Punk

Live Review: Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls at Meow, Wellington

Frank Turner Sleeping Souls Meow Wellington New Zealand tour poster
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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls

w/ Jon Snodgrass
Meow, Wellington
Saturday 18 April 2015

Let it never be said that Frank Turner doesn’t please his fans.

His output is prolific: a constant stream of new EP’s, splits, B-side collections and live DVD’s to appease his fans between studio albums. All on top of a hectic touring schedule.

Just last week he played all of England Keep My Bones at a show in Melbourne. To say I had looked forward to this gig would be an understatement.

Meow was an interesting choice of venue. I’m used to seeing small folk acts play here, not bands with this kind of following. Being sold out, the place was crammed, making it far more ‘intimate’ than I’m used too. Not that I’m complaining – how often do you get to witness a special small gig like this, put on by someone who has headlined Wembley?

Jon Snodgrass (Drag The River) started the night off singing some of his solo material. His voice was warm and comforting, reminiscent of Southern styled country music. He was soon joined onstage by Frank Turner wearing a Converge hoodie and armed with a harmonica.

The two of them played a bunch of songs from their Buddies split EP, a rough recording penned in only four hours during a stint together on the Revival Tour in America. The songs were far from perfect – clearly not well rehearsed – but the stories behind each song were entertaining and the relaxed approach from the duo set the mood for a fun night ahead. One of the highlights was the song “Happy New Year”. They bullied their stage tech into taking over on harmonica for that song, despite protests that he didn’t know how.

For his own set, Turner and his band, The Sleeping Souls, were all dressed in white button up shirts. The Sleeping Souls were the perfect choice of band. All four of them  were clearly into it, jumping and dancing about onstage, although mid-set they lived up to their name and had a sleepy sit-down while Turner played some material solo. Bassist Tarrant Anderson held his bass high on his chest and waltzed round with it, while Ben Lloyd boogied and ripped on guitar and mandolin. The placed was so densely packed that I couldn’t see the drums or keys from where I was standing, but I could certainly hear them.

This tour was supposed to promote the new album, but the new album hadn’t yet been released. Not to be deterred by this, Turner previewed a handful of tracks from said forthcoming album. The first song had a country feel. “Get Better” is a straight up thumper. Every song was great, leaving me eager to listen to get my mitts on the new album once it comes out.

The show was full of rousing sing-alongs, or more accurately, shout-alongs. The musicians were at home on-stage, happy to interact with the crowd and exchange banter. There were threats to cover Crowded House and Shihad. Drummer Nigel Powell played the tourist card and asked how many people in the crowd worked for Weta Digital. Turner told a funny story about how he was inspired to write a song in Melbourne about an ex-girlfriend who smelt like a koala.

Towards the end Turner noted how there was no point in doing the typical encore ritual, mainly because there was no room for the band to leave the stage. The “one more song!” chant was supported by the drums, and the *boom, boom, clap* evolved into a short cover of Queens’ “We Will Rock You”.

The encore included some of the hits from the early albums, ending with “Four Simple Words”. Turner conducted the band theatrically, before crowd-surfing during the last verse.

Frank Turner selfie

Cheesy selfie with Frank after the show. Not often that I stand next to someone taller than me!

This was Turners show #1666, and the last of the current tour. He recounts how one thousand shows ago he played an Iron Maiden cover. This remains testament to Turner’s longevity as a musician, due to his inclusive, humble approach to playing music. All the musos hung back after the show to meet the fans and sign merch, despite a 4am flight home the following day.

At the end of a tour bands are either too exhausted and at the end of their tether, or go all out and end with a bang. This was a case of the latter.

Because there’s no such thing as rock stars, just people who play music. Some of them are just like us and some of them are dicks.  

Frank Turner – “Try This At Home”

Turner is the anti-rock star. He knows how to master the stage and had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. But he’s just a regular guy. He swears and shouts and crowd surfs, and invites the audience to do the same. Many of his lyrics are thought provoking and tender, written from the point of a man who once idealised punk ethos and has since matured, but refuses to forget his past. Turner acknowledges the teenage anarchists and old fogeys alike, and invites them both to dance and sing along.

