Turnstile: The Love Connection Tour (Los Angeles, 2022)

Turnstile at the Hollywood Palladium (Nov 3, 2022)

I tend to have a problem with motivating myself to get off my ass and venture into the city of LA when the drive is over 30 minutes. Yes, I know, I should be used to it. But I’m not and this can make or break if I go to a rock show during the week. But Turnstile is one of those bands that motivated me not to drive 30, but 50 minutes into the city! And man, did I forget why I don’t go into Hollywood.

            I pulled up to a sketchy parking lot and walked about 15 minutes to the Palladium, a historic music venue that’s quite impressive, just not in an impressive area. After dodging about 50 homeless people, I finally made it to the concert! The place was packed, filled to the brim with eager fans awaiting the hardcore-power rock fused Turnstile. After passing through security, I made a beeline to the nearest bar to get one of those extra-tall boys of beer and followed the crowd into the main venue space. The Palladium’s main stage is massive, a room that can hold up to 4,000 fans. However, since the opener was still on, I was easily able to weave my way through the crowd and near the front of the stage.

            Since I attended the show alone, I found myself trying to stay interested in the opener named Snail Mail. But frankly, it was one of the most mundane and boring performances I’ve seen. I don’t know why a band like Turnstile would choose their polar opposite to perform before them, but I don’t make the rules dude! After what seemed like an eternity of people watching and nursing my beer (I drove), the lights flickered and the Whitney Houston song “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” came on. The crowd around me starting cheering as it signaled that Turnstile was finally coming on.

            The band opened with “Holiday”, a great song that re-energized me and made me forget about the sappy opener. The whole room was a mosh pit. Everyone pushed, jumped, and sang along to Turnstile singer Brendan Yates. As the set went on, I noticed a few things that put a huge smile on my face. For example, a room filled to the brim with rock lovers is always a blessing for me. But what made it special was how many young kids and teens I saw. It gave me hope that rock is not only alive and kicking but it could very well overtake the music industry one day. I imagined that this was like what it was in the 90s when seeing a band like “Rage Against the Machine”. Even all the kids were dressed like it was ’92 again. Turnstile went through their set with songs like “Real Thing”, “I Don’t Wanna Be Blind”, and “Don’t Play”. But my favorite songs of the night were “Blackout”, their most energetic moment, and “Drop”, a punk tune from their first album. When “Drop” came on, I discovered the pit within the mosh pit and was caught in the chaotic tornado of amped up fans twisting around. After “Fly Again”, drummer Daniel Fang went off with a multi-layered drum solo to give Yates a chance to cool off his voice box. The last five songs after the drum solo were off the “Glow On” album, saving “Mystery” and “T.L.C.” for last. But I left after “Mystery” to beat the rush out because I’m that guy that hates to deal with crowds. But loves to go to rock shows. I know, it doesn’t make sense.  It was overall a great concert from the band’s energy and tightness, Yates’s wailing vocals, the energetic crowd, and the cold tall boy from the Palladium bar.