Frank Turner returns to Crossroads in Garwood, New Jersey
Frank Turner has played thousands of shows across the world since he started as a solo artist in 2004. To be exact, he’s played 2,876 shows at the time of this article’s publication. Starting out as the singer of hardcore band, Million Dead, but taking influence from and touring with artists from Counting Crows to Gaslight Anthem to NOFX, Frank has managed to blend a variety of genres into his poetic lyrics. He never seems to stop touring, hopping back and forth across the pond from his home in England.
One of the unique things about seeing Frank Turner is that you never know what you’ll get with his live shows. The set list tends to change from show to show, as does the nature of the shows and venue. Sometimes you’ll see him play a sold out 2,000 cap venue with his full band, billed as Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, but other nights you’ll see him play solo just with him and a guitar in a bar in New Jersey. And that’s exactly what I got to see on a Thursday night in April just a few weeks short of his tenth studio album, Undefeated being released.
This was the second time that I was lucky enough to see Frank play a late night gig at this particular legendary Jersey bar, Crossroads. The last was back in June 2021, during his ambitious 50 States in 50 Days tour, immediately following a full band show in Queens earlier that night. Once again arriving from an earlier show—a record store gig at Looney Tunes Records in Long Island—Frank joked that maybe one day he would play a show at Crossroads in which he wasn’t rushing in from another show, with time to sit down and relax a bit, with a beer beforehand.
Starting off the set with some newly released songs from Undefeated—Do One and Girl From the Record Shop—the energy in the small, but tight packed crowd was electric. Shortly followed by ‘If Ever I Stray’, the anthemic ode to the place he hails from (Southern England), the friends and life he’s created for himself.
Halfway through the set came one of the most magical moments of the 70 times I have seen Frank Turner. While several songs on the upcoming album, Undefeated had recently been released on an EP, a song called ‘Somewhere Inbetween’ had not yet been heard or played live yet…until tonight.
“This song’s my favorite song on the album; it’s about some heavy shit” he told the crowd, strumming right into a certainly heavy opening line singing:
“I’ve been pretending to be somebody else since I was just fifteen
and I don’t know if the show was for them or for me anymore, I’m not sure
And I don’t recall being born but I remember being underwhelmed when I worked out who I was.
Cause that didn’t fit with any of the things that I’ve been thinking”
The five minutes that it took for him to sing this song may have been the stillest, yet emotional I’ve ever seen a room full of 200 people in a dive bar. It seemed that every person in that room resonated with Frank’s words. When he finished, the crowd burst out into an applause that almost didn’t seem to end. But then again, that’s fairly normal for Frank Turner shows, which seem to have a very special camaraderie to them.
The rest of the set was equally as magical with as always, a variety of the hits, deep cuts, and new songs that will surely become classics. It’s safe to say that every person in that New Jersey bar had the time of their life that night.
Frank Turner’s new album Undefeated is now out and available at your local record store, Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your music. He will be back in the tri-state area on May 26th at The Paramount in Huntington, NY on Long Island.
