Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Palladium, Cologne; October 20th, 2024

The ticket for Frank Turner’s show in  Cologne had been with me for months and now it was finally time to go see him again. He is one of those artists that always put on a great show and you can count on a fun evening, no matter how well you know his music. He had two great support acts too and it turned out to be a fantastic evening. 🙂

With delayed trains, I arrived at the venue just a little before surprised and was surprised to only have around 30 people in front of me. Cool! Soon after, the line got much longer. Right behind me were people that had a ticket to sell and refused to sell to a scalper. They were rewarded when a new fan came along, looking for a ticket. He was alone, so they invited him to stay with them and everyone around cheered when he mentioned he had just discovered Frank and it was his first concert. 😀

Waiting went by quickly and once inside I immediately headed upstairs, where I got a great spot side stage. I didn’t know anything about the support acts, nor had I listened to Frank’s latest album much, but I was excited nonetheless.

At about 7:15, earlier than I had expected, Shitney Beers stepped on stage, armed with a guitar. I had expected a band somehow, but was all in for some acoustic music. They played some lovely music for us. I must admit I didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics, but really enjoyed the melodies.

In-between songs told us they had been in Cologne with a band last time and asked who our favorite football club is, confessing they  liked for VFB Stuttgart. They also talked about their love for the other two bands of the evening. One song was a sad one about their ex-girlfriend that I liked a lot. The material was really varied, even without a band and it was a good warm up for the evening. In the end they thanked us for everything and mentioned how much fun it had been to be on tour.

After a 15 minute break, it was time for Skinny Lister. I had no clue what to expect and was very happily surprised by their great energy. What a fun band. Their folky music made me want to dance and watching them move across stage just put a big smile on my face. Already during the first song, everyone was clapping along. 😀

There was dancing on stage, a double bass and an accordion too. It all sounded great. The audience downstairs was moving along with the music and I loved watching it all. There were some sing-alongs too and everything was they played was feel-good music. A few songs in they introduced themselves and asked us to make some noise for Shitney Beers and Frank Turner. Of course we did.

I enjoyed the softer songs like ‘Colours’ just as much as the faster ones like ‘Foourty Pound Wedding’. At one point the singer went into the audience to dance and on the way back she arm-wrestled one of the security guys, who was smiling all the way through. It was so much fun to watch the band in action. She also kept drinking liquor from a gigantic jug, which she eventually passed to the audience saying “Take a sip, pass it on, don’t be a dick, give it back when it’s done.” – it made the rounds and came back to the stage in the end. They were so much fun overall and a perfect fit for Frank.

Setlist

Wanted
George’s Glass
Tragedy in A Minor
Unto the Breach
Colours
Cathy
Forty Pound Wedding
Arm Wrestling in Dresden
Bold as Brass
John Kanaka ([traditional] cover)
Rollin’ Over
Hamburg Drunk
Company of the Bar
Trouble on Oxford Street

One more change of stage and at a quarter past 9, Frank and the Sleeping Souls walked on stage. He greeted us in German and they launched directly into  ‘No Thank You for the Music’. Downstairs, everyone was singing along. Without a break, ‘Girl from the Record Shop’ was next and after a brief “Thank you”, ‘1933’. This was the first one that felt familiar to me and I realized I had not listened to enough of Frank’s music lately. “And I don’t know whats going on any more” I sang along wit everyone else, feeling I had finally arrived at the show.

“Guten Abend Köln, wie gehts!” he yelled and continued in German, telling us it was show 2958, his German was perfect, but he wanted to practice his english. 😀 We learned the two rules of the nigh: 1. Don’t be a dickhead, i.e. let’s take care of each other so everyone can enjoy the evening. 2. If you know the words you gotta fucking song along. We got to try it with ‘Recovery’. Did I remember the song? Sure, but not all of the words. I had fun nonetheless and a big smile on my face.

Without taking a breath the show continued with ‘Never Mind the Back Problems’ and afterwards we were told it was time to dance for ‘Photosynthesis’. – “I won’t back down, I won’t shut up and most of all I will not grow up”. There was a great mosh pit going and I was quite happy not to be downstairs. Singing along worked just as well with the people on the balcony.

Frank told us how great it was to be in Cologne and at that venue, saying that they missed us, but they also had a new album out. The next song was about a pen pal he had as a teenager and met on a camping holiday. He was wearing a Korn hoodie, she was wearing Pennywise hoodie and told him she was cooler than him. The wrote each other for three years and sent each other mixed tapes, but then the letters ended. “and then I never heard from her again” – our “awww”  was not loud enough, so we had to try again. Once he wrote a song about it, she sent him an email, asking if the song was about her. 😀 ‘Letters’ is a great song and the story makes it even better.

