Frank Turner - Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, March 11, 2016

"They threw me a whirlwind and I spat back the sea.  

I took a battering but I've got thicker skin and the best people I know are looking out for me.

So I'm taking the high road - my engine running high and fine

May I always see the road rising up to meet me and my enemies defeated in the mirror behind"
~Frank Turner

Frank Turner - pre-show soundcheck

As we lined up for our early entry sound check access I'd managed to nab when purchasing tickets, Artur, my concert buddy for the evening, looked around at the gathering crowd and remarked that there were a lot of different types of people amassing for the show.  A selection of tattooed, pierced and leather clad groups, contrasted with preppy conservatives and everything in between, all across a pretty vast representation from all age ranges.  You name it, they were in line.  Artur, who had no idea who Frank Turner was at this point having graciously agreed to sub in for an unfortunately sick Jakki at the last minute, took in the large cross section of fans, and said to me:

"his music speaks to a lot of different types of people, yeah?"

The Frank Turner genre is a hard one to pin down.  Punk? Folk? Rock? Bluegrass?  A bit of a smashing together of all of the above and more, really, with no easily measurable formula.  I call him folk/punk, but that doesn't really hit the nail completely on the head either.  But the mix of genres really does seem to draw a lot different types of fans together into one room.  And I think that combo of fans suits Frank Turner just fine since his whole professional "raison d'être", based on my personal sense of him, seems to be to bring people together under an all welcoming common love of all things music.

So, to answer Artur's question......Yeah!

As our small early access ticket holders group gathered around the stage, Frank strode out and played a few acoustic songs for us, followed by autographs and photos prior to the start of the show.  I personally would have been quite happy hanging here for the night.  His acoustic performance of "Love 40 Down" and "Cleopatra in Brooklyn" just sitting at the edge of the stage, was fantastic.  Getting to finally meet him was definitely a high point as well.  (hey everyone reading this who actually knows me?  Guess who suddenly became super shy in the presence of one of her "music as religion holy 4?"  Argh!).  He was very sweet.  And hella tall.  Was a super cool and very surreal moment where things I should have asked him completely escaped my mind.  Things like.. how he enjoyed his first trip to the Maritimes (In February, he did shows for the first time ever in my former homes of Halifax, Fredericton and Moncton!)  Or... asking to see his newly inked New Brunswick tattoo!  Or, you know, seeing if perhaps he was looking to hire a diminutive blonde show mascot to join the tour since I will shortly be unemployed and available!  (umm, I suppose it was probably best I didn't blurt that one out, but it would have been totally about the music, I swear, and I can't think of a better rock 'n roll story than a complete career path switcheroo from the banking world to professional Frank Turner show attendee!)

Stumbling away from our meeting, we were then stopped by a couple of ladies who I assume were part of Frank's team, who wanted to do a brief interview.  Now... I was still attempting to process having just met a musician I admire greatly, so can't say I was too clear in answering the questions asked.  OK, OK, I admit to having no idea what I answered for the question "What does Frank Turner mean to you?" other than that it was a big exorcist vomit of nonsensical mumble jumble wordiness.  My brain was on overload, so the pairing of Lindsay + eloquent thought output was just not happening and I may as well have been speaking Swahili.  By that point, we decided to get a few beers into me STAT to put my head back on straight for the show to come.

And what a show it was!

We positioned ourselves directly in the fray just slightly to the right of the stage.  This was my 5th Frank Turner show and the first time that I've been directly in the thick of the crowd.  (for the prior 4, we've done seats (Queen Elizabeth Theatre), roomy outdoor field viewing from afar (TURF), upper VIP balcony (Sound Academy), and bench/table (Horseshoe Tavern)).  Being smack dab in the middle of a sea of Frank fans was a whole heap of fun!  We immediately made friends with our neighbors and engaged in big sing-a -longs together for the duration of the show.  Being on the vertically challenged side of things (a fancy way of saying I'm f-ing short), I was only able to see Frank and Tarrant regularly for the duration of the show and missed out on being able to watch the rest of the band.  (I do need to take a moment to give a shout-out to the Sleeping Souls, Frank Turner's band extraordinaire).  Ben Lloyd, Matt Nasir, Nigel Powell and Tarrant Anderson, are all amazingly fantastic musicians with big entertaining personalities.  While my primary focus was on Frank, for this show in particular since my positioning only allowed a limited viewing of the stage, watching Tarrant's bass playing gymnastics also provided me with great joy - that man is truly in his own zone when playing and I loved every minute of it.  I can honestly say, I've never seen anyone play the bass with quite the same frenetic zeal as he does.

