That Arch Duke of Austria puts on one great Concert! Franz Ferdinand!.

Although Franz Ferdinand was assassinated before assuming the Austro-Hungarian throne thus starting World War I, we can remember Franz Ferdinand in a whole new light thanks to the hottest group to hail from Scotland named after him.

Franz Ferdinand hit the music world by storm with their hit Take Me Out and many other very hook laden songs. This double DVD set, simply entitled Franz Ferdinand, proves that these musicians can rock out live with a very entertaining set of live clips. This DVD must contain almost every live performance that they have!

Disc one - the main set

This has 14 songs all from various live performances that the band has done from Brixton Academy, London to The Avalon in Los Angeles. The songs are: Michael, Tell Her Tonight, 40 ft., Your Diary, Take Me Out, Cheating on You, The Dark of the Matinee, I'm your Villian, Van Tango, Auf Achse, Come on Home, Love and Destroy, Darts of Pleasure, Shopping for Blood, This Boy, Jacqueline and This Fire.

First, if you thought you liked Franz Ferdinand from their radio play songs, this band just rocks live! Alex Kapranos (lead guitar vocals) is full of energy, and he plays great while singing in his unique style. His voice sounds different than any singer I am familiar with, and I really love the very agressive pop like guitar riffs of him and Nick McCarthy (guitars). Of course Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion, backing vocals) all sound fantastic as well. Kapranos usually rocked out on a Fender Tele, the bassist clearly uses a Rickenbacher, but McCarthy had this bright red guitar with the oddest pickups on it. It was speckled bright red, had twin humbucking pickups on it and some sort of slider knob or something. After much slow motion on the DVD, I finally determined that Nick plays a Hagstrom guitar with some modifications.

Many of the cuts on this are performed at huge outdoor arenas, and even in these vast arenas, the connection with the audience is readily apparent, the crowd just cheers and sings along, and even waves flags while the band performs. On most of the songs here, I felt like standing up to dance in the middle of my own living room!

Audio / Video Quality Despite the collection of songs all being from various performances, I was very pleased with the overall quality of both the audio and video of every one of the songs. A few songs had a recorded in a barrel sound, but most sounded quite good. Video was in sharp DVD quality and Widescreen. Audio is offered in a crisp PCM stereo or 5.1 Dolby Digital. Lighting varied a bit, because some songs were filmed in small clubs, others in giant outdoor venues in broad daylight. This is one DVD I just loved to watch cranked up very loud.

Extras on Disc One A tour documentary is included and two karaoke videos for you to sing along are here, The Dark of the Matinee and Take Me Out!. If you pop the CD into your computer, it will take you to the band's official website (although frankly, you can just find that yourself online)/

Disc 2

Live at Brixton This is a complete concert set of the band at Brixton Academy at London, and it doesn't repeat the songs included on disc one. (They are the same songs, but from different shows). The band does a 17 song set including crowd favorites like Michael, Tell Her Tonight, 40 ft, Take Me Out and Dark of the Matinee. The band rocks too, they are so full of energy, this set makes me really want to catch them live the next time they are near Boston, MA.

Audio/Video Quality - Brixton Both the audio and video quality here were spot on. I was very pleased that the show was all in widescreen and had almost high definition quality video. I felt like I was in the front row when I projected this show onto my Da-Lite cinamevision 105" movie screen. Audio in a word, rocked! The show was presented in a high quality PCM stereo which was very good, but the show really kicks in Dolby Digital 5.1 and puts you right there live! I was easily able to achieve sheer concert volume in my living room!

Live at San Fransisco We get another fine 14 song performance here of the band. Again, there is no lack of energy, the band just bangs out there song with full energy, and the audience is totally absorbed by their charm and enthusiasm.

Audio/Video Quality - San Fransisco I can't knock the DVD set for this one show, because there is so much good here, I chalk it up as a free bonus concert. However, I must report that the quality of this show's recording doesn't match the cuts from Disc One or the set in Brixton. Video is full screen, and not quite as sharp or clear as the other live songs. The stereo PCM track was very good, but I was surprised that the sound wasn't that good on the 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Nevertheless, I would still give audio here four stars, and video 3.

Extras Disc 2 There are three more live songs under bonus tracks on the second DVD. A performance of Take Me Out from the Spendour in the Grass Festival is included as well as two songs from an Auckland concert, Dark of the Matinee and Can't Stop this Feeling.

Summary Overall, this double concert DVD should give you more than your fill of Franz Ferdinand live! Overall, these are very well done recordings of some great live performances. As such, I give a full five stars.