How I once tried to compile the ‘perfect’ Frank Turner setlist…. (Part 2)

Tomorrow evening will be the next show of my Frank Turner January, so I really wanted to put up the second part of the “perfect setlist” post. I’m not sure if that really is a good idea, because I’m sooooo freaking tired. I might not make a lot of sense. But I know that I won’t write this post when I get back on Sunday, because I’ll either have to write about the Bremen show then. Or just sleep ;-)

Once again, I’d like to state that Frank Turner himself is pretty awesome at putting together his own setlist. But I still wanted to share a few of the songs, which I might want to choose from if I had ever any say in putting the set together.

Last night I checked out previous lists on setlist.fm and was baffled to see, that “Once We Were Anarchists” was only listed for 22 of the over 1800 shows. In hindsight I realized my error of thinking, because just because setlist.fm has every date of every show listed, it doesn’t mean there also is a set listed for every show. Because it clearly isn’t. The shows of the first few years are listed without a set, and as this is a song from the first record, which he must have played a lot back then, it is underrepresented in the later years. But… last night I didn’t think that logical. I blame my lack of sleep.

I tweeted about this astonishing fact and then this happened….

Oh dear! From all of my tweets to which he could have replied at random, he chose the one where I make such a blunder. Tad embarrassing, isn’t it ;-)?

But back to a few of the songs I would love to hear him play at one of the remaining four gigs. There are two categories basically:

  • old classics, which were switched for new classics
  • rare songs, which I just love for one reason or another

And of course there are more songs in each category, but right now I’m especially fond of the following. It might change in the next few days or weeks….

Old Classics

A few of my favourites among the older songs seem to have made a comeback in the last few months (e.g. “One Foot Before The Other”) or seem to be on a regular rota anyway (e.g. “Substitute”) so I remain hopeful about those. But others he didn’t play very often anymore in 2015. According to setlist.fm. again, I hope it’s more reliable for the last few years.

“Once We Were Anarchists” definitely belongs into this category and so does “Love, Ire & Song”. I heard him play the latter at the Cologne E-Werk gig in 2014 and I was so happy about that. Frank also doesn’t play “Eulogy” all that often anymore, which is a shame. Especially if he did it in the language of the host country it always broke the ice for those who saw him for the first time. So, these are three of the old classics I’d love to hear again at one of the gigs this month.

Rarer Songs

The previously mentioned gig in Cologne in March 2014 was one of my favourites, because he not just played “Love, Ire & Song” but also “Sailor’s Boots”. I love this song so much! Even though I’ve never been on a sail boat yet! But I love the ocean and being near the ocean and this song encompasses that to me on so many levels. It also contains a few lyrics I can so very well relate to.

These last few days I’ve been listening to all my Frank Turner songs on shuffle in my car and I’ve stumbled over a few songs I haven’t listened to in a long time. Or songs I haven’t really acknowledged properly back then when I first got into his music. Because “Sea Legs” is a really, really beautiful song.  I would definitely love to hear that one live some day.

Those were mostly slow folksy tunes so far, but there are others I would love to hear him play as well. Like the one I borrowed this blog’s title from: “Poetry of the Deed”. I love to rock out to it and there are so many great lyrics.

Let’s grab life by the throat and then live it to pieces.
We can choose, we can change and if we don’t,
We’re just afraid of living life like we’re loved
And in love and alive to all the things we could be
If we just believed that life,

Life is too short to live without poetry,
If you’ve got soul, darling, now come on and show it to me.

I could go on and on now with finding clips of songs I would really really love to hear live some day (soon), but I really feel my fatigue catching up with me. Which means: I should head to bed now so I’ll be able to get up early tomorrow to pack for my (short) weekend trip to Bremen. In about 24 hours I’ll see Mr. Frank Turner and the amazing Sleeping Souls on stage again. Yay!

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