BLACK MIDI CONQUERS THE FONDA THEATRE IN LOS ANGELES
Black Midi stormed through Los Angeles last week supporting their brilliant new sophomore album, 2021’s Cavalcade. These genre-bending, math/prog/jazz-rock wizards from across the pond literally brought the house down at the Fonda Theatre on this night. Most of the audience, along with the band themselves, skew toward the young side. While not exactly 100%, the walls inside the venue were packed to the brim with frenzied, zoomer energy which ignited like a four-alarm blaze once Black Midi unleashed their brand of sonic “hellfire” onstage.
The Midi lads opened with “953” off 2019’s Schlagenheim, and the crowd went ballistic. Jumping, moshing, head banging, singing, smiling ear to ear, you name it; this audience probably did it. Who could blame them with a band like Black Midi absolutely eviscerating the stage before their eyes? Down one guitarist, but sporting a keyboardist and saxophone player, Black Midi’s newly configured touring lineup is a force to be reckoned with.
With vocalist Geordie Greep’s croon, punctuated between exhilarating bursts of saxophone wails, and the most insane rhythm section in modern rock music, Black Midi put on a veritable master class on hypnotism inside the Fonda that evening. The new, new unreleased songs they played like “Welcome To Hell” and “Sugar/Tzu” sound even crazy than their current, new, crazy tunes. Of course the youthful rock fiends who lined the barricade with newly acquired Black Midi merch in hand, were eager to get their Cavalade on. Watching these hyped up youngsters lose their collective shit when the band played tracks like “Dethroned” and “John L” was a sight to behold.
Black Midi’s firebrand performance at the Fonda last week was one of the best concerts LA has experienced in ages. As someone who spent their formative years getting their glasses smashed and larynx crushed at tiny Dillinger Escape Plan shows in the 2000’s, it’s absolutely amazing watching Black Midi blow up large theaters so early into their careers. If it’s true that the weirdos are winning and Black Midi represents the future, then sign us up ASAP.
