Franz Ferdinand drew in a near-capacity crowd to First Avenue on a dreary spring day.  My excitement was actually more piqued for the opener, Born Ruffians, than for the headliners — but no mind — Franz has always lived in my mind as a band that could bring a live-show worth shelling out a few duckets for.  My whiskey-stunk hands gladly handed the girl $30 and I was in.  Hello….   uhh…. hello, who?  Who were these people?

My first reaction was that every square within 100 miles decided it was a big night out in Minneapolis.  (Side-note… upon reflection I realize that I think of geeky guys as “squares” and geeky girls as “adorable.”  May help explain my reaction….)  The vibe?  The girl in the ’ship had been nagging that they “never do anything fun and/or cool” and this hopeless schlub decides that Franz Ferdinand would be the perfect show to impress his slumdog girlfriend by VISA’ing some surprise tickets.  They all had on their finest plaid and their freshest kicks.  Was I annoyed?  No.  My car had broken down on the way and I was just happy to be there.  Plus…  I was with good company and my eyes were slightly dull with Jim Beam.

The Born Ruffians were just as skinny and awkward and fantastic as I imagined.  The leads voice seemed significantly less whiny than on CD (which for some reason really dissapointed me) but they had good energy and I loved the idea of the bassplayer ending up with some 4th string groupie at the end of the night.  (Note to self: learn bass.)

I planted myself towards the front of the stage, my big tall head obscuring tons of sightlines and proceeded to watch FF set up.  The screen never came down which led to this conversation:

Me, Drunk and Loudly, With Incredible Amounts of Observation Intelligence: Hmm… I’ve never seen the screen not come down between acts… is this normal?

Girl, 19, sober as a church mouse: What?!  I’ve NEVER seen it come down between acts!

Girls Boy, 20, Abercrombie Beclothed: Yeah, dude… check your facts.  Screen stays up at this place.

MDLWIAOI: How many shows have you two been to here at First Avenue?

G1SACM: umm… like… 5

GB2AB: 3.

MDLWIAOI: Oh… go drown in a pool of your grandmas blood.  I’ve been here at least 200 times.  At least.

The point?  I was right.  These fools… wrong.  And because of that, I wouldn’t feel bad dancing my fat-ass all over their toes once the band came on.

And I did.  And it was great.  And unlike the eponymous Franz Ferdinand, this one didn’t strike me as the 1-Shot group I had expected.  They played a number of great songs, then Take Me Out and then another one… I have no idea of the names but the whole crowd went nuts, the band rocked out, and I felt the PASSION in that room.  Then they decided to slow it down… and I left.  They should have finished with the hit single, the next bonkers single and then walked off stage.  It would have been brilliant.  I would have left drunk, happy and satisfied that I got my $30 worth.   Oh wait… I did.

Completely meaningless score with no baseline or relativity: 9/B

I’m late to this blog posting party — every other Twin Cities blog has already informed you that Prince is playing a show at First Avenue on Saturday night after his sold-out Target Center show. (Let’s be clear. The reason that I am late to the punch is that this blog isn’t about Twin Cities music. Though I love you all to death, this blog is more about me and my passions — and stu and his passions. We’ll show you the path we recommend, but you’re on your own from there. If you haven’t figured out how to pick up a daily newspaper then I’ll enjoy standing next to your mom at First Ave on Saturday night.) He’s also playing a Macys show earlier in the day. (For my extra sharp readers, you can already see that that is 3 shows in a single day… pfew!)

Am I a huge Prince fan? Nope. Do I think he’s got more talent in one finger than all of todays hot-100 combined? Yes. Would I cut off my arm to see him play Purple Rain at First Avenue? Yes. Will I get a chance to pay $31.21 for the opportunity? Probably not. Tickets go on sale at 3pm. I’m sure people are already lined up, though I’m going to pay attention and possibly head down there myself. The nice thing is that they have managed to keep scalpers away (one ticket per person, non transferable, purchasble the day of the show only.) This is good news for people like me that love live music and NEED to see a legend in a legendary place.

The good news for you? I’ve included some super rare acoustic Prince tracks. Consider it Prince doing Justin Timberlake 20 years before Justin Timberlake tried to do Prince. It’s amazing stuff. Good luck to me at First Avenue.

Prince – Don’t Play Me (Acoustic)
Prince – 7 (Acoustic)
Prince – Alphabet St. Blues (Acoustic)
Prince – Whole Lotta Love (Acoustic)
Prince – Motherless Child (Acoustic)