Franz Ferdinand performs at the Warfield in San Francisco on March 28, 2025. Steve Carlson/STAFF

SAN FRANCISCO — Playing its first Bay Area concert in three years, Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand blasted through a 20-song set at the Warfield on Friday. The quintet, which is touring a fantastic new album, shuffled fan favorites and new tunes in equal measure. This kept the crowd intensity high from the first notes of future classic (I hope) “The Doctor” to the final sonic remnants of long-time concert closer “This Fire.”

Frontman and guitarist Alex Kapranos was reportedly working through a sore throat—while this was the band’s fourth North American show on this tour, it has already played an entire U.K. leg—any effects on his voice were unnoticeable. Sharply dressed as always, he crooned and charmed his way through songs from January album The Human Fear, like “Night or Day,” “Build It Up” and “Everydaydreamer.”

“Sometimes you just need a good riff,” he quipped, referencing the intro to the new album’s opener, “Audacious,” which had a strong hook but also a nostalgic Sgt.-Peppery prechorus.

Franz Ferdinand has never relied on fancy stage production—with its energy, the band never needed to—but it seemed even simpler this time, with smaller risers for drummer Audrey Tait and sometimes bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Dino Bardot and guitarist-keyboardist Julian Corrie, framed by a wide rectangle, at an off-kilter angle.

The classics included early hits like “The Dark of the Matinée,” a revved-up “No You Girls” and “Do You Want To.”

“Give it to me harder!” Kapranos demanded before the final build of the latter song, hamming it up with the crowd.

Franz Ferdinand performs at the Warfield in San Francisco on March 28, 2025.

The band’s middle albums weren’t as represented as its first and newest, but songs like “Right Action” or “Love Illumination” reminded the audience that Franz Ferdinand never took a break from writing killer guitar riffs. On the latter, Kapranos and Bardot leaned up against each other while riffing.

One unique highlight, the likes of which was never in the Franz Ferdinand arsenal before, came when Kapranos was handed a bouzouki, a type of lute, for “Black Eyelashes.” In the song, the frontman chases his Greek heritage. Onstage, it played like a traditional Greek or Balkan folk song. The only thing that could have made it better was a live fiddler. Even without that, it was like a transporter to another time and place.

The tension kept building with “Michael,” which ended in a wall of feedback, “Take Me Out,” live-wire familial love song “Hooked” and fan favorite deep cut “Outsiders,” which had Kapranos kneeling down with his guitar in attendees’ faces. The “Outsiders” arrangement was made spacier, like a cross between that song and “Always Ascending.”

Kapranos said nothing after leading the band offstage for a short break before all five returned for a four-song encore of groove-heavy “40′,” new tunes “Bar Lonely” and “The Birds,” and the customary expanded rendition of “This Fire,” which has been melting Franz Ferdinand fans’ faces for more than 20 years.

Telescreens perform at the Warfield in San Francisco on March 28, 2025.

The tour’s openers, New York band Telescreens, made the most of their 30-minute set. Somewhere between The Gaslight Anthem and Augustines, and full of that signature impassioned early aughts New York sound and post-punk swagger, the band started with a thunderous roar. Singer-guitarist Jackson Hamm growled the lyrics while striking rocker poses as his band’s songs swelled with screeching guitars.

“Let yourself have a little fun,” Hamm implored ahead of their jaunty, punky “Lost.” He introduced a sludgy but melodic tune with a warning: “It’s a little heavy. Don’t be afraid.”

Later, “Don’t Feel Nothing” recalled Nirvana, with the singer’s voice beyond scratchy.

The rest of the band—keyboardist Josiah Valerius, drummer Oliver Graf and bassist Austin Brenner (a Bay Area native, Hamm pointed out)—provided a strong base for the songs, heavy on blues rock.

Not being able to identify the songs with the help of a broken Google, I later asked Hamm for a setlist. He said Telescreens don’t have those and choose the songs as they go along. He couldn’t remember what the band played two hours earlier.

Contact editor Roman Gokhman on Bluesky at roman.riffmagazine.com. Follow photographer Steve Carlson at Instagram.com/SteveCarlsonSF.