The show went on Monday night at the Bronson Centre despite recent tornadoes and mass power outages across the National Capital Region. Each of the three performing bands, Bad Cop Bad Cop, Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs, and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, expressed sympathy and solidarity towards Ottawa. There was even a tornado relief fund set up that the bands repped throughout the night. As much as the bands’ punk rock anthems struck a chord with the crowd, so too did the community spirit felt at this show.
L.A. punk queens Bad Cop Bad Cop opened the night with their fast paced, hard driving brand of rock. All three front women harmonized and took turns singing lead on such uplifting anthems as “Broken” (2017), about taking accountability for your own life, and “Amputations” (2017), about eliminating negative influences. The band only played a 30 minute set but it burst with energy and attitude, especially from bassist Linh Le.
Next came Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs, who filled out the stage with their six member lineup. All but Coffey wore matching jean vests with their band logo on the back, while Coffey stood out in his black, one-piece wrestling outfit. Overall, their set was upbeat and fun, coming in hot with their opening hit, “Talk 2 Her” (2017), and maintaining the energy throughout. Their lively choruses often had four members singing together to produce a very full sound that wasn’t harmony so much as shout-along gang vocals. The band clearly didn’t take themselves too seriously, one member wearing a pink Bad Cop Bad Cop bow in his hair while rocking out on double necked guitar.
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls were the feature act of the night, opening their set with the title track off their latest album, “Be More Kind” (2018). After the first few songs, Turner mentioned two rules he has for his shows:
Rule #1: Don’t be an asshole.
Rule #2: If you know the words to a song, you’d better sing, and if you don’t know the words, you can compensate by dancing.
Turner spoke a lot about the recent tornadoes and dedicated two songs to Ottawa as a result: “The Next Storm” (2015) and “21st Century Survival Blues” (2018). During his 2013 tune, “The Way I Tend To Be”, a couple at the front of the crowd got engaged, which Turner proclaimed “made [his] night”.
The audience were clearly big Turner fans, singing loudly along with many of his heartening tracks, namely “Recovery” (2013), “Get Better” (2015), and “Photosynthesis” (2008), after which the band thanked the audience and left the stage. The crowd called loudly for an encore, clapping their hands in unison. The band responded with impressive vigor, particularly during “Four Simple Words” (2012), when Turner crowdsurfed into the audience, picked out a member of the crowd who he deemed to be “the best dancer in Ottawa”, and slow danced with her to the quiet part of the song. He then proclaimed that he is spoken for and thanked her for the dance, before crowdsurfing back to the stage during the climax of the song.
The set finished off with the members of the previous bands returning to the stage for an all-out sing along. Turner spoke about how much he loves sing alongs, since they demonstrate that a crowd can be more than the sum of its parts, and that strangers can come together and collectively create something powerful. The power of community, expressed through tornado relief efforts and echoed by Turner’s motivational words, most certainly left the audience feeling empowered to Be More Kind.
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