Text by Rene Rosierse
Frank Turner played the only Dutch show of his Undefeated tour at Tilburg’s 013 last Monday and we were there!
When we arrived at the venue first support act The Meffs had just finished their set, shortly after, Skinny Lister opened the evening for us. The band was there with one goal; to get the crowd in the mood for Frank Turner! Forty five minutes of rockabilly and typical Irish pub songs did the trick, from the very start of their set they had the crowd cheering, singing, and dancing along. Sharing a massive bottle of booze with their audience probably helped too.
At nine o’clock sharp it was time for Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls to enter the stage. ‘No Thank You For The Music’ , ‘Girl From The Record Shop’ and ‘1933’ blasted through the venue with the enthusiasm that we’re familiar with from Frank Turner. Just like at most of his shows he once again explained the two rules the audience must live by during his shows; rule one is “don’t be a dickhead” and rule two is “if you know the words, sing along”. It seemed like everybody already knew these rules and acted accordingly. His show in Tilburg was show number 2963 according to Frank, who’s still keeping track of the amount of live shows he’s performed during his musical career. He’s also one of not many who realised that playing in Tilburg meant playing in The Netherlands and not in Holland, so aside from being musical and entertaining, it was also an educational evening!
After forty five minutes of blasting song after song it was time for a solo acoustic intermezzo from Turner. Especially ‘Be More Kind’ and ‘The Ballad Of Me And My Friends’ were sung not only by Frank but also by the entire crowd (rule number two). With ‘I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous’ The Sleeping Souls returned to the stage for the last part of the set which ended with an amazing version of ‘I Still Believe’. After the encores Frank and the band got off stage and left the crowd with the feeling that they witnessed one of the best shows of the year. With one two more months before we end 2024, it is almost sure that this show will end up in our top three of 2024 live shows.
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