Kapranos on the Roundhouse stage
"You're a quiet audience," says Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, addressing a packed Roundhouse on the sixth night of the iTunes Festival in Camden. Given the random mix of die-hard fans and casual visitors here tonight, for a few minutes perhaps he has a point. But after opening with Do You Want To, rolling through No You Girls and then playing This Fire at about 100 miles an hour, everyone starts paying attention.
They're the main act tonight, following support from Passion Pit, a tipped-by-everyone five-piece who have a lot in common with MGMT. Their complex sound creates a thick atmosphere, but unfortunately front man Michael Angelakos's high-pitched vocals tend to get buried under the layers of noise coming from the rest of the band. That could be the venue's fault though, so keep your eyes on them. If you like MGMT, that is.There's no doubt what the main event is tonight though. Franz have grown in confidence as a live outfit and play a really well-judged set, mixing new material with sure-fire winners like Take Me Out in front of a set of giant video screens. At times, the footage on these feels a lot like a James Bond title sequence, providing an exciting backdrop for a band fresh from the Other Stage at Glastonbury.Songs from the third album take on heaps more depth played live, and even though this Londonista has criticised the Roundhouse acoustics on occasion, tonight the band sounds tighter than the security at Michael Jackson's memorial service.The drawn out, dark, synth-laden noise at the end of Lucid Dreams signals an encore and demonstrates that there's far more to Franz than guitars and jerky hooks. And as a sea of arms waves in unison for final song Ulysses, it's clear this could be a high point of the festival.The iTunes Festival runs at the Roundhouse till the end of July. You can see the line up and win tickets online. Franz Ferdinand return to London later this year - tickets are still available for their late night show at the Brixton Academy on 24 October.
