frank turner live review | credit: brantley gutierrez

Frank Turner Live Review | The Underbelly Jacksonville | March 12 2015

by • March 22, 2015

I was way late to the Frank Turner train.  After seeing him at Fest 11, I was hooked.  His songs were genuine and well written, without being overly pretentious.  He was a bit of an everyman and a hell of a performer.  Even at his worse, his delivery can make even the silliest lyrics ring true.

Finding out that he was playing a one-off show in Jacksonville prior to a weekend camping excursion I was planning in the area seemed like it was the work of fate.  I’ve only seen him twice—once solo at Fest 11, and once with his backing band, The Sleeping Souls, supporting his 2013 release, Tape Deck Heart. Both shows were fantastic and I was wildly enthusiastic about seeing his performance not supporting a particular record in hopes of seeing some deeper cuts.

We arrived at the venue a bit late thanks to the poorly planned Jacksonville traffic and street construction.  The first support band was The Weighted Hands who played a fun, but goofy, brand of folk punk that was well-executed.  They came off as a watery mix of Lucero and Against Me!, which provided decent muzak to the first of several four dollar PBRs.

Billy the Kid was the direct support for Frank and Co, and played solo acoustic.  She was engaging and charismatic and kept the stage banter to a reasonable level.  While I can’t say I was paying a ton of attention, as we were hell bent on trying to get a decent spot toward the front of the cramped stage of the Underbelly, I was overall impressed by her charisma and songwriting.  During Frank’s set, she contributed vocals to a new song (“Silent Key”) and killed it.  Leaving the show, I am definitely compelled to dive further into her discography.

After a bit of a long wait for the set up, Frank finally took the stage to a half-attentive crowd and ripped into the energetic and dancy “Four Simple Words.”  The band then tore through a setlist that well represented his back catalog.  Some of the highlights included “The Road,” “Reasons Not to be an Idiot,” “Plain Sailing Weather,” “Glory Hallelujah,” “Peggy Sang the Blues,” “Wessex Boy,” “Try This at Home,” and “Photosynthesis.”

Frank also donned an electric guitar on stage to rip through a few new cuts, named “Get Better” and “Silent Key,” which were both very energetic and definitely harken back to a more classic punk sound with folk and alt-rock embellishments.  He even went on stage by himself for two songs that were requests prior to the show and pulled out the rarely played “My Kingdom for a Horse” from his first record, and a cover of “Plea from a Cat Named Virtute” by the Weakerthans.

After finishing up with “Long Live the Queen,” Frank came back out for an encore of his classic hellraiser, “The Ballad of Me and My Friends.”  He was rejoined by the band to conclude the show raucously with “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” and “I Still Believe.”

Frank and the Sleeping Souls brought a ton of energy to the show which wasn’t entirely reciprocated by a lot of the crowd.  Nonetheless, it was an awesome show by a performer who has really found his role and has brought a new element to his music every time I’ve seen him.  Even with as popular as Frank has become, he still took the time to hang outside of the venue to talk with fans for hours following the show.  I guess I’ll believe in Frank for a bit longer. 😉

Frank Turner Live Review by Joe Costa.


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