Franz Ferdinand with support from The Fiery Furnaces
& Sons & Daughters Manchester Academy 1 30/04/04.

The alluring alt rock Glaswegian quartet Son & Daughters swooned into Manchester and picked up a few more fans, with their neat mix of male Proclaimers and Jagger style vocals of Scot Patterson and the Patti Smith meets Tori Amos singing of Adele Bethel against a back drop of Ryan Adams mixed with Johny Cash instrumentals. The melodic and meandering ‘Broken Bones’ got the crowd on their side early and Adele’s engaging vocals in ‘La Lune’ saw the first dancing of the evening in the pit.

Five minutes ahead of schedule The Fiery Furnaces bounded on to stage led by the sincere Eleanor Friederberger with the enthusiasm that a chicken commonly possesses at this time of the year. Opening with the captivating ‘I Lost My Dog But Now He Is Found’ she kept the crowd captivated with her narrative style, as she told us of her quest for religious enlightenment with her Patti Smith singing at the speed of Tori Amos vocals. Things slowed down with another non album narrative track ‘Broke Mind’ fuelled by brother Matt’s powerful organs lifting the track from the mournful category the hand clappingly captivating.

It was during ‘South Is Only A home’ the first track they utilized from debut album ‘Gallowbirds Bark’ that the unfortunate technical troubles kicked in that were to plague the otherwise intriguing set, in which

they customarily shortened most of their tracks to display more of their already vast repertoire. The two mesmerizing and melodious singles played in succession; ‘Crystal Clear’ and ‘Tropical Iceland’ were the most jive friendly and were bound to find favour tonight. However, the technical difficulties were exacerbated during the most underrated track on the album ‘Inca Rag Name Game’, where Matt joins in the vocal duties to add his laid back folk mingled with children’s entertainer style to the variety that The Fiery Furnaces offer. However, tonight his vocals were not clear and it sounded more like an UNKLE remix of the track. There will certainly be better nights and plenty of them for The Furnaces and the quirkiness and enthusiasm were still there for all to see.

The entrance of Franz Ferdinand instigated some vigorous gyrating inline with their aim for making music; such frivolous dancing since Grease was first released. ‘Tell Her Tonight’ featured early on to promote this and everyone seemed to be having fun. Therefore, is their much point in my denunciating the bandwagon jumping shallow nature of their tunes that is seeing them hailed as this years the Darkness in terms of hype. If the kids are having fun then that is all that matters eh? Whether this brand of Art pop will grate away at the tolerance of many music lovers and will be rendered as another embarrassing fad, is yet to be seen? The quirky Interpol meets The Doors instrumentals the gregarious Glaswegians fronted by Alex Kopranos worked their way through their self titled album, building up to crowd favourites ‘40’, ‘Michael’ as well as the simplistic and catchy ‘Darts Of Pleasure’. The gig was indeed a success if the number of sweaty and smiling faces making their way towards the exit is anything to go by.

www.franzferdinand.co.uk

David Adair