Frank Turner at The Borderline London Review

Frank Turner played The Borderline, London, UK on February 18th, 2011. It was a pretty diverse crowd that was crushed in front of the Borderline Stage. From punks to folkies, hipsters to nerds, old and young, they were excited. Very excited. The feeling in the air was that something special was definitely about to happen. And, happen it did. From his first leap on to the stage, Frank Turner owned it and had the sweaty, mesmerized crowd tightly wrapped around his finger as well. It seemed as though every person in the room knew every word to every single one of his punk infused folk anthems making this less of a concert and more of fun filled sing-a-long. All that was needed was a good bonfire and a big bag of marshmallows. From “The Road” to “Once I was an Anarchist” the pace was pretty furious, only slightly tempered by slower, but no less sing-a-long worthy songs like “The Ballad of Me and My Friends”. Between song banter included talk about how there is no God, how he was influenced by punk, and his own Borderline memories. By the end of the set, it was hard to tell who had the bigger smile: The sweat drenched fans, or Frank Turner.