Gig review: Turin Brakes at the Exeter Phoenix (23rd September 2022)

Ten months after seeing Turin Brakes perform a fabulous acoustic set, I saw them again! This time they had the fuller electric sound and were on their feet instead of seated (except for Rob the drummer, although he did stand to sing some backing vocals). The lighting and sound in this show were amazing. Actually, everything was amazing.

It was only two days after I had received a (signed) copy of their new album, Wide-Eyed Nowhere, in the post. I recognised the tracks from the album which were included in the set: ‘Isolation’, ‘No Rainbow’, ‘World Like That’, ‘Up for Grabs’. There were an incredible 18 tracks altogether (at least by my reckoning). In addition to the new ones, these were: ‘Something in My Eye’, ‘Feeling Oblivion’, ‘Emergency 72’, ‘Future Boy’, ‘Keep Me Around’, ‘Black Rabbit’, ‘Dark on Fire’, ‘Painkiller’, ‘Slack’, ‘Lost in the Woods’, ‘Fishing for a Dream’, ‘The Door’, ‘We Were Here’ and ‘Underdog (Save Me)’. It’s really difficult to pick favourites as every song had so much heart and talent behind it, but I would say that ‘The Door’, ‘Dark on Fire’ and ‘Black Rabbit’ were the most impressive, the latter having a big rock-out ending before the encores. The woman who kept shouting for ‘Feeling Oblivion’ finally got her wish when it appeared at the end!

The support was Fast Trains, aka Tom Wells from Portsmouth. Like the support from the previous time, Kevin Pearce, he was one man with a guitar and a winning charm. I particularly remember a song called ‘A Thousand Tiny Cuts’. Some of the audience arrived too late to see Fast Trains; they really missed out on some great songs.

Turin Brakes have lots more tour dates coming up, around the UK and in Europe, so if you love melodic indie rock, go and see them! Thank you Olly, Gale, Eddie and Rob for the wonderful music.

Photo from the Exeter Phoenix website, (c) the artist

2 thoughts on “Gig review: Turin Brakes at the Exeter Phoenix (23rd September 2022)”

    1. An excellent song, you have great taste 😉 Thanks, they are such a good live band.

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