It Was Much More Than A Massive Turnstile Show

Edited by Spencer Ackerman

Spencer here. Many of you will have already seen the video clips of a gigantic show played on the Washington Mall by Turnstile, the Baltimore hardcore band that has improbably become one of the biggest rock groups in the United States. My group chats of aging hardcore vets exploded with astonishment: this was quite likely the largest non-festival show played by a hardcore band in American history. But more impressive still was the cause Turnstile assembled tens of thousands to spotlight: the plights of Palestine, Lebanon and Sudan – genocides and ethnic cleansings conducted by allies of the United States, often with direct material support from the United States itself. On one of those chats, my friend, the journalist and similarly aging hardcore vet Lindsey Adler – a noted critic of Turnstile's often-apolitical self-presentation – marvelled at the sheer unwillingness of the mainstream media coverage of the Turnstile show to acknowledge the purpose of the show. She asked for space in FOREVER WARS to correct the record. We're proud to publish her.

ON SATURDAY, an estimated 60,000 people gathered in front of the Washington Monument to attend a Turnstile concert. Admission to the gig was free, but it was put on as a fundraiser in support of humanitarian relief in Gaza, Sudan, and Lebanon.

Fans swarmed the National Mall, pushing through US Park Police in an attempt to get a position with a line of sight on the American hardcore band that has popularized the genre across a new generation. They brought Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Fans wore merch from bands that paved the way for Turnstile — H20 hoodies and Terror t-shirts that displayed mantras of solidarity. It was an intergenerational affair, and far in the back of the crowd, someone organized a “kid pit,” so that toddlers could learn to mosh safely. 

This was by far the largest dedicated hardcore or punk show to have ever taken place outside of a festival. The Clash hit similar numbers when they opened for The Who at Shea Stadium in 1982. Green Day played to roughly 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium in 2024 — but that built on nearly 40 years and three generations of fandom. Turnstile has four studio albums, had their global breakout in 2021, and had to turn away fans as the crowd reached capacity — one mile from the United States Capitol.

It earned only minimal coverage by the news media, despite its massive attendance. It’s unlikely to be viewed as a significant political demonstration because it was billed as a concert, not an event marketing itself as an official  protest.

Turnstile announced the concert on October 8, barely two weeks before they took the stage. In lieu of paying an entertainment conglomerate to see them perform, the band encouraged attendees to donate to Human Concern International (HCI), an organization that was founded in Canada in 1980 as a Muslim relief charity. 

As of mid-morning Monday, the donation page for the event said it had raised nearly $260,000 from nearly 4000 donors. Before Turnstile began playing their 80-minute set, a representative from HCI announced that the original goal for the event had been $100,000. 

Despite raising more than a quarter-million dollars for humanitarian relief, Turnstile’s performance has been covered as a local interest and music story. This is, instead, a cultural moment in which one of the most popular bands in the United States utilized its influence to raise money — and awareness — of the multiple genocides that are being materially supported through American tax dollars. They are, undoubtedly, the cool kids of popular music today, and they asked their devotees to see political resistance as something that is accessible, important, and maybe a little bit fun.

The Washington Post, in a strongly reported feature, described the gigantic show as “a moment.” The Baltimore Banner, an independent outlet from Turnstile’s hometown, also covered it — largely as a new accomplishment for their hometown band. 

But largely, coverage of Turnstile’s moment at the Monument has been documented by publications that specialize in the coverage of music. Coverage has focused on what this moment means for Turnstile, or as evidence of their cultural reach. There have been perfunctory mentions of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, the occupation of Southern Lebanon, or the joint U.S.-Israel involvement in the UAE’s sponsorship of the genocide in Sudan.  

Even the Post's story, which will stand as the most comprehensive contemporaneous coverage of this event, waited 13 grafs before reporting that the band led a "pro-Palestine chant." Then it meandered for eight more before naming Gaza, Sudan and Lebanon as beneficiaries. 

This is unsurprising. The United States media has spent more than three years cloaking our country’s direct involvement in the genocide in Gaza, specifically, as a “controversy” or “conflict” as a result of the apparently unshakable alliance with Israel. In covering these mass-murders as a matter of debate, instead of moral atrocities, the media has benefitted itself. Sustained, public backlash against the U.S. war machine would upend the credibility of outlets that have demonstrably favored Israel’s position — and disseminated its propaganda — for decades, but especially since October 7, 2023.

A positive, cheerful event like Turnstile’s show on the National Mall to support Palestine, Sudan, and Lebanon is easy to minimize. Focusing on the band, rather than the cause, eliminates the perceived risk of controversy. 

