Live Review: Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Grim Fandango, Kill Teen Angst

Much like birds too small for their cage, an unusual stage layout left indie rockers Kill Teen Angst with a drum kit in the middle of the stage. Without room to dance about, their energy was unleashed through their instruments. With album number two in the works, gruff-twang rockers Grim Fandango had a fresh set of tracks to road test. Stacking the new material against their debut album, it was clear their songwriting had evolved tenfold.

One of the hardest working musicians in the industry (he's got awards to prove it), Frank Turner, joined by backing band The Sleeping Souls, opted to slide into the last set of his Australian tour with the casual piano intro of Four Simple Words, off his soon-to-be-released fifth record, Tape Deck Heart. Touring almost non-stop since the start of the year, Turner and co needed a few songs to really get into their zone. No album was neglected and Turner, as requested via email, even played a solo rendition of NOFX's Linoleum. “It's Easter Thursday!” he declared, as an excuse to party, introducing drinking song The Real Damage.

It wasn't long before another cover surfaced, this time Counting Crow's Raining In Baltimore. Keyboardist Matt Nasir put a mandolin on, kissed Turner on the cheek (apparently the last time they were in Perth, Nasir kissed a man in a pub to defuse a fight... a man with a shotgun in his ute) and the pair played Good & Gone, a “fuck you” to Motley Crue, before inviting the rest of The Sleeping Souls back on stage to round things out with I Still Believe – as seen on the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. There's something about Frank Turner that is hard to pinpoint. One thing's for sure: he was born to play music.