Palladium, Cologne, Germany20th October 2024
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls - “Undefeated 2024 Tour” - Support: Skinny Lister, Shitney Beers
FRANK TURNER with Skinny Lister as support?! It doesn’t get much better than this, that’s for sure. These two acts have known each other for ages and their paths have certainly crossed a few times in the past, because stylistically the party animals aren’t that far apart. There are also certainly a large number of fans who have albums by both acts on their shelves at home. And that alone makes this package so appealing.
Shitney Beers
However, the opening slot at the early time of 7.15 pm belonged to SHITNEY BEERS. But unlike in spring 2024 when she supported Hamburg band KETTCAR, frontwoman Maxi Haug took to the big stage alone and performed her songs solo without the support of her band. And there was a downside, because when performed solo, her quietly performed songs were strikingly similar and all sounded somewhat the same. She created more of an atmosphere with her humorous contributions between the songs. Potato gratin, lactose intolerance, her ex-girlfriend, favourite football club, Torsten Frings. Yes, there was a lot of variety between the songs.
The highlight of her performance was the cover of the AEROSMITH hit ‘Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’, during which Maxi Haug got the audience to sing along.
Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 7
Light: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 6.5 / 10
Skinny Lister
There was nothing to change, the break between the two support acts was extremely short with just 15 minutes. And so the wild Englishmen stormed the stage at 8pm and rocked for the next 45 minutes as we know and - let’s be honest - expect from SKINNY LISTER. There was frontman Daniel Heptinstall, who carried the up-tempo songs with his vocals and acoustic guitar, while his wife Lorna Thomas was mainly busy with wild dancing and backing vocals. Just watching the two of them was a lot of fun. But also on stage were Lorna’s brother Maxwell Thomas on accordion, Scott Milsom on double bass and Tim Hillsden on drums. Apart from the drummer, nobody had a regular place on stage. It just went wildly back and forth. And at some point, Lorna Thomas stretched out and made a detour into the audience to wrestle with the crowd.
It was 45 minutes of the best party in the packed, albeit not sold-out, Cologne Palladium. Hats off to FRANK TURNER for having such a wild and rousing band like SKINNY LISTER on board as a support act. The danger of this band taking over the show is simply a given.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Light: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls
So now it was up to the incredibly likeable FRANK TURNER to top SKINNY LISTER’s performance once again. And let me say in advance: he succeeded. FRANK TURNER and his band THE SLEEPING SOULS were there from the very first moment. Full of energy, they kicked off with ‘No Thank You For The Music’, ‘Girl From The Record Shop’ and ‘1933’ and only with ‘Recovery’ as the fourth song was the tempo slowed down a little for the first time. What a start! It was at this point that FRANK TURNER once again reminded us of the two rules that apply at every one of his concerts:
#1: “Don’t be a dickhead!”
#2: “Sing along if you know the words!”
The first rule in particular was explained in more detail. FRANK TURNER is also concerned that fans at his concerts, where it can get a bit lively in the audience, first help other fans lying on the floor back up before they continue dancing and pogoing. This came just in time, because things really got wild with ‘Never Mind The Back Problems’. Between songs, FRANK TURNER kept trying to get in touch with the audience, sometimes even trying to speak German and impressing with a pretty decent vocabulary. ‘Letters’ was one of these (new) songs that the Englishman explained. This song is about a pen pal relationship from the 90s. Around 30 years ago, FRANK TURNER, who was a teenager at the time, and his pen pal wrote letters to each other over a period of three years until this pen pal relationship simply fell asleep at some point. When FRANK TURNER released his new album ‘Undefeated’ with this very song in spring 2024, the singer subsequently received an email out of the blue from his then pen pal, who asked him in the email if the song was about her. A nice anecdote.
In the second half of the set, FRANK TURNER performed a few songs without his SLEEPING SOULS colleagues. Alone with his acoustic guitar, he performed ‘Be More Kind’, a song that is close to his heart. Although he is not a political person, his German friends have made him aware of the direction in which Germany is moving. And ‘Be More Kind’ would be just about right. Back with the whole team, FRANK TURNER entered the final third of the concert after the solo part. With a total of 25 (!) songs performed, during which the band covered a whopping nine of the singer’s albums, every fan probably got their money’s worth. At the latest with the extended crowd-surfing excursion, which FRANK TURNER also shared on social networks afterwards, he finally got up close and personal with the people in the audience. A thoroughly outstanding concert finally came to a close at around 11 pm with ‘Four Simple Words’. What a fantastic evening.
Setlist
01. No Thank You for the Music
02. Girl From the Record Shop
03. 1933
04. Recovery
05. Never Mind the Back Problems
06. Photosynthesis
07. Letters
08. Non Serviam
09. Plain Sailing Weather
10. If Ever I Stray
11. The Next Storm
12. The Road
13. Redemption
14. The Way I Tend to Be (Frank Turner solo)
15. Be More Kind (Frank Turner solo)
16. The Ballad of Me and My Friends (Frank Turner solo)
17. I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
18. Ceasefire
19. Do One
20. Try This at Home
21. I Still Believe
22. Somewhere Inbetween
23. Polaroid Picture
24. Get Better
25. Four Simple Words
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 9 / 10
All Pictures by André Wilms
