Sometimes the things I’m most excited about are the posts that are the most difficult to write. I know it’s unrealistic to think my readers want to peruse pages and pages of every minute detail I want to share. I also don’t want to over-sell an artist, raising unrealistic expectations for listeners who might dig some of the music but not be as into it as I am.
That said, my experience seeing Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls at the Vic Theatre in Chicago a few weeks prior to this post is one of my favorite concerts of all time. On Turner’s website, this show is listed as “1484. 29th October 2013 @ The Vic Theater, Chicago, IL, USA.” Mark it down because it’s a night that changed my life. If you read no further, just take three seconds to listen to this song (I dare you not to smile), and make a mental note to jump on tickets the next time they’re in town.
The evening began with having to cancel the dinner plans I had before the show. Then due to the occasional and annoying stupidity of how multi-opener shows work, I missed the first band when I met my friends at show time instead of when the doors opened. How silly of us to think the music wouldn’t start until the time it said so on our tickets. I really hate when venues do this, not only because I missed out on seeing what I heard was a great set, but because it’s not fair to these lesser-known bands who miss out on the opportunity to play for a nice crowd, gaining fans and making merch sales. Boo Hiss to the parties responsible. And a shout out to Koo Koo Kangaroo if you want to check them out.
At least I wasn’t too upset for long because the second opener was Smith Street Band, a fun punk group from Melbourne, Australia. They were appreciative, told a couple great stories while tuning, and had a positive vibe that I could tell would set the right mood for Frank Turner. I would have been a little disappointed that they seemed to finish their set so quickly if not for my anticipation of the main event, which was that much closer to happening.
So, the lights went out, and Frank Turner, along with his backing band, The Sleeping Souls, came out on stage. Bright lights came up, including on the audience, and they launched right into the rabble-rousing “I Still Believe.” Turner is tall, tattooed, and charismatic but completely down to earth and approachable. The crowd immediately became a community – a family even – dancing and singing their lungs out. It was beautiful.
One of my compatriots hurt his foot, and friends were tired from the work day, so we watched from the front right of the balcony. I like being able to see, and I’m not the tallest gal, so I usually like being in a spot like that. My one regret about this concert, however, is that in hindsight I do wish I’d gone downstairs to dance with that crowd for at least part of the time. This felt like a part of the overall Frank Turner experience that I missed that I will definitely not pass up next time. At least when the band looked up at the half-full balcony, I knew I was one of the folks they could count on to rally the chair-ridden.
Usually Turner plays acoustic guitar and sings and is accompanied by a four-piece group including Ben Lloyd (electric guitar, mandolin), Tarrant Anderson (bass), Matt Nasir (piano, organ), and Nigel Powell (drums). I noticed right away that there was a fifth man playing acoustic guitar, and that Turner was fronting the band without his. A few songs in, Turner explained this to the crowd, saying that he didn’t intend to go all… was it Phil Collins or Neil Diamond maybe? I can’t remember now… on us. He injured his back earlier in the summer and was told to cancel the tour.
Not wanting to disappoint his fans (the band is from England, and it would have been difficult to reschedule a North American tour), they brought on guitar player Cahir O’Doherty with Turner performing “with this lovely Rocky Horror corset” under his shirt. He lifted his white button-down to show the audience, and then got very uncomfortable having flashed us. Quickly, he turned our attention to the fact that this new guitar player is the only Irishman in an all English band and was being quite a trooper about their good-natured ribbing.
The injury did not keep Turner from jumping all around and completely rocking out. The band played high energy song after song with Turner taking a break after every few tunes to check in with the audience, tell a story, and keep everyone pumped and dancing. About halfway through the set, everyone left the stage except Turner and Nasir who shared a new, stripped down piano arrangement of “The Ballad of Me and My Friends.”
After this, Turner took the mic downstage center and introduced the next song as “Tell Tale Signs,” the lyrics of which happen to close with the title of his current album, Tape Deck Heart. Some in the crowd sang along in parts, clearly knowing it well. Others chuckled at the first line, thinking it was going the same clever direction as most of his other songs. But wow did it not. It was deep, powerful, honest to the point of feeling raw as new skin in a way that is rare for anyone on stage.
For me, Turner’s performance of this song was the most powerful moment of the night. I even hate to call it a performance because it wasn’t put on for us at all. You can tell when an artist goes to this special place deep inside themselves, and man was he there. Among my wishes from this show are that I could hear this song again for the first time. At the end, you could tell that Turner had just bared a part of his soul and left it there for us. If blushing from a flash of a corset was tough, you can imagine how fantastically awkward the transitional moment was after this song. It was like his parents had walked in on him while he was indisposed, and he had to change the subject.
By the time they got to the radio single and penultimate song of the set, “Recovery” (which got me interested in them in the first place), even the people in the balcony were on their feet. They closed out the set with another heart-felt ballad, “Broken Piano,” then came back for a three-song encore. The first was a cover of the cynical and hilarious “Prayer to God” by Shellac. Turner slung on his acoustic guitar for the only time during the show, explaining that he learned a song by a local band for each region they stopped at on this tour. After that fun solo moment, The Sleeping Souls came back to close things out with “Photosynthesis” followed by an epic version of the dance anthem “Four Simple Words.”
I should mention that though I was making many mental notes, I had to look up the setlist to remember some songs I didn’t write down because I wanted to be in the moment. So many other people were taking cell phone pictures and video, and while I’m glad the show is documented somewhere, it makes me a little sad when people remove themselves from what’s actually happening in front of them in order to try to preserve it for later.
At some point, I remember Turner telling the audience that he hoped everyone had gone from walking in as individuals to having become a community. If that was his goal, he succeeded in spades. This was one of the friendliest crowds I’ve ever been a part of at a concert, especially at a punk show (although I guess British Folk Punk does get a different subset of fans). It seemed like every single person there had, at minimum, a great time, and at most, a religious experience.
I was among those who felt like we reached another plane of existence, and I left still humming, bopping, and dancing down the sidewalk, feeling fantastic and looking forward to the next time Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls come to town. Since then I’ve thought a lot about the music I make and how I want to present it. Whereas sometimes you hear music and feel like there’s no point in trying because you’ll never make anything as good as that, I left Turner’s show completely inspired to “Try This At Home.” If you’d like see the full setlist and check out more of his music, click here.
Joanna's Mostly Music Blog 