Grand Rapids MI – 01 May 2023
Midnight kick off their 20th anniversary tour in Grand Rapids, delivering a spooky and thoroughly entertaining set of blackened punk metal.
I must admit that I was unaware of Midnight for most of their 20 year existence. When I finally heard the one man band a few years back, I was instantly impressed. Midnight is the Cleveland based brainchild of the mysterious, hooded Athenar. The style is a mixture of speed metal, punk, thrash and black metal, and refreshingly, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Think Motorhead meets Venom with just a touch of The Mentors. As I mentioned a minute ago, the band has been around for two decades and has amassed a pretty impressive discography.
The first date of Midnight’s 20 Years of Hell, Speed & Sleaze tour was on May 1st at the Pyramid Scheme in beautiful downtown Grand Rapids. There was a pretty good sized crowd for a rainy Monday night. The completely unknown to me Spiter opened the show. The Philadelphia based trio play a raunchy brand of Venom inspired extreme metal, complete with corpse paint, Satanic songs, and plenty of screaming. Parking was a pain, so I only caught the end of their 35 minute set. It wasn’t really my thing, but my metal friends loved it and scooped up vinyl copies of their Bathe the Babe in Bat’s Blood LP.
Austin’s Spirit Adrift were kind of the odd band out. Their relatively straightforward metal lacked the theatrics of the other two bands. The quartet features dual lead guitars and top notch musicianship. The songs are heavy, but also not afraid to incorporate progressive elements or stoner metal vibes. Interestingly, their last show was in the same room opening for Corrosion of Conformity last fall. They played some new songs for the first time live, and their 40 minute performance was solid even if it felt a bit out of place.
Just before Midnight took the stage, The Pagans’ “What’s This Shit Called Love?” blasted over the sound system. (If you don’t count the Dead Boys, The Pagans are probably Cleveland’s best ever punk band.) After some ominous bells to open “All Hail Hell”, Midnight stormed the stage. The energetic trio rarely stopped moving during their 50 minute set. They wear black hoods and masks that completely hide their faces. Athenar plays bass and sings. He’s joined by a drummer and a lead guitarist who chips in backing vocals. The bass is distorted enough to add rhythm guitar sound as well as the low end.
Unlike a lot of “evil” metal bands, Athenar talks like a normal dude between songs. He breaks character and doesn’t use a cheesy metal voice. Midnight played a bunch of favorites like “Black Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Szex Witchery”, “Satanic Royalty”, and “Endless Slut”. They played their 13 songs with intensity that I rarely see these days. They ran around the stage like maniacs and beat the piss out of their instruments while still sounding damn good. What more could anyone ask for?
Confessions of a merch whore: Pretty good selection of wares between the three bands, but no Midnight vinyl that I needed. After much hemming and hawing, I went home with a pretty sick Midnight patch.
Part-time punk writer, suburban dad and angry old man. Follow my adventures on the Punk Till I Die podcast!
