Watch Turnstile Make Their Fiery, Beautiful Late-Night Debut On Seth Meyers
They did it. They fucking did it. Baltimore hardcore destroyers Turnstile didn’t just make one of the year’s best albums in Glow On; they also took that album out into the world in ways that no other contemporary hardcore band has been able to do. Last night, Turnstile were the musical guests on Late Night With Seth Meyers. This was the band’s first late-night TV performance ever, and it was also the first time a straight-up hardcore band has made a televised performance since I don’t even know when. (Where CIV ever on Letterman or anything? There must be some other example.)
Now: You will not get anything like the full Turnstile live experience if you’re not in a situation where someone might jump on your head. Seth Meyers is a brave man for letting this happen at all, but this is not a Fear-on-SNL situation where the band and their friends just go on a viking rampage. (As far as I could tell, nobody pooped onstage on Seth Meyers.) Still, the members of Turnstile are performers, and they’ve clearly adapted to live settings where they can’t set shit off to the extent that they might like. Even without the visible crowd response that’s such a crucial component of their live show, Turnstile make for a compelling spectacle, staying in motion and conveying messy excitement.
On last night’s show, Turnstile played two songs, going straight from the Glow On opener “Mystery” to “TLC (Turnstile Love Connection),” arguably the fastest and moshiest song on the record. They looked and sounded cool as hell, and you can see it all happen below.
For a better document of the Turnstile live experience, I would heartily recommend the Hate5six video of the band’s Glow On record-release show in Baltimore. That’s below.
Glow On is out now on Roadrunner.