“Loud enough for the White House to hear,” frontman Brendan Yates screamed on stage in Washington, D.C. “Free Palestine. Free Sudan. Free Lebanon. And always, always keep it moving.” 

Turnstile’s big, beneficial gig mirrors another legendary concert that took place in the shadow of the Washington Monument. In 1993, on the anniversary of the March On Washington, Fugazi played a “Concert For Justice” in front of 5,000 people. It was, by Fugazi’s own record label’s account, the biggest show the band ever played. 

While Turnstile’s crowd was twelve-times as large as the one for Fugazi, its connection to the foundational D.C. punk band’s legacy is undeniable. As the crowd surged toward the barricade, Ian MacKaye, the Fugazi, Embrace and Minor Threat frontman who wrote the blueprint for hardcore's political ethos, watched from offstage.

A benefit concert today looks very different from the legendary fundraisers of the past. George Harrison’s “The Concert for Bangladesh” raised millions of dollars by building out a supergroup and selling a live album and concert documentary to supplement ticket sales. “Live Aid” built on this by hosting telethons during its concerts. The “Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert” generated millions of dollars for AIDS research through selling broadcast rights and merchandise. 

Benefit concerts no longer air on television. Instead, individual artists and bands perform them to legitimately, raise awareness around an issue and direct their fans toward donation opportunities. Clips from Turnstile’s show are spreading algorithmically across social media — and the donation figure is climbing along with the Instagram metrics. 

Turnstile has seen a meteoric rise over just the last five years. Their third album, “Glow On,” pushed them beyond the Baltimore hardcore scene — and into one of the biggest bands in the world. They’ve performed on “Saturday Night Live” and it would be no surprise to see them named as a headliner at a large festival. 

As they’ve built their legacy, they’ve been significantly less vocal about American politics — the supposed bedrock of hardcore and punk music. Personally, as a millennial with a framed print off the negative of Minor Threat’s famous porch photo, I’ve been insulted by their appearance of political apathy. I believe that it is essential that “the biggest hardcore band in the world” should actively participate in the political element of the genre they represent. 

There have been exceptions to Turnstile's apolitical stance. In 2017, the band took criticism for playing a DIY show in Tel Aviv, which prompted drummer Daniel Fang to release a statement clarifying that the band supported the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement — and felt that supporting the punk scene in Israel was an act of resistance. They have played other benefit shows and gently commented on some political issues since then, but the band took a hard pivot after winning two Grammy awards for their fourth studio album, Never Enough. The band Last summer, Yates started a “Free Palestine” chant at Glastonbury. It was a statement that burst open the the band’s willingness to engage with and represent anti-oppressive politics in the steps of their punk-rock elders.

In the 16 months since Glastonbury, Israel has continued to kill and displace Palestinians and bomb Lebanon. The United States kidnapped the president of Venezuela, started a war with Iran, and is now abandoning Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion. 

Support for Palestine is no longer a torch that must be carried by punk bands, Roger Waters and Brian Eno. The pop star Lorde uses lighting design to project the Palestinian flag over her head while she sings Top 40 tunes. 

The calculation may still be different for a band that is too well-known to get the crust-punk crowd but not established enough to be, well, Lorde.

Turnstile is now taking mainstream hardcore back toward its roots. Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Brains, and others built their loud, provocative sound as a direct response to the political environment.  In the 1980s, Washington, D.C. was the epicenter of politically resistant punk rock. This influence hangs over the hardcore and punk scene today — but never before has a band burst out beyond the community enough to reach the mass appeal of Turnstile.

Ultimately, the band might still be finding their way. Last week, it took them to the center of American historical patriotism.

A half-hour into their set, Yates addressed the crowd. 

“We’re so grateful to have been raised by the scene — one that taught us that music not only reflects the artist, but the people and the world and the suffering and the joy that surrounds it,” he said. “Today we’re here to gather around music to celebrate humanity. But also to fight for it.”

SPENCER HERE. We're a week and a half away from the release of NO ONE ESCAPES THE DIALECTIC #1. If you haven't already requested my new comic book series from your local comic shop, see the offer above – there's a free year of FOREVER WARS in it for you, to say nothing of a comic book that, if you read this newsletter, speaks directly to your interest. 

But beyond all that, maybe you don't just want the book, you want to talk to me in person about it, or for that matter about anything else I've written. Well, on November 4, the day NO ONE ESCAPES THE DIALECTIC #1 drops, you can! Come to Anyone Comics on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights from 7-9 p.m., where I'll proudly be the latest participant in owner/operator Dimitrios' "At The Counter" series with comics creators.