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TORONTO - The Scottish pop-rockers that make up Franz Ferdinand say they started the band simply to "make girls dance," something they struggled to do during their stop at Ricoh Coliseum Tuesday night.
Perhaps the trendy four were victims of their venue -- a building that can't shake its ice-rink-by-day ghosts, no matter how elaborate the lighting and stage production. With a capacity of about 8,100 people, and a turnout of about half that, Ricoh Coliseum just felt hollow.
Despite their best efforts, Franz Ferdinand -- lead vocalist/guitarist Alex Kapranos, guitarist/vocalist Nick McCarthy, bassist Bob Hardy and drummer Paul Thomson -- clearly had trouble filling the space.
Opening without a bang with Jacqueline and Come On Home, two songs from their first, self-titled album, the foursome were surprisingly tight, even though a couple of them admitted they had learned to play their instruments only when they started the group just two years ago.
They won a better response to Do You Want To, the first off their recently-released sophomore effort, You Could Have It So Much Better.
Still, there wasn't much dancing among the university crowd.
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You couldn't help but feel sorry for the nerdy mop-tops -- not at all the rock stars they're hyped to be. Think The Monkees meet Modest Mouse.
It's not that they sounded bad -- their bouncing brand of Brit-pop, with its catchy hooks and galloping basslines was bang-on. Fun and danceable, for sure, but just missing something. Despite a strong dynamic amongst the two frontmen, there were no definable moments, and after a while, it all started to sound the same.
But the Franz guys did seem to be enjoying themselves.
"I always like coming to Canada," said McCarthy, during one of only a few short moments where any of the band members actually spoke. "It feels like Canada is the Scotland of North America. And that's a good thing."
The other noteworthy moment came when the band's "best friend in the world," Andy Knowles (who also plays with Kapranos' girlfriend, Eleanor Friedberger, in the alt-rock collective, Fiery Furnaces), made an appearance on drums during Walk Away, while Thomson moved to guitar. The band dedicated their huge breakthrough hit, Take Me Out, to Knowles, because they played their "first-ever concert in his girlfriend's bedroom and he said he wanted to join the band because this is his favourite song in the world."
A chunk of the audience took the end of Take Me Out as their cue to exit.
The highlight of the brief show (just over an hour) came during the encore, when six musicians, three on the single drumset, banged out This Fire. It was a strong, scrappy performance that celebrated the foursome's true Scottish grit, and finally got the crowd hustling and cheering with gratitude. Sadly, that might have been because it was the final song of the night.
SET LIST
Jacqueline
Come On Home
Do You Want To
What You Meant
The Dark Of The Matinee
I'm Your Villain
Michael
Walk Away
Take Me Out
The Fallen
You're The Reason I'm Leaving
40'
Darts Of Pleasure
Encore:
This Boy
Evil And A Heathen
Outsiders
This Fire