Franz Ferdinand LIVE @ Ibiza Rocks

For the penultimate gig of the summer at Ibiza Rocks we had the wonderful Franz Ferdinand. This summer has flown by, but Ibiza Rocks have saved some of the best bands till last this year. I’d never seen them live before, even though I like their music, and I’m really liking what I’ve heard from their recent fourth album ‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action’ that was released a couple of weeks ago after a four-year break since the last one. To coincide with the new album they’ve been playing a string of gigs and festivals recently, so have been getting in plenty of practise playing live.

The venue is packed and there’s a much larger Spanish contingent in the crowd than we’re used to seeing at Ibiza Rocks. My expectations are high and I’m pleased to see that the art-rockers have the words ‘Thoughts’, ‘Words’ and ‘Action’ displayed on their amp speakers. We’re all ready for some action.

As soon as they appear onstage, I know that we’re in for a good gig: when you have three guys fronting the stage wielding guitars and wearing black skinny jeans you know you’re in for a proper live band experience. And that’s exactly what we got. Opening with ‘No You Girls’, the songs kept coming thick and fast for the next 80 minutes, mixing old favourites with tracks from the new album, all of them sounding undeniably like Franz Ferdinand classics.

ibiza-rocks-2013-franz-ferdinand-Recent single ‘Right Action’ was followed by ‘Do You Want To’ and the crowd went wild, singing along at the end. Meanwhile onstage, Alex, Nick and Bob are feeding off the crowd’s energy as they strut around the stage and jump in the air. During ‘This Fire’ guitarist Nick goes out onto the roof of the exit tunnel to play, much to the delight of the crowd in front of him, and there’s a great moment during the opening notes of ‘Take Me Out’ where Alex and Nick are jumping up and down in synch next to each other. They are undoubtedly enjoying themselves playing live again.

At the end of the set Alex carefully lays down his guitar on the floor of the stage before he leaves, signalling that they’re coming back for an encore. The crowd cheers and guys at the front wave their shirts in the air, and it’s not long before they’re back, with Alex asking “Ibiza would you like to hear another song”. A silly question, but it gets more cheers.

Appropriately they start with ‘Jacqueline’, which includes the line “It’s always better on holiday” which obviously goes down well. They finish with ‘Outsiders’ with them all congregating around and playing rhythmically on Paul Thomson’s drum kit for about 2 minutes at the end. It doesn’t sound exciting when you try and convey it in words, but it really was when you experienced it live, and it was a great climax to a great gig. After thanking the crowd in Spanish the band go to the front of the stage, hold hands and take a bow. A touching end to a fantastic gig from a great live band, which was without a doubt, one of the highlights of the summer 2013 season.

Claire B of Ibiza Blog