“Drum n bass – upstairs….. Techno – downstairs…. Hardcore, You Know The Score – straight on through”, instructs the doorman in Kentish Town.

For their only London show of the year, Der Franz – Glasgow’s finest pop exports – return to the now relatively intimate confines of The Forum prior to this weekend’s headline show at Reading and Leeds to flaunt their wares and fix any mistakes. A by-now tightly honed pop machine, and somewhere near the end of a year long campaign to conquer the world pop charts with last years “You Could So Much Better With…” album, Franz Ferdinand are now bristling with well-deserved confidence.

But tonights show isn’t all plain sailing. The Franz take to the stage at a late-by-most-standards 9.35pm, and are finished by 10.50 : the show feels short and economical (a couple of great songs from the most recent album, “I’m Your Villian”, and “Well, That Was Easy”, are excluded from the set, in favour of keeping us waiting). But when they are on stage, such things quickly fade and are forgotten.

For tonight, Franz Ferdinand are the fire burning this city – songs are dispatched with a fluid, brilliant effiency. In some ways, like a nostalgic history book vision of The Clash, the band dispense with anything but a pressing need to let the songs out. The set feels more like a living breathing Greatest Hits than a mere pop show. “Do You Want To?” is greeted with a roar normally reserved for long lost friends, “Take Me Out” inspires murder on the dancefloor, and “The Fallen” sees almost every one in the room decrying the profits of Tesco.  Well, everyone aside from the incredibly tall git who stands in front of everyone ferrying pints from the bar, and comes impossibly close to having plastic glasses bouncing off his comically large bald spot. 

Make no mistake, Franz play like a band that has been gigging fluently for years. It’s a rare thing to see, and beautiful : a band that seem to be in near telepathic contact, able to improvise, adapt, and play in the way that only a great band would be able to. The band of four, aided and abetted by multi-instrumentalist Andy Knowles who is adept on almost everything (drums, keyboards, guitar), turn the songs inside out. In many ways, what the show does is make up for a brevity with an intensity : songs fall from the sky for three minutes, live, breathe and die for brief moments.

Often times, the recorded versions are mere starting points for the live versions – for the encore of "The Outsiders" the band are fleshed out by four drummers and a horn section, as well as the only drum solo I have seen in fifteen years. Franz aren’t afraid of pop, or brains. Or for that matter, the sharp cut of a stylish suit for the new Scottish Gentry.

Tonight sees Franz Ferdinand on the cusp of world domination – as Bono rightly pointed out, next year U2 might be supporting them. And on the basis of tonights performance, the world is theirs for the taking.

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