The day after: Franz Ferdinand vs. Death Cab

Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie
April 12 at Agganis Arena
Photos by Carina Mastrocola

Oh, sure, you came expecting quite the cat fight: a pair of unevenly matched (yet highly-leveraged) indie/alterna/collegerock bands going at it mano-a-mano, face to face, skin to skin. Brits versus Yanks! The war of "independence" all over again! Fur flying, probably! An exchange of words, at least! Some strategically passive/aggressive taping-off of the soundboard, wink wink!

But surely nothing prepared you for this! First Death Cab for Cutie came out and referred to their "co-headliners" as "the dancing, prancing Franz Ferdinand." Then Franz Ferdinand came out and dedicated a song to "those beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful men in Death Cab for Cutie." Obviously, they loathed each other. Unspeakably so! And their respective fan bases! Why, you could tell they were practically ready to tear each other apart on the dance floor -- oh, it was hell. Why, they stood stock-still, the whole lot of them, and pretended not to look at each other. You could cut the tension with a knife!

But what subtletly! What drama! Why, if you didn't know better -- if you weren't some eagle-eyed expert like, cough, why us -- you might have mistook the whole thing for a dreary love-fest, a middle-of-the-road display of manners and professionalism. Oh, what a bore that would've been.

-- OTD