Phillyist Reviews... The Midway State

I checked out Toronto's own The Midway State on Thursday, Jan. 31 when they opened the kickoff of MIKA's American tour.

I was...confused. I liked the band well enough, I suppose. I mean, I like Ben Folds and Snow Patrol and Coldplay...kind of, and The Midway State sounded like pretty much an amalgamation of all three, with the occasional smattering of Aqualung thrown in. In the entirety of their half-hour set, though, I found myself...kind of bored.

Don't get me wrong. The melodies were pretty, lead singer Nathan Ferraro and all of his bandmates were quite talented, but...they were opening for MIKA, for heaven's sake. I'm not sure that it would have killed them to perform at least one up-tempo song. Instead, it was roughly a half an hour of shoe-gazing emo rock with all the ferocity and cheer of a grey Monday morning.

So why, pray tell, was this quiet, unassuming Canadian band opening for MIKA? I was confused from the very second The Midway State finished their low-key set, and even more confused when MIKA turned in a frenetic, crazed performance culminating in a performance of his single "Lollipop" that brought to mind nothing quite so much as a pornographic Candyland. (I mean this in the best way possible, I promise.)

On any other night, I may have really enjoyed The Midway State. But on a night when they were opening for an act like MIKA, I was just really, really confused about the logic of pairing these two artists. I was also really, really bored.

I wish the band all the luck in the world, but...seriously. Look up from the shoes every once in a while. Rock out. Shake your booty a little bit. Have some fun. Otherwise? Yawn.

Photo by Dan McKay.