Franz Ferdinand @ The State Theatre (Portland, Maine) on August 7, 2018 [Photos & Show Review]

On Tuesday, August 7th, Glasgow’s finest, Franz Ferdinand, came to play before some 600 or so fans at Portland, ME’s State Theatre. The band has been rocking their way across North America this summer in support of their latest release Always Ascending, with opening act Pow!, and is on the final stretch of that tour.

The venue was half full by the end of Pow!’s set–not bad for a humid Tuesday evening. After a bit of a delay for the stage changeover, Franz Ferdinand emerged to put on one hell of a performance. They kicked right into things, with “Lazy Boy” and hit single “The Dark of the Matinée”. Frontman Alex Kapranos sounded fantastic, and although he did forget the words to “Paper Cages” for a moment, he managed to make light of it in such a way that the audience was right back with him as he seamlessly recovered and resumed the song.

Check out the video for recent lead single, “Always Ascending”.

Furthermore, Kapranos was as spry as ever, jumping about the stage as he crooned to the crowd. He took some time between songs to address the concertgoers, speaking about the dark times that we are currently facing where journalists are being attacked, noting that “we’ve seen this happen before [in history].” The audience seemed accepting of his sincere, albeit politically charged statement, and soaked up the remainder of the set with glee, singing and dancing along.

Things really got wild when the band brought out mega-hit “Take Me Out”. Many on staff were expecting that the set might be ended early given the hot temperatures in the unventilated venue, but the band held out and gave a 90-minute, 17-song set culminating in a four-song encore featuring hit song, “This Fire,” and the more recent “Always Ascending”. While the tour wraps up in Nashville on August 14, it’s safe to assume they’ll be back for another run soon!