August 17, 2026
One of the first concerts I went to after all the COVID-19 mess was the Pixies down at the South Side Ballroom in Dallas, Texas. I was fired up to see the Pixies, but before they came on some band that I had never heard of took the stage. Yea, I was totally clueless of this band, but it completely took over the show as if they were the headliners! This was the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, and they were amazing! Lead singer Alexander Kaprons’ stage presence and the band’s cool sound made me an instant fan! Apparently, I was one of the few who didn’t recognize the name though. One of my music buddies at work merely said, “Franz Ferdinand? Are they still around?” Okay, I was a bit late to the game concerning this band, but after a few hours of YouTube watching I put Franz Ferdinand on my concert watch list. So when I saw that they were coming to the Dallas, Texas House of Blues I was certainly going to put out an effort to be there, and here’s the review I posted for the concert.
FRANZ FERDINAND at THE HOUSE OF BLUES DALLAS, TEXAS
August 15, 2026
When I saw the band Franz Ferdinand as an opening act a few years ago I had never heard of them. After that one show though, I fell in love with their stage energy and promised myself that I’d go see them if they ever came back to Dallas. Well, Saturday night kept my promise when the band from Glasgow, Scottland returned to Dallas, and the line of faithful outside the House of Blues stretched out for blocks throughout downtown. This band has been cranking out the tunes since 2002 so there were a few grey hairs here and there, but most of the crowd looked as if they were barely old enough to hoist up the beer cans that they were holding. The same could be said about the opening act Sunday Mourners. For a little preconcert study, I checked them out on YouTube before the show, and they basically put me to sleep. However, all things are better live, and even though the band never cracked a smile, they sounded great on stage, and for an opening band they really got the crowd pumped up! I guess being the opening act is serious business. I just hoped the band finally cheered up a bit.
There were no issues with the lack of cherry smiles when Franz Ferdinand waltz out onto the stage! I had been fired up for this concert for a while now, and apparently, I wasn’t alone! The place exploded as the Scottland band tore into the song THE DARK OF THE MATINÉE. No one would have guessed that we had all just came out of 100-degree weather because as the band dove into NIGHT OF DAY, WALK AWAY, and the next song and next song the high energized vibe never faded, and the crowd just seemed to get more pumped up with every song! To be truthful, these were a bunch of pop dance songs, but with all the vitality flowing through the crowd I felt like I had just fallen into the middle of a death core metal show and nearly felt the urge to start a mosh pit!
What sold me on the band in the first place was the amount of energy that frontman Alex Kapranos fires out from the stage. Especially for a guy wearing a bowling shirt! As he jumped and kicked around the stage I nearly expected him to jump up in the air and do a split drop like David Lee Roth used to do back in his Van Halen days! For most songs Alex joined his bandmates, strumming on his guitar, but occasionally he’d dish the guitar and start bouncing around like he was about to do a stage dive! Regardless what song was blasting out from the stage, the guys (and girl) had everyone in the crowd jumping up and down with them. As the band ripped through their setlist some kid behind me felt the need to sing along with every word of every song, including the guitar parts. I was actually hearing him way more than I was hearing the guys on the stage and singing was NOT one of this guy’s talents. The dude carried the harmonious talent of a thunderstorm suffering from a hernia. This was the first concert where I have ever used earplugs in an attempt to drown out the guy behind me.
Looking down at the crowd Alex noticed a sign held by someone who was seeing the band for the first time and was requesting the song DARTS OF PLEASURE. “Sorry dear,” the Scotsman said. “It’s not on tonight’s setlist.” Then he glanced back to the band’s drummer Audrey Trait. The lady gave him a quick nod, and they launched into the fan’s request. Then he made his own request, “Put your cellphones in your pockets and just go crazy on this next song!” Indeed, everyone was more than happy to go a bit insane to the song TAKE ME OUT. I was hoping that the guy behind me would finally loose his voice but no such luck. As they closed out with THIS FIRE Alex told everyone to get down on the floor, and I could see folks around me mouthing, “If I go down, I may not get back up.” However, with all that energy firing from the stage during that song, I nearly felt like I could fall down into a split and jump up into a backflip! Okay, that wasn’t going to happen, but there’s no doubt that this is one of most energized bands I’ve seen all year, and I’m already looking forward to seeing them play next time!
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