Falling in love with The Midnight is as easy as watching the video for the duo’s song “Sunset.” The synth- and guitar-laden track feels like it’s a piece of a soundtrack from a different era. This modern take on new wave flavor features a chorus that is impossible not to want to sing: “Sunset, no regrets / First chance last dance / Stuck in the middle / Even bad girls know good love / You taste so sweet it hurts a little.”
It’s a song that puts you in a specific time and place. And judging by the video, that time is 1991 and the place is ... Target. Playing like an extended preview for the Jennifer Connelly and Frank Whaley film Career Opportunities, as a piece of art, it is innocent, subversive, clever and funny.
It’s the type of concept one should expect from Jamison Tyler Lyle and Tim Daniel McEwan, a unit who came together because of their shared fascination of the soundtrack of the movie Drive, the synthesizer mood-enhancing masterpiece by Cliff Martinez.
Now on their first full tour and selling out dates all over North America before they hit Europe, The Midnight is a tandem worth seeing live, giving audience members a chance to live in the current moment and moments from some time ago.
Hard Rock Hotel, 8 p.m. Sept. 28, starting at $59 plus tax and fee. 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster
