Live Review: Frank Turner @ Night & Day Cafe, Manchester (10/08/2015)

Last week saw the release of Frank Turner’s sixth album ‘Positive Songs for Negative People’; an album self described by Frank to be about picking yourself up when you’re down, with the title reflecting exactly that. To celebrate the release of the album Frank announced a series of in store performances and signings, as well a string of shows in intimate venues. Luckily for us, the wonderful Night & Day Café was amongst Frank’s venue choices. Tickets were allocated via a ballot, with those fans lucky enough to be drawn able to purchase tickets for just £6 including ticket fees for the show that was just a few days later.

“Welcome to show 1710” shouted Frank from the stage on Monday night, a stage that he also played to celebrate Independent Venues Week in January of this year. Frank explained that the evening would include a selection of both his new songs and hits, receiving mass amounts of cheers from the crowd. The intimacy of the venue suited a solo Frank and his guitar perfectly (he mentioned later in the show that his backing band The Sleeping Souls were on holiday).

“By the water of the Thames, I resolve to start again” were the first words sang by Frank as he opened with ‘The Angel Islington’, a beautiful acoustic number from the new album. Upbeat and full of angst track ‘Get Better’ followed, filling me with the confidence that there’d be no song in the set list that the crowd couldn’t sing back to Frank as the entire room shouted “we can get better, because we’re not dead yet” from the bottom of their lungs. Frank’s lengthy set list was flawlessly orchestrated with old and new tracks in a perfect order.

Highlights from the new album were found in gorgeous track ‘Mittens’ in which Frank uses knitwear to describe a relationship that was good but never quite perfect; “we used to fit like mittens but never like gloves”. As well as a touching performance of ‘Song For Josh’, a tribute to Josh Burdette; a friend of Frank’s who worked at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club and sadly took his own life. Complete with glistening eyes and a trembling voice, Frank sang the song with an incredible amount of emotion that highlighted just how meaningful it is to him. Unfortunately there were some people talking in the crowd during ‘Song for Josh’ which was both disrespectful and sad since Frank had begun the track by speaking about how when he’d written it, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to play it live. Frank introduced the majority of his new tracks with a short insight in to the subject of the track or how it was written, which was perhaps most interesting before his hauntingly powerful performance of ‘A Silent Key’ – a track about the tragic death of Christa McAuliffe in the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster.

Though evidently excited to play his new material, Frank was also incredibly enthusiastic when it came to what he deemed his “Hit Canyon” as he played hits such as ‘Recovery’, ‘The Way I Tend To Be’, ‘If Ever I Stray’, ‘The Ballad of Me and my Friends’ and the roof raising ‘Photosynthesis’, which saw Frank break his guitar strings twice! As well as the wide array of hits played by Frank, it was great to see some lesser played tracks in the set list, such as ‘Wisdom Teeth’ from his debut album ‘Sleep Is For The Week’ and ‘The Fastest Way Back Home’ from his 2009 album ‘Poetry of the Deed’.

Frank dropped the idea of an encore entirely, deeming them a “waste of time”. Frank instead took a moment to take a step back and drink his beer whilst encouraging the crowd to chant for more songs, stepping forward once more for four more songs, including his first single from the new album ‘The Next Storm’ which got such a great reaction that you would’ve thought it’d been in his set for years. Frank looked delighted as the entire crowd shouted “REJOICE, REBUILD, THE STORM HAS PASSED” in unison during the last verse. The last of Frank’s own tracks was his 2010 single ‘I Still Believe’, proving that something as simple as rock and roll can most definitely save us all. Frank finished the night with a cover of Queen’s ‘Somebody to Love’, informing the enthused crowd that it did feature some crowd participation. Of course it will come as no surprise that the crowd collectively matched the volume of Frank’s vocals despite him having the advantage of a microphone!

Frank Turner embarks on a UK tour with The Sleeping Souls in November, and based on his performance at the Night and Day Café you’d be a fool to miss out! Check out his tour dates here!

Frank’s new album ‘Positive Songs For Negative People’ is available in stores and online now and I can personally vouch that it’s one of the best albums of 2015!

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