Turnstile returned to Richmond on Wednesday, and it felt like Brown’s Island could barely contain them. The Baltimore hardcore outfit has long since broken past genre borders, crafting songs that reach across generations of music fans. Last night, they looked every bit the arena-level act, and if you were there, it was hard to shake the feeling this might be the last time we see them in a venue this size for a long while.
The set was airtight, a collision of hardcore roots with layers of post-punk, new wave, some early Police, and flashes of ’90s rock. Frontman Brendan Yates carried it all with the swagger of someone born to front a big time band, leading the crowd through anthems that had strangers shouting the same lines like they’d known each other for years.
Richmond has always felt connected to this story. The Baltimore and Richmond hardcore scenes have traded energy and bands for more than a decade, with Turnstile cutting their teeth at United Blood, the underground showcase that has anchored Richmond’s scene for years. They’d been a presence there for years before headlining the festival at the Canal Club in 2018. Seeing them now rise into one of America’s best rock bands feels personal here, like we’ve had a stake in the journey all along. Richmond showed up, and it mattered. Yates even took a moment to acknowledge that from the stage last night.
It’s worth saying we’re not the experts on this band, plenty of people know the scene far better than we do. But we’ve become fans. And fans can recognize when something is breaking big. All we can do is wish them nothing but success going forward, and be grateful we got to see them here before the stages get even bigger and further away. And remember: support local music, this is where it all begins.
Jane Remover opened the night with hyperpop chaos sharp, brash, and strangely fitting for a bill otherwise dominated by guitars. Speed came next, grinding out pure hardcore with the subtlety of a chainsaw, elbows and bodies flying in the pit. Blood Orange followed, slowing the pulse with an R&B dreamscape, dark but luminous, a contrast that only made Turnstile’s eruption hit harder.
Then Richmond itself chimed in. A freight train rumbled by just feet from the stage, blasting its horn mid-song. For a few absurdly perfect seconds, the band and the city were in sync steel, noise, and sweat colliding in one of the most Richmond moments imaginable. There is video HERE.
But not all of it was magic. After Yates urged fans forward, RMC event staff reportedly fired pepper spray into the front rows where fans were standing. Witnesses described it as a blanket response, reckless and unnecessary. You can read about that HERE.
Even so, the night will be remembered for its extremes: the joy of a band on the cusp of bigger stages, the chaos of pits and pop, the absurdity of a train solo, and the bitter sting of pepper spray. Richmond got it all.
Photographer Joey Wharton
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