Franz Ferdinand
Hollywood Palladium
Thursday, August 27, 2009

Videos: YouTube Playlist • Photos: Flickr Set

A week ago today, I was in Los Angeles, roaming around in “the world’s largest independent record store,” Amoeba Music, sifting through vintage rock posters, walking among aisles of CDs and vinyl records… and brushing shoulders with director Michel Gondry.

Oh right, ’twas Hollywood.

Vasthy, Liz, Christina and I had just come from eating dinner at Hard Rock Cafe on Universal City Walk. At Amoeba, we were all exhausted but willed ourselves to get lost in the music – literally. I mean, it’s why we were all here. (And Michel Gondry? Turns out he was there for a performance at Amoeba. He plays the drums.)

Franz Ferdinand would be performing the following day at the Hollywood Palladium. This would make it my second time seeing the Scottish band live; my first Franz gig was only about five months ago in Tempe, Arizona. That experience remains as among the best and luckiest I’ve ever had: we scored killer barrier positions right up front, chatted with the band (with frontman Alex Kapranos and bass player Bob Hardy, twice), and made a bunch of new friends — especially the coincidental meeting with Tracy, the other Hawai‘i girl who was there. It was definitely a surprise to find out we had both come from the same island – heck, the same side of the island — to see the same band. How did we not know of each other earlier?

This time around, Tracy couldn’t join us, and neither could Aurora and Cris, two good friends I had made in Tempe and on the online forum for my other favorite band, Muse. I missed them and wished they could have joined us. There were others I’d be meeting up with, though, mostly from the Muse boards, including Lisa and Christina, two Musers I’d also met in Tempe.

The next day, around 10am, Christina and I arrived in line to find about 10 or 15 others already queued. The group at the front of the line were part of our Muser group — Caroline, who was numero uno, had been sitting there in her lawn chair since 4:45 am. She was with her sister, Jackie; a friend of Jackie’s; and Liz, another Muser. B, as we call her, also joined us. Ashley, also from the Muse forum, was in line earlier, but had taken off. Turned out she got in to a small radio-hosted acoustic performance with Alex and Nick McCarthy, the band’s other guitarist and keyboardist.

The front of the line.

For about nine hours, we took turns sitting in lawn chairs, underneath umbrellas, guzzling water, waiting for the doors to open at 7pm. The sun was a scorcher. On occasion, someone would cross the street to the Coffee Bean to fetch cups of ice cubes, or to the nearby Rite-Aid or Denny’s for chilly snacks and beverages. (At one point, Christina handed out extra popsicles to fellow fans in line.) We listened to music from my iPhone that was blasting out of Liz’s portable speakers, chatted with other people in line, and made signs to hold up during the show. Around 3pm, the building across the street with the Coffee Bean cast its long shadow over us, finally relieving us of the sun’s heat.

As the time to enter the venue got closer, a verbal ruckus formed at the front of the line. At this point, about ten people had trickled in and cut in the middle of our group. Christina got frustrated and spoke up. Two or three friends being let in front of us – okay. Ten? No way. A girl said she was in line at 7am, then left to go to work, where she had just come from. Of course, this didn’t make things fair for those who waited all day in the sun. Someone behind us used the perfect analogy, calling it “touching bases.” After security got involved and gave her the ultimatum of moving to the back of the line or receiving a ticket refund, she and most of her friends huffily made their way to the back of the line.

Finally, the time to enter the Palladium was coming close. Erin, her sister, and Lisa had all arrived from San Diego. Lisa’s friend, who she calls “Hobo,” had also arrived. Females made two security check lines and males formed one. I made my way into the venue after the security officer checked my large purse, which contained my copy of Alex’s book, Sound Bites; my camera; iPhone; and the origami star lei and greeting card Tracy and I made for the band.

The lei.

We scored barrier positions again, though our group was separated. In Tempe, I was in front of Nick. The coveted barrier spot for fans is usually between Nick and Alex. This time, I was on the other side, in front of Bob, along with Liz and B. The others had made their way to Nick’s side.

