Franz Ferdinand surprised an audience in Porto, Portugal with a new song, “Black Tuesday.” The terse, swaggering track, captured and posted to YouTube by a fan, features the band’s edgy rock style. In the clip, shot during the North Music Festival, the musicians go all in on the performance, bringing the song to a rousing finish as the audience claps and cheers.
“Black Tuesday” marks the band’s first new music since last year’s album Always Ascending, the band’s fifth full-length, which dropped in February. The group released a few music videos for the album, including a playful clip for “Glimpse of Love.” Singer Alex Kapranos told Rolling Stone that they try not to focus on singles when writing and recording.
“We had this rule, actually, when we were making this record that nobody would mention singles, that you wouldn’t talk about singles, because as [producer] Philippe [Zdar] puts it, ‘All the other songs become jealous if you say what the single is,’” the frontman said. “Which is such a good attitude, and so to choose a single, what we do is really play the record to our friends or our family and the ones they respond to … it kind of becomes obvious at that point that people like that song.”
Franz Ferdinand’s appearance at the North Music Festival marked the band’s first live show of the year. The group will tour throughout Europe and the U.K. this summer, with stops at Spain’s Benicassim festival and Cornwall’s Boardmasters festival. Tickets for all dates are currently on sale.
Looking forward to our first show of the year tomorrow in Porto. Who’s coming out to a show this summer? pic.twitter.com/pgAAUzlTOw
— Franz Ferdinand (@Franz_Ferdinand) May 24, 2019