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Franz ferdinand band mask11/13/2023 ![]() They were all pretty much in a line, wearing black, in the back – anonymous players until Russell introduced them with much pomp and gratitude at the end of the regular set. As it was, guitarist Eli Pearl, bassist Max Whipple, longtime drummer Steve Nistor and another keyboardist -important! – Taylor Parkford, handled the hairpin turns with aplomb. ![]() If this seems dizzying to read, it was also dizzying – and delightful – to hear spun out by the ever-cavorting and oft-operatic Russell, the ever-stoic/severe Ron and the crack backing band of four (down one because guitarist Evan Weiss had tested positive for Covid). But, y’know, was the Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” really about a dog? The girl wants an ice cream or a cheeseburger? Russell’s very strong suggestion is, don’t do it: “Give it to me!” Russell Mael bones up on Boston (Image: Sparks)Īre we done with hormones and sex? We are not! Next, Russell found himself, in the midst of layers of lush string-synths, going “Under the Table with Her,” where “dinner for 12 is now dinner for 10.” Now, the character singing might be a dog scarfing scraps with a doggie girl pal. If that wasn’t horny enough for you, “Tips for Teen” followed – a bouncy, chirpy number where Russell foreshadows some of the bumps of teendom for girls (burgeoning C cups and D cups) and warns of calorie overload. It started with grandiosity and cheekiness – “So May We Start” (from Annette) which of course made you smile and “OK, fellas let’s go!” (Sweet reference, “Ballroom Blitz”.) It then moved into “Angst in My Pants,” where we first delighted on Ron’s love of puns and plays on words and saw Russell in his baggy yellow pants plant his legs wide and sing about all that damned angst down below. ![]() Then, the improbable victory lap of a tour which started in the brothers’ home base of Los Angeles and wound its way to the Shubert Theatre in Boston March 30. That would include early producer / discoverer / believer Todd Rundgren, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, (whose band record FFS with Sparks in 2015), Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Erasure’s Andy Bell and Vince Clarke, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor of Duran Duran, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order, Beck, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (he saw them as a kid in London and recalls Russell as the “cutie pie” all the girls were screaming for) and Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, who was briefly a paramour of Russell’s and the co-lead singer on Sparks “Cool Places?” Talk about shooting out Sparks! Fans came out of closet, out of the woodwork, mostly egged on by the multiple famous rockers who paid tribute to Sparks in the doc. After years of rock fans – even Sparks fans – going, “Sparks?! They still exist?” – the world (or at least a certain slice of it) turned on its axis in 2020-2021.įirst, there was the album, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, then Edgar Wright’s extended mix of a doc called The Sparks Brothers and then came Annette, which was Sparks – singer Russell Mael and older brother songwriter-keyboardist Ron – writing the story and the music for the art-house film starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. ![]()
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