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…

Franz Ferdinand, courtesy. Much is going on in the life of Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos as of late. The Scottish quartet is back with its first album of new songs in six years, The Human Fear. But Kapranos, 52, is also newly married to French musician Clara Luciani…

Franz Ferdinand, “The Human Fear.” It’s the old “quality over quantity” trope. It seems that artists whose songs are dense and literate, packed with meaning and craft, don’t do mass production. Two classic examples: Randy Newman and David Gilmour. The Human Fear Franz Ferdinand Domino Recording Company, Jan. 10…

Franz Ferdinand performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Aug. 30, 2022. Nate McKinley/STAFF. OAKLAND — By the time Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand dove into “Take Me Out,” more than an hour into their 90-minute set at the Fox Theater, it might as well have been 2004…

Franz Ferdinand, courtesy David Edwards. Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand is looking angelic with a sheet of backlighting through a skylight in his band’s Glasgow studio. Though the video connection is a little fuzzy, he can spot the “Do You Want To” single cover tucked away at the back…

Messing around with COIN at BottleRock Napa Valley on May 25, 2018. Photo: Roman Gokhman. I think this column is morphing into more of a “my favorite Roman stories” list, but what still holds true is that memorable interviews still lead better stories. I tell the RIFF staff, which…

Christine and the Queens perform at Fox Theater in Oakland on Oct. 26, 2018. Photo: Shawn Robbins. This is the second in a three-part series. Read the introduction to learn how I’m scoring my list and find out about my “special consideration” in PART 1. Favorite Shows 2017 | Favorite Shows…

Franz Ferdinand took you out, and made breakfast in the morning. It’s another edition of RIFF Rewind crowdsourced from the RIFF staff! Which means rock music was still overproduced and generic, and I couldn’t stand to slog through it. Look, I realize this may cause a minor mutiny among…

Franz Ferdinand performs at The Fox Theater in Oakland on May 17, 2018. Alessio Neri/STAFF. OAKLAND — Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos casually strolled onto the Fox Theater stage, following his four bandmates, stepped onto a speaker and looked out onto the gathered fans of his band, many of…

From its 2004 debut to 2013’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, no band other than The Strokes and Interpol epitomized the post-punk revival than Franz Ferdinand. As the genre experienced a steep decline in popularity, so did Franz Ferdinand. So for Alex Kapranos and company, it meant it was time…