[ATTENDED: October 3, 3021] Frank Turner with Matt Nasir
Frank Turner has been opening for the Counting Crows, a band that he loves which I absolutely do not. There is no way I would have gone to see him with that other band, even though I have been wanting to see him for many years now.
And then, on September 15, Frank Turner announced that he would be playing Underground Arts on October 3. At 2PM!
Turns out that on the Crows’ days off, Frank decided to play some solo shows (with opening acts).
This show was going to be the first of two shows he’s play that day!
I grabbed tickets immediately. What a novel idea to have an evening free after seeing a show.
Frank used to be in a punk band and then he became a kind of punky folk singer. He writes politically charged anthemic sing alongs. A kind of younger Billy Bragg. And while he songs are great, it’s his live shows that are do amazing because he gets the audience 100% involved.
Frank has released some ten albums and lots of EPs–his collection of music is deep. And the fans know all of it. So he came out and sang “The Ballad of Me and My Friends” and everyone sang along. Then he called out mandolin player Matt Nasir to join him.
Apparently Matt is Franks keyboard player, so Frank asked him to learn the mandolin. And we should cheer extra loud whenever he does something impressive.
Frank ran through songs from throughout his career. There were a bunch I didn’t know, and a bunch of those which I liked quite a lot. And what was especially fun about them was even though I didn’t know them, they were easy to sing along to after the first run through.
Because Frank said he had only two rules at his shows: One “don’t be a dickhead.” And Two” “If you know the words, sing along!” Two point five was to cheer for Matt when he did something amazing.
About half way through the show, Frank said he was going to do a request. He felt terrible because he couldn’t remember the name of the person who requested the song. But it turned out they were right in front of the stage and the guy was wearing the exact same shirt as Frank–a Weakerthans’ Viva Virtute shirt. He sang “Imperfect Tense” which was very nice indeed.
Frank has a new album coming out and he played a few songs from it. The first was dedicated to his wife–he is recently married. She couldn’t come to the States, but he wrote the song about being married and how it is work to keep a marriage strong (but it’s worth doing the work).
Then he sang a wonderful song called “Be More Kind” and talked about the organization that was at the entrance to the venue–they give out bags of food and essentially for you to distribute to any homeless people you see. I have forgotten the name of the organization.
Then he sang “The Lioness” from No Man’s Land. he wrote this album about unheralded women in history. “The Lioness” is about Huda Sha’arawi, a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader, suffragette, nationalist, and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union. he said that he talked with Huda’s granddaughter who was pleased by the song and if by any chance, she ever came to one of his shows (she had never left Egypt), he would make sure he played the song for her.
“Haven’t Been Doing So Well” is another new song, this one about dealing with depression–especially since the pandemic–and the importance of talkin to people about your problems.
The song that introduced me to Frank Turner was “Photosynthesis” so I was super excited he played it. And he followed it with “Recovery” another favorite of mine.
Rather than leaving for an encore break he said he’d just use the time to play the songs–he did have another show to go to that night. Oh and that our show would obviously be the better show since they’d be too exhausted later to put on a good show (I doubt that very much).
He ended with one of his classic sing along, (a song that seems like it should be an opener with the line: “I’ll play and you sing, a perfect way for the evening to begin” but it works just as well as an ending.
And it works even better when you leave the show and it’s only 4 in the afternoon.
Outstanding.
Frank in the kind of guy you could see dozens of times and get the same amount of joy. I’d be curious to see what a show with his full band is like. But I feel like I’ll never get to see him in a small venue like this again.
- The Ballad of Me and My Friends §
- If Ever I Stray €
- 1933 ß
- Long Live the Queen ♥
- The Road ¶
- I Am Disappeared €
- The Opening Act of Spring ±
- The Way I Tend to Be ⊕
- Imperfect Tense ♥
- The Work ⊗
- Be More Kind ß
- The Lioness Ø
-
Haven’t Been Doing So Well ⊗
-
Photosynthesis ♥
-
Recovery ⊕
-
Get Better ±
-
The Gathering ⊗
-
Somebody to Love (Queen cover)
-
I Still Believe €
§ = Sleep Is for the Week (2007)
♥ = Love Ire & Song (2008)
¶ = Poetry of the Deed (2009)
€ = England Keep My Bones (2011)
⊕ = Tape Deck Heart (2013)
± = Positive Songs for Negative People (2015)
ß = Be More Kind (2018)
Ø = No Man’s Land (2019)
⊗ =FTHC (2022)
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