I've been listening to The Midnight for almost a year now and I can safely say that they're my favorite band right now. When I saw that they were coming to Salt Lake, I knew I'd have to make the drive from my college to see them. I figured some of you may want to know what it was like, so I figured I'd write it up for you! TL:DR at the end.
They let us into the venue around 7:05. I grabbed a t-shirt for 25 bucks, checked in my jacket, and headed for the stage. I was with my cousin, but everyone was so friendly that I definitely could've gone alone and felt fine. In my day to day life, almost no one I know likes synthwave, so being in a crowd of people that knew FM-84, Gunship, and The Midnight was awesome. I got so many music suggestions!
At this point in the night, I'm extremely excited.
Around 8:00 Violet Days, the opening band, got up on stage, and I had my first negative experience. I'd never heard of the band before, but they seem like the kinda thing I could get into if I gave them a chance. The problem was the volume of the speakers! I was thirty feet back from the front of the crowd where the speakers were, and it was just so loud that I couldn't hear the music. They used a warbly bass that I, no exaggeration, felt in my chest the entire time. The bass and vibration were so loud that it drowned out almost all the melody and the singer's voice.
I made my way through the crowd to concessions and, thank goodness, the venue sold earplugs for just a buck each. I came back and watched the rest of Violet Days' set. Like I said, it was fine, but even with the earplugs it was still so loud as to be uncomfortable. Not only that, but the earplugs didn't fix the "Bass overwhelming the rest of the song problem."
Violet Days finishes around 9:00 after singing what must've been seven or eight songs. I looked them up afterward and genuinely liked "Just a Little" by them. Kinda Chainsmokers-esque, but if you're into that then it's good.
Intermission took a little over half an hour. My feet are starting to hurt at this point, but despite my discomfort, I'm still extremely excited for The Midnight.
They come out and open with their new single that they've been tweeting about! I can't wait to listen to it on repeat for the next few months once it's released. The music is still extremely loud (Like, still uncomfortably loud even with earplugs), but it's mixed much better so that the groove/melodies/singer are actually audible.
I'll paste the tracklist and my thoughts if I have any to remember:
New Single (Not sure its name) It had a sick opening, reminded me of the opening to the Kids album. Good chorus, catchy, I'm excited to listen to it again.
Lost Boy Tyler sounded exactly like he does on the album. It was fun singing along with the crowd.
Gloria Talk about a crowd anthem. Everyone was super into it. "Ooooh Gloria, I, feel so much better!"
Days of Thunder Man, I gotta give it up for the light crew. They mixed up the vaporwave purple and blue lights with the smoke on the stage and time it perfectly with the music. So good.
The Boys of Summer (Don Henley cover) They sang a cover of this song. I liked it! It was exactly what you'd imagine, "I can see you, your brown hair shining in the sun!" Good stuff.
Nocturnal and Collateral These songs they just let Tim and the sax player go to town. Great groove, great lights, the crowd was bopping hard.
Shadows Tyler came back. I'm sure you can imagine a room of 800+ people singing together: "Shadows in the city! I'm a stranger to myself, on these streets I'm someone else." Chills.
Crystalline As far as I'm concerned, this was the best moment of the night. As some of you may know, this song is a two minute long lead up to one of the best drum fills ever. The lights all went low, the sound was quiet, he sang, "The problem with believers, is they'll let anyone in the door. The problem with deceivers, is all the bodies buried under the floorboards....."
Then that heavenly drum fill came in, with lights strobing exactly as Tim hit the beats, then the Sax came in. Oh man, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. 10/10 for sure.
Jason (with Lina Hansson) Lina came back on stage and sang, it was great.
The Comeback Kid This was my 3rd favorite Midnight song before the concert tonight, and it was pretty good. I realize I sound like an old man, but I've gotta talk about the volume levels again. I love singing along to The Midnight stuff, but the music was so loud that I quite literally couldn't hear my own voice in my head. The experience of singing along with the crowd was awesome, but if you're like me you shouldn't go in expecting to get the best music listening experience ever. Still, loved the song, loved the lights, loved the crowd.
Vampires This one was sick. The sax player (whose name I've forgotten. I tried looking him up but all I could find was the name of the original sax player for the album) came down into the crowd and played sax with us all around him. It was so freaking sick. I actually patted him on the back as he passed by, mid-solo. (If that's a party foul then I apologize!)
America 2 My 2nd favorite song from before the concert. I liked how Tyler would occasionally give context behind the songs. For example, he told us that this was written from the perspectives of those least privileged in society. I already kinda knew that based on some of the lyrics, but it made me pay fresh attention to them.
Los Angeles My absolute favorite song by The Midnight before coming to the concert. This was the only song I removed my earplugs for. So freaking amazing. Whenever the line "Hands raised like a gospel choir" was sung the entire crowd lifted their hands. I felt like everyone knew every word to the song. So good. After this song they left, we cheered and chanted, and they came back for the encore.
Encore
Lost and Found By far the most emotional song of the night. One of the guys I had made friends with in the crowd was fighting back tears. For a part of it, Tyler just played the guitar and sang. I loved it.
Sunset If I haven't painted a good enough picture for you yet, let me try one last time:The room is packed, full of smoke and LED lights, everyone jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, "SUNSET, NO REGRETS, FIRST CHANCE LAST DANCE STUCK IN THE MIDDLE!" With the sax and drums coming in so hard. "IT TASTES SO SWEET IT HURTS A LITTLE!" Oh man, it was sick. Violet Days came back and sang along too which was fun.
TL:DR:
I highly recommend it. Amazing crowd, amazing energy, great sound. That being said, I can't emphasize how important those earplugs were. I would not have been able to stay in the concert without them, and despite them I am still hearing ringing in my ears, especially as I was trying to fall asleep last night. I love music, and I want to be able to listen to it for a long time. I don't have a ton of experience in going to concerts so I don't know if my experience is the concert standard, but make sure you take care of yourself if you go.
Feel free to ask any questions if you want to know more!
Submitted April 27, 2019 at 04:51PM by Worchester_St http://bit.ly/2LaJNJ9
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