24 November 2023 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
In his second tour of 2023, english singer songwriter Frank Turner made his glorious return to Australia, with a headlining show featuring himself and his backing band, The Sleeping Souls, who were making their first appearances in Australia in just under five years. The show had been a hotly anticipated one, as there had been an expectation that Frank and company would have toured in support of the 2019 album No Man’s Land. Unfortunately, a global pandemic put a stop to that, so Friday night in Brisbane would just have to be a long overdue party instead! Joining Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls on this trip, were Mom Jeans, and Western Australian singer songwriter Emily Barker.
Adorned with a guitar, a harmonica, and some beautiful lighting, Baker walked out to a great reception, as she gave us some incredible songs to get the night’s festivities started. I wasn’t able to catch the name of the song, but she even managed to pull someone up on stage from the audience named Jack, to sing a song with her, in a beautiful moment of the show.
Emily Barker – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
Up next were California indie rockers Mom Jeans. On their second tour of Australia in less than 12 months, the boys in Mom Jeans gave Brisbane everything they had. The set felt like it went on forever, but not in a bad way, as throughout the show, they both put one some incredible songs, and kept the energy up between songs with some hilarious banter between both themselves, and the audience. I do hope that Mom Jeans make the trip to Australia more often, because the crowd were definitely into the show, and its always fun to get international bands showing love to Australia as often as they can.
Mom Jeans – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
Flanked by The Sleeping Souls, Frank Turner strolled out onto stage to thunderous applause, before kicking the show into gear with the song ‘Punches’, ‘1933’, and ‘Get Better’. ‘Get Better’ was probably one of the loudest crowd songs of the night, with a massive singalong at one part of the song capturing the room. In what would be a recurring theme of the night, Frank Turner talked a lot. Sometimes when I go to shows, I mainly just want to hear the music. But Turner has a way to hold an audience captive with his words. I would have been okay with him talking for half the show. His energy is infectious, and the dude is absolutely hysterical.
After welcoming Brisbane to the 2831st show of his career, we were introduced to the two rules of a Frank Turner show. Rule number one: “Don’t be a dickhead”. And rule number two: “You gotta fucking sing along”. And the crowd had no issues with rule two, as the set chugged along with a big sing along to ‘Recovery’. A couple more songs floated by, and we got into another speaking section from Frank, which involved discussing transit issues with Virigin Airlines, the discussion of where is better, Sydney or Melbourne (Frank said Brisbane is the real answer), and band introductions, including revealing that this was drummer Callum Green’s first time in Brisbane.
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
After Green teased moving to Australia (and Frank complaining about how it would make band practice a nightmare), we got a small introduction into the song ‘Haven’t Been Doing So Well’, which is a song Turner wrote about his own diagnosis with mental illness. Turner also promised two terrible guitar solos during the song, but both of them were pretty sick. After an amazing play through of ‘Plain Sailing Weather’, Turner heaped praise on Mom Jeans and Emily Barker, before asking if anyone wanted to go back in time, if we were up for that shit. The crowd roared, and the band immediately kicked into ‘If Ever I Stray’, and ‘I Am Disappeared’.
After bass player Tarrant Anderson teased a potential move to Brisbane too, with Turner proclaiming he just lost his rhythm section to Brisbane, Turner confirmed a new record is in the works, and we were going to get a new song off that record tonight, called ‘Do One’. The song had a do-do-do sing-along section Frank taught before the song, but apparently we sucked at it, with Turner even proclaiming that it was a “terrible singalong like a Tuesday night in Canberra”, which hilariously drew mega heat from the crowd. After a touching tribute to his close friend, Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, with the song ‘A Wave Across a Bay’, Turner and co broke out the song ‘Wessex Boy’, which included a sing along that seemed to even impress Turner after the badly done one for ‘Do One’ earlier.
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
The Sleeping Souls exited the stage for their “mandated union break” so Frank could do a couple of solo songs, while telling us stories about the genesis of each song. ‘The Way I Tend to Be’ was written in Brisbane airport 13 years ago on Frank’s first tour of Australia, after a drunken call to his ex girlfriend in the Brisbane Airport, ‘Be More Kind’ was written about the political turmoil in the UK in 2016, and ‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’ was a song dedicated to all the friends that have come to shows to watch him over the last 13 years of coming to Australia. The Sleeping Souls returned, and after a bit of technical delay, the band launched into a spitfire of songs, including ‘I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous’ (where Turner introduced the show third rule: Dance!), ‘Photosynthesis’, ‘Out of Breath’, and set closer I ‘Still Believe’.
Turner and the Sleeping Souls returned for a three song encore, which included the songs hardest song, ‘Non Serviam’. This song freaking ruled, and was a super high energy way to bring the crowd back into the show. After saying goodbye, and telling everyone to come to his birthday party next month, the show closed out with ‘Polaroid Picture’ and ‘Four Simple Words’, as Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls said a final goodbye to Brisbane, and show number 2831.
