View more photos from Sean Rayford and this Frank Turner show.
I felt like an impostor at the Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls show Sunday night at New Brookland Tavern. As the show was well sold out I heard true fans agonizing in line about the attendees that only knew the singles. That would be a reference to people like me. I understand the disdain, I’m the same way when seeing my favorite bands live. No one wants to be hearing their favorite songs, totally locked in at a show, only to have half the fans around you chatting it up when they aren’t playing the singles. And from my observations at the show Sunday, Frank Turner fans are dedicated fans. Lots of them had driven from out-of-town and some were seeing him at multiple stops on the tour, including Charleston the next day. Me, I went into the show as a casual fan and left as more, witnessing the honesty and intensity in each song.
As far as the memories of this show goes, for most of the fans, and Frank Turner and company, the lasting memory will be the heat. I seriously can’t comprehend it anymore, but I think we’re all tired of New Brookland Tavern being the place that gets over 100 degrees at sold out shows. I’m not sure if the new AC unit even works, but if it does you couldn’t tell. During the set Turner referred back to the last time they played NBT three years ago and how the band stripped down to their underwear and were hosed off on the fence out back after the show. The same thing didn’t happen Sunday night, but the set was cut short two songs in the encore because Turner couldn’t take the heat. No fault to him, it was just that bad, and he put on a hell of a show for an hour and a half before that. For the folks in the front row, who Turner handed out water bottles to all night, I’m not sure they’d trade the extreme heat for the moment when Turner took off his shirt, walked away from the mic and played “The Ballad of Me and My Friends.”
As much as Frank Turner’s fans love him, he loves them back just as much and shows it. Mid set he brought up a girl from the front row to play a mean harmonica solo. She didn’t know how to play at all, and was shy about trying too hard and ruining the song, but Turner pushed her forward and when her time came she actually made it work. The entire show bounced between intense moments and times like this along with laid back conversation and stories between songs. The crowd loved every minute of it. They sang loud, they clapped along, and near the end of the set a pit broke out for a song.
One of favorite moments from the set was “I am Disappeared.” As a casual fan I hadn’t yet gone back through the older albums, but that song caught me on first listen and I’ve listened to it pretty much on repeat since then. Then the new songs stood out and rose above. Camera phones were in there air the entire show, as they should be in my opinion, but when Turner asked them to be put away for the new tracks the crowd obliged. Turner told the story about how a fan got a tattoo of lyrics from a new song once after they heard it on the web, but when they recorded the album he changed the lyrics around. Lesson learned.
Post show Turner could be seen out back, in a New Brookland Tavern t-shirt taking pictures with fans. It makes sense that Turner would love the Tavern, and the intimacy of the shows. It’s something he’s lost just a little as he’s grown in popularity, moving to larger capacity rooms since the release of Tape Deck Heart and strong radio play from its’ two singles. He seems to have made a special connection with the venue and crowd here. Maybe it’s like that in every town and maybe that’s a big reason his fans travel far and wide to seem him play. Caring for your fans goes a long way. It doesn’t hurt that he has the songs and pipes to back it up.
Setlist
Photosythesis
Plain Sailing Weather
Peggy Sang the Blues
Try This at Home
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
The Road
Glory Hallelujah
Reasons Not to Be an Idiot
Demons
The Way I Tend to Be
Wessex Boy
Dan’s Song
Pass it Along
I am Dissapeared
Out of Breath
If I Ever Stray
Long Live the Queen
Recovery
Encore
The Ballad of Me and My Friends
PHOTOS- Sean Rayford is not only my favorite live show photographer, but one of my favorite all around photographers. He never ceases to amaze me with his eye for candid moments, and his ability to capture them. He just released a book of photos that he took outside of Gamecock football games called “Great to be a Gamecock.” I urge you to buy that book and spend hours looking through his online catalog. As an amateur photography enthusiast myself, I learn most from watching how Rayford shoots a show.
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