My Ghouls

Last week I had my fourth Frank Turner concert (first and third concert reports here)! It was held at Breese Stevens Field, an outdoor repurposed athletic field venue which I had never been to before. Luckily the weather was beautiful -- warm with clear skies and a slight breeze. There were vendors set up around the perimeter of the field selling food, drink and crafts along with the traditional concert merch. I bought a Frank Turner hoodie.

The headliner was Jason Isbell, a country folk rock singer that Jen introduced me to, and who also appears in Frank Turner's video for Love Forty Down as his tennis opponent:



I listened to Jason's two most recent albums in preparation for the concert, and grew quite fond of them, despite them being much more country than my tastes usually run. Here are my favorites so far:

Hope the High Road
If We Were Vampires
White Man's World
How to Forget

So Frank and a band called Communist Daughter were the openers, but Frank had a nice, long set. And it was nice to see a lot of people who were at the show for Jason and who were unfamiliar with Frank get to experience him for the first time. One woman near us was particularly blown away and was taking about how impressed she was afterwards.

We had sprung for the "gold circle" tickets, which meant we could be right up against the stage. We chose to sit and drink cider until Frank's set started, at which point we stood so we could jump and dance along, and so I could get closer for pictures.





At one point Frank complained about the sunlight in his eyes, so a band member slipped some sunglasses onto his face. They lasted all of 15 seconds before Frank's bouncing knocked them off.





We sat back down and split a bottle of moscato while waiting for Jason to come on, but stood back up shortly after he started. It turned out the sparrow and anchor backdrop lit up and changed colors, which was quite beautiful. His lighting and staging was all really great.





His wife Amanda is also a talented musician and she accompanied him with strings and vocals. It was a really nice show. I know outdoor venues are a gamble, but I'd happily go back to Breese Stevens Field. Also, I plan to keep going to Frank concerts as long as he keeps stopping in Madison, Milwaukee, and/or Chicago.