Live Review: Frank Turner - The Roxy, Prague 18/11/2018

The Roxy in Prague reminds me of a toned down Koko in London, you enter from the balcony and have to make your way down to the floor area by a staircase that seems longer than how far up you previously were. The stage is tall and when Canadian rockers, PUP, take the stage the venue seems to be almost at capacity. Having only ever heard PUP through my headphones, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard just how fantastic they were live. Don’t get me wrong, I love PUP, but their recorded sound is definitely an acquired taste, but live, that energy and grittiness takes a whole new life-form, and lead vocalist, Stefan Babcock’s voice takes on a whole knew meaning. PUP aren’t as widely known as headliner, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls are, but, even with a slight language barrier, the crowd seems to be responding well to the four-piece. Babcock mentions that they other night they played in Germany and the crowd seemed like they could not have been less interested in their set, whereas this evening the crowd were responding positively to their presence. Their set is filled with energy and while the front half of the crowd seems to be feeling them way more than the back half, it’s still and all around great set.

Next up in the band of the hour, the main event, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls. Before they take the stage, I notice that instead of set-list being tacked down in front of Turner’s microphone, a sheet of paper with a paragraph written out in Czech is there, since I don’t speak the language I just assume it’s his song names, but in Czech, and forget about this sighting until later on in the gig. When Frank Turner takes the stage, he’s dressed like he was on his way to a wedding, but decided to play a gig instead, wearing a button up white shirt a tie, a staple in his fashion sense lately. The band jumps straight into 1933 and the crowd goes crazy, and they barely stop moving throughout the duration of the gig. When they finish the third song of the set, Frank finally addresses the crowd, and the aforementioned paragraph of Czech writing becomes relevant. He wrote out a speech to give to the crowd and had it translated into Czech, which he proceeds to read, really badly, with a really hilarious accent, until he gives up. Since he can’t figure out how to say it correctly in Czech, he gives the speech in English and it was truly a perfect speech to give to a crowd at a gig: “This is going to be a punk rock show ladies and gentlemen. Rule #1 don’t be an asshole. A surprising number of people struggle with this idea but we’re going to work on it together. What I mean is that the way you have fun doesn’t fuck up the evening for anybody else. Second rule if you know the words to the song you have to sing along”

The crowd does go on to be rowdy, but respectful of each other and the gig is an all around success. Turner sings If I Ever Stray in Czech, and even takes requests from the crowd, dedicating a song to a newly engaged couple (There She Is) and playing My Kingdom For A Horse for a fan that usually has to travel quite far to see Turner perform since he tends to only play in Prague once a year. If you’ve never seen Frank Turner live, even if you barely know his music, it’s a performance definitely worth seeing.

Words and Photography by Sara Feigin