Frank Turner – Larry and His Flask – Jenny Owens – at The House of Blues – Anaheim, CA

It was another hot day on September 20th in Downtown Disney prior to the Frank Turner show. When the doors opened at 7, the crowd rushed into House of Blues (to get into the AC as well as snag a prime spot for the show). 

 

 

Before Jenny Owen Youngs even took the stage, there was a sizeable crowd gathered—one of the largest I’ve seen for an opener. Youngs took the stage solo and the next 30 or so minutes were just a delight. Her voice is clear and strong. After playing a couple of her own songs, she goes into a quirky story about how radioactive cockroaches (from The X-Files 5th season) are like a love song. As I was still trying to wrap my head around that logic, she broke into a pretty great cover of “Ring of Fire” and asked the audience to sing along with her. According to Ms. Youngs, Anaheim was the “best city on the tour to sing along”. Continuing with her cover streak, she giggled through her delightfully goofy rendition of “Call Me Maybe”. (That song is absolute tripe and completely ridiculous—that’s why she was laughing.) She closed out her set with an older song and a new one, “Fuck Was I” and “Love For Long”. If you are into the more mellow acoustic singer/songwriter genre, Jenny Owen Youngs is right up your alley. 

After a fairly short break, Larry and His Flask took to the stage. These guys ALWAYS put on a great show, and tonight was no exception! They kicked off the set with “No Life” and though their first few songs seemed a bit lethargic (by Larry and His Flask standards) they sure as hell didn’t continue that way! By the time they played “Shake Down”, the band and the audience were sweatily bouncing all over the place. It was at this point that some grizzled looking biker guy  said, “Jesus, it sounds like clowns are gonna come out next!” (I guess he thought the band had a circus feel to them.) Slowing things down for a minute, they played the title track off their most recent album, “Hobo’s Lament”.  Jamin stood up on his stool behind the drums, harmonizing with the lead singer. Hearing just that song was enough to convince me I need to buy their newest release. There was barely time to take a breath between the end of that song and the beginning of the next—the guys from Oregon went balls out until the end of the set, with Ian, the lead, playing at the barricade and into the crowd. They dedicated a song to Frank and a song to the heavy drinkers (“Slow it Down”). It was a phenomenal set—but that’s to be expected from Larry and His Flask.

While they were setting up for Frank Turner, you could feel the anticipation vibrating off the crowd. A friend of mine had never seen (or heard) Frank Turner before, so I invited him along for the show. “Just judging from the crowd, this is going to be a good show, isn’t it?” I answered him with a raised eyebrow and said, “You’ll see”.  A few seconds after that, Frank took the stage, along with the Sleeping Souls and opened with “Eulogy”.  Turner’s talent coupled with his energy and stage presence always makes for a good time and tonight was no different.  As soon as the first chord of “The Road” was struck, the crowd went apeshit, bouncing, raising their hands in the air, and singing along. During “I Want to Dance”, Turner encouraged (well, told) the crowd to dance. It didn’t matter what style, just so long as you dance.

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls are currently in Burbank recording a new album, and we were lucky enough to hear a couple of songs off of the upcoming release. “Time Machine” and “Wherefore Art Thou, Gene Simmons?”, which was inspired by a biography about the Kiss frontman and his sexual escapades. The level of camaraderie and interaction that Turner has with his fans at shows is one of the many reasons that people will see him over and over and over again. (That, and he is just fuckin’ awesome!)  As part of the encore, he did a cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl”, telling us in the audience that “unless you were raised by wolves, you know this song. So you better sing along!” Closing out the show, he had Jenny Owen Youngs come out to play harmonica (the rest of us were still stuck playing air harmonica), he gave his guitar to Ian (Larry and His Flask) to play, and the drummer from Social Distortion made an appearance so that the Souls’ drummer could play a snare on top of the speakers! 

 

It was a typical Frank Turner show—lots of sing-alongs, some new material, a cover tune.   But by the time the show was done, we were all sweaty and euphoric—even my friend, who is now one of Frank Turner’s many fans. 

 

Set-list: 

 

Eulogy
The Road
Peggy Sang the Blues
Long Live the Queen
Glory Hallelujah
Reasons Not To Be An Idiot
Time Machine
Wessex Boy
Substitute
Wherefore Art Thou, Gene Simmons? 
The Fastest Way
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
I Am Disappeared
One Foot Before the Other
Four Simple Words 
Try This at Home
I Still Believe

Encore: 

American Girl (cover)
Love, Ire, and Song
Photosynthesis 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Anni Thyme-
Big Wheel Staff Journalist

 

 

 

 

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