Franz Ferdinand @ O2 Academy, Glasgow, 17 Feb

After the loosely conceptual Tonight and the sadly forgettable Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action as well as the departure of guitarist Nick McCarthy, Franz Ferdinand's new record Always Ascending is an energetic electro pop romp that has given the group a new lease of life. Before we get to the main event however, a fellow outrider in the early oughts indie boom takes to the stage. Freed from the studious cool of The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. looks far happier, wisecracking with the audience and leading his backing band through a short set of power pop.

His 2006 debut Yours to Keep was a primary-coloured slice of summery pop that in retrospect probably owed quite a lot to the chemical cocktail keeping him upright at the time as he battled the pressure of playing in a band who had gone from unknowns to superstars in just a handful of years. Now his music is leaner and meaner and he’s found the confidence to stray back in territory once inhabited by his better-known day job. Mostly leaving his trademark white Stratocaster to one side, Hammond Jr. is a funny, engaging frontman, cracking jokes and wearing a kitschy gold jacket that he either stole from his mum or cost more than your house.

Franz Ferdinand have sure fire hits by the stack but tonight they choose not play the nostalgia card, offering up an octet of new tracks alongside the old favourites. Of these new songs Lazy Boy is the closest to classic Franz with a scratchy riff and self-deprecating hand-on-hip delivery. With the departure of McCarthy, even more of the focus falls on Alex Kapranos, here tonight with a peroxide blonde quiff that makes him look like Annie Lennox. The frontman is on great form, shimmying across the stage and leaping in the air at every opportunity.

Old singles like Do You Want to, Take Me Out and a closing This Fire unleash dancefloor chaos, but it’s surprising how well many of the tracks in the Franz Ferdinand discography have dated. Little details – the narrator with mascara running down his face, the arch provocateur dancing with boys named Michael, the switchblade third verse on No You Girls – are still pin-sharp. They’re just one stop off in a musical genealogy that runs back through The Smiths, Bowie and more but it’s nice to see them still running well ahead of many of their mid-2000s indie peers.

They may not be 'always ascending' as their new album claims, but Franz Ferdinand have rightly secured their places in so many hearts.