The synthesized pop sounds that defined the 1980s will blast out of the Cain’s Ballroom speakers when The Midnight returns to the stage Saturday as part of the Time Machines tour.
The band is composed of Atlanta-based singer Tyler Lyle and Portland-based Danish producer, songwriter and singer Tim McEwan. They are touring in support of their sixth studio album, “Syndicate,” which is the third consecutive LP to reach the top 10 on the U.S. dance charts.
The Midnight has built a loyal following since their debut release in 2016 and performed multiple times in Oklahoma City before a 2024 show at Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
“I remember pinching myself the first time we were there, looking at all the posters and Syd Barrett’s hole in the wall,” said Lyle during a video call before performing in San Diego.
The band traveled across the country on the first leg of the Time Machines tour, and now a second leg has them playing a run of shows in California along with a slew of dates in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Santa Fe, New Mexico, before a return trip to Oklahoma.
“Tulsa is an awesome little town, and I don’t know what you put in the water there, but there are a ton of guitar pedal makers in Oklahoma, so we always get to catch up with our favorite gear guys when we come through OKC or Tulsa,” Lyle said.
Fans can expect a setlist that includes tracks from their latest album, plus an assortment of favorites and some songs that have never been played live before.
“We looked at our catalog, and there was like six and a half hours worth of music that we could choose from for a live set, and we kind of thinned it down to our favorite 90 minutes and the ones that we felt like, ‘OK, this is who we are, what we do, this is kind of the dynamic roller coaster of of what what ride we think we’re on,’” Lyle said. “We’re having a lot of fun with it.”
Lyle encourages everyone to show up early for supporting act pop hitmaker Bonnie McKee, who has written songs for Katy Perry, Kesha, Britney Spears, Cher, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and more. Lyle describes her “as a hero of mine since long before she knew I existed.”
“If you’re in your mid- to late 30s, early 40s, she wrote the songs of your teenage and college years,” Lyle said. “The songs she sings, you’ll go, wait, ‘I know this song. This isn’t her song.’ It is definitely her song. So I think it’ll be a treat for the fans who have done a little bit of research and understand how special it is to be able to see one of her sets.”
Lyle began his career as a singer-songwriter in Georgia, where he still resides, before a chance writing session with McEwan in Los Angeles that resulted in them forming The Midnight.
Aside from his duties with the band, Tyler recently returned to the studio to record his first solo album in seven years, “The Transcendentalist,” which will be released Oct. 23. Many of the songs on the album stemmed from his emotions following his wife’s 2023 Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis.
“I wrote a lot of songs about mortality and reckoning with our time on Earth and put 10 songs together that I felt really compelled by,” Lyle said. “I felt like it really told the story of the season.”
While it’s a different sound from his work with The Midnight, Lyle said the two projects have many similarities.
“I think it complements ‘Syndicate’ very well,” he said. “It’s a lot of the same themes, a lot of the same topics being written at the same time as ‘Syndicate,’ so even if the lack of synthesizers at the forefront of the record disappoints some fans, I think thematically there will be enough to to justify digging into.”
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