Franz & DCFC @ Cornell

Last Sunday night a three-band concert took place at the Barton Hall in Cornell University. Organized by the Cornell Concert Commission (CCC), which “is a primarily student run organization. It's all students minus our staff advisor” explained Catherine Lee, a sophomore at Cornell and Promotions Director of the CCC. For this particular concert they had near of a hundred students volunteering –not all of them were inside the hall to actually see the bands–, but “our mission is to bring the big, well-known bands for the student body to enjoy” Catherine said, adding that “and it's been going on since... 1971 I believe”. On Sunday night in Cornell: Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand, plus The Cribs to open.

At 7 The Cribs came into stage. With just the basic stuff, a guitar, a bass and drums, the Jarman brothers faced an audience that clearly was not there to hear them. They were not even in the poster! Although the histrionic behavior of Ross behind and above the drums, jumping and playing standing on his feet and Gary’s and Ryan’s powerful guitars and voices, their unknown songs were not able to warm up the audience. Once they left the stage, they did not come back.

We were all waiting for Franz Ferdinand, but the Scottish made us wait. Their crew calmly prepared the stage. Playing a couple of chords on each guitar, tuning the bass, checking the volume on the drums and the keyboards those guys got us more excited than The Cribs.

Suddenly Franz Ferdinand stepped onto the stage and the crowd cheered. They were the big attraction of the night. Since the release of their first record on 2004, they have succeeded all over the world, according to both public and critique, Kapranos –vocals and guitar, McCarthy –guitar, Thompson –drums, and Hardy –bass (plus Andy Knowles –supporting at the keys and drums) are one of the icon rock bands of the decade. Probably, this was the first time that Franz Ferdinand’s fan in Ithaca saw them playing live; they did not disappoint us.

On their first world tour, Franz Ferdinand is going to visit over 50 cities on US and Canada, after going through Asia and Australia –where they participated on several festival sharing floorboards with White Stripes and Iggy Pop– Europe and Latin America, where they supported U2 in all the major stages in Brazil, Argentina and Chile; in this last two countries they had to put on one extra show just for Franz Ferdinand.

Franz Ferdinand gave everything that a couple of guitars, drums and bass can give. While McCarthy’s guitar leads the band, Kapranos’ deep voice leads thousands to sing along. They own the audience for the hour and a half they were on the stage. Their performance is impeccable, when Kapranos had a problem with his guitar; McCarthy captured the attention of the audience while Kapranos tuned it, keeping the song like if it was like that on the album version. The incorporation of a fifth musician on the keyboards (and the guitar and the drums) fit perfectly, Knowles could be easily the fifth Franz. Above it all, their music is the main reason of a first quality show.

But, suddenly, after their first single, Jaqueline, they thanked us all and left; and the audience apparently forgot how to ask them back. Maybe they were all expecting Death Cab for Cutie, or maybe it was enough. I do not know.

Death Cab for Cutie slowed things down. Although, it would have been better if the show would have gone from calmness of Cutie’s guitars accelerating to Franz’ stomped rhythms, an arrangement between the bands, which have been playing together these past few weeks around America, stated that they would alternate the order of appearance on stage. This order made impossible to avoid comparing both bands. Death Can for Cutie is most about its singer, Ben Gibbard, and its poetry; it is an excellent band to hear, not to dance nor be in the middle of a shouting crowd. I needed to take a seat. I did. I enjoyed.

If the order would have been the opposite, the concert would have been perfect: Death Cab for Cutie would have showed harmonious songs with deep lyrics in high tunes, Franz Ferdinand would have followed to make the most of our lungs and energy, and then we were all left before The Cribs.

The bands will continue on tour around the east cost and Canada. Yesterday, they played in Boston, today and tomorrow they will play at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City (tickets sold on ticketmaster.com, $35.00 – still available till this edition closed) and Saturday they will be performing in Montreal at the CEPSUM Amphiteather if the University of Montreal.