Frank Turner - An Incredible Artist Who Puts on an Amazing Show

Frank Turner is bringing folk-punk, indie-rock bliss to the masses in a way unlike anything I’ve seen before.  I just went to his show this past Saturday at the House of Blues and his live performance did not disappoint, even despite the fact that he had a serious back injury.  After leaving his post-hardcore band Million Dead in 2005, the England based Turner embarked on a primarily acoustic based solo tour, eventually recruiting the members of his now backing band the Sleeping Souls.  With five studio albums under his belt, the most recent being 2013’s Tape Deck Heart Frank turner continues to produce incredible punk laced folk rock.  Singles such as “If I Ever Stray” and “I Still Believe” off his last album, England Keep My Bones got a decent amount of radio play a couple years ago and that, coupled with the popularity of the single “Recovery” off his latest release have skyrocketed Frank Turner into the public eye.  The show was PACKED shoulder to shoulder in an incredibly lively, upbeat atmosphere which made everyone smile and dance.  His songs are all catchy with poppy choruses which get the whole crowd singing along.  His lyrics are varied but very personal and downright poetic almost all of the time.  With a melting pot of people in attendance from studded jean jacket wearing street punks to high school girls to groups of middle aged men, the crowd was a testament to the spectrum of musical influences represented in Turners songs.  He says it best in “I Still Believe” in which he sings “who’d have thought, that after all, something as simple as rock and roll would save us all, yeah who’d have thought, that after all, it was rock and roll”. Frank Turner could not be more right.   Everyone at that show was able to forget about all their problems and just get lost in the overwhelming power of great music.