FFS (aka, Franz Ferdinand and Sparks)

great Glastonbury set!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkCdHztozzE

Yeah they've been killing it at their performances -- there's a great set from Paris a couple of days before that floating around as well. If a tour doesn't happen here I will be so mightily pissed, I am waiting on an announcement like nothing else.

Also, extended interview with Billy Sloan:

http://t.co/sNs3fVODsQ

Russell Mael's voice has held up remarkably, 66 years old! wow

All that clean living!

American tour happening!

https://twitter.com/ffs_music/status/628617213952569344

Cannot wait.

Annnnd interviewed Russell tonight after interviewing Paul of FF last week. Story'll be in the SF Weekly on October 8.

As important as Sparks were to me in my teens and 20s, I haven't paid much attention for the past fifteen years (and I know next to nothing about Franz Ferdinand, but I'm really liking the new album.) They're playing here next month and I'm suffering what I call "Fear Of Missing Something." Haven't seen them since the '80s, but also have tentative plans to go out of town that weekend.

go go go go

I haven't paid much attention for the past fifteen years

You've missed one of their most fertile periods btw

I was about to say. And you really, really should go.

Yeah, maybe. I didn't really care for the recent stuff I did hear ("The Rhythm Thief" and "Dick Around" come to mind.) I did like their 2-man set at Coachella, and as I said, this new record really sounds like old times. But mostly I've just been digging into old country and rockabilly; I'm more into Sparkle Moore than Sparks these days.

Hey, nothing wrong with that at all! But think of it this way -- this is almost certainly the only time this combination is going to be touring America, and go for it for the crazy one-off it is.

Seeing them in Toronto on Wednesday - and arrived in the city to find it moved to a venue half the size originally booked. Boo for them, yay for me!

Here's a festival set I shan't be watching before the show: http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/festivals/festival-rock-en-seine/concerts-2015/franz-ferdinand-sparks-ffs-au-festival-rock-en-seine-225771

And here's my short interview with Russell and Paul

http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/franz-ferdinand-sparks-ffs/Content?oid=4136165

The show was fantastic btw - they really feel like a whole band, and Alex & Russell interact as co-frontmen throughout. If you have half an interest in either, I strongly recommend going.

First choice Ponderosa Stomp and second choice rockabilly fest road trip didn't work out for me, so I'm going to FFS tonight. Off to listen to "Take Me Out" to see if I even know it. I'm painfully unhip to Franz Ferdinand.

Fuck this tour is so good I command you to see them if there are any remaining dates in your city, most fun I've had at a show for a long time

Han agrees apparently

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/11954711_10152959856816875_17821622003459695_n.jpg?oh=326cf58f8e15d67e6b02ac8e7dc03a7a&oe=56899AF5

:-)

Bummed I opted out of seeing them in the end

i didn't get chance but kids spoke v highly

Yeah, this was so fun, I don't know how I was ever on the fence about going. I could have used a few more vintage Sparks songs, but fantastic night.

Caught the Boston show at the Orpheum and it was perfect.
Very smiley crowd. Everybody just seemed stoked. Loads of young people too. I would've thought even FF fans would skew much older.

Anyway. If you have the opportunity, do what everybody else in this thread is saying, and GO.

i was at that show too!

Did you notice all that smiliness too?
I hope I wasn't just imagining it. haha

Well last night in Oakland was the end of the tour and they confirmed it was the end of FFS -- at least for now but I think we have to treat it as the glorious one-off it was rather than something that'll happen again. Stellar show of course and it all ended after some appropriate farewell notes (San Francisco was where they finally got the ball formally rolling on this two years ago) with "Collaborations Don't Work."

yeah you know, I'm okay with that. This was great and this year felt kinda "special" in a way that is hard to replicate. I loved Grinderman (and that 2nd album tour was something else!) too but I was okay with Cave doing away with that quickly too.

but yeah an all-time concert for me

not to be a downer but how much has Sparks got left in 'em? they've been around since '68!

Russell's voice has held up amazingly well and FFS album was great and this tour felt pretty triumphant so seems like an odd time to ask that question.

that's why I'm asking. it's almost inhuman.

Ron just turned 70 a couple of months ago. I suspect they'll outlive us all.

Anyway, one last new FFS song, planned for the album but never completed.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/post/idsa.cecc4b7c-77d6-11e5-adf9-e48966e073bf

An acquaintance of mine I barely know (let alone knew she is into Sparks) took this at the show here and posted to her FB:

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/yodelagogo/ron.jpg

lol sorry hueg, that's a little scary!

But appropriate. Ron Mael, the great stone face.

btw, thanks to you and everyone else upthread for pulling my coat to get to this show. It really was memorable.

found a copy at the local shop that had been marked down 3 times. I guess I get it, unless you look at the tiny text on the sticker you'd have no idea who it was. anyway I'm spinning it now and it's so much better than I remembered, it's like everything they tried to be in the 80's. can already tell "Police Encounters" will be in my head for the next 3 weeks

this was such an amazing show, I miss live music

Yeah, still so glad they came through and ended the tour with us. What a blast it was, that was their summer/fall for sure.

Thanks for reminding me of this little gem. Now playing: "Collaborations Don't Work".

incredible they did manage to sneak in a "Dick Around"-like mini-opera in there after all

I was pleased, when I saw them, that they performed all the songs on their album (except the bonus tracks). Obviously, that's their body of work, but it was nice to see that they didn't just do a few songs from the record and then do a mixed greatest hits set, it spoke to their faith in the quality of the record.

well its not like those Yes/Styx or Sting/Peter Gabriel shows where you assume both fanbases know each others' material well, what makes this collaboration different and strange is that there doesn't really seem to be any overlap whatsoever between the two fanbases. that said every song on the record seems like it would go down well live

They snuck in a couple of each others' songs, to their mutual benefit -- "Take Me Out" sounded great but that version of "Number One Song In Heaven" is easily among the top two times I've seen that performed (and I've seen that done something like...seven, eight times, maybe more? I've lost count at this point with Sparks).

This also reminds me that the Sparks documentary by Edgar Wright gets its premiere this weekend via Sundance online, so.

I don't really know much about FF but they do seem like they would be a particularly good backing band for Sparks

okay now I'm on "The Gambler" and I have to say "Taste Of My Love" may not even have the worst lyrics on the album