15-04-2022: Franz Ferdinand - Afas Live, Amsterdam
Support: Pip Blom
On Monday I promised that I would write about Franz Ferdinand this week. Friday the 15th Franz Ferdinand played in Afas Live in Amsterdam. The week before I had been dubbing if I would go to the concert, Franz Ferdinand has been on my wish list forever. Over the years every time they came to the Netherlands they played at venues that are not very much reachable by car, think centre of Amsterdam, or the concert was sold out before I got a chance to get a ticket.
Then of course for two years there were no concerts at all due to a virus we all would like to forget, we can just pretend that it does not exist any more here. It did of course leave a major dent in the concert agenda. I could have also gone to Dool in Burgerweeshuis, but Franz Ferdinand kept creeping back into my mind.
My love for Franz Ferdinand started with Take Me Out. My parental home, was a farm on the outskirts of a town called Ens. While in town tv is connect with cable, on the farm we had a satellite dish at the top of our house. Which means we could watch a lot of international tv channels. One of them being MTV 2, which later became MTV Rocks. A lot of my musical influences came from there. The UK/indie rock that was played at MTV 2 became my greatest love, and you will see it's influence here on my blog. It has been a big part of my life.
Now back to Franz Ferdinand, I remember when ever Take Me Out would come on, the volume would go up to the max, either turned up by me or by my dad. It is that song that triggered me to by their debut album and when the second album came out, I got that one too. Then I forgot about them for a little bit, until No You Girls. And then I was like, yes damn this is good. And while going shopping for vinyl, a little while ago I found Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, and could not pass on the opportunity. So yeah I think that makes me a fan.
Last Friday was all I wanted it to be, the night started out with the support act which in this case was Pip Blom. A dutch bands who has been doing pretty well for themselves. I like their music, but I am not overly fond of Pip Bloms voice. I like the idea of their music, their beats, and guitar work are really great, it is just that I cannot get past the vocals. It just doesn't work for me.
After this warming up it was time for the main show, they started off with a kicker, No You Girls had the whole audience singing along and jumping up and down. And that is how it remained for almost the entire show, except for the couple of songs in the middle of the set that I (and the rest of the audience) weren't too familiar with.
The vibe of the audience was great and that made together with Franz Ferdinand rocking your socks off for an amazing night. The one thing I did noticed though is that the band did not consist of their original band members. For instance we had a beautiful lady playing the drums, and I think the keyboard player is also not part of the original band.
I am not so great at keeping up with band mechanics as I enjoy so many bands that it would be impossible for me to keep up with all of them. So I did a little research for the ones who like me also did not know about this, yes the original keyboard player/guitarist Nick McCarthy left the band in 2017 and was replaced by Julian Corrie, the drummer Paul Thomson left in 2021 and was replaced by Audrey Tait. These changes in no way influence the music. It still sounds the same as on their debut album of which they played at least 6 songs. I must say Julian is a real entertainer, such a fun character to watch on the stage.
This tour is in honour of their new greatest hits album Hits To The Head. Which contains all your favorite Franz Ferdinand songs as Take Me Out, This Fire, The Dark of the Matinée, Do You Want To, and No You Girls. I thought it was great that they played every favorite song of mine. They ended the set with This Fire, were Alex Kapranos the lead singer, had the entire audience sitting on their knees waiting for the moment to jump. While next to us there was also a mosh pit being created, also on the knees until it was time to jump.
All in all we had a great night, I am so incredibly happy that I went, and it was even more fun because I had some great company to go with. I hope you liked this first concert review, let me know in the comments if you were there or if you have seen Franz Ferdinand live somewhere.. I would love to know. Below some pictures from the show, and until the next gig! I promise you there will also be doing a couple of throwbacks to a couple I have seen in the last half year.. I hope you don't mind.
P.S. Did you find the flight case?
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