Pop Break Live: Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls “Road to Lost Evenings IX” at The Circus Maximus Theater at Caesar’s in Altnatic City, NJ on Friday September 18, 2026
It was a long and winding road that brought Frank Turner from singing and strumming for the howling newly converted faithful at the old Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park nearly 20 years ago to the gleaming spotlight of headlining Circus Maximus Theater at Caesars Atlantic City on Friday night.
Turner, the British folk-punk troubadour who has found a robust trans-Atlantic following thanks to a relentless road warrior mentality and with more than 3,000 shows under his belt, found his first early American success in New Jersey at the venerated DIY bowling alley, art spot and performance venue Asbury Lanes when he debuted there as part of Chuck Ragan’s storied Revival Tour.
“It was the first time I ever played to a full room in the United States. I sold all my merch in about 20 minutes,” Turner recounted to The Pop Break in a recent interview. “The reaction was crazy. It really felt like a milestone moment in my career. It was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s an audience for what I do in the States, and I’ve finally found it.’”
Therefore, it made plenty of sense that Turner would make time to check in on New Jersey during his current American tour leading up to his highly anticipated Lost Evenings festival, happening Sept. 24 to 27 in Dallas.
While the choice of venue – a glitzy, seated showroom less than a poker chip’s throw away from the bustling casino floor of a flagship Atlantic City gaming destination – was certainly unconventional for Turner, it would up making for a remarkably fitting pairing.
Atlantic City appears to be in the midst of a low-key resurgence as a live original music hub in southern New Jersey, with highly anticipated upcoming events on the horizon such as country singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson on Oct. 10 at the Tropicana and multi-night jam extravaganzas at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall courtesy of Phish Oct. 2 to 4 and Goose Dec. 11 and 12.
And Turner, for his part, has matured his craft and aged incredibly gracefully since the last time I saw him live, in a spontaneous free indoor Stone Pony show in Asbury Park alongside Lucero in the fall of 2010.
With the accompaniment of his top-notch backing band The Sleeping Souls, Turner began his set with a full-throttle launch into some of his most reliable, well-worn classics – “I Still Believe” was a brilliantly raucous opening rallying cry, “Try This At Home” took no prisoners and “Photosynthesis” (“I won’t sit down, I won’t shut up and most of all I will not grow up”) was full of fists-in-the-air sing-along power and glory.
But then, after noting to the crowd that he and The Sleeping Souls were using the pre-Lost Evenings engagements to brace themselves for the 82 songs they’re planning to play across four consecutive nights, Turner and his band shifted gears and dug deep for a sprawling career-spanning set.
“Mittens,” from 2015’s “Positive Songs for Negative People” LP, was a nuanced and intimate highlight, coupling piano and electric guitar counter melodies with Turner’s confessional lead vocal. “Fisher King Blues,” taken from 2013’s “Tape Deck Heart,” was vulnerable and raw with plenty of rich lyrical complexity. And the incredibly powerful “Miranda,” featured on 2022’s “FTHC,” allowed Turner to share the story of his evolving relationship with his transgender parent and spotlight the fact that Lost Evenings will serve to support the work of The Ally Coalition supporting LGBTQ youth.
So yes, a seated theater engagement may have been a far cry from Turner’s New Jersey music origin story – a history he nodded to with a shout-out to the good old Lanes before a solo acoustic “Ballad of Me and My Friends” – but a lot can change in a couple of decades. What hasn’t changed is Turner is still out there on the road, musically fighting the good fight, and New Jersey will show up for him every time.
Frank Turner Setlist (via setlist.fm)
I Still Believe
Photosynthesis
Try This at Home
Never Mind the Back Problems
Once We Were Anarchists
Losing Days
Mittens
Glorious You
Do One
Be More Kind (Frank Solo)
The Ballad of Me and My Friends (Frank Solo)
Miranda
The Lioness
Letters
Wessex Boy
Somewhere Inbetween
Eulogy
If Ever I Stray
The Fisher King Blues
Journey of the Magic
Encore:
Punches
Little Changes
Get Better
Four Simple Words