I also continue to be amazed at the non-stop high energy show that Frank Turner puts on, night after night.  They played an incredible 2 hour 30 song powerhouse of a setlist complete with running, jumping, dancing, crowd surfing, motivational mid song audience directing and some kick ass acrobatic instrument playing.

As is always a big part of a Frank Turner show, he engaged the crowd in a "we're all in this together tonight" fashion.  In addition to recruiting us as backup singers for various bits of songs, he actually had us sit on the ground during  "Photosynthesis" with instructions to jump up once given a signal by Nigel to dance and sing "like we're out of our fuckin' minds!"  He preceded this request with an assertion that he regarded us all as friends and that "friends can ask friends to do weird shit, right?"

...Remember me mentioning the cross section of people earlier?  The punks and the nerds and the rockers and the old and the young and the keen and the jaded and the everything in between?  Yeah, we all sat down on the ground.  And all jumped up and danced and made friends with our fellow music lovers and sang together.  Hey, when Frank asks us to do weird shit for the purpose of musical solidarity, we're all on board!  I will NEVER get tired of Frank's philosophy of music as a uniting element.

Check us out!

With such a vast setlist, there was really something for everyone within it.  I absolutely overlove the new album (the title alone, "Positive Songs for Negative People" even struck Artur, a hard core metal fan, as brilliant).  So it pleased me to hear "The Opening Act of Spring", "Josephine" and "Get Better" performed live.  The show closer of "Four Simple Words" with its harder edged punk format was the perfect high energy send off, and even got my metalhead sidekick on board (he really liked that one!)  We left the venue, as Frank intended, with sore throats from singing, feet tired from dancing, and having made new friends from strangers.  I even lost my sweater sometime through the night and simply laughed about it and figured that it was a sign of a good sweaty in the moment show when a band magically causes you to lose items of clothing without you even noticing.

Now that I've had a few days post show excitement, I've had the opportunity to give some thought to the question: "What Does Frank Turner Mean to You?"  Truth be told, I'm still not sure I can come up with anything that would be precise enough for a soundbite.

But I will say this by way of *attempted* explanation...

All art is completely subjective, and the love of it can't always be neatly quantifiable.  I suppose that Frank Turner's music triggers something on an emotional level within me that makes me love it so very much.  His songs tend to have lyrical content dealing with the drive of the human spirit, which hits me right in the sweet spot.  A few examples:  "Photosynthesis" gets me pumped up for difficult meetings where I need to channel my inner badass.  "Anymore" and "Plain Sailing Weather" have in the past comforted me with empathy in the loss of a relationship.  "Get Better" is a rousing theme song for picking yourself up and dusting off and getting back to your inner invincible self (a song that I try to put in my ears as much as humanly possible).  "Four Simple Words" just makes me gleefully happy any time I listen to it (and the slowed down theatrical bits are super fun to belt out in the car!  Trust me - try it!)   "I Still Believe" sums up how important music has always been to me in my life and I complete "get" the point he's making in that one, etc., etc., etc...  So many of his songs I identify with in such a strong way that they all mean a lot to me for very different reasons. Add to that Frank's complete authenticity - the fact that he truly seems to love what he does and does it relentlessly and passionately and with great respect for his fans... and he has my complete and utter reciprocal respect as as well.

Thrilled to have another Frank Turner show in the books.  Looking forward to the next.  Come back to Toronto soon Frank!

Previous Frank Turner show blogs:

Sound Academy - December 3, 2013
Queen Elizabeth Theatre - shared bill with Joel Plaskett - May 18, 2012


Set List:

1.  The Next Storm
2.  The Road
3.  Losing Days
4.  Eulogy
5.  If Ever I Stray
6.  Try This at Home
7.  Peggy Sang the Blues
8.  Ace of Spades (motorhead cover)
9.  Josephine
10.  Polaroid Picture
11.  Least of All Young Caroline
12.  I Am Disappeared
13.  The Opening Act of Spring

Frank Solo

14.  The Way I Tend to Be
15.  Balthazar, Impresario
16.  The Ballad of Me and My Friends

17.  Reasons Not to Be an Idiot
18.  Glory Hallelujah
19.  Mittens
20.  Long Live the Queen
21.  Happy Birthday
22.  Recovery
23.  Out of Breath
24.  Photosynthesis
25.  Plain Sailing Weather
26.  Get Better

Encore:

27.  The Real Damage (solo)
28.  Tell Tale Signs
29.  I Still Believe
30.  Four Simple Words