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03/27/2006: "Campfire Punk Rock"
Last night, I made a rare excursion from my must-go-to-bed-early-got-work-tomorrow cycle of the last six months to go and see Frank Turner play at Junktion Seven in Nottingham. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he used to be the singer in Million Dead, whose brilliance I seem to have ranted about on here a few times in the past.
Support was provided by James Severy, who was pretty good; My Psychoanalyst, who I think might have been alright had their drummer a) made some attempt to tune his kit, and b) realised he was playing in a very small room where he was completely swamping the rest of the band; and 'Three fifths of' Dragonflies Draw Flames, who were also rather good.
With the demise of Million Dead, Frank Turner has taken a slightly different tangent, picked up an acoustic guitar, written some songs blending country and folk music with a bit of personal introspection, social commentary and a good dose of righteous punk fury. It sounds odd, but it works, and over the course of the set it has most of the room tapping their collective feet and joining in with the more singalong friendly bits - such as the scathingly sarcastic 'Thatcher fucked the kids' and token Million Dead track 'Smiling at strangers on trains'.
There's one more surprise up his sleeve before he's done though. It's a cover, and apparently we will all know it. When it turns out to be Abba's 'Dancing Queen', a small upstairs room in a pub in Nottingham rings to the sound of a crowd of rock-oriented types, somewhere between amusement and complete riotous confusion, joining in with a bit of 1970s pop.
Frank Turner is currently on an epic schedule of dates playing pretty much everywhere in the country. There's also an EP out (as he got the crowd to shout on several occasions) in the 15th of May. Check him out.
reply: Roo - Monday, March 27th
You wrong. its the 15th MAY. did you get that? 15TH MAY. everyone got it now? 15TH MAY. hehe. dust!
reply: David [homepage] - Monday, March 27th
D'oh.
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