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FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS
+ Mom Jeans + Emily Barker
@ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide,
29th November, 2023
(Live Review)

Review and photos by Chris Reid (@cdrimagery)

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls returned to Adelaide for the last night of their NZ / Aus tour and they signed off with an absolute blinder of a show. They played a huge set and because he is such a good guy managed to squeeze in an extra strong into the encore as a sneak peak of what they have lined up for next year’s album release.

Emily Barker, a singer songwriter from Western Australia, was the first-on act. It was only a short set but the beautifully crafted songs caught the attention of those who had made the effort to get to the gig early.  ‘The Woman Who Planted Trees’, ‘Wild to be sharing this Moment’ and ‘Machine’ went down very well.  A one-woman act, playing an acoustic guitar she looked very cool in a black singlet showcasing her back tattoo, her soothing songs and gentle good humour was very engaging.  “This is a new song….I realise that they are all new to you!” and “normally Frank joins me on stage to sing this one but he is resting his voice tonight – would any of you like to duet?”  It was a great start to the night and over to soon but luckily it isn’t the last we will see of her tonight.

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Emily Barker / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Mom Jeans / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Californian four-piece indie / alternative rock band Mom Jeans were next.  A total change of gears from Emily.  Her gentle folk stylings were replaced with catchy fast paced tunes, high energy and loud guitars as they treated us to 13 songs of pure indie rock happiness.  The front 3 were very engaging and also extremely polite. “We so happy to be back in Adelaide, this is the first city we ever played in Australia and it is great to be back.”

I’m not sure if they have headlined an Australian tour before but they seemed more than capable of it.  There were clearly some in the crowd, mostly the younger ones – it was an all-ages gig after all – that had come just for Mom Jeans and were dancing and singing along to every song.  They weren’t the only ones who were dancing. The band themselves were clearly having fun playing together. Bass player Sam Kless is such a character; pulling faces at the crowd, getting the hand claps going, instigating little side step dances with lead singer Eric Butler and generally having as much fun on stage as he could.  There is clearly great chemistry between the band and they look like they are having as much fun as their audience are.

Lead guitarist Bart Thompson shared that there had been an airline luggage mishap and that his guitars had only arrived a few minutes before the show.  The band were super grateful to all at the Hindley Street Musical Hall for doing everything they could to make sure that they were able to play. “we love playing Australia everyone is so nice and courteous to us which isn’t always the case back where we’re from”.  It seems that they love everything about Australia other than BBQ sauce on their breakfast egg and bacon roll “BBQ sauce is a nighttime only thing!”

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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The venue was now filling up for Frank Turner but disappointingly it was not a sell-out, I guess those are the breaks sometimes for ending a tour midweek.

The band hit the stage in their standard, traditional white shirts and black pants uniform and launch into ‘Punches’. From the get go the crowd and pumping and jumping and singing along. Frank tells us “this is a punk song, this is an anti-fascist song” and they continue on with ‘1933’. ‘Get Better’ is next and the crowd are singing back to him until their voices go raw.  There is something almost magical about Frank Turner songs.  Yes, it is true that so many of them address subjects such as loss, anxiety, suicide, the need for recovery and such like but they are not morose, miserable or depressive but rather are uplifting and almost joyous repudiations of those things.

The words to ‘Recovery’ are given a minor change. They no longer met in ‘Jail’ but rather in ‘Adelaide’.  I suspect he substituted every New Zealand or Australian city that they played in the last couple of weeks here, it is a nice touch.  Another nice touch is the way in which Frank relates to the crowd. We are spoken to in the familiar tense, we are nothing less than “Friends”.  This is Frank’s 2,835th gig and nothing seems to diminish his love for playing or his love for friends, old or new, in his audience.

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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The Sleeping Souls had suffered the same luggage mishap that had befallen Mom Jeans.  Not for the first time on this tour it seems that Virgin have stuffed up and they are clearly at the bottom of Frank’s list of favourite airlines.  Once Frank’s pronunciation has been corrected, he too thanks all at Hindley Street Music Hall for making sure that tonight’s gig got to go ahead with the offers of spare equipment etc “We have some but not all of our stuff”.  I would have hated it if tonight had been cancelled coming on the back of his support slot in Adelaide earlier this year not happening after headliners Counting Crows had to cancel.

The new drummer Callum Green is introduced to the crowd and it turns out that this is his first visit to Australia.  We complete for his affections for the title of his favourite crowd. Frank suggests that “Adelaide wins by default because it is the last date” to which Callum replies he is feeling “positively orgasmic”. Frank tells us he loves Canberra the most as “he has always loved an underdog”.

“It’s not a sign of weakness to admit when you’re struggling, it’s a sign of strength” states Frank before they play ‘Haven’t been doing so well’ and he returns to this theme later in the set for the song ‘A Wave across a Bay’ about the suicide of one of his close friends Scott Hutchison, the front man of Frightened Rabbit.  “It’s a sign of strength to be able to ask for help” he repeats.  Good mental health is a recurring theme in the message that Frank promotes.

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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‘Wessex Boy’ is another chance for a big crowd join-in sing-a-long with the “nah-nah-nahs” before the band momentarily depart the stage for Frank to sing some solo numbers acoustic.  Here he shows that he is just as great as a solo performer as he is leading a great band.  It is a small taste of what we missed out on when that gig got cancelled earlier in the year.  ‘The ballad of Me and My friends’ again has the crowd roaring every line back to him.

The Sleeping Souls return to the stage and Frank enquires about Emily Barker. They tell him that, as expected, she has been drinking all of their rider and all of their wine is gone!  The full band smash out the remaining numbers closing out the regular set with the anthemic ‘I Still Believe’ an ode to the power of rock n roll and all its luminaries past and present.

After a very short break they are back. Frank’s smile is infectious. They give only the second ever live performance of ‘No thank you for the music’ a taster from what will be next year’s album release. It goes down a storm before they get back to the published set list with ‘Non Serviam’ from this year’s FTHC album. Emily has now joined the stage to sing backing vocals and they clearly all enjoy being together, her and Frank have turned across Australia before.

The band delivers a powerful version of the song ‘Polaroid Picture’ before they finish, in typical Frank Turner style, with ‘Four Simple Words’. The crowd goes beyond fever pitch as Frank, microphone in hand, leaps into the crowd and is carried around crowd surfing over the top of his friends.  A wonderful way to finish a concert and a tour. He promises that they will be back next year to tour the new album and the crowd, with sore feet and raw throats, salutes a fabulous performance from fantastic band.

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Check out Colin Reid’s (@cdrimagery) full gallery of this event HERE

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Connect with FRANK TURNER
Facebook – Website – Instagram – Twitter

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Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Press Release 4th July 2023 (below) HERE

FRANK TURNER
& THE SLEEPING SOULS
announces his biggest
Australian Headline Tour

THE NEVER ENDING TOUR
OF EVERYWHERE 2023

with special guests
MOM JEANS
EMILY BARKER

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AMNPLIFY – DB