Alex Kapranos and co. show their enduring charm and quality in a career spanning evening.

Donned in a golden jacket - part thespian, part rockstar - Alex Kapranos pirouettes, points and strides across the stage with the nerdy entertainer charm of Jarvis Cocker. He has been doing this job for more than twenty years and he knows what the crowd wants. He has no reluctance to give it to them. All the hits are played. There is little more than accented ‘Arigatos’ and extended pleasantries about the city of Tokyo to interrupt the barrage of hits knocked out one after the other.

Franz Ferdinand looks different at tonight’s show at Tokyo Garden Theatre than when they first played Japan’s capital two decades ago. Back then, their abiding image was of four men striding in unison with guitars held in port arms alignment. But only two of those original four members remain and, in their current formation of five, singer Alex Kapranos is the theatrical focal point.

The evening’s intentions are clear when ‘Dark of the Matinee’ kicks open the career spanning set with all of its strutting, swaggering energy. They are underlined when ‘Take Me Out’’s iconic riff unfurls from Kapranos’s guitar with a third of the set still to go. Guitarist Dino Bardot’s riffs are slightly more languid than his predecessor’s, but he keeps up the bubbling pep that ensures the band’s earliest hits like ‘Jaqueline’, ‘Michael’ and ‘The Fallen’ still feel as electrifyingly urgent as the day they were released.

Kapranos's showmanship steals the performance, but drummer Audrey Tait provides the solid backbone these songs demand while Julien Corrie, who joined the band on keys, somehow manages to find space in these tightly wound numbers to burrow new hooks. ‘No You Girls' has an extra jaunt, while ‘40ft’ and ‘Outsiders’ are elevated with an otherworldly eeriness. He provides ‘Audacious’ with the ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ lift off for Kapranos to deliver the perfectly Franzian motto “Don’t stop being audacious” with the crooning reassurance of a flamboyant stoic.

It’s one of several songs that the band play from The Human Fear, the album they have been touring for the last year. These songs mostly bed into the set seamlessly. ‘Night and Day’ stands out for its whipcracking piano and Clash nodding ultimatum. “Life's never gonna be easy” Kapranos sings “but if you’re living it with me, you’re gonna live it up night and day”. Franz Ferdinand might take on a different form these days, but in fine fettle like this, it seems safe to take Kapranos’s word for it.