After two opening acts — local bands Neverever and The Blood Arm — we were ready for Franz Ferdinand. A skinny, flamboyant guy who had introduced The Blood Arm earlier came back onstage to introduce the headliner. Hilariously, he deemed Franz Ferdinand “the most evil band in the history of Scotland,” more evil than Satan; whereas earlier, he called The Blood Arm’s sound better than Jesus himself. (Uh yeah, talk about some high standards!) With that introduction, Franz Ferdinand came onstage and opened with “Bite Hard,” a slow starter with a punchy ending. One of my favorite songs, “The Dark of the Matinée,” was next, followed by “No You Girls.”

Everyone in our group got their signs out. Christina had the brilliant idea of each of us holding up individual signs that all read “Van Tango,” a b-side that has become a live rarity. (Wanting some Hawai‘i flavor to my sign, mine read, “Van Tango Mango,” while Lisa’s read, “Van Tango Dammit,” also my idea.) The plan was to hold up our signs during “No You Girls,” which always happens early on in the show, and they would play our request soon after. It worked. At least at that point, we thought it did. When Christina got a setlist later, “Van Tango” was already on there… right after “No You Girls.” Huh. Talk about coincidences. At least Nick was nice enough to dedicate it to our group.

I’d like to think Alex was trying to read my sign in this shot. At that point, I was the only one on the barrier holding a sign. It said, “You survived Green Day – now come to Hawai‘i”

“This Fire” came after “Van Tango.” It’s so weird how that song is now early in the setlist because for a long time, it was the very last song played in shows. Plus, when Franz first came to town a couple days before, the wildfires had started that same day. “This fire is out of control / We’re gonna burn this city, burn this city.” It’s all Franz Ferdinand’s fault! (Just kidding, guys.)

Not gonna do an entire play-by-play of the setlist… because I have a photo of Christina’s setlist!

For most of the show, I sang along to the words and bobbed my head to the beat. Along with b-side “Van Tango,” I was surprised they played “Darts of Pleasure,” their very first single that these days has also become a live rarity (we requested they play “Darts” via signage in Tempe); and “Auf Achse,” a deep cut from their debut album and one of the first Franz songs I remember liking.

One thing I did notice a few times during the show was Alex making a motion with his pointer finger across his neck — looked like he was telling someone off stage to stop something. What this something was, I had no clue. I didn’t hear any technical problems.

Here’s a favorite that’s become a Franz ritual: the drum circle at the end of “Outsiders”:

They ended the set with “Lucid Dreams.” That song alone was worth the trip there. In Tempe, the band had played up until the electronic outro was supposed to start, but some sort of technical glitch happened that (I’m guessing) prevented the sampler from triggering. So in Tempe, that epic dance outro was aborted. But this time… musical bliss. Fifteen minutes of it. Of course, I wasn’t gonna spend the entire time filming it — I had to relish it and dance along — but here are a couple of snippets of it (the second video is part of the electronic outro):

For the curious, here’s “Lucid Dreams” in full, from the iTunes festival in London, July 2009:

The downside to them ending with “Lucid Dreams” was that the band didn’t take a final bow; each band member left the stage, eventually leaving Paul Thomson banging on his drums at the end. After the concert ended on that note, we made our way out of the venue. Before leaving the GA floor, a girl who turned out to be Stephanie from the FFG flagged me down; she had recognized me from some photos taken in Tempe. We all made our way to the side of the venue, where about 40 other fans were waiting for a chance to meet the band. While we waited, Stephanie and I chatted for a bit. Turned out she was staying at the same hotel we were — a shame we didn’t know sooner! During the 90 minutes we spent waiting and talking with friends and other fans, people gradually dispersed. It was pretty clear they were not coming out to meet fans. Our group of friends gave up at 1 am and made our way back to the hotel. It was a bummer I couldn’t present each band member their lei and give them the card Tracy and I made, but I just think it was meant to happen at another time, preferably with Tracy, Aurora, and Cris there.

All in all, it was a fun experience. It certainly will not live up to Tempe — for me, the Tempe experience is difficult to top — but the crowd was pumped up, Franz Ferdinand delivered a strong performance, and we got lost in the music.