A Great Night with Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls in Luxembourg

So, after a mostly crappy day, but a rather nice evening, I found myself at the front row of a Frank Turner show :-)

[Here is the story of the weird Saturday (and how I ended up in the front row…)]

And the show was so freaking awesome. Due to this being a festival show, they didn’t play a full set, but still a good 1h 20 minutes, which I know might be considered a full set for other artists ;-) The sound was excellent, Frank and the guys all seemed to be in a good mood and the audience was as well. They sang along and they danced along and from what I could see in the front row, they also did the Jumping Jack during “Recovery”. Perfect!

I took quite a lot of photos, because… front row!!!… and I admit it took a while for me to register that if I use the zoom properly I could get even better and more close up photos *headdesk*. Even rather good photos of the band, although I missed the opportunity to capture Ben, because he was on the other side of the stage most of the time. Being to so close up to Tarrant I once again noticed how crazy (in a good way) he moves on stage and I could only once take a decent photo, when he wasn’t moving, because when he’s moving he’s like a dervish…

I sometimes had to catch myself to not miss the good moments of the concert while I was watching it all through my tiny camera screen. It’s so tempting to get sucked into this “OMG you’ll never get this close, you have to capture it” mood. But I hopefully manage to stay present in the moment most of the time and to just experience this amazing performance.
What else is there to say, which I haven’t said about the half dozen (yes, it’s been that many already) Frank Turner shows I’ve been to? Besides the fact that it was the freaking front row, of course ;-)

It was so weird, but in a totally good (adorable) way to hear Frank say “Merci” when he thanked the audience for singing and dancing along. Of course he did sing Eulogy in the national language, Luxembourgish and the audience and Frank had a lot of fun with that. The language has some similarities to German, so I understood some of it and it was funny to see that it was a different translation (closer to the original) than the German one. And he replaced Freddie Mercury with someone else, probably a Luxembourgish rock star? He brought a volunteer up on stage for the harmonica solo in “Dan’s Song” which was a lot of fun to see as well. That girl was such a good sport and enjoyed it a lot, I think.

The highlight of the show for me was, that they played a new song: “Get Better”. I haven’t heard that before nor have I stumbled over it on YT, like I sometimes do with other Frank Turner stuff (but that’s interviews mostly). Anyway, even after only having listened to it once, and assuming that it will be on the new album and thus properly released, I think it might become one of my favourite songs. Because I loved it’s sound, but even more because I was once again in awe how well Frank is able to capture moods and moments that I recognize from my own life. To write songs that deeply resonate with me, at least from what I understood and remember from the lyrics after this one performance. I think the central line of the chorus goes

“I’m trying to get better, because I haven’t been my best”

The lyrics in general are about getting better, in a “be more positive, be happier” kind of way. To look to the future and not the past. To let go of negative things and to leave all the negative stuff behind. There was one great line about “the right road in front and the bad stuff in the rearview mirror”. And I listened to it last night at this show and I tried with all my heart to soak it all in, because it felt like a song I really needed to hear at this point in my life. In a almost uncanny kind of way.
I can’t remember all the times I started a blog post with “I’m feeling off/weird etc.” in the past few months/year. Not exactly feeling bad or miserable, but not quite at my best either. I know I WANT to feel better and I think I might know how to get there. But it’s still kind of neat to think that this new song might be my “song for the road”, on the path of getting better!

But enough of this self-therapy babbling. I was really happy that I liked this new song for another reason as well. I have discovered Frank’s music not even a whole year ago and I love most of his stuff, especially the Tapedeck Heart album (even though it is rather depressing in some ways). But as the habitual pessimist I am I sometimes secretely worried, that I might not like his new music as much. Even though he stated a few times that it will be a more positive album, which is a good thing in itself ;-) And I want and need to hear more positive attitude music anway. But still, in a tiny corner in the back of my mind there was this stupid worry, that after falling so head of heels in love with his music last year I might not be so open to his new stuff. I know it doesn’t really make any sense. Well, I didn’t say it would.
But if there are more songs like “Get Better” on the new album, I will be more than happy. Heck, even with this song I’m already more than happy and I can’t wait for the new album and tour in spring/summer 2015. I’m pretty sure last night was my last Frank Turner show for a while and I’m stoked that my first “Frank Turner concert season (09/2013 – 06/2014)” ended on such an awesome note. And not to mention… in the freaking front row!

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