Franz Ferdinand bring their arch pop brilliance back to Birmingham

Franz Ferdinand | Home Counties
Birmingham O2 Academy 
6th March 2026 

Arch art pop veterans might mix up their days but, 20+ plus years into their career, there’s no confusion in just how cool they remain. Sam Lambeth woke up tonight and said he’s gonna make somebody love him. 

A little bit frantic but with a hell of a lot of style, Home Counties are the perfect appetiser. Wry, satirical lyrics on the futility of confronting landlords (You Break It, You Bought It) are matched with smart, dance-driven earworms. Recent album Humdrum is a fresh and purposeful collection of socially conscious crackers, and the title track’s squelchy synths serve as a wonderful oxymoron to the cherubic boy/girl harmonies. These particularly shine on the sparse but spiky Meet Me On The Flat Roof, and Wild Guess’s surprising descent into deliberately cheap-sounding bossa nova. 

Chiselled in looks and sharp in dress, Alex Kapranos’ raffish grin, pinstripe suit and swept-back hair make him resemble a respected thespian from the ‘50s. Nothing changes. The Franz Ferdinand frontman has always been so much more debonair than everybody else in the room. He even manages to get away with thanking everybody for “coming out on a Saturday night”, when in actuality it’s a Friday.

Maybe that mistake is deliberate. Franz Ferdinand have never followed much of a schedule or focused on the world around them. While other acts that ascended during the mid-00s indie boom have devolved into the dreaded cycle of break up, reform and play a landmark album in full, the Glasgow five-piece have quietly built a sporadic but strong back catalogue that continues to burnish their bulging art pop. 

It’s clear they still have cache in the rock world, too. Tonight’s gig is sold out, and the crowd are a heady mix of avuncular millennials and feisty youths. The latter mentions The Pigeon Detectives with the curious glee of someone serendipitously seeing a black and white movie on morning TV. The former pine for the days of NME’s Cool List, along with the old-school combo of brogues and cardigans.  

One of the greatest quickfire triples in history belongs to the World Cup semi-final between Brazil and Germany in 2014, in which the latter fired home three goals in three minutes. That highlight is eclipsed tonight when Franz Ferdinand embark on a frenetic but flawless opening trio comprising The Dark Of The Matinee, The Fallen and Bar Lonely. All propelled by pop-tinged choruses, furtive guitar blasts and irresistible posturing, it sets a precedent that, thankfully, Kapranos and co maintain with relish.

Here to promote last year’s The Human Fear, only their sixth album in 24 years, the pounding pianos of Night Or Day and the lighter, funky staccatos of Build It Up slot in seamlessly amongst the tense, jittery 40’ and the jerky homoeroticism of Michael. Lead single Audacious begins with a grainy riff that suggests a return to the post-punk of old, before switching gears and erupting into a glam call-to-arms akin to All the Young Dudes. Even the much-maligned foray into EDM, Hooked, feels less of an outlier when nestled into tonight’s setlist, which draws upon most of the band’s previous records – the dance-tinged struts of Always Ascending are sadly absent – and demonstrates how the Glaswegians effortlessly blend arty individualism, disco rock, punk and good old indie bangers. 

With Kapranos at the helm, he can be both lugubrious and lairy within the same middle eight. The zany Evil Eye has the camp, kitschy feel of a long abandoned ‘70s theme park. The flexing Right Action soars with cartoonish tumescence. Walk Away, the closest thing to a ballad aired tonight, is framed around Dino Bardot’s British Invasion-esque guitar motif. The chunky Black Keys-style riff that greets the lively Love Illumination is matched only by the keyboard heroics of Julian Corrie. Drummer Audrey Tait, meanwhile, elevates indie dancefloor staple Do You Want To and the atmospheric, drawn-out Outsiders to new heights. 

Then there’s Take Me Out. It’s a song that transcends any era or genre. It’s an entity all on its own. It’s impossible to explain. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s two songs spliced into one. A mutant dressed in Topman clobber. And yet, here we are, 20-something years later, and people that WERE NOT EVEN BORN WHEN TAKE ME OUT WAS RELEASED are whipping themselves up into hysteria over the song’s explosive rush. Inspired by, we shit you not, espionage classic Enemy At The Gates, Take Me Out’s euphoric release of tension has quite rightly made it one of indie’s most enduring anthems. 

There’s time for more crowd excitement, though. Kapranos – a dapper, louche and assured showman throughout – instructs the crowd to sit on the floor. Younger attendees acquiesce instantly, while the older demographic reluctantly crumple to the ground amid much eye rolling. It’s all for angular classic This Fire, and it’s all worth it. Once Kapranos hits the detonate button, the crowd soars like missiles. 

They bow in unison and say their goodbyes, impressed with Birmingham’s game deference, leaving every fan thrilled – even if some are still trying to get up from the floor.

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Franz Ferdinand are on Facebook, X and Instagram. Home Counties can also be found on Facebook and Instagram.

All words by Sam Lambeth. Sam is a journalist and musician. More of his work for Louder Than War is available on his archive.

All photos by John Evans, except for the main image of Alex Kapranos, by Lucy Elson-Whittaker.