For many music fans, the live performance is often the deciding factor for a band’s true worth; otherwise, it’s just studio smoke and mirrors and nice press photos. The communal celebration between band and fans is what makes the live music experience so transcendent—a fact jam band fans have known since the Grateful Dead first played for some friends over for a relaxing evening of Kool-Aid and LSD back in the late ’60s. But up-and-coming hardcore punk act Turnstile reminds us that the jam band ethos of living through live music transcends genres.
The band’s last album, 2021’s Glow On, was celebrated with a pandemic-era hometown show at Baltimore Soundstage. The band opened with “NO SURPRISE”, an interlude off the album that still essentially serves as the band’s live-show mission statement: “You gotta see it live to get it,” singing “You really gotta see it live” again to reiterate the message. In a YouTube film documenting the show, dozens of fans ambushed the stage, dodging guitar pedals before catapulting into the crowd. Lead singer Brendan Yates ducks fans, his body not so much dancing as exploding to the music. And this is all before the first verse begins, and well before the crowd takes over the chorus vocal. This is Turnstile live.
The rapidly rising Baltimore hardcore punk band has made a name for itself in the years since, graduating from the 1,000-capacity Soundstage to main festival stages worldwide. This past May, the band returned to Baltimore to celebrate its new album, this time with a free show at a public park. They attracted approximately 10,000 fans, according to RVA Mag, and raised over $47,000 for Healthcare for the Homeless by placing QR codes throughout Wyman Dell Park. The band played with no security or stage barricade, essentially turning the stage into the world’s largest diving board, with bodies of all genders and ages launching themselves back into a sea of fellow fans. The show may have been a celebration of an album that positions to extend the band beyond its hardcore roots, but it was also a celebration of the Turnstile live experience.
Putting on a good show can usually garner appreciation from most self-respecting live-music fans, but can the right album from a certain hardcore band transcend the niche of punk and connect with fans from across genres? Turnstile seeks to find out on the just-released NEVER ENOUGH.
The title track opens the album with a soothing vocal melody over a synth pad before busting open with distorted power chords. The shouts of “Never enough” by Yates conquer the chorus until the drums roll and crash into an Eno-style ambient outro. The moment gives the listener at home (and the rager in the pit) a chance to cool down before the slap of “SOLE”.
Ater a quiet segue from what could pass for a snippet from Trey Anastasio’s Atriums, “SOLE” pounds the s–t out of your ears with classic punk in the vein of Minor Threat rather than “Big Black Furry Creatures from Mars”. The song relents with a synth melody that takes over the last half of the track.
“I CARE” is up next, with reverb-drenched shimmering guitars giving way to another big chorus. The feel is sunny with a chance of Sublime, with a few more sprinkles of synth for modern measure. There’s even a bit of a jam at the end before processed horns burst into another audio mosh pit for “DREAMING”.
“LIGHT DESIGN” and “DULL” each clock in at barely over two minutes, ending before you can figure out which Nirvana song they remind you of the most. But each serves as its own blast from the punk-rock canon, the latter closing with a soundscape best described as a hallucinating telephone.
The first minute and a half of “SUNSHOWER” reminds us that this is still very much a hardcore-punk band, before eventually giving way to a psychedelic interlude that sounds like an outtake from André 3000’s jazz flute album.
Next up for a ride on the genre Ferris Wheel is “LOOK OUT FOR ME”, a two-part epic that at first sounds like Rage Against the Machine covering A Flock of Seagulls. The first three minutes crescendo into another adventure in ambient-synth textures, this time with a hypnotic dance element that could easily soundtrack a comedown from Phish’s 2024 NYE rave jam.
The late-night session vibes continue on “CEILING”, an interlude that seems to be nothing but vocals, electric piano, and a ticking metronome. Officially into the back half of the album, the band has made two things clear: Turnstile is not just a powerful live punk band; it is an adventurous genre-hopper that can deliver an undeniable studio album.
Next up, “SEEING STARS” pumps with a throbbing bassline and a Bowie-style groove, complete with some trippy guitar work that would impress Starman axemen Reeves Gabrels and Mick Ronson.
“BIRDS” is, aside from a drone intro, 101 seconds of the musical equivalent of sweaty bodies colliding in a seething mosh pit. “SLOWDIVE” reminds you that every good hard rock band is sonically obligated to write at least one song based around a Black Sabbath-copped power-chord riff. The song peaks with another rock trope—the drum-driven build you’ve heard a million times before—but like everything else on the album, it’s a fresh remake of everything you’ve ever known and loved about music.
The band has a tradition of ending shows with a mellow synth soundtrack to let the band and crowd share a long goodbye. The album-closing “MAGIC MAN” serves the same purpose on the record, and the song will inevitably be played at the end of future Turnstile shows.
The album ends like it began—a tour of past and present rock-and-roll styles bookended by synth chillouts. The only thing more impressive than the actual music on NEVER ENOUGH is that it somehow managed to capture the undeniable beauty of a live Turnstile show. You don’t have to see it live to get it, but with a band this goddamn good, you really gotta listen any way you can.
Stream the new Turnstile album NEVER ENOUGH below or on your preferred platform. The band just announced a 23-date U.S. tour set for September and October with rotating support from Amyl and the Sniffers, Blood Orange, Mannequin Pussy, and others. Many of the shows are already sold out, but you can look for resale tickets on StubHub and Ticketmaster.
Turnstile — NEVER ENOUGH [Full Album]