Franz Fireenginand

Legendary Edinburgh band The Fire Engines played last night at The Liquid Rooms. The support act was Sons and Daughters, a band who've been touring with Franz Ferdinand, and Alex Kapranos (tall and quiffed, like a young Edwyn Collins) stood at the side of the stage nodding along enthusiastically as Davy Henderson and the boys clanged, bumped and soloed through Beefheartian numbers they composed in the early 80s. Songs I'd last heard live in 1981 up at the art college flashed by, sirens wailing. (They didn't do 'Candy Skin', unfortunately. No violins.) Although it was exciting to see the band again twenty years later, it couldn't help being a little sad too, like seeing the Sex Pistols or the Velvet Underground decades after their radical days. The Fire Engines had joined cruise liner karaoke glitz culture, parroting their own early repertoire. In between songs Davy Henderson referred repeatedly to Franz Ferdinand, subjecting the angular guitar pop band to a caustic kind of boosterism ('Glasgow's best new band... or so they think'), as if the younger band's big success were the only reason the Fire Engines were back up on the stage.

Anyway, here's a track from the show.

The Fire Engines (Live) Get Up And Use Me (mono WAV file, 1.35 MB)