For tonight, the two bands are unified to create a stunning collaborative effort that renders them as one. Sparks have been careful to avoid ‘pop’ conventions in the past, while Franz Ferdinand embrace the pop and mix it with every other genre imaginable. But when the lights dim and and all four members of Scottish art-rock heroes Franz Ferdinand and both brothers of new wave cult icons Sparks appear on the stage as FFS, to boisterous applause, band division is forgotten, competition of passion buried. It is as if each set of fans is asserting their place in the Troxy, adamant to win the competition of musical passion – the Team Jolie vs. Older and increasingly grey-haired attendees with a rockabilly soul sporting ‘Sparks’ t-shirts sneer at the art school females with turquoise hair donning ‘Franz Ferdinand’ blouses. Not just for the two separate bands performing as one, but for both sets of fans, as well. It is a night where music has been taken out of its comfort zone and placed in the passenger seat with no seatbelt or airbag. Because if the last hour and a half proved anything, tonight was a showcase of everything but a collaboration not working. The title of the aptly-named set closer, ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’, is a fantastic number of gigantic irony woven into a big, fat, giant, ugly, purple lie. It is a modern rock opera taking place on the stage, a melding of musical artistry to produce an unbelievable aural creation the Frankenstein’s monster of the progressive, alternative art-rock genre. “I don’t need your patronizing…” teases Mael during the bridge of the song, which is swiftly met by Kapranos’s “I don’t need your agonizing…”. It is a fascinating and fierce exchange by the two frontmen during the closing number of the show, doused in the spotlight, circling each other like vulture and prey. “Collaborations don’t work / they don’t work, they don’t work / I’m gonna do it all by myself…” laments Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand during Franz Ferdinand & Sparks’ sold-out show at London’s Troxy “they don’t work, they don’t work…” spits back Russell Mael of Sparks.
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