Franz Ferdinand live at the Mandela Hall, Belfast

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and tonight seems to prove that clichéd old saying right, if the amount of over-excited indie kids cramming themselves into the modestly sized Mandela Hall to catch the return of Franz Ferdinand is anything to go by. You see the slender Scots have been away for quite a while and now, four years after the release of their second album You Could Have It So Much Better, the quartet are ready to hit us between the eyes with new one Tonight.
Only, at first it doesn’t seem to go quite according to plan. Opening with the electro-tinged ‘Bite Hard’ we feel slightly let down by the lacklustre first punch, but it all kicks off with their second song ‘Matinee.’ Full of funky, tight guitars and buckets of charisma, the tune provokes a mass singalong and singer Alex Kapranos can’t contain his huge grin any longer.
Tonight’s set is a healthy mix of old and new with Nick McCarthy switching between guitar and keyboard with ease. ‘Twilight Omens’ gets its second ever live airing in Belfast and the unholy trinity of ‘The Fallen’, ‘Take Me Out’ and ‘Turn It On’ reminds us exactly why we fell in love with the band in the first place, with the latter tune sounding funkier than a Rick James box-set. It’s also clear that Franz have that fire back in their bellies again. As they rip into a particularly salacious version of ‘Michael’ I’m struck by the realisation they haven’t been as passionate and focused since I first saw them support Interpol in ’03. Each band member has a new hunger in their eyes and clearly the time off did them good.
It’s also heartening to see new songs like ‘Ulysses’ and ‘No You Girls’ going down just as well as the old stuff. Aiming for the jugular, they unleash an encore quadruple-whammy of ‘Darts Of Pleasure’, ‘What She Came For’, ‘Outsiders’ and ‘This Fire’ – each more frenetic than the last. What’s most striking about tonight’s gig is the sheer amount of pop tunes the band have in their canon and, thanks to a mix that’s as immaculate as the Virgin Mary, they sounded better than ever. Just don’t call it a come back.