And I Won’t Sit Down And I Won’t Shut Up And Most of All I Will Not Grow Up

 I feel out of the loop, musically, since I moved last year and left behind the best independent indie rock station ever.  And working now in a concrete basement means I can’t even listen to their mobile app either.  So if the US has finally woken up to Frank Turner, first off, horray!  Second, you probably don’t need the following link barrage I’m about to hit you with.  Third, I devoured this book on my lunch breaks (as well as my lunch) while being forced to listen to the office radio that plays way too much Iggy Azalea.  (How much is too much Iggy Azalea?  Enough that I can now know what an Iggy Azalea is.)

Here is the song from my Cannonball Read entry.  Here is the song that will ruin a road trip for me if it’s not played at least once (seriously, Christmas 2012, when Mr. Quorren forgot to upload any Frank Turner on the iPad and then he ended up with strep throat and that’s what you get, Mr. Quorren!).  Here is the song that played on loop when I read Station Eleven earlier this year.  Here is the song I played incessantly when my heritage DNA results came back as mostly British/Irish.  Here is the song I sing, loudly and more than likely quite badly, when I’m having a particularly emotionally draining, she-hulk rage inducing day, even if my bad relationship break-up days are behind me.

I also have to say, before I even get started reviewing the book (this is my punk rock moment, you are going to be forced to read a personal anecdote in the middle of my book review because I said so!  Also because this show did not get an entry in the book and since it’s the first one I went to, I feel it’s important enough to have it’s moment in the sun), if you ever get the chance to see Frank Turner perform (and he is always performing somewhere, seriously), take it!  Back in 2010, a friend and I decided to go see Flogging Molly, because who doesn’t want to see Flogging Molly, especially near St. Paddy’s Day?  We had planned to spend the night on another friend’s floor and tackle the four hour drive back the next day, maybe catching the last half of work, but most of that would depend on our post-concert state.  Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.  Friend got last minute news that part of the process for her new job was going to happen the day after the concert, so plans to stay the night were scrapped, which meant no drinking for her so we could get safely back.  It either started to snow or had snowed, I can’t remember.  And the finally anxiety-laden straw was added when about 45 minutes out from our starting point, she realized she forgot the tickets.  We tried hitting up a Kinko’s before the show so I could print them off again, but something didn’t work out there, but I did print off my confirmation email in hopes that somehow they would let us through the door.  I’m not a social person.  Or a crowds person.  Or a people person, really.  Or someone who deals with stress well.  So I approach the grandmother running the will-call box at the Armory in hopes that our story (or tears, if I had to) can get us it.  Grandma must’ve been officially over everything at this point, so she just waved us in.  Once inside, I had the duty to drink enough Guinness for the both of us as the opening acts started up.  And then Frank happened.  And suddenly, all the anxiety and stress was worth it.  I met him after his set was over and stupidly (and drunkenly, let’s be honest) asked for a hug, because I’m not afraid of touching people I don’t know when I’m drunk, apparently.  So now I have a lifelong crush on this man for being an amazing artist and letting a sloppy drunk girl get pawsy with him.

(I know none of this is particularly germane to the book itself, but it’s similar to the book’s style, so….  Thanks for humoring me!)

There’s not much else I can say, really.  It’s a book about possibly the hardest working man in show business.  (He’s up to show #1732, which I just came back from a few days ago because I write reviews months after I read the books.)  If you were ever curious about what traveling all over the globe was like while doing something that you love, this book will clue you in.