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UID:93bc48b4-5b8e-41a3-acb4-ffac599cc2bc@findlocal.community
DTSTAMP:20261012T015110Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261014T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261014T210000
SUMMARY:The Midnight: Time Machines
DESCRIPTION:Don’t say The Midnight didn’t warn you. After teasing fans on
  social media with ominous imagery\, snippets of lush keyboard washes\, 
 and cryptic references to classic science fiction stories\, the band tha
 t emerged over a decade ago out of Los Angeles returns with Syndicate\, 
 their fifth studio album (not even counting the three EPs released betwe
 en) and their most ambitious and outward-looking work yet. Syndicate evo
 lves The Midnight’s simultaneously retro and forward-looking sound while
  cementing the band’s status as perhaps the most musically and lyrically
  ambitious act to come out of the burgeoning synthwave scene. With four 
 singles already released from the 17-track album (“Shadowverse\,” “Digit
 al Dreams\,” “Chariot\,” and “Love is an Ocean\,”) the listener can alre
 ady get a sense of the wider canvas the band is painting with. “This is 
 our ‘making peace with the apocalypse’ record\,” says singer and lyricis
 t Tyler Lyle. And while Syndicate’s lyrics embrace the unsettled\, somet
 imes paranoid side of the 1980s (few reminisces of the period focus on h
 ow preoccupied by nuclear war the eighties were) Lyle’s creative partner
  Tim McEwan brings undertones of anxiety and even doom to the lush synth
  washes and hooky yet unexpected chord progressions that fans of The Mid
 night have come to know and love. The band was born in spring 2012 from 
 the fortuitous meeting of two very different musical sensibilities. Atla
 nta-born Lyle emerged from the folk-inflected Georgia music scene that g
 rew up around the legendary Eddie’s Attic live music venue. “I came to L
 A thinking I was gonna be the next Mumford and Sons\,” Lyle laughs\, rec
 alling how he was put together with Danish songwriter and multi-instrume
 ntalist Tim McEwan in what he calls “a songwriters’ blind date.” The two
  quickly discovered the overlap of their creative Venn diagram lay in th
 e moody\, synthesizer-driven sound that exploded in popularity in the wa
 ke of the cult thriller Drive and especially its enormously influential 
 retro-1980s inspired soundtrack. But the new musical direction required 
 a lot of adjustment from both men. “Up until then I’d been moving in mor
 e traditional pop circles\,” recalls McEwan\, “and I really had to unlea
 rn those tendencies.” For McEwan\, this meant embracing his inner maxima
 list\, using the maxim “If it feels like it’s over the top…add more!” An
 d for Lyle\, it meant moving away from narrative-driven lyrics and towar
 d songs that relied more on imagery and pure mood. “I decided at some po
 int that I’m not gonna tell a story\,” says Lyle\, “Instead\, I’m gonna 
 describe what the scenery is.” The result is a listening experience that
  evokes in the listener Proustian sense memories of first loves and afte
 rnoons on the couch playing 8-bit video games while simultaneously feeli
 ng downright cinematic. In a genre sometimes derided for trafficking in 
 easy nostalgia\, The Midnight eschews putting air quotes around the DX7 
 solo of a 1980s radio hit in favor of washing over listeners and making 
 them feel like they’re standing on a rainy street under neon inside a Mi
 chael Mann or a Tony Scott movie. “I got into (mythologist and Hero With
  a Thousand Faces author) Joseph Campbell and (Swiss psychotherapist and
  author) Carl Jung in a big way and realized at some point that instead 
 of just being a synth pop band we were building an entire world with all
  of these archetypes\,” says Lyle. “We realized we were playing with the
  imagery of the ‘80s\, but in the same way Springsteen did with midcentu
 ry America and factory work and such. That’s when it really became fun.”
  Also notable in a scene more known for studio experimentation\, The Mid
 night quickly emerged as an exciting live rock and roll band with a big 
 and devoted young audience that grew completely outside the major label/
 radio airplay apparatus\, scoring three number one singles on Billboard’
 s electronic music chart\, playing major festivals\, selling out massive
  headline tours\, and co-headlining a 2024 run with Chromeo. “That alway
 s trips me out\,” says McEwan. “When we first started playing live\, I w
 ondered who was gonna show up. Was it just going to be people over 35?” 
 But the burdens of building and sustaining that audience outside the cor
 porate mainstream took their toll. McEwan recently withdrew from touring
  to focus on songwriting and studio work\, while Lyle dealt with a famil
 y health crisis that sent his muse on a voyage into bleak and sunless la
 nds. “I was spending a lot of time in doctors’ offices\, and thinking ab
 out the larger world and are we living in the end of times?” Recalls Lyl
 e. “But the truth is\, all eight billion of our individual worlds will e
 nd — for each of us the apocalypse always comes.” McEwan\, too\, found h
 imself grappling with grief\, loss and depression during this period. Bu
 t ironically — or appropriately\, depending on one’s perspective — their
  parallel journeys into darkness ended up leaving The Midnight creativel
 y re-energized. “We really reconnected with how much fun we had at the s
 tart of this journey\,” says McEwan. “This record is the most honest and
  earnest thing we’ve ever done.” So despite its often heady and heavy th
 emes\, Syndicate ends up being less about endings and more of a journey 
 toward an unknown destination. Lyle frames it simply: “Everything is end
 ing\, so let’s get started now.”\n\nTickets: https://www.axs.com/events/
 1449109/the-midnight-tickets?skin=pabst\n\nhttps://findlocal.community/e
 vent/93bc48b4-5b8e-41a3-acb4-ffac599cc2bc
LOCATION:Pabst Theater\, 144 E. Wells St.\, Milwaukee\, WI 53202
URL:https://findlocal.community/event/93bc48b4-5b8e-41a3-acb4-ffac599cc2b
 c
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SEQUENCE:0
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