NME Presents: Franz Ferdinand, This Fire – O2 Arena, London 2009

Glasgow’s art-damaged rock quartet Franz Ferdinand – named for the Austro-Hungarian Archduke whose murder sparked World War I – features bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson, and singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos. By summer 2002, they recorded an EP’s worth of material that they intended to release themselves, but word of mouth about the band spread and Franz Ferdinand signed to Domino in the summer of 2003. The group’s EP ‘Darts of Pleasure’, which led some to label Franz Ferdinand “the Scottish Interpol,” was released that autumn, and the band spent the rest of the year supporting groups such as Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. Franz Ferdinand’s second single, Take Me Out, arrived in early 2004. The single propelled them to greater popularity in the U.K., where it reached #3 in the singles chart and laid the groundwork for the band’s debut album. ‘Franz Ferdinand’ was released in February 2004 in the U.K. and a month later in the States. In 2005 they went on to score two Brit Awards, with NME nominating their debut as their Album of the Year. It has since gone on to sell approaching four million copies worldwide. Franz Ferdinand released their second album, ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’, in October 2005, entering the UK album charts at number one and the US charts at number eight. The band members began writing songs for their third album that year, but scrapped them for a fresh set of songs that they planned to make into a “dirty pop” concept album. Franz Ferdinand tried out a few producers to help them go in a more dance and pop-influenced direction before deciding on Dan Carey, who had worked with Kylie Minogue, CSS, Hot Chip, and Lilly Allen. In January 2009, the single ‘Ulysses’ arrived a week before the release of Franz Ferdinand’s third album, ‘Tonight: Franz Ferdinand’, which the band had started recording in Glasgow in the summer of