live music

Editor's rating

Venue: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Gig played: 9 March 2009

With their back catalogue now three albums deep, you might expect Scottish art-rockers Franz Ferdinand to have room for surprises in their set.

They've certainly had no trouble filling London's Hammersmith Apollo and tonight's show is a crowd-pleasing, consistently upbeat swagger through 15 career highlights.

However, despite kicking off with favourite 'The Dark Of The Matinée', the set doesn't really ignite until a third of the way through, during the switchback tempo changes of 'Take Me Out', which the four-piece still play with plenty of relish.

By this time, lead singer Alex Kapranos's white jacket has been discarded, and both he and guitarist Nick McCarthy are pogoing confidently with their instruments.

McCarthy is by far the busiest man onstage, darting between his keyboard and rhythm guitar while supplying backing vocals and handclaps.

Of the material from recent disc Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, only 'Ulysses' is familiar enough to fans to inspire the same sing-alongs as their early hits.

'Do You Want To' and 'Michael' get particularly enthusiastic Pavlovian responses, and '40' is an unexpected highlight.

Meanwhile, Kapranos's stunts include plenty of windmill guitar and playing his instrument behind his head, but his antics are poor cousins of their originators Pete Townsend and Jimi Hendrix.

A roadie joins in the impressive collective drumming ritual during an extended take on 'Lucid Dreams', but even this seems some way off spontaneous.

And, tellingly, 'This Fire' is far from being "out of control". An enjoyable show, but one lacking in any real sense of rock'n'roll danger or risk-taking.

Jon Lusk