later, their fire is still out of control and Franz Ferdinand is always a band we’ll want to see live, whenever they play close by – our only fear will be missing out.

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