All the Best Stories to Tell.

November 8, 2019

Frank Turner







All the Best Stories to Tell.

Last year, standing alone at the top of my annual list of best concerts of the year in my annual live music review, was a show from the summer of 2018 featuring Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls that I caught at the House of Blues in Orlando. Knowing that Turner playing Florida is something of a rarity, especially in South Florida, I was thrilled to see that he added a late addition to his Fall US tour by booking a show at the Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale.



It was a late addition/ tune up for the band’s joining this year’s Flogging Molly cruise ship, so it was very different from the quieter, acoustic sit down and play tour in support of his latest CD release “No Man’s Land”. This show would be a full on, rocking full band tour de force show as one is used to seeing the band play. While a bit disappointed that I would be missing the acoustic show, this is really the way that Turner is meant to be seen and it was more than worth the drive up to Lauderdale.









As a bonus, Turner was doing a free acoustic performance and meet and greet at Radioactive Records in Ft. Lauderdale in the early evening before the show, so I did get to experience some of his acoustic stylings in a very intimate setting in front of maybe 40 people. It is still amazing to me that a guy who is a superstar across Europe and sells out huge venues like Wembley Stadium is so relatively unknown in the US.



Watching him play a five song acoustic set and then hang out with the few people in attendance was an experience that many in Europe would kill for. While I certainly wish he was more popular here for his sake, I do feel a guilty pleasure of being among the few clued-in fans, who may not be as many as one would expect but make up for it with a cult-like fervor when it comes to Frank.







He is such a nice guy, so friendly and relatable and he was in an especially great mood as his wife of only a few months had flown over from England to join him and the band on the cruise just in time to catch the show. It is hard to really describe the experience of attending a Frank Turner gig, photos and video don’t really capture the crazy fun and energetic vibe.





Turner’s punk rock heritage is on full display, but his softer folkier side balances his performance out into something that is completely unique and altogether special. There is no one really to compare his live show, maybe a slightly edgier early Bruce Springsteen perhaps but it is something that you just have to (and should) experience first-hand.



Once again I was thrilled that I made the trip, was it the best show I have seen this year, certainly close, with maybe only Muse in the same realm, but it was truly spectacular and fun. There was a man about my age with his probably 15 year old son standing next to me. The son was attending his first ever rock concert and his Dad qualifies for the coolest Dad award. It was so fun to see the excitement and energy that this young kid had for his first concert, it brought back many memories of a lifetime of watching live music and reminded me that I still have that same 15 year olds passion to this day and age.





Frank and the band ripped through a litany of their most beloved songs, mostly skipping the new CD, so I was glad to have attended the meet and greet. The fervent crowd of Turner disciples sang along loudly and danced their way through every song. His fans are among the most devoted in Rock n Roll and never have I attended shows where more people join in singing the songs, even relative rarities are well known by his fans.









It was an absolutely incredible evening, I was just sad that Kathy was not along to join me. She has headed out West to our Colorado house for a nice ten day getaway and so she missed out on what was a truly awesome experience. I really can not wait to go see Frank Turner again, I would go again tonight if he was playing.