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Three hours before Turnstile take the stage at Victoria Park, it's revealed that their newly-released Never Enough album has entered the UK charts at number 11, surely the highest-ever chart placing in this country for a hardcore band. It's another indication that the Baltimore quintet are operating on a different plane to their peers, whether punk rock's self-appointed gatekeepers like it or not.
But frontman Brendan Yates hasn't forgotten where his band came from, recalling that Turnstile's very first UK performance took place in 2013, when they headlined day two of the fourth edition of Outbreak festival, which that year was held at Vox in Leeds.
"It felt like the biggest thing in the world," Yates says, "but compared to this... This is so beautiful."
And it really is. The first ever staging of Outbreak in London is an eclectic, winningly diverse affair, with Turnstile's biggest ever UK show following on from main stage sets by Los Angeles shoegaze / noise-pop crew Julie, Detroit rapper rapper Danny Brown, and Pennsylvanian indie-rocker Alex G, the likes of Speed, Knocked Loose, Drug Church and Have A Nice Life having performed on stages two and three earlier in the day. As darkness, and summer rain, falls in east London, this is undeniably Turnstile's moment.
Such is the feverish excitement that greets Turnstile's arrival on stage that, during second song T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection), a fight almost breaks out in the VIP viewing section, when some 40-something moustachioed marauder begins living out his Black Flag at the Cuckoo's Nest '81 fantasies, pinballing around a pit of his own making, and knocking over teenage girls in the process. Happily, it's the only jarring note during a beautifully-paced 22-song set which is all about positivity, community and the elevation of the human spirit, exemplified by the joyous, spontaneous cheers and applause which greet the sight of a front row fan holding aloft a clunky 1990s home telephone during Dull, as Yates sings, "Deep in the night, I'm waiting for the call."
The 80-minute set is fairly even balanced between Never Enough and 2021's Glow On, with the occasional throwback to 2013's Step 2 Rhythm for the early adopters. And it all flows perfectly, a testament to the skills of guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills, and bassist Franz Lyons and drummer Daniel Fang, the most nimble and powerful punk rhythm section since Fugazi's Joe Lally and Brendan Canty. By the time local hero Dev Hynes, once of dance-punks Test Icicles now a superstar producer, joins the band for a transcendent Alien Love Call, the crowd are utterly enraptured, oblivious to the pouring rain. Following a "Free Palestine" shout-out, Turnstile close with the superb one-two of Mystery and Blackout, then a sublime Seein' Stars and Birds, the perfect ending for a preternaturally exciting band soaring to new heights.
Turnstile Summer has officially begun.