 

Joseph James

Live Review: Foo Fighters at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

Foo Fighters Rise Against Mt Smart Auckland Sonic Highways World Tour
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Foo Fighters

w/ Rise Against (USA) & Miss June (NZ)

Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

Saturday 21 February 2015

 

I am a huge Foo Fighters fan. I saw them put on three-hour show across two stages at Vector Arena when I was 16 years old. It was (and is likely to remain) the greatest concert I had ever been to. The second time I saw the Foos the crowd collectively triggered an earthquake by jumping up and down to the music.

Since then Dave Grohl and his cohorts have released two great documentaries with fairly weak soundtracks (Sound City and Sonic Highways). This tour is the first in New Zealand to have not sold out in the past decade. Ticket prices have been lowered to less than a third of what they were to entice more people to the show. This all begs the question: have the Foo Fighters lost it, or are they still as brilliant as they ever were?

 

 

I can’t be contested that Foo Fighters are one of the best live bands around, but I prefer listening to Rise Against. They were my ‘gateway band’ that first introduced me to punk music.

Rise Against have managed to carve a musical career by blending punk politics, attitudes and ethos with melodic rock sensibilities. In 2008 they signed to a major label and managed to break into the mainstream without compromising their sound and values. I respect them for being one of the few bands played on the radio with messages actually worth taking note of.

Tonight was the fourth time I’d seen Rise Against onstage. I was pleased that almost half their set was older (pre-major label) material. They had large glowing letters spelling out RISE onstage but we all know that it isn’t about how cool the setup looks, it’s about the energy put into the music and delivery. They played with the expected intensity. Guitarist Zach Blair was doing his signature punk jumps all over the stage. The songs “Help Is On The Way” and “Savior” both featured dynamic extended bridges.

Front-man Tim McIlrath invited Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett onstage to join the band. I’m assuming that Shiflett has been friends with Rise Against since his punk days, when he played for No Use For A Name. Together they covered the Jawbreaker song “Kiss The Bottle”

I really like Rise Against

I really like Rise Against

Auckland based opening act Miss June also played well. The drums stood out as sounding especially good. Although at first, they seemed a bit shy and shoe-gazy, after they had warmed up Miss June appeared right at home, delivering a short set of garage punk. Front-woman Annabel Liddell flung herself around the stage channeling Joan Jett. I half expected to hear “Ch, ch, ch, ch, CHERRY BOMB!”

 

 

I was confused by the Foo Fighter’s opening guitar line. “Skin and Bones”? Surely they’re not opening with an acoustic song? Actually, no. It was “Something From Nothing”, from the most recent album, Sonic Highways. I swear those two songs have near identical riffs.

“We’re not here to play a two hour set!” Grohl roared “Not two and a quarter, not two and a half! We want to put on the best show we can! I wanna play songs from the first record, the second record, the third record…”

And sure enough, they played for three hours, with a set including material from every album. Every song was a single, save for a few from the new album (that are likely to become singles) so there was a wide enough spread to please fans old and new.

One highlight was “Monkey Wrench”. It started off as usual, but turned into a sprawling psychedelic number come the bridge. The lights slowly dimmed until there was complete darkness, leaving the audience to drink in the sounds without distraction. Another was “These Days”, which grew and grew into a rousing sing along. Songs like these are when the Foo Fighters truly shine, when they turn playing into performing, with musical and visual dynamics.

The moment that they started to lose it was when Grohl walked to the end of the catwalk to play to those at the back of the stadium. This signaled a lull in the set. Those of us at the front couldn’t see anyone playing and the songs were acoustic. The energy had dissipated. People standing around me started checking their phones.

Grohl talked about his promise to play Auckland Town Hall the previous night. Unfortunately that show needed to be cancelled almost as soon as it had been announced. A truck carrying the band’s gear from their previous show in Christchurch had crashed near Taihape on the way to Auckland. “I guess this makes me look like an asshole” he grinned “so I tell you what: if you do something for me I’ll play two shows at the Town Hall next time I come, to make up for it.”

