CHROMEO AND THE MIDNIGHT
September 7 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
As you already know (unless you’ve been living in a vibes vacuum since the early 2000s), Chromeo is the paramount funk band of our time. Friends since childhood, Dave 1 and P-Thugg have built an empire of soigné, danceable and intelligent music over the course of two decades. Few duos can claim this kind of psychic togetherness and evergreen staying power. One must venture into the stratosphere to find precedents. And now that Dave’s double-breasted suits are popping and Pee’s turtlenecks are in effect mode, it’s safe to say that we can rely on Chromeo to stick around for years to come.
Chromeo’s new album “Adult Contemporary” is more ambitious specifically because it revolves solely around two besties at the top of their game, doing absolutely everything on their own. Hence a deeply intimate feel, with Dave and Pee accomplishing two things at once: getting back to basics in terms of method while also expanding the songwriting and atmosphere. The Chromeo blueprint of maximum funk earnestness sits front and center.
The word “contemporary” is an interesting choice for a band who has always been equally of-the-moment and openly indebted to its ancestors. But in an era when everything is available all the time, seamlessly melding together the new and the old might just be the most contemporary act an artist can commit. Chromeo offers us a singularity of funk, with music more elegant and considered than ever before.
From its synth-heavy beginnings to arena rock chords and infectious pop hooks, The Midnight’s musical journey is one fueled by insatiable curiosity. The duo lives at the intersection of varying paths, driven by the frictional spark that fires when Southern-born singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle melts his all-American dreamer tales with Danish-bred drummer and producer Tim McEwan’s cinematic soundscapes.
Together, they form something deeper than just house, vibier than pop, and altogether more exciting than the sum of its parts. There are slivers of Springsteen, pieces of The Police, the audacity of AC/DC and the hair-raising attitude of arena rock all mixed all up in sexy-but-sensitive sing-alongs custom built to be belted in a venue full of music lovers.