With ‘Non Serviam’ we had reached the FTHC album – I had forgotten just how loud and punk that one is. Not one of my favorites, but great fun live, because Frank and the band bring so much energy to the stage ad the audience goes nuts. ‘Plain Sailing Weather’ was more up my alley and I was moving with the music and clapping along. It was the perfect concert to forget all my worries and get lost in the music.

I loved how the show had song from so many different albums, lots of new stuff, but just as many classics. In between, he introduced the band and we learned that he and Matt had gotten hair cuts in Germany. Frank also told us that his first ever show in Germany was in Cologne, supporting The Gaslight Anthem. Wish I had been at that show. ‘If Ever I Stray’ was next and a great sing-along for most. For a moment I wanted to be 20 again with endless time to listen to music and a better memory for lyrics. 😉 Nah, it’s a great pleasure to go to concerts in my 50s and I would not want to miss any of them.

For ‘The Next Storm’ he asked us all to jump and I’m sure the floor must have been shaking downstairs. It definitely looked great from above. ‘The Road’ followed, always a crowd favorite and a great sing-along. It’s one of the songs I really feel, even though my touring perspective is not that of a musician.

Frank mentioned how amazing his crew is and asked us all to cheer for them and everyone working at the show that evening. Absolutely. They all deserve it. The next song was an old one, that had not been played for a while and someone asked for it nicely. “It’s about love and about endings and I hope you like it.” It was ‘Redemption’ and brought my close to tears.

The band left stage and he asked us if we enjoyed our evening before he got on stage, then asked us to make some noise for “a new friend” Shitney Beers and “some old friends” Skinny Lister. “I didn’t use to play this song live very much for a while, but recently it started making more sense again in my head and in my heart. It’s called ‘The Way I Tend to be'” – that did it, now I was crying.

“I’m not very good at politics. I don’t  know very much, I especially don’t know much about politics, but I have a lot of German friends, who tell me there’s some dark and dangerous shit coming up in German politics…. that makes me sad. I wrote this song in 2016 … I decided to change the course of history through the power of song… 8 years later I’m here to tell you it didn’t change anything at all…. Tonight I give it to you… I hope you find the people to fight and I hope you win.” Yes, I hope so too. ‘Be more kind’ was wonderful, it always is <3 and I could not get through that one without crying either. Mid song, he asked us all to take out our phone lights and we lit up the entire hall. :`)

Driving away the sadness, he dedicated ‘Tae Ballad of Me and My Friends’ to all of us. “I’m definitely going to hell, but I’ll have all the best stories to tell” – that sums it up pretty much. 😀 Frank said he’d been playing songs for 26 years and used to live on a sofa in a hallway above a pub in North London, dreaming about one day playing a show in South London and now he has played all over the world. He thanked us for coming to the show. What song could be more fitting than ‘I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous’? He started on his own, then the band joined in.

The brilliant ‘Ceasefire’ brought us back to the latest album and we got one more from there, a “Mitsinglied”, ‘Do one’ – we tried the “Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do (do)” sing along and were told it was shit and they were louder than us in Berlin, Munich and Oberhausen. So we tried again, managed much better and as promised, Frank sang the first verse in German.

The ended the set with ‘Try this at home’ and the classic ‘I still believe’, which both brought great sing alongs. I can still remember the first time I heard ‘I still believe’ live and how it immediately made me feel at home. It hasn’t lost any of its power since.

They all left stage and let us cheer for some time before coming back out. He told us they’d be back for festivals in summer and they had a few more songs if we wanted to hear them. “One more new songs and then we’re gonna blow the roof of this fucking building!” ‘Somewhere Inbetween’ was announced as a song about the hard stuff, anxiety, imposter syndrome and the stuff that keeps me from sleeping at night” – it was fantastic. <3

‘Polaroid Pictures’ is always great, had us all clapping along and moving with the music. We were ordered to jump up and down at the end of the song and learned which excuses count and which do not. Hell yeah I jumped! 😀 There was more jumping, dancing and singing for ‘Get Better’ and for the grand finale, ‘Four Simple Words’, Frank went on an epic crowd-surfing journey, rolling over the heads of the audience and still continuing to sing. It was totally fucking mad and brilliant. Back on stage he raised his hands and asked us all to twirl along with him, so we did, before one last loud sing along. It was the perfect way to end the show. One final thank you and they were gone.

That was fun! Hope to see you again soon.

Setlist

No Thank You for the Music
Girl From the Record Shop
1933
Recovery
Never Mind the Back Problems
Photosynthesis
Letters
Non Serviam
Plain Sailing Weather
If Ever I Stray
The Next Storm
The Road
Redemption

Frank solo
The Way I Tend to Be
Be More Kind
The Ballad of Me and My Friends

I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
Ceasefire
Do One (first verse in German)
Try This at Home
I Still Believe

Encore:
Somewhere Inbetween
Polaroid Picture
Get Better
Four Simple Words