If you even spend only one night in New York City, you would be hard pressed not to have the option to see at least one great band. After doing a bit of searching for a good NYC gig guide (I recommend www.ohmyrockness.com) I found that No Age were doing a run of shows across the few days I was in town. Greenwich seemed as good a place as any to see a gig, so after landing earlier that day, I took my jet lagged self to the Subway and down to Bleecker St.

Le Poisson Rouge itself is a great venue, a basement bandroom with a separate front bar where drinks were had waiting for the first band, Silk Flowers, to take the stage around 11pm. The three band members began hunched over keyboards and sequencers. Because of this I assumed Animal Collective would be a musical touch point, and musically they were. However they were let down by deep vocals that came across as forced. Some use of the real drums setup on stage provided something different to watch but I was glad when their short set was over.

Next up were Woods. Opening with some feedback and effect modulation, I was pleasantly surprised when the trio suddenly lurched into the first of many shimmering indie folk numbers. Plenty of ride cymbal, chorus drenched guitar and the singers high register vocals combined perfectly and I found myself wishing I knew the songs so that I would be able to sing along. I highly recommend you head to http://www.myspace.com/woodsfamilyband or even better, fly wherever they are and see them live.

After midnight, No Age eventually got up onstage, apologizing to the crowd for keeping them out so late on a school night. The setlist was quite similar to their recent Australian visit, opening with Teen Creeps after setting the mood with a rumbling sample, before the wiry lead riff sparked an instant mosh pit. The set was non stop energy from the duo, doing away with the atmospheric numbers that appear on their albums, instead keeping the crowd moving, with tracks from most recent album Nouns receiving the biggest response. A few new songs were also aired, which gives hope of a new record being in the works. After around 30 minutes they left the stage, but a huge call for an encore saw them come back and rip through two more songs. Here’s hoping for another Australian tour soon.

Franz Ferdinand w/ Music Go Music - O2 Brixton Academy, London

Brixton Academy is one of those venues where bands film their live DVD’s. I mean, it really is beautiful. Think of it like the Forum Melbourne, except with traditional English architecture surrounding the massive stage and sprawling GA section. As a matter of fact, Franz Ferdinand themselves have released a DVD featuring an entire Brixton Academy gig dating from 2004. So I thought maybe there would be a sense of familiarity at the show, however that never even registered as I was constantly being blown away either by bands, DJs, venue or Carlsberg. Actually, on that note, drinks were comparitively cheap to Australia, our exchange rate strength meaning I was downing pints for around AU$7

The show had been billed as a ‘Late Show’, with Franz starting at midnight. The support came from both the band Music Go Music, and a variety of DJs, however they were never announced so I’ll be damned if I know who was making me dance so much.

Music Go Music started their set with a rather strange, instrumental, power metal sounding, interpretation of ‘Hall of the Mountain King’. Thankfully, their female lead singer soon joined the stage in a Blasko-esque cute dress and the band lurched forward into their disco rock, propelled by an extremely tight rhythm section. Her huge voice kept the audience captivated throughout an otherwise fairly pedestrian set. Hell, she even had a costume change.

Next up was another DJ, who had the unenviable task of warming the now slightly tipsy crowd up for the headliners. Franz Ferdinand draw quite a varied crowd as they blur the lines between dance, rock and guitar driven pop, and so the warm up music followed suit, crossing genres and inspiring some great singalongs and frenetic dancing. Finishing up with a combination of Rage Against The Machine, Kanye West and Justice, the scene was now set for Franz to give everyone the party they had been waiting for

Opener ‘Bite Hard’, however, did not have the immediate impact one expected, but once Paul punched out the familiar intro to ‘Dark of the Matinee’ the crowd responded and from there on the energy did not drop once. The choice of material was spread evenly across all Franz’s albums, and while all of the big singles were played, any songs from their debut were also given a huge reception. Older tracks such as 'Auf Achse' pleased the older fans, while the newer, more keyboard/synth oriented material showed that Franz Ferdinand are more than a one trick pony.

On their Brixton DVD, Franz played with a fairly simple light show, however tonight was anything but simple, with a giant wall of screens and lights dominating the stage. The new dancier material was paired with intricate lighting patterns, and Alex looked truly God-like when he climbed up onto the amp stack and was framed by the pulsating white and blue lights

The crowd was amazing, and when it was time for 'Take Me Out', the almost 5,000 strong crowd joined in with the band in singing the melody out loud. The stage setup has had to evolve as Franz's music has, and tonight there were two formidable banks of keyboards set up for Alex and Nick to hop between, on the other hand bassist Bob Hardy kept a low profile as he held the songs together from the right of stage. Set closer 'Outsiders' ended with all four Franz men keeping the beat on some temporary drums across the front of stage, but even as they left, you knew there was still so many great tracks left that the encore was going to be fantastic...

The highlight for me came when Franz went a bit left field and played their cover of LCD Soundsystem's 'All My Friends', however with it's repetitive structure, and given that it is not even an album track, the thrill of seeing this rarity played live seemed lost on most of the crowd. They turned quickly though, ending with long time fan favourite 'Michael' and the epic 'Lucid Dreams'. The final song saw Alex and Nick both stooped low over keyboards as the song morphed from it's sweet guitar lines into the drawn out electronic breakdown. One by one they left the stage until it was just drummer Paul playing along to a repeated sample. The band soon returned for a curtain call, did their bows, and was off.

I couldn’t help but feel that the finale was a poor choice though, as there was a definite lack of energy while the set closed. I remember in previous Australian tours how the set would end on a high with songs such as 'This Fire', the crowd still hanging onto every note, but 'Lucid Dreams' just seemed to let the band down, ending on a low point after a set consistently full of highs

Setlist
Bite Hard
Dark of the Matinee
No You Girls
Do You Want To
Auf Achse
Can’t Stop Feeling
Tell Her Tonight
Take Me Out
What You Came For
This Fire
Ulysses
Walk Away
Live Alone
40’
Outsiders