He started strumming “Wheels”. “Last time I made a deal that if you sang along to this song I’d play that Town Hall” he continued, “Well that didn’t work out, so the new deal is if you don’t sing along, then I’ll come back and play those shows.” Of course people still sang along.

“This is the first time I’ve ever told the crowd to shut up, to not sing along. And you still can’t even do it!” Grohl grinned, pretending to chide his audience.

When we first arrived I pointed out to my girlfriend why “the D” (The term used at Big Day Out for the fenced of area at the front, shaped in the shape of a letter D) was split in half.”That’s the catwalk,” I explained, “They run up and down it as they play so that they can get closer to the audience. At the Vector show they actually lowered a second stage from the roof with all the instruments on it so that the band could walk come down the end to play an acoustic set. But obviously that won’t happen tonight, because there is no roof to lower a stage from.”

I was wrong though. Sure, there was no roof to lower a stage from, so they had a secondary stage next to the catwalk that rose up from the ground instead. This was the covers stage, where the band paid homage to bands who had initially inspired them, like Rush, Kiss, and AC/DC. The best was their rendition of the classic Queen/David Bowie collab “Under Pressure”, with drummer Taylor Hawkins taking on Freddie Mercury’s parts and Grohl taking on Bowie’s.

“Under Pressure” revived the show. And if it hadn’t, “All My Life” certainly would have. By the penultimate song, “Best Of You”,Grohl was clearly starting to lose his voice. They finished off with the obligatory “Everlong” (The rock version, not the acoustic version that they have tended to play live for the past several years).

 

 

So to answer my question from before: have the Foo Fighters lost it, or are they still as brilliant as they ever were? It was an excellent show. Three hours from one of the world’s best rock bands is hard to fault. But it did feel like they were going through the motions. They played song after song, but that was it. The extra performance aspects I had come to expect were largely absent. The extended jams didn’t feature too often. There were no guitar duels and long drum solos.

If this was the first time I had seen the Foos play I would be raving about how amazing it was. But I have seen them play twice before, and the third time just wasn’t as good.

Foo Fighters played two sold out shows at Wembley Arena in 2008. I think that is when they peaked. They are by no means bad, but it looks to me that they are resting on their laurels rather than continuing to push the envelope. The documentaries they have released are great, but the new music and the Mt Smart performance fail to inspire me.

 

Joseph James

 

Album Review: Frank Turner – The Third Three Years (B-sides collection)

Frank Turner Third Three Years
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Folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner stays true to his DIY hardcore roots by releasing a third b-sides collection with a nod to Black Flag.

Turner had hardcore/punk origins as front man of the band Million Dead. After Million Dead, er … died, Turner began a solo career with a folk sound along the lines of Billy Bragg and the late Joe Strummer. He’s worked hard touring and recording consistently over the years, and now has begun to achieve relative commercial success, having headlined at Wembley Arena and played at the London Olympics opening ceremony in recent years.

This is Turner’s third collection of b-sides, following his last album Tape Deck Heart. The title and album art  are inspired by The First Four Years from seminal hardcore outfit Black Flag.

I’m a bit late to the party reviewing this album, but sometimes it takes a while for things to arrive in New Zealand when I have to order them from overseas. It was worth the wait though.

I’ve kept up with some of Turner’s non-album output, such as Daytrotter sessions, but I was pleased to discover that Third Three Years contained music that was almost entirely new to me, including some unreleased gems. The collection comprises of covers,  b-sides from EP’s and singles and obscure recording sessions.

In fact, nearly half the collection are up of covers. Turner covers his bases with his choices. There are classic bands (Queen, Tom Petty), folk singers (Townes Van Zandt) and punk artists (Tony Sly, The Weakerthans). These covers do well to encompass Turner’s very British style of folk-punk. Many of the covers are stripped back, giving the overall album a more somber feel. But hey, anybody who can take on a song by Freddie Mercury and do it justice deserves a thumbs up in my books.

There are a few alternative outtakes from his latest album, Tape Deck Heart. My favourite from that album, “The Way I Tend To Be” is given different treatment with extra mandolin and piano.

