Live Review : Midnite City + Continental Lovers @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on April 27th 2024

There’s a single mic stand centre stage.  

Draped with a leopard print scarf, it’s a striking visual in its own right, but it also means that at a glance you immediately know what to expect from tonight’s first band, Continental Lovers.  Like the best band you were too young to see back in the day, Continental Lovers appear to have been cryogenically frozen in a trash can in an alley at the back of CBGBs sometime in the seventies or eighties, only to be reanimated for the 21st century.  Wearing their tattooed hearts on their decadently debonair sleeves, the band fire off a riotous salvo of beautifully barbed two-or three-minute glitter punk anthems.  It’s a breathless, heady affair of razor-sharp throwaway riffs and gutter choruses, a fizzing driving energy powering the band. Continental Lovers possess that insouciant gutter charm, that makes them irresistible, their short sharp stabs of songs, tantalising you with their charms.  

With an unexpectedly longer set (due to the opener having to unfortunately pull out due to sickness) tonight we are treated to the full Continental Lovers experience, which as the lead singer tells us, has the potential for “chaos and disaster”.  However, this certainly doesn’t prove to be the case as the band tear through a rip-roaring journey through their back catalogue.  ‘Let’s Go Out Tonight’ is the perfect opener not just for their set but for a Saturday night of rock n’ roll debauchery; ‘Can’t Get Her out of my Head’ is the speeding number that you’ll be humming for days to come, whilst a fiery ‘St Joan’ is a paean to the “Queen of the rock n’ roll scene that we all bow down to…” 

With a plethora of influences on show in the band’s sound, whether channelling the spirit of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, maybe with a dash of The Ramones, and a healthy dose of Hanoi Rocks, Continental Lovers manage to take the best bits from their heroes and make the sound their own.  There’s even a foray into the sixties with the almost-ballad, ‘Wedding Song’, with its jangling guitars and heartfelt lyrics.  It’s a nice change of tempo in a frenetic and electric set before the sleazier delights kick back in.  They reprise ‘Let’s Go Out Tonight’ towards the end of the set, before breathlessly galloping to the finish. 

Poison once sang “don’t need nothing but a good time” and this one line equally sums up Midnite City’s ethos.  In ninety minutes, they tear through a colourful and completely enthralling set of genuine melodic diamonds with a verve and vibrancy that reminds you of just why hair metal was once such a world conquering force.  If you weren’t around in the eighties, Midnite City are the closest you’ll get to witnessing the majesty of hair metal in all its pomp and finery, and, as the legends start to leave us and fade from view, continue to be flag-bearers for the genre.  ‘Ready to Go’ reminds us straight away that rock music should be fun and doesn’t need to be down tuned and sinister to be exciting; it’s why many got into rock in the first place, for the sheer uncomplicated joy of soaring guitars, sweeping keys and larger-than life tales of life and love in the fast lane. 

And in Rob Wylde, they have the epitome of the flamboyant frontman, possessed of a fabulous voice, he also has that rare gift of connecting with everyone in the room, seemingly making eye contact with each and every person, ensuring that everyone feels involved and a part of the party.  This is the fifth night of the Raise the Dead tour, and already the band are operating like a finely tuned, high-powered sports car (that is surely, somewhere, flying down a US highway blasting out Midnite City tunes.)  In fact, the musicianship on display tonight is of a ridiculously high quality with every member of the band performing absolutely at the top of their game. The unapologetically grandiose ‘Someday’ gets the first big roar of the night; a chugging riff and Shawn Charvette’s immaculate keys catapulting the song to epic levels of harmonic glory.  

Almost half the tracks are from 2023’s excellent “In At the Deep End”, interspersed with choice cuts from across their other albums including a joyful ‘Summer of our Lives’ and the dramatic and moody ‘They Only Come Out at Night’.  ‘You Don’t Understand Me’ is apparently the band’s most streamed song and sees the Waterloo choir in full voice, belting the lyrics back with gusto, as is the case for most of the set. The sound in the Waterloo is completely on point tonight, allowing you to fully appreciate the nuances and subtleties of the songs as well as the strength of the songwriting. 

There’s even time for solos from all the players, with both bass and drums managing to tread the fine line of entertainingly showing the musicians’ prowess without outstaying their welcome.  But it is the instrumental section between guitar and keyboards that really sets the stage alight.  Miles Meakin on lead guitar and Shawn on keys embark on a truly amazing guitar/keyboard duel, each pushing the other to greater and greater levels of virtuosity.  It’s dazzling in its technical excellence and totally enthralling to watch, in a way that many solos simply aren’t. Miles’ lusciously fluid solos, and gorgeous guitar lines are things of beauty throughout the whole night, so much so that it’s impossible to pick just one from a set that is really just one huge highlight.   

‘We Belong’, the first song from the band’s debut album brings the night to a close with one final singalong, a clarion call for all of us then and now united in voice and song.  

Surely the eighties are due a re-evaluation and resurgence, similar to that which has seen many new bands of the last few years mine the sounds of the seventies.  And when that does happen, Midnite City should be defiantly leading the charge. Tonight was a flawless, jubilant set performed with utter conviction; I started with a quote from Poison so will end with another line from that self-same song… 

“It don’t get better than this…” 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Midnite CIty, Continental Lovers