Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand — four laid-back, beer-loving young Scots — are seriously in the running to be the "next big thing" of the new European indie scene (and beyond), and the March 12th show at the Rainbow Club in Milan confirmed it. Their music has no revolutionary ambitions whatsoever: their sole purpose is to entertain the crowd, and it must be said, they succeeded brilliantly. Picture a visual hybrid of Devo, Kraftwerk, Joy Division and Belle and Sebastian, accompanying the nervy, steady rhythms of the songs with robotic, epileptic jerks, in music that blends the best of both British new wave (new wave, above all XTC) and American new wave (Devo, Talking Heads) in a way that's as mysterious (how on earth do they do it?!) as it is effective, all seasoned with an unmistakably garage attitude.

The effect of this patchwork, even on paper, is undeniably engaging, and while one might wonder how long this phenomenon can last, it's impossible not to get swept up by their on stage energy. Their natural habitat is unquestionably the stage rather than the record: multimedia elements (amateur 1960s footage projected behind them), the rather cool stage presence of the two guitarists (and, in contrast, the rhythm section's total lack of stage presence), surefire choreographic touches, and bare-bones instrumentation for a largely guitar-driven power pop, with the addition of an irreversibly retro-sounding analog synth on a few tracks. What's more — and this is no small thing — the enthusiasm with which Franz Ferdinand tear through their repertoire is tangible and contagious: imagine, just to give an example, Interpol drunk at a 70s disco party.

In a set lasting just over an hour, the band ran through, without a moment's letup, every track from their self-titled debut plus a handful of b-sides taken from the successful EPs released toward the end of last year; the singles "Take me out" and "Darts of Pleasure" were met with particular enthusiasm from the crowd, but "Jacqueline", "Cheating on you" and "This fire" (which opened and closed the show, respectively) also undoubtedly gained something in their live renditions. It may be too early to speculate on Franz Ferdinand's future (given the recent glut of shooting stars catering to the MTV alternative generation), but the present is unquestionably, and deservedly, theirs: their "indie-pop blend" (one is almost tempted to think of Blur, another band of many references) seems, for now, to be working wonderfully. Let's hope this tasty concoction doesn't turn into a mess too soon.

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