It continues to devastate me that the (contemporary) music I was getting into when music started being a thing for me is now 20 years old - and that number insists on increasing! Do not go gentle into that good night; instead, go to the Bristol Beacon on a Saturday night, sat on the side balcony, for Franz Ferdinand. They are an impressive 18 minutes late to the stage, but that is almost entirely made up for by their walk-on music being the Naked Gun theme. Straight into a rollicking The Dark Of The Matinee, which does somewhat accentuate Alex Kapranos’ slightly annoying habit of ever so slightly changing the phrasing of the lyrics you’ve been singing forever. Still, he’s thrilled to be back nearish his birthplace of Almondsbury. The setlist is a healthy mix of their discography, rather than focusing too much on either the new album or the nostalgia, and the band themselves are pretty tight (musically and, admittedly, somewhat in their otherwise sharp suits). 40’ is a lot of fun as a relatively deep cut (but I mourn Auf Asche all the same), and the new stuff fits in well. There’s some slight spark missing for me to really elevate the evening, but it’s still immensely heartening to hear a lot of those early songs that meant something to me on the radio at the time. Support from Home Counties, an apt offshoot of FF’s own noughties post-punk tendencies, but with a young lead singer with an almost Brentian level of uncoolness. You love to see it.