There are two collaborations with other artists. “Happy New Year” is a humourous and unpretentious ditty with Jon Snodgrass and “Fields Of June” is a country number by Emily Barker that Turner features on. These duets work nicely to add a bit of variety to the mix.

The rest of the songs are just what you’d expect, punk ethos singer-songwriter music with breathless singing and swear-word filled shouting. Although this is what I expected, I didn’t expect so much solo work. Turner’s touring band, The Sleeping Souls seem absent from these recordings. A few songs are collaborations with other musicians – Revival Tour style DIY camaraderie – but other than a mandolin, organ or added guitar accompaniment here or there, there is a marked lack of a full band of most tracks. The Sleeping Souls are credited on nine songs, but it’s pretty subtle because they’re hard to detect.

B-sides collections like these are never as strong as a cohesive studio album, but can offer rare gems for the diehard fans. There are a lot of songs (21!), and although most are not considered ‘good enough’ to make the cut, fans won’t be disappointed. And they should know what to expect, because any serious Frank Turner will likely have The First Three Years and The Second Three Years anyway.

Overall this album is a bit too sedate to get regular play through my speakers. There is more of a folk focus than punk. I’m more likely to select the handful of songs that I enjoy more and include them in playlists than listen to the entire collection. But just to show that he’s not getting soft, Turner closes off the CD with a rip-roaring live version of “Dan’s Song”. It’s furiously fast and explosive, just like punk music should be.

Frank Turner put on an excellent show in Wellington in April 2013 with his backing band, The Sleeping Souls. He’s returning this April to play sideshows from the Byron Bay Bluesfest. Details can be found through the Chicks That Scream Facebook page.

Joseph James

Live Review: Against Me! at Bodega, Wellington

Against ME Bodega Wellington Poster
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Against Me!

w/ Off With Their Heads and The Outsiders

Bodega, Wellington

 Saturday 14 May 2011

Third time lucky, or so the saying goes. After a few failed attempts, Against Me! finally came back to New Zealand for their White Crosses tour. As annoyed as I was when they cancelled the tour last time, the Saturday night show was enough to make up for it.

Local Wellington band The Outsiders were a good choice for an opening act, their shouty style of punk being similar in style to AM! They played a blistering set of punk rock fury that set the trend for the rest of the night. Supporting act Off With Their Heads played well too, but all their songs seemed to sound the same. Not that this is a bad thing, but a bit of variety wouldn’t have hurt either.

Opening song “From Her Lips to God’s Ears” set the crowd off. The highlight for me was “I Was a Teenage Anarchist”, one the major singles from their latest album. I was also quite thrilled to hear “Amputations”, from frontman Tom Gabel’s solo record, Heart Burns. I hadn’t expected the band to delve into Gabel’s solo work to add to their set.

The venue was small, and quite tightly packed. Despite the amount of bodies crammed into such a small place, the heat wasn’t overbearing. The smaller area just made it a better, more intimate show. And, of course, the best part about having so many people crammed into a confined space is that there were plenty of opportunities for crowd surfing and stage dives. The poor stage crew were trying rather hard to keep people off the stage, but many managed to get onstage and yell a few lyrics at Gabel’s microphone before getting pushed off.

The band didn’t move around much, but there was no doubt that they invested plenty of energy into their performance. Gabel was dripping with sweat. And one of the drummer’s crash cymbals got destroyed. All the members shouted the lyrics to the songs with great gusto, as did much of the crowd. A good portion of the audience seemed to know all the words to all the songs, and for those who didn’t, there were plenty of “woahs” and “ba ba da’s” to join in with.

The set was well paced. The band kept the banter to a minimum, and just delivered the goods. Song after song, the crowd was just lapping it up.

The band left for a breather, but after a few minutes of the crowd chanting for more the band came back on for more. Rather than the usual one or two song encore that most bands seem to do these days, AM! played “Stop!”, and then a good four or five songs, leaving the punters more than happy.

This is exactly how a punk show should be: fast, fun and political.
Despite having sung about it during their set, Against Me! certainly haven’t lost their touch

 

Joseph James