By: Jared Gudnason

October 3, 2025

The Minneapolis Armory concrete floor trampolined. Baltimore, Maryland, is home to some of the most visceral and angriest hardcore punk rock music of the last 18 years. It’s the base for Flatspot Records, Reaper Records and their respective artist rosters. Arguably, no band from Chesapeake blue crab territory is currently bigger than, in this humble opinion, Turnstile.

Four years ago, they released their now-heralded album, “GLOW ON.” That album’s announcement came via an extended play, or EP, “Turnstile Love Connection.” In aural actuality, that EP was the soundtrack to the eponymous short film, along with a bound photo album documenting production that’s now possibly out of print.

The ensuing tour for “GLOW ON” actually hit Minneapolis twice, which is essentially unheard of in the early 2020s. Hardcore punk rock bands do play here, but a band of Turnstile’s magnitude, twice, is cr-ay-zay. First time around was at Dinkytown’s Varsity Theater, and the second at Minneapolis’ Fillmore.

Backed by performances on both late-night Jimmys, “GLOW ON” exposed the band to mainstream audiences. Then in April of this year, a lone billboard on the Los Angeles skyline with a background of ocean baby blue simply read “NEVER ENOUGH TURNSTILE.” Having opened for blink-182’s 2023 U.S. arena tour, Turnstile inched ever closer to being a household name in the punk rock ’n’ roll world. It was also a genius way of capitalizing on singular physical marketing.

Within two weeks of April, their new album, titled “NEVER ENOUGH,” had its eponymous single released. Online punk rock commentary noted that the single’s opening synthesizer part sounded too similar to one of Turnstile’s absolute best and “GLOW ON” opener, “MYSTERY.” All track titles from their last three releases on Roadrunner Records are stylistically all uppercase.

“NEVER ENOUGH” itself features a far more optimistic keyboard part than, for example, the opening organ on Coldplay’s “Fix You.” “NEVER ENOUGH” is a superior song and, regarding artistic medium, quite necessary.

The 14-track record is, like the “TLC” EP, sonically half of the album overall, as Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory and lead vocalist/percussionist/keyboardist Brendan Yates directed short films for all compositions. National film release-wise and geographically, it was one night only at Edina’s Southdale theaters.

While I missed seeing “NEVER ENOUGH” on the silver screen, they T. Swift-ed the concrete floor of Minneapolis’ Armory last Saturday. Yates, along with bassist Franz Lyons and elite drummer Daniel Fang, form Turnstile’s core. McCrory and England’s Meg Mills round out the band, with Mills on rhythm guitar duties.

The set was career-spanning. New jams included “I CARE,” “BIRDS,” “DULL,” the titular track and “LIGHT DESIGN.” Biggest hits of the night included “MYSTERY,” “T.L.C. (TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION),” “Drop” from 2016’s “Nonstop Feeling,” “GLOW ON’s” “NEW HEART DESIGN,” “ENDLESS,” “DON’T PLAY” and the Grammy-nominated “BLACKOUT.” The latter, at the time of release, was performed on the now-reinstated “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Best of all, as headliners of a venue with more than 8,000 people, they pulled out classics from nine and 14 years ago. “7,” “Keep It Moving” and “Pushing Me Away” were performed off Turnstile’s second-ever release, Baltimore’s Reaper Records vinyl EP “Step 2 Rhythm.” Most surprisingly, “Come Back 4 More” from 2016’s vinyl EP “Move Thru Me,” a complete and total rarity including production format.

And on Saturday, Turnstile moved. Through all of us.