Are Midlake adult-oriented? A few minutes into their set and I\u2019m still at the bar, still wearing my jacket and scarf, as M. and I are late arriving for the sold-out show. The bartenders have never heard of Midlake, and the youngish one serving us is surprised they\u2019re so popular yet unknown to her. \u2018I\u2019ve got to look them up,\u2019 she tells a co-worker, in an over-cheerful manner. Hunh. Having gotten our drinks, we can hear the chorus of \u2018Winter Dies\u2019, the second track off of Midlake\u2019s third and latest album, kicking in as we hand over our tickets and enter the 800-capacity Academy 2.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, there\u2019s barely breathing room and easily more than 800 people. Standing near the only entrance is always a mistake at such a time as people shuffle in and out, but there\u2019s nowhere else to move, so that we are jostled constantly and can\u2019t see a damn thing for the first ten minutes of the show. Which wouldn\u2019t be so much of a problem, really, if we hadn\u2019t come to see<\/em> Midlake. Instead, what we\u2019re left with for the opening of the set is a volume of depth rather than any visual sensations, discovering, while watching the backs of people\u2019s bobbing heads and shoulders, what four guitarists sound like: four guitarists and a flautist. And the sound is pretty good. Fulsome and harmonious, in a way recordings can\u2019t express. The new album, The Courage of Others<\/em>, is a more sombre affair than its predecessors, but live that doesn\u2019t matter so much, as each song fills the room with new layers of sounds. For a band who began trying to replicate the Radiohead records they loved, and who never did sound very much like that group, this is an altogether other experience. More recent comparisons in the music press say Neil Young, but I don\u2019t hear it, except maybe in the plaintive melodies sung by Tim Smith (with band members contributing harmonies).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n About four songs in, when the bobbing heads tire maybe and the band settles in, we find we can see, and there on-stage are seven adult men working away, bearded and long-haired for the most part. And it\u2019s then, too, that we can see the flautist \u2013 and that Smith pulls out his own flute and there are actually two flautists on-stage. We\u2019re far away from any free-wheelin\u2019 Jethro Tull experience \u2013 and to who else can I draw a comparison at such a moment? \u2013 and are hearing instead full-on arrangements for three guitars, two flutes, bass and drums. And it\u2019s about here it occurs to me: maybe this isn\u2019t for everybody, even in an overpacked, sold-out room of 800 people. Midlake is a big sound, grand and professional\u2014not slick but solid (Smith blew some lyrics halfway through a song early in the set). So that a bit later when Smith joked about the band\u2019s age, grey hair and growing potbellies, one of the guitarists returned with \u2018No, Tim, we\u2019re 22. You don\u2019t get to be on the cover of the NME or Spin if you\u2019re over 30\u2019.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A band full of over 30s for the over 30s, then, and a night out for both at Academy 2 \u2013while next door at Academy 3, poor Fionn Regan picked up the turned-away, and at Academy 1 the teenage girls queued early for something or someone called Chipmunk. Set highlights included two tracks from Midlake\u2019s 2006 album, The Trials of Van Occupanther<\/em>, \u2018Bandits\u2019 and near-set-closer \u2018Head Home\u2019, during which drummer McKenzie Smith chugged along steady as a steam train across the Texas plain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are Midlake adult-oriented? A few minutes into their set and I\u2019m still at the bar, still wearing my jacket and scarf, as M. and I are late arriving for the sold-out show. The bartenders have never heard of Midlake, and the youngish one serving us is surprised they\u2019re so popular yet unknown to her. \u2018I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[167,179],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n