Through hordes of neon-lit shutter glasses and Hawaiian shirts, The Midnight had an uphill struggle on their hands.
The Los Angeles, California-based band hit London’s Electric Ballroom on Monday, July 22, 2024, to a dozy crowd in almost unbearably hot conditions. And that’s before even addressing the extra pressures.
The Midnight haven’t been in the UK for almost a year, and in that time they haven’t released any new music, either.
On top of that, they’ve been going through some substantial internal changes.
It was announced earlier this year that Tim McEwan, the band’s co-founder, producer and live drummer, would be stepping away from touring responsibilities for the foreseeable future.
Despite the fact McEwan was a Monolithic piece of The Midnight’s puzzle, the decision was made, they claim, in an effort to focus on new music, with an implied new album on the horizon. No new tracks have seen the light of day just yet, but preorder bonuses seem to be ripening on their official store.
With all that said, McEwan’s spot on the drums has been replaced by Kwesi “Kwe” Robinson, who – upon his first drum fill – removed any fear one might have about bringing someone new to the team.
With Kwe leading the charge, and frontman Tyler Lyle conducting the flow of the night, this felt like a new version of The Midnight.
The group’s groove felt scrappy. Like the dawn of a new kind of band again. And, after blitzing through a cacophony of songs, The Midnight really settled into a new way of working.
Crucially, though, Lyle wasn’t rushing the setlist; not for a moment. Every bar of The Midnight’s performance was savoured like the sleepy final rays of daylight. So much so that it wasn’t until perhaps after the fifth song that Lyle finally introduced himself and the band.
But even those moments were used accordingly. Forever the preacher’s son, Lyle gave thanks to everyone attending, soliloquising for a moment on music as a holy device, a tool for us to use against grief, and overcoming the annual struggles of life. He bookended this by touching on the (successful) cancer battle his wife endured in 2023.
Lyle and his crew – Justin Klunk, Lelia Broussard and Royce Whittaker – took the most time on their darker, more murky moments of music production.
As if The Midnight had been replaced by a 2018 version of itself, their multiple synth-led instrumental sets throughout the night breathed new life into their live performance. Ominous, bleak, powerful; like a second-coming of their Nocturnal EP. Their oldest fans in the crowd lapped it up loudly.
On top of these windows of nostalgia and synthetic symphony, the band’s setlist, as a whole, had solid foundations, crafted out off the band’s biggest hits from albums past.
The only misstep on their part was a final folk music-infused rendition of Lost Boy. While Lyle got to stretch his solo music legs with this, it felt off. It was one experiment too far. Despite being beautiful and serene in a vacuum, it was stilted and jarring in context.
That isn’t to say Lyle was bad in any sense, of course. He has an incredible solo project that deserves your attention, but that moment didn’t feel right as the penultimate song before the Sunset.
This Electric Ballroom gig showed The Midnight are obviously still getting used to their new drummer, who – frankly – shined as a devastating, wrecking ball of a percussionist. In time, once everyone settles into their new on-stage relationships, this line-up has the potential to be the best version of The Midnight yet.
